Code Brown: Seeing the Country One Bedpan at a Time

Thursday, April 13, 2017

Sea World, Missions and Caves (summer 2016)

On one of my weekends off we made a trip to San Antonio and Sea World. At the last minute we decided to get a "cabana" at Sea World (thought is was going to rain some), it was at a good price since it was last minute. That was the best idea of all, had a great place to keep our things, nice chairs and table, fridge with water bottles, towels for four (to keep) and right by the wave pool.

Our little Cabana!

We had a blast at Sea World, stayed until closing. David rode one of the roller coasters ( I'm chicken!), we watched some shows and ate!!

The roller coaster David rode

Sea Lion show

Dolphins playing in their pool

Whale show

The whale show was the end to our day. Pretty amazing to watch something so big fly out of the water and flip in the air. The are beautiful and graceful animals.

One day was spent driving the Mission trail around San Antonio. Beautiful old mission buildings, some old churches still being used and lots of history to learn. You can walk, bike or drive the trail. It is about 15-16 miles long.

Mission Concepcion

The Mission trail really starts at the Alamo but we had already been to the Alamo on another visit to San Antonio so we started at the next place, Mission Concepcion. This is still a working mission and there was an event the day we were there so we only got to go around the outside. The musicians for the event were dressed in Spanish mariachi type attire. It was pretty neat to see.

Next was a stop at Mission San Jose then Mission San Juan. One of these or both are still working missions. Beautiful grounds and buildings, lots of history to see at both.There was a church service going on while we were at one of them, we got to step into the back and listen to the singing and preaching (in Spanish).

The churches were breathtaking on the inside. Simple but the workman ship was beautiful. Pews were worn from over the years of use but still standing proud and strong.

Remaining foundation walls from previous living quarters

Our last stop was Mission Espada. Just a few buildings are still standing here but the
church was still pretty and in use. There is also an aqueduct system that was started during the missions hay day that is still there. You will pass some of the aqueduct points along your route from San Juan Mission to Mission Espada.

Inside of church at Espada

Our last day was spent visiting the Natural Bridge Caverns. This was quite a breathtaking adventure. It is a long way down and back up out of the caverns but so worth it!

Watch out for the dinosaur in the parking lot

Beautiful scenery before going under ground

It is amazing to me to see how these things grow or evolve. All of these are great things to do if in the San Antonio area. We had a blast even though it was a busy few days. Daisy was glad when we picked her up from puppy camp!

"You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose."
~~ Dr. Seuss

Thursday, March 30, 2017

Back to Texas (July 2016)

My next assignment took us back to Texas, Corpus Christi to be exact. I took an assignment in a free standing ER, first time for everything! They pay was great for Texas and we wanted to head west so this was a start. We found a great RV park near Corpus Christi Lake, Wilderness Lakes RV Park.

Our little set-up

a little visitor

The RV park was beautiful. Plenty of lot space, nice walking area, new salt water pool, lake for fishing or paddle boating. The Mathis, TX area was pretty farm land.

Why YES that is a Zebra and Llama you see! Only in TEXAS.

Just some of the animals I passed everyday going to work.

Working in a free standing ER is a challenge. You don't have any of the ancillary staff that a in-house ER has at their disposal. I worked with a great group of nurses. More adventures to come on other blog post. Stay tuned...

"To succeed in life, you need three things: a wishbone, a backbone and a funny bone"
~~ Reba McEntire

A Change to an RV Lifestyle

Can't believe it has been so long since I have written anything. I will start with our biggest news since my last post...

After two or more years of searching on Google, roaming RV lots, watching YouTube videos and reading Blogs about RV'ing; we finally brought home our new baby in February of 2016. Meet Miss Marple.

Open Range Light 319RLS

Even though this is a big change and investment, we are glad to be in our "home" away from home. We sure like not packing and unpacking with each new assignment and having our own bed and stuff all the time. We have to get use to a smaller fridge and oven. Cooked on gas in the past and love it so that will not be an issue. We always grill a lot so that will stay the same. We look forward to meeting a bunch of new people in the RV parks.

Here are some inside pictures of Miss Marple.

Olive oil rack that we made

Obviously this is before we got all our stuff inside. The kitchen has an island that rolls into place which we really love. Gives us lots of extra counter and storage space. We also love the pantry in the kitchen.

Since it is only the two of us and we never really eat at the table, we decided to take out the dinning table and chairs and replace with this (in the picture to the left). Gives us extra clothes storage and counter top space. We built the counter top piece to fit nicely over these plastic chest.

With this model I didn't get my outside kitchen/TV so we are kinda making our own. We had an extra small TV at home so we put that outside. Looks smaller in the picture but it works out well for us. We also have a fold up table that we use for cooking on. We bring out the toaster/convection oven, Coleman stove and anything else to cook on and use it on the table.

Daisy

Our Daisy girl is loving this lifestyle! She loves spending time outside with her human family.

Jen and Zac our first visitors

Hercule (truck) and Miss Marple (RV) all cozy at our very first spot, Drifters RV Park in Pensacola, Fla. We will be heading back to Texas for my next assignment.

"I would rather own a little & see the world, than own the world and see a little of it."
~~unknown

Tuesday, October 18, 2016

Flying Machines and more

I am always looking for FREE things for us to do on my days off. It gets expensive if everything you do cost you some money. So FREE is always a huge plus! One of the things I found in Pensacola was the National Museum of Naval Aviation located in the Naval Air Station Pensacola. David and I spent hours there looking at all the Navy and Coast Guard exhibits. If you are ever close by, I highly recommend you visit. This will be a post of pictures from our visit, just a small sampling.