All work and no play 10.31.08

Well, you know the end of the proverb, I’m sure. Luckily, we haven’t lived up to it this week…

We're still working on the boat, surprise, surprise. Remember, it’s just like a house, stuff breaks, chores get put off until later, there’s always cleaning & maintenance and it’s much easier done at a dock than out at anchor. We have 1 of the 4 sails put back on the masts, 3 to go (the biggest ones, of course! We did safety checks – the windlass (works!), un-pickled the watermaker and ran it for a while using water from the hose, checked the pins in the turnbuckles of the rigging, Michael added stainless steel backing plates onto the inside of the boat where the turning blocks and the arch & davit system attach to the boat which will make it more solid and prevent the deck from flexing, and lots of little things that we didn’t write down or cross off of the list.

On Friday we had our cabinets glued & screwed & put back together. Our cabinets in the main salon are a lifesaver, nice & large so we can store lots of items and are the cushions of the settee. The bad part is they are nice & large and have lots of room to stuff lots of stuff inside! Two of the 6 cabinets are used for dry good storage, specifically all of our canned goods, which are very heavy. This weight has caused the frame of the cabinets to bow, making the bottom pull loose from the top, so the latches don't work the way they should. We could shore them up from the bottom for the time being, but the bottom is the top of the futon couches so that's not an option. So we removed everything from the cabinets (6 of them) and had Joel, a wood/cabinet guy, take them apart, re-glue (epoxy) them, get them in place and then counter sink some brass screws to make them look pretty. That turned into a 36 hour project - removing everything and storing it in the V Berth, the 2 1/2 hour cabinet work, then 24 hours of curing, then putting it all back in, neat & orderly. Whew! haha... And just like magic….the cabinets work just like they should.

While waiting for the epoxy to cure, Michael took advantage of the clutter free zone and replaced the macerator on our waste system. Just before we left the boat in May, the macerator went out (this is a pump that chews up the waste on board and moves it to a holding tank or out of the boat - a stinky job!) and we had to have the marina come over & remove the waste from our holding tank. This was the most dreaded item on the ‘list’ but luckily turned out to be a fairly easy replacement.

We have a ‘list’ of items to complete (ask any boat owner, they always have a ‘list’ to complete…). The heat is keeping us moving slow and we get jobs done on a daily basis, but not everything yet. Here's the list (right now...) Michael is rigging a topside shower and just needs a few more parts to complete it (Home Depot, here we come...again!), Fix the 3 sail slugs that broke on the main sail before replacing it (an all day job of sewing and then another day to get it put up on the mast at least!), repair a stanchion base that was loose (the fiberglass work & the deck painting is done, we just need to drill holes in the deck & remount after getting the stainless steel backing plate drilled by one of the contractors (a 4 day delay already), Oil change on the generator & engine, at least a 2 day job but we can’t start it until the stanchion base is finished. (the refrig compressor is in the engine room which keeps it nice & hot in there), re-attach the SSB antennae (5 minute job but must take the entire bed apart, a 2 hour job!), and a long list of some really minor things. Not much!

We have had a very social week which is more consistent with the cruising lifestyle that we love. We started doing the Tuesday Dominoes pizza parties on our dock and had 12 people the first week. On Tuesdays, Dominoes has a 2 for 1 night - two pizzas for the price of one. Word has gotten around though and we'll have many more next week, I'm afraid. I did the ordering of the pizza, all in Spanish, and did pretty well! I was nervous as all get out though. Then Wednesday, our dock neighbor, Sally & Gerry on Aquarius, who live up in the condos, invited us up for a swim party. Oh.....the pool felt sooo good! It was very cool, almost chilly, and was perfect against the heat. There were 11 people there - boats Aquarius, Scrimshaw, Overheated, & Joy-u (I have no clue how to spell their boat's name so will just spell it phonetically) plus us and a straggler from Willow. And what do you think we all did?! Brace yourself....we played keep-away! I was about laughing my head off as here we were, 11 grown adults in the pool, and we played keep away! But it was a great time and we played until dark. After a nice swim, we met at Gus Gus, the Restaurant at the top of the dock where the singer from last week was playing and had a nice relaxing dinner. The 3 boats Aquarius, Overheated, & Joy-u are going to head out right after Thanksgiving and go straight down to Huatalco and then work their way back up the coast and we might just join them. We'll see...nothing is set in stone but it's an option.

