Hard working bird

One of the small pleasures of our current location is relaxing on the balcony while watching the water fowl busy in the harbor.

The cormorant is the hardest working bird. It will dive 10 times to get a fish, but that is just the start of it's feeding work. When it surfaces it must get the fish turned to swallow head first and protect it's meal from opportunistic rivals. We have seen a Great Heron swoop down on a cormorant and steal a fish from its mouth. The resident osprey has also successfully stolen a hard won meal.

Cormorant drying its wings on our dock:

During a walk on the breakwater that protects the marina, we spotted a Muscovy duck. We had not seen one of these since leaving Homestead. De Anne and I agree it is the ugliest water fowl.

Merry Christmas to all!

Wolf sanctuary

Yesterday we visited the nearby Saint Francis Wolf Sanctuary. Isolated at the end of a country road this non-profit organization handles rescue wolves and wolf/dog hybrids from not only Texas, but also surrounding states.

 Dumb people think owning a wolf in an urban or even apartment setting would be fun. When reality bites them (both literally and figuratively) the wolf has to go. Many are put down, while the lucky ones get a home here.

 At first we were dismayed at the 30 foot by 50 foot pens each housing 1 to 3 wolves, but by the end of the tour realized this was the best that could be done for these lucky few.

It was explained that wolves are escape artists. Each pen was a 12 foot chain link fence topped with 45 degree, 3 foot high chicken wire retainer. Rebar was driven 3 feet into the ground all around the fence perimeter and finally a secondary 12 foot fence was set back and encircling all the pens. The safety and care costs are high.

One wolf was brought out and we were instructed to sit on a bench and not get up while the wolf was out. This was the most docile animal in the sanctuary, yet two handlers were present - A woman holding the thick leash and a man right behind her holding a shovel. Extra protection even with the most civilized wolf of the bunch.
.

The wolves put on an impromptu concert for us. One let out a string of howls and several others joined the chorus. The singing when on for a couple minutes.

 We left impressed with this facility that cares for these beautiful animals.

Lake Conroe

The distance between points was much less this month. 240 miles versus last months' 1,600 miles; however, I managed to make it difficult.

In trying to outsmart our GPS - the GPS won. I wanted to use some side roads that the GPS did not like so (with my crafty ways) I programmed a halfway point, then when we reached it I reset it for Lake Conroe thinking it would pick the route I wanted. Wrong! The GPS got even by sending us on ever smaller side roads. I finally gave up and got us to I-10 headed to Houston, exactly what I was trying to avoid. I surrendered; however, the GPS was not done humiliating me. It put us on toll roads. After a couple tolls we hit a stretch with huge signs warning that the SunPass was the only way to pay the toll ahead and violators would be prosecuted. We exited and re-calculated yet again. Winding our way through the northern suburbs of Houston we finally arrived having added an hour to what should have been a 4 hour trip.

A couple Sailor Jerry rum and cokes coupled with the view from our balcony improved the day.

After 3 days of rain De Anne is basking in sunshine again this morning.

Dudes

We could not visit Texas without a visit to a real ranch, so dressed like a couple of dudes in shorts and tees we went to the biggest - the King ranch.

 The first sign I noted on arrival was a warning about rattlesnakes. A hundred years ago Henrietta King, bothered by all the rattlers, offered a nickle bounty for every set of rattles. Within a couple months she was surprised to have paid for 10,000 sets of rattles. Poor folks had a new job - killing snakes. She lowered the bounty from five cents to three cents. Before the year was up the count reached 100,000. She lowered it again to two cents, but ended the bounty when an out-building was full and the count passed 250,000. The oppressed reptiles were never wiped out and from the looks of the ranch and 32,000 square foot ranch house Henrietta's bank account did not suffer unduly.

 Note the insolent deer placidly grazing in the front yard of ranch house.

 The out-buildings, like this stable, were brick construction because of the fear of fire.

 Our time is about up in Bayside. Our next stop is a condo over-looking Lake Conroe (north of Houston) until just after New Year's. Then we will spend the roughest two months of winter in Puerto Rico. First in Punta Las Marias, then the second month in Biascoechea.

