Are We Texians Yet?

It’s been too long since we posted, so we’ll try to catch up here without being too wordy.

On Monday we got the Subaru, Titan, and travel trailer licensed with Texas plates. It was a relatively simple transaction that cost in total about what the Subaru alone would have cost to renew in CA (including the one-time cost for out-of-state vehicles).

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Now Sue is working on getting the registration removed from CA’s records … of course they don’t make it easy, and we’re in an RV park with marginal internet signals — online forms are a problem.

Monday also saw us working on some ‘administrative stuff’ — changing addresses with CalPERS, banks, credit card billing, Amazon.com, etc. Larry found the little check-box on CalPERS website to have it stop withholding for CA income taxes! Did some checking with health insurance options; highly respected hospital here in Kerrville as well as thirty (30) doctors that are ‘in-plan’ and taking new patients. So we are talking with some of our new local friends regarding doctor’s reputations.

Of course, the day after (Tuesday), Larry got his new vanity call sign from the FCC: WB6JVJ (JVJ = Jennifer, Victoria, John; his three children). If we had it on Monday we could have had vanity plates for the vehicles. In TX one can get amateur radio plates with one’s call sign – the plate actually says ‘radio operator’ on it. The same plate number (call sign) goes on all your vehicles (up to five).

Tuesday we drove around some of the communities and looked at the local real estate market. We looked at relatively newly constructed homes on 2 – 5 acres for the same value that we have in our house in CA.

On our afternoon walk with Buddy (our ChiWeenie dog) we met another couple who live in San Antonio. They, too are CA escapees from a couple years ago. Talk about a small world – his family is from Upper Lake, CA (Wagners) where Larry grew up. They know some of the same old timers from that area that Larry knows (the Griners, Vanns, Cartrights, etc.).

On Wednesday Larry purchased a compass for the Titan — there are no mountains here, just hills, and his internal compass is not reliable. It has been rather hot here above 95 each day, but it cools off in the evening.

Over the weekend Larry put up his 20M horizontal dipole antenna on the 15′ tripod and connected his HF radio. He made contacts in Louisiana, Oklahoma, and points north. Yesterday he put up the SteppIR Crank antenna and made successful contacts again but on 40M.

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Today, Thursday, we are going to Fredericksburg, New Braunfels, and Austin. Mostly to check out the areas, but also to Camping World to get a replacement faucet for the RVs bathroom sink (one that is big enough to get your hands under).

Random thoughts: 1) The Nissan Titan looks like a Prius compared to the real trucks in the Tractor Supply parking lot. 2) In such a small RV (19′) why is it that after you sit down what ever you want is just out of reach? 3) Still looking for a cowboy had and boots. 4) One of the local hams told Larry yesterday that he needs to work on his accent!

Thanks for following us and stay tuned for more.