We had a Halloween party on Friday night at the cruiser's lounge. Halloween in Mexico is like the 4th of July in Canada – it just doesn’t fit, but any reason for cruisers to get together, and eat…and it’s a party! We dressed as pirates, I know....real imaginative....but we've had the costumes from long ago and shockingly there was only one other pirate.

This is a picture of Michael & I with Elvira, the Manager for Marina Mazatlan dressed as Sleeping Beauty. Such a princess! There were about 50-60 people there but only 8-10 of them dressed up. The lounge was decked out and there was lots of food for everyone. We made worms & eyeballs for the potluck. Worms are hotdogs cut lengthwise in quarters then grilled/pan fried. When they get warm and are that small, they start to curl, looking somewhat like worms. And eyeballs - big carrots cut into 1" rings, cream cheese & black olives make the eyes. The eyeballs were extremely tasty - and easy. They will be one of my top appetizers from now on - they were crunchy, salty, & creamy. A perfect combination! I'm not a black olive fan but these were fantastic. And it was healthy!

I'm feeling MUCHO better! Boy, if I had known that this was an infection, I'd have started on antibiotics much earlier. Michael is doing much better as well, still can't hear out of his ear, but his cough is almost all gone. He's weaning off of one of the meds and starts another in the next couple days.

It's still very hot & extremely humid (which is the worst part) here – today’s high is only supposed to be 86 (although it's already 92!) but 98% humidity. You can't walk from your boat up to the office without dripping in sweat. We had one evening this week of rain which cooled everything down for a couple days, but then that sun poked back through the clouds & the heat was back.

Boats are beginning to come & go, slowly, and more cruisers are returning to their boats. We typically see about 1-2 new cruisers back on the docks or up at the cruisers lounge daily and it’s such a welcome sight! The camaraderie here is just amazing, it’s a wonderful feeling. We have plenty to keep us busy for the next few weeks in chores alone, not to mention playing with friends, surfing, & just enjoying Mazatlan. We both like it here a lot. There is so much to see & do.

More to follow!
Rene

Hiding from the heat 10.25.08

We've been back at the boat for a week and what a HOT week it's been! Temps have been in the upper 90's and the humidity has been trying it's best to match. Projects get done slower in this kind of heat. If Michael is working outside, he must drink lots of water and take breaks often. Inside, it's the task of working around everything as there are lots of 'stuff' out for projects. That's not including the two circulating fans that block the entrances to the aft cabin & main cabin. It's an adventure! haha.

Michael & I both went to the Dr today. He's been suffering for the last month or so with a cough that won't go away and his right ear has been blocked like it won't 'pop'. The gal that runs the marina here, Elvira, has a fiance who is an Ear, Nose, & Throat Dr. The Spanish word for it is a mouthful! Otorrinolaringologia. Yep, say that 3 times fast! haha... Anyway, he opened up his office for us and one other person today. Looked over Michael first. Put him on several meds to get everything under control. Wants to see if he can get the inflamation down in his chest, get the allergies under control, & will see if he is better after 22 days. If not, off to the pulmonologist. I went because I still have this sore throat! It's been about 3 weeks. It's not a horrible pain, but is nagging and is always there. I'm also tired a lot. But I don't have a fever, which prevented me from thinking about taking an antibiotic. I don't have congestion & so I've just been dealing with it. Well, he took a look and turns out I have an infection in my tonsils! He sent me home with an antibiotic, anti-inflamatory, & an allergy med. I came back to the boat and took the meds and they have me really whacked out - dizzy - so I'm taking it easy. $400 worth of meds for both Michael and I.....whew! But hey, if it makes us feel better, it was money well spent.

This week has been good, Michael's getting lots of projects done. And I have been too - just not as noteworthy. I've been getting the laptop/desktop upgraded/synchronized, cleaned & organized, painted my toenails a nice bright pink & ???....read? I'm amazed how quickly my time passes, just doing small stuff.

There is a restaurant at the top of our dock called Gus Gus and on Wednesday they have a guitarist, his name escapes me but they promise he'll be back every Wednesday. It's a nice relaxing evening and everyone seems to turn out to listen to the music, dance, & chat. There are 3 condo complex's surrounding the marina and Gus Gus was absolutely packed with people!

