A new beginning

A few months back my son's girlfriend passed a test. Not the kind that you want a teenage girl to pass. They were both scared, and the telling of the truth was put off until the pregnancy couldn't be ignored any longer. To say everyone was upset would be an understatement, but what was done was done, and there was no way that any of us were going to let them face it alone. It hasn't been easy, there has been friction.

Yesterday I became a grandmother. Born just after one in the afternoon, a little baby boy. He came into this world four weeks early, but is quite healthy and doing just fine. 5 pounds, 13 ounces. 19 inches long. Welcome, little one.

The kids have decided on adoption, in my opinion the wisest choice. The adoptive family is here, preliminary papers have been signed. Everything will be finalized tomorrow. This is to be an open adoption, so that we may all watch young Chase grow up. The family seems to be very nice, they have tried for years to have a child with no luck, and are excited to the point of tears to finally have a baby in their lives. I am thrilled for them.

Most folks don't know, but *I* was adopted way back when. Mine is not an open adoption, so I will never know about my birth parents. But then again, I was never all that curious. Being adopted gives me a somewhat unique view on the situation, quite frankly I think adoption is a wonderful thing.

That being said, I made it very clear from the beginning that I would support whatever decision was made. And I have stood by that. The baby and his new family will leave sometime next week for home. Just as soon as the interstate agreement is finalized so that they may transport a newborn (not of their parentage) across state lines. I wish baby boy Chase, Daddy Doug, and Mom Tiffany a wonderful journey through parenthood. Their dream has come true.

Back Home

We got back yesterday. A great time was had, fish were caught. And it will take me days to clean up the van and trailer. Wouldn't have traded it for anything. Here are a few more pictures for your enjoyment.



This is my "big fish" for the trip. Caught two days before we left, a 21" Sheepshead. A real bear to clean, but supposed to be really good eating. We will soon find out.



The Big Tree. The largest and oldest Live Oak in the U.S., quite possibly in the world. You really cannot grasp just how big this old monster is. May it live for many more years.



This fellow visited us at our site. A Rat Snake, about four feet long. He was a bit upset at our efforts to remove his scaly self from under my van, hence the nasty pose. He didn't like it, but he did get moved.




This is the 1800' lighted pier that is located at Goose Island State Park. We fished here almost every day, and we caught something every time we fished. That "hump" in the picture is where the big spotlights are, and you can catch Speckled Trout there every night. Sometimes you catch other things too......flounder, stingray, Gafftop. We caught all of them. Really DID NOT want the stingray. Unfriendly fellow.



And the sun sets on another wonderful coast trip. This spectacular view is from the park road, headed back to our campsite to break it down and head out. I could look at this all day long.

A quick update........

Still here, and still having fun :)

Photos were promised, and here they are. We are currently in beautiful Goose Island State Park in Rockport, Texas. Our campsite is quiet and secluded, as you can see:





I just love this state park. It's clean and well maintained, without being a typical "parking lot". So many places are more concerned with how many trailers and rv's they can cram in, with no concern for comfort. Goose Island is overflowing with wildlife (don't leave coolers outside, the coons just LOVE to help themselves). Just this morning I saw a doe with twin fawns nursing. Itty bitty fawns, still with spots. Every evening we see the coastal rabbits out and about, coons are everywhere, and each morning I sit outside and drink my coffee while being serenaded by Cardinals. What more could you ask for?

Here is our catch from night before last. Seven very nice speckled trout. Oh, they tasted pretty damn good too, LOL. All caught off of the privated lighted pier located right here in the park.



The son with our catch.


Our fishing last night was disrupted by two things. First, a pod of dolphins showed up. You might as well quit when those hoodlums appear, they will strip your stringer and IF you catch a fish, you will never land it before they rip it off your hook.

The second problem was two legged. Now, when you check in to any state park in Texas, it is made very clear that there will be NO public consumption of alcohol. NONE. Last night we had the typical loud staggering drunk on the pier. Screaming at his three boys, slinging hooks around with abandon. Just flat acting like a fool. Of course, no Game Warden was in sight. We finally just gave up and went back to the campsite.

