The Katy FFA parade had lots of cool vehicles in it. They ranged from farm tractors to four wheelers and sure nuff’ go fast cars. Here is a look at a few:
Then there were some bands that were riding.
Look at one of the band members in this marching band, you will know which one. Man, what if they all were doing this ! Now that would have been a show stealer !
Today was the FFA Parade. The future farmers of America sponsor the rodeo and the parade here in Katy Texas. It was cool, but clear and sunny for the parade today. We went and enjoyed a two hour long parade right on main street. Here are photo and videos of the parade.
Police Motorcycles led the parade.
A pickup full of the most enthusiastic cheerleaders ended the parade. In between the two was two hours of fun and enjoyment.
One high point for me was when I saw two kindred spirits connect somehow, in the large mass of humanity that was the parade. Maybe it was because of the colors, I don’t know, but it went like this. A very large street legal monster truck in the parade was grumbling slowly along in the parade, with the driver throwing candy occasionally. There were sirens wailing, people chanting, bands playing, loud exhaust blaring, yet somehow, the driver and a young man’s eyes met and kindred spirits recognized each other. Auto enthusiasts seem to just be that way, I think. Pointing right at the young man, the monster truck driver, perched up high behind the steering wheel said, “ I have one here for you”. I don’t know how he heard it, I mostly read the driver’s lips, the young man somehow knew it was right, left his Mother’s side and in front of the large crowd, approached the monster truck. Here is a look. Amazingly, I snapped the shutter at just the right time:
Today was a good geocaching day in Katy Texas. Tee shirt weather but occasional light showers.
Katy Texas is a Railroad town.
Founded out on the Texas Prairie as a Support point for railroad business. This most gracious Lady was on duty at the depot museum and was most informative and helpful.
Proud of it’s historical past, Katy’s
city fathers have faithfully restored
the old original train depot.
Kept original to the extent that the
Period graffiti on the walls of the baggage handling area, drawn with coal lumps, some very talented, are still retained. Some of the charcoal work depicts of the era political statements and cartoon sketches.
This is located right by I-10 and is easy to locate. 
If you are a steam rail fan, as we are, there are lots of cool steam era displays here.
The Katy High School FFA Rodeo starts tomorrow night. The arena is located behind the High School and the Carnival rides started showing up today. Admission is $7. for Adults. This rodeo has a good National reputation and is always a good show. Yeh, we just couldn’t help ourselves, we had to go snoopin’ roun’ over there.
33* outside our window here at Camping world in Katy Texas. Snow flakes drift gently down as we near the end of a very cool rainy day. A lazy day for us. Toured several brand new RV’s with sales staff friends. Man, were they ever big. Some ideas were good, some bad, and some were just plain old ugly.
They told us that this past Saturday they had sold seven new units. Three of them were large class A’s. Maybe the economy is turning around somewhat. We can only hope. I mean, hey ! We would like to order a new 22’ Oliver with lots of solar and batteries on it. Bet we would leave the King Dome off this time, to make more room for solar panels.
As Betty sits across the small dinette from me and we chat, our conversations keep drifting back to good times at Padre Island. I remembered one day when I was grumbling a bit about being stuck inside while I paid bills on the internet. Here is a short video about that grumbling session. It seems like it was actually a pretty good day compared to today:
Looks like it is time to turn the cube heater up a notch and hunker down to weather out the snow.
Armadillo Eggs for lunch today at T-Bone Tom’s in Kemah Texas. Today we drove from Katy to Kemah to scout out cool near or on the beach campsites. We heard the weather forecast about a fast approaching snow storm that will dip deep down into Texas tonight. It caused us to put extra milk and white chocolate macadamia nut cookies in the fridge. And to think that we might go out for lunch since we could be denned up for awhile. We have a Net flix movie that we have saved up for such an event. Now, with a belly full of Armadillo Eggs , we will keep an eye peeled on the weather and wait for parts to arrive. We are at Camping World in Katy Texas. Here is a look at the lunch eggs, just look at the size of them crusted jalapeno honkerz !
One thing about beach trophy’s is that there isn’t much invested in them. Sometimes the simplest things, with a little thought, can be fun, and even a useful campsite item. We already had a couple of yard sale solar sidewalk lights. But the Malaquite campground is all asphalt covered and there was no place to put a solar light in a traditional manner. And, there are no electric lights in the campground, except in the bathrooms. So solar lights, when we let a dog out at night, would come in handy, not to mention saving on the coach battery’s. We first saw some solar lights on one of the neighbors cement picnic table. They were in a container with beach sand in it to hold the lights up straight. Later we saw a couple of lights in a jar with small sea shells in it. Betty couldn’t resist. It was going to happen. Here is Betty’s completed project.
The half gallon jugs hold down a tablecloth on the picnic table and are heavy enough that a good stiff wind can’t blow them over. However should they be knocked over, the plastic jug won’t break and can just be sat back upright.
Sooner or later, where ever we are, anchor day arrives. That’s the day when you hoist the anchor and sail off to another port. Today was anchor day for us. We got a call from Camping World in Katy Texas that our circuit board had arrived and if we would come on up there they would install it for us. Simple enough one might think. But, he, he, now that’s a very big BUT, we had collected up stuff. Beach Trophy’s to be specific. Way too many cool, just gotta’ have it, found on the beach, trophy stuff.
So, we culled, and loaded, then culled some more.
Here is what the beverly hill billies jeep looks like now:
for some reason I decided to keep a large braided rope tug boat fender. The heck of it is, I’ve already got one hanging on the fence at home !
The wind on Padre Island is almost a constant presence. Sometimes it can be fierce, but usually it is mild.
Many here at the Malaquite campground fly one or more wind socks, twirlers or other wind powered action items. We couldn’t resist either. Here is a look at our campsite with our twirler flying as Betty and neighbor Sharon sort through and discuss their sea beans and sea shells.
