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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).

It has begun

The fishing is starting to turn around since the tides are rising. We headed over to Conn Brown harbor tonite and got into a ton of undersized speckled trout. Where there are little ones, bigger ones will soon follow. The fishing is really supposed to pick up after the 19th, just about the time that we get over to Goose Island State Park. That is where we got into the specks last year, that pier is just fantastic for specks and sand trout.

And to top it off, when we came back across the ferry, the big redfish were just swarming around the pilings. Made me want to jump off and grab one. I have never seen that many reds in one place before, it was a sight to behold.

Maybe we can catch one.

Why?

Why do I always seem to wind up in the camping spot that has noisy small children next to it? And why do those small children think it's massively enjoyable to feed the seagulls (flying rats)? They just about drove us nuts feeding the damn things this morning, since the gulls then lit on everything in sight and proceeded to shit on it.

Poetic justice was served up when the gulls invaded their outdoor meal this afternoon, and what they didn't make off with, they shit on.

Mom and Dad no longer found the feeding of the gulls endearing. It will take a while for the birds to leave, but I bet it will take longer before the parents forget the loss of their meal.

Once in a while, things work out like they should. We just sat in the trailer and smiled. Because we were not the ones being shit on.

Heeeeee!

We went fishing last night. Turns out it was the night of the weird shit, LOL. Started out catching croaker and a few hardheads. Nothing weird there, right? Well, it went down hill from there. First up, I caught an eel......slimy muscles with big teeth. We just about didn't get rid of that, but FINALLY got it off the hook. That was just NASTY.

The next thing was much, much worse. An oyster toadfish. Basically, a bunch of ugly with spines. So what do I catch on the next cast? Another one. Great. I wanted to just cut the line, but we got the ugly bastard off. Finally.

We dragged in about one this ayem and decided to take today off and just rest and cruise around on the beach. We need to sort out the tackle box out as well, and go catch some bait. And hopefully NOT catch anymore toadfish.

Lather, rinse, repeat

BWAHAHAHA! I am just going to start carrying a six-pack in the cooler.

The sand is REALLY loose this time around. Sheesh. The kid thinks I am crazy, I just laugh about it. You come to the coast, you get stuck in the sand. Happens every time. I just wish I wouldn't make a habit of it.

I think I need me a 4wd before I come back down here. Wonder if the white whale could be converted? Would also be the ultimate OFC rig too. Something to think about.

Rite of passage

Also known as "oops". We rested during the heat of the day and then decided to go check out the fishing. Bad idea, since the spot we wanted to take a look at was Packery Channel. Treacherous during the daylight hours due to loose sand, and, well, you can see where this is headed.

We struck out towards the jetties, and actually made it about 100 feet before the van sank like a rock. And I mean it SANK. The kid freaked, he was pretty sure we would need a wrecker to get out. Nope. Well, what are we going to do then, dig? Nope. Just sit here for a minute, you will see. And sure enough, in about 2 minutes along came a drunk kid in a four wheel drive. "You folks stuck?". Pretty much. Well hey, I can pull you out. Good enough, I will buy you a six pack if you can. COOL! And pull us out he did.

Everyone was amazed that I managed to get the white whale that far out in the loose sand before getting stuck. Well, sometimes I am an exceptional idiot and can manage things you wouldn't think possible. This would be one of those times, LOL.

Hey, it's all good. You can't go to the coast without getting stuck at least once. We have that out of the way now. I was laughing about it, the kid didnt' see the humor.

Could have been worse.......someone else was stuck right down to the waters edge. And the tide was coming in. At least our shit wasnt' about to sink completely out of sight. Tomorrow we start fishing in earnest. Not that the fish should be too worried.

On the road again..........

Just trundling along. That's about all you do when you are driving something with the aerodynamics of a brick, and pulling what amounts to a very large box on wheels. But, it's all good. At least now. Last night, not so much. We drove right into the teeth of a really nasty storm between Brady and Mason. It finally got bad enough that I bailed into a roadside picnic area to wait it out. When the wind is blowing the rain sideways, it's not fit to be towing.

We left home about 8 pm last night. Here is where my home is:



The first leg of our trip was from Santa Anna, to Boerne, Texas. We arrived in Boerne about one am and Wallydocked* until 6 the next morning. Got up, grabbed a cup of coffee, and hit the road again.



The second leg of our trip was from Boerne to Mustang Island State park, which is where we are now (photos to come). We pulled in around 11 am. We are now set up and soaking up some a/c. I think we will take a nap before we start the fish a thon tonite.




*Wallydocking - camping in the WalMart parking lot. Most Walmarts will allow folks to park overnight with their rv's as long as we stay out of the way, which we do. It's nice of them, makes it easier on those of us travelling, and they ALWAYS make money on us. We can never get out of that parking lot without spending at least some cash.

More updates and photos to come. For now it's snooze time.

