There are more property adventures afoot than one. We’ve reported recently on the lot we are selling (eventually) in Louisville, but last week we closed on an RV Lot in Texas. We already have that RV site on the beach at Port Aransas we bought a couple years ago. We like it so much, and it seems like such a good investment that we bought another; one at a new resort under construction outside a nearby town, Aransas Pass. This one is different, it’s not on the beach, it’s an RV-oriented golf course community. Last January they had the central road cut in and the lots staked out, but nothing more than that. We tramped through the sand, oak scrub, and brush, and picked out a lot. We signed the papers in January, but no-one could close until the construction got a little farther along. They needed things like roads and utilities in place before they could get titles. It all came together last week and we closed long-distance. They emailed the papers to us, we signed them in front of a notary, and overnighted them back. We worked out the landscaping plans while we were there, so now that part of it can move on too. Lots of palm trees for effect (washingtonia fan, queen, pygmy date), and flowering shrubs (crossandra, night blooming jasmine, hibiscus, holly, firecracker plant, butterfly button) to attract butterflies and birds. The lot is shaped like a giant pie-piece; five thousand square feet. We’ll drive in at the narrow end, 25 feet wide, and up the flowering hedge against the left side. We’ll look out across our yard with grass, flower beds, fountain, paver walks, and a gazebo. To the right front, a patch of the native oak forest. Across the 75 foot front of the lot, there is a lake hazard with an island, then the fourth fairway, then an oak forest on the other side of that. We won’t get to see the lot again before winter, but we’ll get to stay on it then. We’ll split our time between there and the beach. Either lot will rent out when we’re not on it. We may have to take up golf. Judy gets her golf cart, regardless.
Wine weenie
It happened again. Another favor, another bottle of wine; the universal token of appreciation; this time a nice Chablis. Had a glass with dinner. It tasted great. I faded right out of sight. I am such a sissy. That’s it. I’m not doing favors for anyone anymore. They might give me another bottle of wine.
Canoe
Hey, check this out. I saw one go by on the top of a car (but just barely).
http://www.clearinflatablekayak.com/pictures/canoe4.html
http://www.clearinflatablekayak.com/pictures/canoe4.html
Aspen
Judy found a house she likes. Nice view; sits on two acres. It’s not expensive for Aspen: two million dollars per bedroom. Problem is; it has twelve bedrooms.
Basalt
From: Steve Taylor [mailto:spt@thetaylorcompany.net]
Sent: Saturday, July 14, 2007 11:15 PM
To: Bill Taylor (Bill Taylor); David Taylor (David Taylor); Tom Taylor (Tom Taylor)
Subject: basalt
Camp Hale. A getaway from the summer heat. High seventies yesterday. Not much atmosphere to hold the heat. A forty degree swing overnight. Got to sleep with the windows open and the fan on. Woke to the calls of vesper sparrows. Got to turn the furnaces on to take the chill off while the people in tents over on the other side of the meadow walked out to the sunny side until the sun rose enough to hit their camp site. Dry camped. This coach is such an electron-hog through the inverter; it appears to be drawing twenty or thirty amps at rest. I wondered if it would make it through the night on the batteries without turning the inverter off so I could run a fan. It did. Maybe I have more battery storage that I thought. Maybe it is not really drawing twenty or thirty amps when it says it is. Don’t know. I needed a new mystery. I do know that when I turned the coffee maker on this morning everything shut off. Not enough electrons left to run an electric coffeemaker. No-one around. A few minutes with the generator running took care of the power problem. Took Annie along on my exercise walk. Wide open spaces. Didn’t need a leash. She struggled to keep up the first mile through the grassy meadow. Poor little dog. The pace was too much for her. I didn’t think she was going to make it the whole way. Then, we popped out of the north end of the meadow onto an old road and followed that back. Everything changed. Annie was suddenly young again. She would stop to investigate, then roar effortlessly past. She was a monster. I guess it all comes down to whether you think you might get a sticker in your little princess paw or not. Judy left Erie, two hundred miles to go. I left Camp Hale, a hundred miles to go. Our routes converged on Interstate 70, seventy five miles from Basalt. Wouldn’t you know…. we each arrived at that spot within a few minutes of each other. Met up at the next rest stop and caravanned in the rest of the way. Home sweet summer home. Basalt. Caught some brown trout in the Roaring Fork.