Meeting up

Friends from Mexico Beach, Dawn and Brian, parked their RV for a few days in Rockport TX on their way west. We spent the next couple days as a foursome of tourists.

 While lounging outside their RV I mentioned to Brian we had a restaurant we wanted to try for lunch that had been recommended by a friend. Brian said "Fine, as long as it's Snoopy's". I was stunned - that was where we had planned to go. After further questioning Brian said he had read about 10 restaurants you should visit around the USA and Snoopy's was on the list.

The following day we visited the Rockport Maritime Museum which also has the high point in Rockport with a third story "observation deck". Note the storm approaching - it's not always sunny in south Texas.

A trip to the big city

The title may be a bit misleading; however, Corpus Christi is the biggest city anywhere near by. Of course the waterfront was where we were heading and Corpus Christi has a beautiful marina and boardwalk overlooking the bay.

 I was drawn to take a picture of the appropriately designed lounging area below:

While taking that picture De Anne was, as always, drawn to the water and tried to make a get-a-way:

Looking back on the city:

Like many other harbors around the country a replica of the Nina, one of the ships of Columbus:

We (and by we, especially De Anne) are enjoying the 80's and sunshine of south Texas.

Around town

Our little town of Bayside (population 350) can be traversed easily by bike, and hugs the north side of Capano Bay.

 We paused at the city pier for a vista, and caught an air boat going by.

I have a new theory on the prevalence of pickup trucks in rural Texas. Everyone has dogs and the bed of a pickup is the ideal place to carry them - especially if you take them with you everywhere. 

Here in Bayside the number of dogs seems to equal people. As an added bonus the guy next door has a big coop for pigeons, who get an hour of exercise every afternoon flying a big loop repeatedly around the town. 

A woman down the street has 2 small dogs and 2 huge pigs in her yard. When De Anne goes by, the dogs race up to fence barking, followed by grunting pigs.  

It's Texas - live how you want to live!

Bayside

It has been a busy couple weeks and I have not had a chance to post before today.

Tristan and Kat had a formal wedding at the Omni in downtown Washington DC on Oct 22nd. Although they had a civil ceremony on June 10th, the day after Tristan graduated from his Master's program, she and her family wanted the full ceremony in a nice setting.

It was quite the event with 2 days of parties, gazebo wedding, and formal dinner and dance afterwards. My role was father of the groom, which entailed little responsibility, and also best man which added a bit more. I did run the aisle more than anyone else since I had to walk the mother of the groom (known on all other days as De Anne) then run back down the side to enter with Tristan. Afterwards I walked the Maid of Honor out then ran back up for De Anne. Don't worry - I made it look good! De Anne, of course, was stunning in a floor length, off the shoulder, slinky black and white gown. Even though I clean up well and was in a tux I am sure people were wondering what a woman like that was doing with an ugly brute like me.

 We did return to Virginia Beach where he and Kat now live while Tristan is stationed in Norfolk. All four of us returned from DC with matching colds.

 We took it easy knowing we were a few days away from a 1,600 mile cross-country trip. Alas, rest did not make us well, so De Anne and I crossed the country coughing and blowing and spreading germs from state to state. Should you hear news reports of wide spread illness across the southern states of America - you gentle reader will know the cause.

In Louisiana I spotted a billboard for an urgent care center at the next exit and made a command decision to stop. After $386.00 in doctor fees and dropping $120.00 at the Walmart across the street for various meds we continued our journey west. The doctor did give us both shots and a double dose of pills plus some liquid codeine to help us sleep. It made today's travel tolerable. I consider the $500.00 an investment in continued life.

 We are now in a cute cabin in Bayside Texas overlooking Copano Bay.

Beach days

Hurricane Matthew was a near miss, so after a couple days of hunkering down, sunny skies and calm conditions required us to catch up on our beach time.

