I can't believe we've been here 10 days! Sometimes I have to pinch myself to be sure this is real! The weather is cool, but the area is so beautiful, and the birds! There were so few birds in Missouri, but here, it's a never ending variety. I'm sad this morning as I heard all the gun shots and imagined all those little ducks being killed for a little bit of meat. Deer season - you get one deer and it feeds you for a very long time, but duck season. I'm sorry I just can't see it.  Get a camera guys. If you need the adrenelin rush of killing something, go "kill" some of those flying disks .

Yesterday we saw Ibis, at least we think they were Ibis,yellow beak instead of the customary red, but every other part of the bird looked like Ibis, and so many ducks, so many varieties, and Roseate Spoonbills, Great egrets, Great Blue Herons, Skimmers, Oyster catchers, greater and lesser sandpipers, Common Snipe, lots of Rock Doves, and that owl - I'd sure like to see him, but we hear him every morning. We also had 5 deer in the campground yesterday morning, and I saw a small sting ray while out fishing on the pier.

The fishing was terrible yesterday. Terese caught a few, but all small, and mostly bait stealers. The shore line is littered with hundreds of dead or dying jellyfish - I think a result of the Red Tide. Night before, John caught our first keeper. a 15" Speckled Sea Trout. I got a 14.5" and a 13" but they have to be 15" to keep them. It was delicious!

We're keeping very busy with the campground, and I'm feeling very guilty this morning - I forgot a planned activity last night, and since I'm the activity director....... I have apologies to make. However, dinner with friends at China-A was DELICIOUS - that is no excuse though!

My First Flounder and workamping Lamar!

Wow, time gets away from you. First I have all the time in the world to relax, then I dive in and am having trouble keeping my head above water! Yes, this is my life!

Sunday we headed out fishing on the big pier at Goose Island State Park, again! We love it out there! Saturday night was spectacular - sea snakes and speckled trout and a red drum and a little gar and jelly fish... The White Pelicans and the night herons... Sunday morning found dead fish along the shoreline. Lots of them, and more floating in. Hm - not good. Nobody fishing either, oh well, lets see what happens.

Everyone knows I'm not a traditionalist in anything I do. So, As John is setting up the tried and true method of fishing off the dock, I'm hunting through the tackle box for a floating jig head (I found an elongated orange one) and find some cool froggy looking jelly type baits. I put the two together and John just shakes his head. "You won't catch anything on that." So I cast it out and begin reeling it in and BOOM, I got a huge hit and ..... ah, my line's broke!!! I look at John with a big grin and he just shakes his head. Remember the little dare devil spoon with the piece of corn on it I tried for Ice Fishing :) So I put on a steel leader and another orange floating jig head and the froggy legs and continue casting and not too many casts, boom (not quite as big as the first time) I got one!!! and here it is!

My first flounder!

It was 13". Fourteen is legal, so she took a little dive off the pier back to the wet, but it was so cool! My photographer is improving - no blurry pink photo this time! :) It was windy when we went out, but it continued to increase, and we finally decided to call it enough before we got blown down the pier!  So many beautiful jelly fish.

Back at camp/home we stopped into the office after getting some groceries and talked with Mitch - the manager. He went over park rules and what would be expected, etc... and it all sounded just fine, so we started work on Monday morning.

Sunday afternoon, after talking with Mitch, we headed back out to the dock. Our new friends Leonard and Terese were out there, so we had a great gab session. They had us over for dinner our first night in town, and oh that was wonderful. It's so neat when you click with someone. We have more friends to do things with now than we ever did back home - couples that we can do things with. This is not to say we didn't have friends - I cherish them all, but we only had one couple that we got together with, and I miss them, but I'm so grateful to have other people of like mind now. Anyway - we invited them over for fresh ground flour pancakes on Tuesday morning (which was also wonderful!). We found out the Red Tide out on the Island was awful, and people were having problems breathing - the air was thick and they had to cover their noses and mouths when walking outside. An estimated 3 million fish died this time. About 4pm while we were talking, Leonard pointed up and we all turned around and looked. On the leading edge of the cold front was a huge flock of something- swirling and undulating. They turned out to be sandhill cranes - hundreds of them - way up there! It was incredible to see. The cold front was actually a blessing, for it knocked out the red tide, and my cough is also gone. I didn't think I'd ever be happy about cold weather, but to see all the dead fish. I'm grateful for this cold snap. It was greatly needed.