It rained like cats & dogs yesterday evening and cooled things down for a night - we actually took the A/C down & enjoyed a night of cool temps! We were outside on the docks visiting with others from the dock when it just started to POUR! And big drops! Everyone scattered and ducked onto their boats. Luckily, with the rain, Michael pulled down an access panel and water poured down. See, we have deck stepped masts and all the wiring comes out of the masts and into the heads. He removed an access panel and there's one piece of conduit that must be open at the top of the mast and just acts as a funnel to the rain. Now it's figuring out if we need to fix the wood part or if it will correct itself once we are out of the humidity. We've been told our rig is tuned too tight for this humidity. Problem is...Chad tuned the rig just before we left. If we loosen it, we'll have to figure out how to tune it ourselves or have someone else tune it. We'll see what Michael decides to do. But that ends our search for the water intrusion.

The newest search is for la cucaracha....Michael was getting into the cupboard the other evening when he jumped out of his skin. He said he saw a roach about 3" long (one of the flying ones)in the cupboards. We tore everything out but have slats on the backside of the cupboards and he was long gone. I haven't seen him at all and Michael says he's seen him twice in the last 3 days. We bombed the boat today when we went to the Dr's appt with only one bomb, and only in the main cabin cause we only had one spare! There is another boat at the foot of the dock and has major infestation - they called the exterminator out and the exterminator said it's the worst he's ever seen. BUT...they left all of their food intact on the boat, a big no-no. Yikes. So we're trying hard to get rid of our friend. We have no clue how he got in - maybe flew is our best guess as we hadn't gotten much food yet!

So not much else to report! We're looking forward to seeing new cruisers invade Mazatlan as the Baja Ha-Ha begins tomorrow. There are a little over 180 boats that are making the jump from San Diego down to Cabo and many of them will continue down South from there. Want to read about the Baja haha? Check it out here... http://www.baja-haha.com/

We're also looking forward to seeing many of our cruising friends as they move from the Sea of Cortez down to our neck of the woods. We've been communicating with many of them and they're all waiting for the magical November 15th date! (The end of hurricane season).

Drop us a line! e-mail us at sailing@aheakali.com We're readily available on e-mail until about Thanksgiving and miss everyone.

Rene

Back in Mazatlan 10.17.08

Ahhh....home!! The boat fared well - no mold to speak of, nothing missing, one door doesn't close like it used to and we think it's a little water intrusion, but will need to look further into it. We turned on the refrigerator yesterday and it's getting up to temperature well. It only has a few items in it right now as we haven't provisioned yet but we have lots of water, beer, & towels inside. The past couple days we've been unpacking the boat - moving everything back out onto the deck from inside, and unpacking everything we brought from the Jeep. We brought enough books to last us quite a while! We didn't realize just how many we had brought until we started unpacking them! We were given some from friends, purchased some, brought some from Nicaragua, and they all added up! There's probably 50 or so! haha... Now it's the chore of stowing everything!

I haven't felt good since before we left Texas - I picked up a cold along the way so I've been taking it a little easy since we arrived. Today I'm updating the main computer with all of the necessary updates - windows updates, antivirus, firewall, etc and catching up on the blog! The heat is miserable - it's hot, hot, hot here! Temps are in the 90's and the humidity has been in the upper 90's as well! The heat index has been over 110 degrees for the last couple days! Our little A/C unit gets the main cabin down to a comfy 74 degrees at night but just can't compete with the heat during the day and the temp inside raises to the upper 80's. Michael installed the cover onto the back half of the boat (the mizzen side) today which we hope will help to keep the aft cabin, where we sleep, a little cooler. The main cover, over the main boom, we hope to install in the next day or so. When we first got onto the boat, I removed the foil window coverings from the windows but quickly put them right back up, and more, over all of the windows to keep the heat & sun from getting inside the boat.

It's time for the cruisers to begin coming back to the boats and already there were 13 boaters that checked in on the morning net. There are 7 cruisers on our dock preparing their boat for the season. The girls in the office said there were only 3 cruisers who stayed the entire summer. We picked up a loaf of bread and have been eating cold sandwiches for lunch and showering (in cold water which feels FANTASTIC!) and going up to the newest restaurant, Gus Gus, that is just at the top of our dock entrance.