 We walked the western side of the Chesapeake Bay where it meets the Atlantic. While enjoying the solitude of a beach almost to ourselves there were signs beach erosion.

 All ours:

This was formerly a path down to the beach. Now the last step is a drop off.

How about a million dollar beach home and your stairs down to the beach ends in mid air.

Yesterday we drove over to Virginia Beach to walk the boardwalk. At the mid-point this large sculptural rendition of Poseidon.

Water front property

It was a near miss with hurricane Matthew, but still a couple days of excitement.

A few brief power outages, high winds stripping leaves from the trees, and lots of torrential rain has left the street in front of our house more suitable for kayaking rather than driving. I had to discourage De Anne from launching her kayak off the driveway with horror stories of what might lurk in the waters.

We now fully appreciate the house sitting on high ground and the driveway that has a sharp upward slope,

8:00 am Sunday morning;

High tide

We are settled in Virginia Beach VA, or more specifically Chic's Beach near the Kellam Bridge/Tunnel. We are a block from the ocean and if predictions for Hurricane Matthew pan out that might be more than close enough.

 Although high winds, clouds, and the threat of rain discouraged us from a morning beach walk today, when we saw the high surf advisory we had to see for ourselves. Our first beach walk (sans pictures) on Saturday was benign. Gentle waves lapping a 10 to 20 yard wide stretch of sand.

 Pictures 1 and 2 were taken at high tide yesterday and pictures 3 and 4 are similar angles from today.

The next day

3 ferrys and 2 lighthouses

Our next stop for the month of October is Virginia Beach and we could have driven the whole way; but, what fun is that?

My intrepid wife plotted our course over land and water starting with the Cherry Point ferry. I sighed and then I rolled my eyes. She just smiled, because she knew which way we we going and the pictures below proved she was right.

 All of our worldly goods in one picture:

A one hour cross-island dash put us on the Cedar Island ferry. A $15 poor man's cruise of 2 1/2 hours to Ocracoke Island.

From the upper deck:

A storm chasing us the whole way:

The somewhat uninspiring Ocracoke lighthouse:

The third and final ferry of the day to Hatteras Island. Note all our goods still intact:

Ending the day on a high note - the magnificent Hatteras lighthouse:

From the pagoda

In the last post is a picture of the pagoda strategically located by the Neuse river. The pictures below were taken from the pagoda.

 This past weekend the neighborhood hosted a triathlon. The first picture shows the boat collecting the race-around buoys used in the swim leg of the race. Being inherently lazy I watched the running leg of the race from the rocking chair on our porch, and I did it without shame. I did ride my bike down to the pagoda at the end of the race.

 Today a barge was positioned to build a fishing dock. There is a wedding scheduled to occur on the dock this Saturday. I will be impressed if the dock is completed in time; however, I may never know since we move down the road Friday.

Note both pictures are almost the same angle.

It was fun to watch the crew drive the piers 10 feet down into the river bottom. 

The neighborhood

Although exploring the inner and outer banks is fun, not every day is a travel day. De Anne and I still ride our bikes and get in some pool time and this is an ideal place for that. Miles of paved road with very little traffic are within the neighborhood.

As always, De Anne covers far more miles than I on the bike. As I rest from 5 to 6 miles of biking she doubles that and then launches her kayak from the community dock across the street. A mile of meandering paddling on Mill Creek takes her to the Neuse River.

Our cottage is the middle of 3 connected by a long front porch:

Community gazebo along the Neuse river. A good rest stop on a bike ride.

Neighborhood pool. Only once in 3 weeks have we had to share it with others.

Small towns

We visited a couple small, but picturesque towns in the surrounding area. Our first visit was to Oriental, NC - "the sailing capitol of North Carolina". It did seem to have a great number of good sized sailboats and a commercial fishing fleet.

The downtown fishing harbor.

The next field trip was to New Bern. We strolled the waterfront and toured the restored old town. Settled by a great number of Swiss immigrants naming the town was a reminder of Bern, Switzerland, and the word bern means bear - hence the many bears around town.

De Anne staring down a bear (or maybe window shopping).