Monday I started learning the office procedures here, and took on the task of organizing the kitchen in the apartment. (I'll finish that today). I also put together an activities calendar and will do our first exercise class today - Chi Gong. It's very low impact and feels wonderful! We'll have movie night on Friday, and Social Hour every night at 4. Indoor games in the evenings and outdoor games on Sat. Dulcimer and guitar lessons, craft time. Like I said, we're getting busy! John was out and did the weed eatting and he'll be doing mowing on a Zero Turn radius mower one of these days soon.

Now to get ready for my class and have breakfast!

Arrival in Lamar, Texas

We left Palacios about 11 am with overcast skies and a building breeze.Coming down 35 along the coast was neat. Salt flats and scrub lands, beautiful and peaceful. The skies opened up and rain quenched the thirsty earth most of the way down the 70 mile stretch. Not as pleasant for driving as just being overcast, but with the drought that has encompassed this land, I'll only smile at the rain and say, "thank you!"

Hidden Oaks RV Park is a couple miles off hwy 35, 1 miles from Goose Island State Park and maybe 1/4 mile off the inland waterway. It is very peaceful. It is clean, the road and sites are gravel and more or less level, and the sites are large - 40 x 80; full hookups; spotty internet (it's working now!); spotty phone service, and no cable tv except for in the rec. room. The office and rec room are nice, and everything is clean. John is having a great time playing cribbage with Ron (He's been staying here for the past 5 years).  We could hear the Whoping cranes the past 2 mornings, and we took a little detour to the park this morning and saw 9 of them under a tree out in the field just east of here. They are huge! What a sight - unfortunately, too far away for my camera. I need a long lens! That was such a treat!

We continued on to Goose Island State park to go fishing for the first time in salt water. We purchased an annual permit for $70 yesterday and found out we don't need to buy a fishing license as long as we only fish in the park. OK, that's doable. :) So it was 8 am by the time we finally got there. Kayle cat decided it was a great morning to sneak out the door just as we were about to leave at 7 and it took about an hour before she was ready to come back in. Just as before, she hopped up on the step and hopped back inside when we opened the door for her. There was no catching her before she was ready. So, we grabbed our new gear (Walmart yesterday for a new heavy duty rod and new bait and a new stringer- should have picked up a long handled net too). So how do we rig up? - we looked at each other, shrugged shoulders and opened the ghost shrimp lures. I thought there were 5 lures on leaders, but they were all connected and had loops on both ends! Double weights? Hmmm. John put on a big hook and a lifelike crab. Cast em out. We were the only ones there for quite a while - I think Kaylee's delay cost us some fish, and observation time. Nothing but oysters, and darn it, I got hung up and lost 4 of my ghost shrimp! The wind continued to blow harder, we figured at least 30 mph, and we finally gave it up around 11:45. It was beautiful though. The Pelicans were gliding over the waves, both brown and white ones and there were all sorts of sea birds! We saw a dolphin too!

After lunch and a nap, we headed out again. Low Tide was at 4:30 and that's about when we left. The wind had died down and this time, we were not alone. Oh my! Quite a parking lot full of trucks. Let's try this again. The folks next to us were pulling them in right and left. Dead shrimp for bait - that must be the trick. One of the men pulled in a big drum - 26" or so! Also speckled trout and catfish. I finally started playing around with different lures and found this little minnow with a spinner - sort of like a mepps. Holy Cow - I caught one!!! A very pretty litte speckled trout -- heeeheee. Of course the camera was in the truck - yeah I know, I know. Next time I'll abandon the chair and bring the camera. As it got dark the pier lights came on, and something was jumping - all over the surface they were jumping. then I saw the fish chasing the something and realized they were shrimp trying not to get eatten. How cool! I also saw 2 water snakes and a little gar and tons of trout - feeding frenzy under the lights. I caught one more little trout and threw him back just like the other one, and yes I did take them both off the hook myself! John with his infinate patience when it comes to fishing finally pulled in a red drum - of course we didn't know what it was at first. I pulled out our little chart and started looking for a fish with a spot by it's tail, and jsut as I found it, a fishing compadre confirmed it to be a red drum - cool! It was bigger than the 2 trout I caught, but not big enought to keep, so he followed his companions back into the water. I failed to mention why we need a net. When we were fishing this morning, John had a flounder on, but when he brought it out of the water to lift it to the pier, it got off, hence - a net would have had us dinner. He said it was nice sized too.

Now it's snuggle the Karma Cat time.