So other than that, we're just generally getting the boat packed & ready. Michael has several projects he needs to complete before we leave but for now we're just getting everything stowed & will attempt to relax a bit before tackling all the hard stuff. We have to close all of the doors so that the main cabin gets cool so it's not very conducive to completing a project when you have to move stuff, open up that door to get stuff, close it to keep it cool, etc. I'm sure we'll figure out how to get around it all but for now that's what we're up to!!

Hurricane season ends on November 15th so we have about 4 weeks to get the boat prepared, stocked up again, & ready to head out of the harbor.

Until later!
Rene

{GMST}23|16.260|N|106|27.282|W|Waiting out the hurricanes!|Marina Mazatlan{GEND}

Leaving Texas 10.16.08

After spending a week working on the property, it was about as close as it could be. The appliances were purchased, carpet purchased & scheduled, painting of the main house had begun and we decided to leave.

We left Corpus Christi on Thursday morning and headed to the Mexican border at Reynosa, just opposite McAllen, Texas. We had 3 choices to cross - Nuevo Laredo (opposite Laredo, Texas), Reynosa, & Matamoros (opposite Brownsville) and chose Reynosa as it seemed the smallest & I felt it would be safest. If you've been paying attention to the news in Mexico, the drug traffickers & police shootings have gotten worse in the border towns and general violence & kidnappings have become worse than ever. So we hoped for the best and crossed over. We were stopped by the U.S. Border Patrol on our way out of the country - yep, the U.S. Border patrol! We were asked to pull over and they had us get out of the truck and, seperately, interrogated us. They took us into a room and made us take everything out of our pockets & even patted down Michael (the female officer was busy so I didn't get that treatment). They asked us the same questions and we believe because our stories collaborated, they released us. We guess they suspected us of taking money or drugs into Mexico, but they wouldn't tell us.

Once we were inside the border, we got the 'Pase' green light at customs so they didn't inspect the vehicle (whew!) and we headed over to immigration to get our 6 month tourist permits & our temporary import permit for the Jeep. Not that we were bring in anything illegal, but we were over in our limits of a few items. We had no problems with that at all - woohoo!

But as we left immigration, our luck changed. We took a wrong turn accidentally while attempting to get to the highway and a crooked cop spotted us. Bummer. He pulled us over, for no reason, and told us because we failed to stop (yeah right!) for him, he would impound the vehicle for 36 hours. No way, we said. OK, what will it take for him to let us go? 6,200 pesos. Yep, that's right - $620 USD!! No way... We continued to talk & negotiate down our 'ticket'. During the entire incident - he spoke absolutely no English while we stuttered along with our Spanish (thankfully we had just spent 1 month in Nicaragua and had honed up our Spanish a little bit!). He finally settled on $175 and then gave us an escort to the highway. How nice of him - $175 for a personal escort to the highway. But the experience spoiled our whole day. We were pissed at being 'taken' and that we were stuck between a rock and a hard place.

Oh well....we continued on. We wanted to make it to Monterrey for the evening. The toll roads in Mexico take you from one spot to another - with no stops in between! We decided to take the Toll roads even though they are quite expensive as the roads are better and it's much faster as it avoids all of the cities! But because they avoid the cities, we ended up going around Monterrey all together and continued on to Saltillo. It was about 5pm and we figured we would look for a place to stay. We stopped at 4 hotels - the first one was $125, the second $159, the third $199, and the forth....$20 for 6 hours. Well, we didn't feel comfortable in any of them so we decided to continue on....even though it would be dark by the time we would hit the next big city. I hate to drive at night ever since my eye surgery gave be bad night vision but we just wanted to get further down the road. So we ended up in Torreon. It was raining like cats & dogs so the streets were flooded, it was super dark, and they were building a new freeway system that was half good and half bad. We saw signs for hotels but there wasn't directions other than '5 minutes away!'. We saw a hotel on the right hand side of the street and so we exited the freeway. Unfortunately though, we couldn't get over to the right hand side of the street because of the freeway construction! So we ended up driving down the street looking for a hotel, then turning around, getting back on the freeway, exiting the next exit, and somehow making it to the other side of the freeway to the hotel. It didn't matter the price - it was after 9pm and we were both exhausted and just wanted food & a bed. The next morning we were up bright & early and headed out again. We were determined to make it to Mazatlan and had an easy day's drive ahead of us.

