This little guy was hiding from the wind on the knob where our water line enters the trailer.
Today has been a quiet one. Bobby’s sinuses have flared up so he was trailer-bound most of the day. Elise and I got up this morning and left the trailer around 8:00 so he could get some more sleep. We took an early morning walk along the beach, looking, looking, looking. You may remember my indoctrination into sea bean searching in the Florida Keys. Turns out they wash up on shore here, too. I was very excited to get out there today and see if I could find that elusive hamburger bean. I was incredibly disappointed, though. There is almost no discernible wrack line on the beach and very few things stay washed up on shore. A few ladies were coming back from beachcombing and told us that there were some shells to be found on the other side of the jetty, north of where we were. We were able to collect a few shells here and there, but it was nothing like St. George Island in Florida. We did find three more sand dollars and for the first time, we saw some starfish washed up on shore. They were thin and gray, not very attractive, so we didn’t pick any up, but they were still interesting to see.
Elise and I did make our sugar cookie dough this afternoon. We’ll roll out the cookies tomorrow and decorate them on Christmas Eve, just in time for them to be appetizers for our Christmas Eve meal. We have invited another couple to join us for dinner so Christmas Eve will be a little more festive. We met Harry and Molly yesterday when we went to Fulton Mansion in Rockport, north of where we are. They are a Canadian couple who travel through the US six months out of the year, from September to March. They are very friendly and kind to Elise and they have two cats, which pleases Elise immensely! They got to our campground today and already we have visited them twice – once to invite them to dinner and once to give them some extra cinnamon rolls my sister sent us for Christmas. How on earth three people are supposed to be able to eat 18 cinnamon rolls is beyond me! My sister very smartly suggested we share them with friends and we were happy to do so.
Fulton Mansion, called Oakhurst by the family, is an interesting home. It was built by cattle baron George Fulton, starting in 1874. He was one of the enterprising men who took advantage of the cattle boon after the Civil War. If there were cattle on your property and they weren’t branded, then they belonged to you. He did not ship the cattle north for food, though. His processing plants used the tallow, horns, hooves and hide of the cattle. The carcasses were then tossed into the Gulf of Mexico.
The mansion was the only home in the region to have central lighting, heating and running water. A central cast-iron furnace heated the rooms, and hot air piped into the laundry room dried clothes. The fireplaces in the house were false. Heat from the furnace was transported through pipes that led to the decorative false fireplaces.
George died in 1893 and two years later, Harriet (his wife), left Oakhust and never returned. It was left empty for 40 years and then took turns being a seafood restaurant and then a trailer park!
Can you imagine trailers parked on this lawn?!
Before we went to the mansion, we stopped by the post office to pick up what we thought was going to be a few Christmas packages. I called the post office the night before and said, “Hi, this is Danine Welsh. We’ve had a few packages sent there general delivery. . .” and before I could say anything more, the man said, “You sure have! I don’t have any more room up front. When are you coming to pick these up?!” It turns out there were eight boxes waiting for us, filled with Christmas goodies. Now I can’t walk on my side of the bed because I had to put the packages somewhere! Thank you to all who sent us something . You are helping to make our Christmas very special, far though we may be from family and friends.
The weather has been warm (75 today), but windy. We took a walk on the beach after dinner and we were definitely leaning into the wind to get back. As I write this, the wind is rocking the trailer back and forth pretty constantly. Hopefully, the rocking will help get us to sleep tonight and not just distract us . . .