Note the bear sticking out of the wall above the arch at City Hall..

Outer Banks

Two days of rain and wind left us with a bit of cabin fever, so when Sunday morning showed clear skies the unanimous decision was a quick trip to the outer banks.

Just a few miles down the road was a short cut - the ferry across the Neuse River. Thoughtfully provided by the State of North Carolina for the affordable price of zero, the ferry deposited us at Cherry Point after a 15 minute crossing.

We did a quick reconnoiter of Beaufort and Morehead City then headed to Atlantic Beach. As followers of this blog know I am wont to stop at historic forts. Fort Macon was a siren call to me. De Anne, as always, indulged me. It was our lucky day! It was cannon firing day!

 A trip across the dunes then I took her back to Beaufort where we walked the waterfront, and enjoyed lunch on a balcony overlooking the Sound.

Mobile

Our lease ends tomorrow.

The kayak is strapped to the top of the CRV, the bikes are on the trailer-hitch rack, and the rest of our worldly goods are loaded in the back.

 We have once again downsized. Everything not transportable has been sold, given away, or tossed in the dumpster. It was much easier this time, both from experience and many less years of collecting before the purge.

 Our first destination is North Carolina. We have rented a cabin for the month of September in Minnesott Beach. We hope to stay a few miles ahead of the storm which seems to be following the same path as us.

 Four more destinations over the next four months to follow.

Shenandoah valley

We are renting a tiny house in the Shenandoah valley. The house is comfortable, which is a good thing since rain has driven us indoors several times.

During a dry spell yesterday we drove the Skyline Drive, a scenic meandering road with lots of pull-offs to admire the view. After a picnic lunch we found a parking area adjacent to the Appalachian Trail and took a short hike. If I had a bucket list that could have been a check mark.

 

Fly away

We are leaving tomorrow to spend a week in a cabin in the Smoky Mountains. We will attend Tristan's graduation from National Defense University the following week. He has earned a Master's in International Relations.

It is a good time to vacate the beach. It is yellow fly season. For those unaquainted, the yellow fly is like the horse fly, only smarter, smaller, stealthy, with a much worse bite.

 If you ascribe to the theory that God made beer so man would be happy, then the yellow fly was made to remind man to drink it indoors.

Beach living is wonderful - except the first two weeks in June.

Mountain vista pictures coming soon!

Happy Mother's Day

I have always been a bit slow. 35 years into this marriage I am still learning the same lesson. The oft forgotten lesson is De Anne's freedom to go where and when she wants (see "Free Range Wife" elsewhere on this blog).

Last year De Anne wanted a kayak so I got a big tandem kayak that we could paddle around together. For the sake of argument let us say I like to go kayaking once a week, but De Anne might want to kayak every day.... right after her 18 mile bike ride and before her 6 mile beach walk. You can see, this is an impediment to her freedom if my presence is required to launch a kayak that is beyond her ability to portage to the water.

Which brings us to Mother's Day 2016 and her gift which she splashed (solo) today:

Travel update: Tristan and Kat are planning an October wedding. We will gladly delay our trip to the land down under.

Cape San Blas

Finishing their winter vacation in Florida, Terry and Brenda stopped off for a few days with us before returning to Canada.

Saturday was perfect so a field trip to Cape San Blas felt like a necessity. We packed a picnic and headed out on the short, scenic drive.

De Anne and Terry consulted the local map then led us off on a hike into scrub pine and cabbage palm wilds of the Cape. The walk along St. Joseph Bay was so pleasant I dispensed with my customary whining about forced marches, and because the peninsula is only a quarter-mile wide with the bay on one side and the Gulf on the other I could hardly claim we would get lost.

Returning to the parking lot we selected a table in the shade overlooking the bay to enjoy our beer and sandwiches.

 De Anne leading the way:

Terry and Brenda:

Alligator resting while we enjoyed lunch. He could have a beer if he had come over:

Afternoon on the Gulf side:

Unauthorized picture of De Anne and Brenda in front of the surf danger flag: