theboondork's RV blog

it's hot and humid, but that's a lot better than cold and snowy.

11/6/2019

Sunrise at the Bob Hall pier.

I went to Walmart this morning, which is about 8 miles from where I'm staying, and bought a few groceries. On the way back to the island I got one of my propane tanks filled and either got ripped off, or paid a "tourist" price for propane.

My first mistake was not asking how much propane cost, I know propane costs vary widely and I was more interested in getting my tank filled up than I was about paying a few cents more for propane. Turns out I didn't get my tank filled up, and paid way more than a few cents extra for propane.

I was watching him fill up my empty 10 gallon tank and he stopped filling at 6 1/2 gallons. I mentioned it should take 10 and he said that's dangerous you have to leave room for expansion. I knew this wasn't true, a 10 gallon propane tank holds 10 gallons and the room for expansion is built into the tank. But I wasn't going to argue with him, and he didn't look like the type that would take criticism very well.

Come time to pay he looked at a paper on the wall next to the register and said $35, I paid my bill and left. Some uncomplicated mathematics tells me that I paid over five dollars a gallon for that propane, which is over twice the going rate at normal places, and here's the problem. I don't know if he charged me $35 to "fill up" my tank, which is a ripoff because he didn't fill it up. Or he charged me over five dollars a gallon for the propane I bought which is an outrageous price possibly reserved just for tourists.....That would be me. Whichever it was they won't see me again.

theboondork

Afternoon Boogie boarder. At least that's what they were called when I was a kid.

The entrance to the pier and restaurant.

For the first two days I was here the red flag warnings were always out, it was pretty windy.

10 Comments

Darrell

11/6/2019 06:11:33 pm

You don't mention the store where you bought your propane but, in the south, I've always had good luck at Tractor Supply. They have always charged me for what is exactly shown on the pump. Last tank I had filled was $2.30/gallon. But a tank of propane will last me about 9 or 10 months.

Tom

11/6/2019 06:48:09 pm

Well Darrell I purposely didn't mention their name because not only do they sell propane they also repair boats, sell trolling motors and do some other stuff, so I didn't want to adversely affect any of their other business interests. And I knew that if I put their name in my blog and it went out on the Internet there's going to be 4 maybe 5 people see it and I didn't want to be responsible for destroying their business, I choose to use my power as an Internet mogul responsibly.

The price you paid for propane is just about the average price for propane everywhere I go, which is why what I paid today stands out in my mind. I've bought propane from Tractor Supply before in my travels, and there is one another 6 or 8 miles down the road from where I was today, I just stopped at the first place I came to, but I won't make that mistake again.

One of the downsides of boondocking is I use a lot of propane. It's the way I heat when necessary, it runs the refrigerator, it heats my water, and it's the way I cook. But normally the cost of it is not all that bad, the worst thing is having to wrestle the heavy 10 gallon cylinders into the Arctic Fox. when I get to be 80 or 90 years old I'm not sure I'll be able to do it anymore.

Great to hear from you Darrell

Tom

Tim link

11/6/2019 06:54:19 pm

Hey Tom,

Just read that they may have figured out who killed that couple there on Padre. Looks like a dude from Utah and possibly his girlfriend.

11/6/2019 08:45:58 pm

Well that's good to know. My first couple of days here I was a little nervous out on the beach in the dark early in the morning before the sun came up taking my snapshots, not knowing if the murderer was possibly still around, were they killed here in the campground where I'm at? And where were their bodies actually found? In the dunes right next to my Arctic Fox? I had no idea.

But the other day when I found out they were murdered and buried farther down the beach than where I'm at, and the police were searching for a suspect, I was a bit more comfortable walking around in the dark, still prepared for the worst, but comfortable.

I think I was confused because they had stayed at Padre Balli campground, but later on they moved down the beach where they could camp on the beach for free.

When I was young and living in Florida I've camped on Daytona Beach, but it's a different kind of beach, its really wide, you could put a four-lane Highway on Daytona Beach so you don't have people driving by within feet of where you're standing like a lot of this beach does. Then 10 or 15 years ago I camped on Padre island beach for a few nights in my Hallmark slide-in pop-up camper and wasn't too thrilled with the experience so I never did it again.

I sure feel sorry for those folks and their families and I hope the murderer gets exactly what he deserves.