We needed gas and tooled around looking for it but didn't find an easy station, so we jumped on the toll road and headed to Durango. Durango is a large city and we were sure to find gasoline there. At Durango, we encountered our first Mexican Army checkpoint. The young boys were very friendly and they waved us through after chatting with us a bit. Again, the toll road took us completely around Durango...so we were on the outskirts before there was an exit. At the exit, we saw a Pemex station and drove over there....and it was a closed. Bummer. We jumped on the toll road again hoping we would find a gas station ahead. As the gauge got lower & lower, we really started to worry. There was no civilization ahead as far as we could see and we were almost on empty. We found an exit on the highway and exited. We drove along but it was looking bad. The light came on indicating we had only 2 gallons left. Luckily we had brought along two - 2 gallon gas cans just in case, and we stopped to put in our last few gallons of fuel. This gave us about 45 miles to find a gas station....or else! We were about 30 miles outside of Durango and we could drive the 'free' road and were sure to find a gas station, but that would mean turning around. Or we could take our chances that there was fuel in the next town, La Salto. We decided to turn around and go back to Durango. The fun part about driving the 'libre' roads in Mexico is all of the sights you get to see! And the obstructions in the roads. There were cows, horses, & donkeys alongside the road or even on the road in several spots! And it was an incredibly windy road, winding along the mountains. We found our 2nd checkpoint of the day on our way into Durango. We had quite a chuckle with the military members as when they asked us where we were going and we responded 'Mazatlan'....they looked at each other and said it was the other way! 'Yes, we know, but we don't have enough gas to make it to Mazatlan (the soldier looked at our gas gauge and concurred...haha) so they graciously gave us directions to the closest gas station. Whew! That was a relief!

All fueled up & ready to go....we jumped on the same toll road (again!) headed to Mazatlan. A few miles up the road, we were stopped by some guys on the road who told us there was an accident. Looking ahead, there were only about 5 cars in front of the accident and the emergency personnel had not arrived yet. Everyone turned off their vehicles & many exited the cars to go up & take a look. Emergency personnel arrived about 10 minutes later, moved the vehicle out of the way and we were allowed to pass. It was a van that had obviously flipped several times, ejecting the passengers. There was at least one dead, and they were working on one other as we passed. It was very heartbreaking. We continued along until the toll road abruptly ended, sending us onto the 'libre' (free) highway.

The most comical part of the entire day was our encounter with 'Crazy Trucker' (and any related play on the words). You see, we exited the toll road and mistakenly thought it continued even though there was a little bit of a road block. We decided to go through it until we came upon an even bigger road block where we turned around. We got onto the 'Libre' road just in front of this trucker. At this point, we were in the Sierra Madre mountain range and the road is called "El Espinazo del Diablo" - Devil's backbone. The scenery is fantastic - beautiful vistas, waterfalls right alongside the road, and nice & cool temps. But the road...is switchback after switchback, hair raising turns, road construction that sends traffic onto the same side of the road, etc. And this crazy trucker obviously knew the road like the back of his hands. He was nearly driving us off the road before we let him ahead of us. And once in front of us - he took the S turns like a pro, right into oncoming traffic, driving speeds that no fully loaded trucker should be able to maintain - and blind curves? No problem for crazy trucker! So we figured being behind him was a great place to be as he was clearing the way! haha... He would pass other semis like they were standing still - blind curve coming up on not! We stayed behind him for almost the entire way to Mazatlan. We were pulled over on one military checkpoint and he got a little ahead of us, but we eventually caught up. At the checkpoint into the state of Sinaloa, we were pulled over & one member went through the truck, as well as he could. We had the hitch on the back so he couldn't open up the back, so he had to look through the stuff behind the seats. He went through our luggage and looked at each of our medicine bottles (Tylenol, vitamins, etc), opened up most of the compartments, talked to us a little bit, and let us go. We caught up with crazy trucker a bit ahead as he got stuck behind some other semis. We were stopped two times as there was road work ahead and they would close the road for like 30 minutes each time. So we finally rolled into Mazatlan about 6pm on Friday, went straight to a restaurant as we were both starved, and then down to the boat. We moved stuff around enough to get to the bed and one of the heads. We had purchased a little air conditioner before we left Mazatlan and had it on the boat and when we arrived, it was still in the upper 80's with very high humidity. We placed the A/C in the main hatch and along with the two oscillating fans, knocked down the heat enough for us to sleep.