When I headed out to get smokes this morning, I stopped at the ranger station and had a chat with the Game Warden. Turns out there had been several complaints on drunk asshole. There were two Wardens at the station and they were waiting on a local police officer. Seems that drunk asshole will be escorted out of the park this morning.........sans tackle. Along with being drunk, he got caught with undersized fish. The Wardens frown on this. Someone just got their vacation ruined. I have never understood the attraction of getting out in public and making an ass out of yourself. Loud, obnoxious, staggering drunk. Buh-bye, go away. If you can't follow the rules, you don't get to play.

And you never, EVER, keep undersize or oversize fish. At least not if you like your tackle. And they just might take your vehicle too. Simply not worth the risk. Of course, booze affects judgement, so I would imagine that is why it seemed like keeping the little fish was a good idea. Bet he rethinks that. He will also find that he can no longer get into ANY state run park. Blacklisted because he just HAD to get drunk. Stupid.

At least we will not have to deal with him tonite, and we will be back out there catching fish again.

Fun Fun Fun

We finally hung into the speckled trout last night. We wound up with 7 really nice fish on the stringer, and would have kept going but just flat ran out of bait. And we quit counting how many non-legal fish we caught, they were just EVERYWHERE. Now that we have our technique figured out, you can bet your butt we will be back out there tonite catching more fun :)

Today is laundry day, otherwise we will be nekkid on the beach tomorrow. Somehow I just don't think the local park ranger would be too amused with that. S'ok, we need to go into town and replenish supplies anyways. Out of bread and milk, need butter (to go with the fishies!). We will rest today and get ready for tonite.

And I think we FINALLY have the last bug worked out of the big van. It started overheating on us when we moved from the other state park. Diagnosis: bad radiator cap. New cap and viola! Cool as a cucumber. Glad that is sorted out now.

Off to Walmart, then the laundrymat. Photos to come of the fishies and our lovely secluded campsite.

Moving day

We will be packing up shortly for our move over to Goose Island State Park. The way the wind is blowing, it should be an exciting trip across Redfish Bay on the causeway. Ahem. Somehow I don't think I will be making any friends as we crawl across there catching the wind broadside. Oh well, it's not that far and whomever gets stuck behind me will just have to deal until I get across.

I need a bumper sticker for the trailer that says "This is as fast as it goes". Tailgaters just annoy the crap out of me. I had one last night when we were coming back from fishing. I was getting swatted around all over the place with the wind hitting the big white box broadside, and this ninny thought if he could suck right up behind me that somehow that would make me go faster. Amazingly enough, it had the opposite effect. It always does. If someone is in that big of a hurry, they should have left earlier.

Of course most of the folks who tailgate have never driven anything bigger than their itty bitty "urban assault vehicle" (pretend four wheel drive), or pseudo sports car, and cannot comprehend something that is over 50 feet long, 10 feet high, and weighing in at well over 13,000 pounds fully loaded. Sometimes I wish I could just grab them and stick them in the drivers seat for a little while, while I run up their ass in a little car. I can guarantee you that the pucker factor in a cross wind would make them rethink the whole tailgating issue.

But, there will always be tailgaters, and most likely they will be stuck behind me. I just refuse to look in my side mirrors, therefore they do not exist in my world. That just irritates the shit out of them. Of course, you would think that they would realize that right there on the bumper of the trailer is a 25 pound propane tanks (aka, the bomb). Hit that, and they will REALLY be having a bad day. Somehow, it just doesn't seem to be worth the risk to me.

Email fritz

For those folks who are trying to email me, I can receive but cannot send. I think it has something to do with the parks and wildlife wifi hotspot where I am. So, if you emailed me, I am not ignoring you, I just can't answer you right now. If I could get my wireless card to working I would answer, but cell reception is sucky at best where we are, and I can't get it to link up.

More fun than a barrel of monkeys :)

The specks were running last night. Not too many of legal size, but we caught the hell out of smaller ones around the 12" mark. We stopped counting at 50 of the little devils, which we (obviously) released since they weren't legal. We also caught several silver sandtrout, which are damn good eating. So we will be having some fresh fish in the near future.

We wore the little trout out, they wore us out, and we blew through a quart of live shrimp in no time flat. The exciting thing is..............if they are starting their run now, we should be sitting pretty when we move to Goose Island. That place is just crawling with specks, most of them legal size. Tomorrow we move to Goose Island, but tonite we fish, this time for big redfish. Maybe catch a stingray or two as well (they are ugly, but good eating).