Tom

11/7/2019 07:11:49 am

I read this morning that they caught the guy down in Mexico. When you think about it, not the smartest move in the world to be driving a stolen vehicle and pulling a big stolen trailer; might as well be pulling a billboard.

To be honest, this story made me a little nervous to go fulltime. However, when you think about it, evil stuff like this happens whether you live in a house, apartment, condo, or RV. In a way, I think it's safer to move around - makes it harder to scope out your situation over a longer period of time. My house was burglarized several years ago and the culprits had been scoping my house out for weeks if not months because they knew exactly what they wanted (they went straight for my guns).

Yes, I feel sorry for the families as well. I can't imagine how hard it must be to deal with a murder of a family member or a friend.

Enjoy the warm weather down there!

11/7/2019 09:18:28 am

Good!! I think a public hanging is called for. He probably did stick out like a sore thumb, I was just concerned the Mexican authorities might not be entirely helpful.

Don't get all wobbly, you've got a lot of time and money invested in this upcoming full time lifestyle, and it'll be worth it. Just like you said, no one is 100% safe no matter what they're doing, thousands of people die in their bathtubs every year, I don't own a bathtub so I don't worry about that one. Lawnmowers kill about 100 people a year, I definitely don't have to worry about that one either. I figure I'll just keep getting rid of stuff until my chances of dying are zero.

"We have nothing to fear but fear itself", was a well-known saying by Franklin Roosevelt, or Winston Churchill, or maybe it was the Beatles, I can't remember. But nonetheless, fear keeps a lot of people from living the life they would love to live. Maybe it's the fear of not having enough money, maybe it's a fear of living alone, maybe it's the fear of the unknown, or maybe it's like me and my horrific fear of driving over a narrow, spindly, exceedingly high bridge, to get on and off of Padre island.

Whatever it is I refuse to let fear control my life. When I first got here and knew absolutely nothing about what was going on with those two murders right here in the neighborhood, it was pretty scary going out on the beach in the dark and standing there waiting for the sun to come up, asking myself, why did I get out of bed this early? Why am I standing here all by myself in the dark? Why is that pelican staring at me? Why am I going through all this just so I can take a snapshot nobody's going to look at?

Those are good questions, none of which I have answers for, but at least I'm able to tell myself I can face fear and only occasionally wet my pants.... Mostly while crossing the tall spindly bridge to get back to the mainland.

Tom

11/7/2019 11:55:39 am

Ha - no definitely not wobbly on going full-time. Although I'll probably be pretty cautious about the areas I boondock in, which is probably a wise thing to do no matter what. And you're right about getting hurt just about anywhere; I was probably in more danger when I had my house then any other time in my life, between cleaning gutters, running chainsaws, splitting wood, climbing on the roof, mowing the grass, etc., etc. My RV seems like a peaceful, relatively safe haven when I go out to it now.

I know what you mean about uneasiness while doing photography. I've done a lot of waterfall photography and there were many times I was alone by myself and was really concerned about tripping, falling, and not being found for awhile. It didn't stop me from doing it, but it did make me cognizant of the potential risks.

BTW, I haven't settled on a firm date for retirement. The main thing is that I'm having too much fun. The older I get, the more they take away from me, which means my job gets easier and I do less, but they pay me more and give me more vacation time. Which means I have more energy to go do fun things. Life is weird.

But, the RV is now ready anytime I'm ready. Those solar panels, batteries, and inverter are a game changer. I go out now and can spend all afternoon doing anything I would do at home. It's amazing.

Got to go - heading to someone else's retirement party!

11/7/2019 02:54:26 pm

It's amazing how good a job can get when they realize that you can leave anytime you want, the boss and the people that work there, for the most part, realize that they've lost all control over your life, and they get real easy to deal with after that.

Retirement parties are always interesting, and you usually can't tell how the retiree actually feels about their upcoming retirement until after they've had a few beers and you're talking to them one on one. Sometimes they're happy, and sometimes they're very sad. I think it's the sad ones that a year later are working at a part-time job.

Tom

11/7/2019 01:00:15 pm

I live in Corpus, if you need more propane while you are here, Buster's on Ayers has the best prices.

11/7/2019 02:59:21 pm

Thank you for the information Ed, the best information is always from a local. I should be okay now, I have plenty of propane although not as much as I should have if they had completely filled up my tank the other day, but I'm plugged in here at the campground so I'm not using any propane at all.

Tom

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it's hot and humid, but that's a lot better than cold and snowy.

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