We made it - woohoo!!
More to follow...
Rene
{GMST}25|34.922|N|103|24.227|W|Hanging in the hotel|On our way to Mazatlan{GEND}

Back in Corpus (yet again!) 10.10.08

We left Kansas because our property that has been being remodeled since June wasn't finished and we had to come down & ensure it was complete before it took a year! We've had problems between the contractor and property manager and work has slowed down to a trickle for the last several weeks. It seems the two just can not manage to get along and it has turned into a lot of he-said-she-said and the project is not getting done.

So we rolled up our sleeves, dressed in our grubbiest clothes and jumped in with both feet! Amazingly, both people were at the property and the past couple days there has been more work on the property than in the last few weeks! Let's see...in the last couple days I've pulled weeds, cleaned, cleaned, cleaned, scraped all the paint off of the windows, took lots to the dumpster, jeez! Michael tore the bathroom apart, worked on the windows (they all open up now - woohoo!), swept the entire driveway, and has been coordinating the work between the other two. It's been a very busy couple of days and we're both nice & sore already. We figure we're getting ready to be back on the boat! But the house looks very nice now.

The house is two separate structures - the main house is a two-story house with two units - one upstairs and one downstairs. The entire downstairs has been remodeled and is currently being painted, inside & out. The back structure is a garage type structure (more of a large shed) and the upstairs is a 1 bedroom apartment. This has also been entirely remodeled. The bathroom has had soft spots on the floor so after several attempts to repair, we decided to rip it out and totally replace it. The tile is being laid today and tomorrow and the tub is supposed to be resurfaced as well.

Only a couple more days of work and the back unit will be ready for carpet and then ready for renting. The main house has a few more days to go and will hopefully ready for renting in the next couple weeks.

We're planning on leaving Corpus around Tuesday or so and head down to Mexico and the BOAT!! Woohoo!! We're so ready to be back at home. It's been a fabulous summer and we've had a wonderful time, but we're ready to be back on the boat.

More to follow!
Rene
{GMST}27|47.770|N|097|24.383|W|Our property on King Street in Corpus Christi, TX|Our property in Corpus Christi{GEND}

Visiting in Kansas! 10.8.08

We had a great visit with my family these last few days. We arrived on Friday, after stopping in Fort Worth for an evening, just in time for a Friday dinner date with grandpa! Mom & Dad go to dinner with him every Friday evening and after dinner, we went back to his house & gabbed until almost midnight! It was great to spend time with him. Saturday morning we got up & went to a Wichita Geocachers breakfast and then went geocaching with the group for about 4 hours. And we weren't finished! We went back to the house to regroup & get additional coordinates and then took off again for about 4 hours more! Sunday morning was a Red Cross breakfast and then another full day of geocaching! Whew! :-)

Monday Michael & I took off to see his son, Brandon Jacobs, and just missed meeting his girlfriend, Alex. We spent a couple hours chatting with him and then visited another friend, Brian Warren. I didn't have a chance to look up some high school friends to see if they are still in Wichita and figured I'll get more chances later.

Tuesday we just visited & found a few more geocaches, getting ready to leave. All in all, we found over 50 geocaches! It was a ton of fun and we had so much fun on our trip. We just wish we could stay longer!

Michael had his cold the entire time we were there but was a great sport and didn't complain (loudly) once! haha. He has a chest cold that he picked up just before we left California. I've managed to avoid it so far, and hope it stays that way!

We're heading back to Corpus tomorrow. It's almost time to head back to Mexico!!
Rene
{GMST}37|37.598|N|097|21.516|W|Visiting my family in Kansas|Wichita, KS{GEND}

Back in Corpus 10.1.08

We turned in the vehicle to the Red Cross office in Fairfield, had it inspected, & caught a ride by one of the volunteers to the San Francisco airport for a 3pm flight back to Corpus Christi.



Our flight was a long one - arriving in Corpus around 11pm. It was a long day but we're back....for one night... haha... We're heading to Kansas tomorrow morning to spend some time with my folks, visit my Grandpa, visit with some friends and Michael's son. Going, going, going!!

Rene
{GMST}27|48.368|N|097|27.127|W|Back in Corpus Christi...again!|Corpus Christi, TX{GEND}