Hmmm

The latest news on the DTV front is that a large number of folks are not only being required to buy converter boxes, but also new antennas. Seems that the old ones won't pick up the "new and improved" signal. Might be new, but certainly not improved. It's either there, or it's not. The old analog signals might have been fuzzy, but were watchable. The gubment is going to sell the old bandwidth. I am sure some asshat somewhere in the past thought it would be an easy money grab, unfortunately the demand for converter box coupons has bitten them right squarely in the ass. Just another beaureacratic screw up.

Of course, you could just go buy a new television. Or get cable. Or just not watch television. I choose the third option, thankyouverymuch. Since there was nothing wrong with my television before some twit started screwing with the signal, and I have no wish to either buy another tv or buy a converter box.........I just unplugged the damn thing and went on with my life. I have plenty to keep me busy. I am a bit tickled at the hysteria. Seems some people think their world will end if they don't have an idiot box to stare at. Far as I am concerned, there's not much worth watching on there anyway. They talk about the dumbing down of America. Take a look at the crap on prime time tv................it's already happened. If I watch for more than a short period of time I can feel the IQ points fading away. It's pathetic.

So we just eliminated the tv from our list of things to do. And you know what? We don't really seem to miss it.

Ok, what gives?

I tried to edit a post, and *poof*, it's gone? Not in my drafts, not on my blog. Did some cyber demon just come along and gobble it up? Looks like Blogger might be having "issues" again. Lovely.

Weirder yet, I didn't expect this post to go through, and yet, here it is. Oh well, it's late and I am tired. I will try to figure it out later.

Tomorrow we leave for our coast trip. Instead of a laptop or car, this trip is what the son asked for as a graduation gift. He wanted one last trip before he heads off to the Navy. I am happy to be able to give it to him. Far too soon he will be gone, off starting his new life. I will cherish the time I have left with him. Like all of us, he has made mistakes in his life. And it seems he has learned from them. He has grown to a handsome young man, and has his future planned out. And I could not be more proud.

Oh Good Grief

They are EVERYWHERE! Itty bitty birdies. The Societies went into overdrive, literally. I have 40 (or so, they don't sit still) babies in the boxes, some just taking their leap into the big world. A whole shitload of Gouldian babies, Florida Fancy babies, the Cordons are sitting, the Gold Breasts are laying, I have five more nests of Gouldians on eggs, the Cut Throats are sitting, and I now have Parrotlet eggs. The Scarlet Chesteds have set up housekeeping and I observed breeding yesterday, eggs should come very soon. And it looks like the Princess of Wales are getting into the mood as well.

I think I need more cages. Yeesh.

Gah!

If you see someone running down the street barking like a dog and ripping their hair out, pay no attention, it's just me.

I have lost my mind, perhaps it will come back soon. I have GOT to get this job done before the odd fellow in this post drives me completely insane. And just to make things even more hellish, he is making passes at me. If he keeps that up, I am going to swat him with a clue by four.

Other than that, everything seems to be going well. The altercation yesterday will have no consequences. Seems that the other party let slip that she launched first. I can only guess that she did not expect my firing sequence to be a quarter-second shorter than her launch time. Don't think we will have anymore problems. The quickest way to deal with a bully is to call their bluff. Or smack it.

I am getting too old to take an ass whipping. So if I see one headed my way, I am going to do my dead level best to put a stop to it before it really gets going. Hopefully that will be the last problem for a while. Hopefully.

Imagine that

It appears that at least for today, I can't be part of the solution because I am part of the problem. Seems someone outside my family circle just discovered that I can be a very cold hearted bitch with a very short fuse when you screw with someone I love.

Me? Cold hearted? Short fused? Never. Unless you cause my Son or my Dad pain. Then there WILL be hell to pay, and I will deliver it personally. Since my Dad is a big boy and able to take care of himself, you can reasonably assume that some ill informed mouth breathing twit has just discovered that Mama Bear never sleeps. The son may be 18, and quite surely thinks he knows everything, but one thing he does not know is when it's time to stop reasoning with someone and resort to necessary force. He got his first taste of this concept today, perhaps not a shining example of turn the other cheek, but he discovered that Mom still has the ability to finish something that someone else started.

And the other party? Well, they discovered that I am not impressed with someone who gets loud. Noise does not impress me, and I don't particularly like it. Certainly not when it is directed at me. I found the off button. Now we just have to see what the local constabulary thinks of the situation. Sometimes you just have to act, damn the consequences.

And lest you think the worst, no projectiles were loosed. Even I am not that hard headed.

Don't breathe

At least I am trying to keep from it. Today was an overall really suck ass day. BAD. The morning started off with a two hour drive to my current jobsite, where I am building two sets of custom steel gates for a customer. I wouldn't do this for just any customer, but these folks are long time clients, they pay well, and they treat me wonderfully.

Unfortunately, my drive down was marred badly by a truck driver who was either digging in the seat or floor for something, and crossed the yellow line about 100 yards in front of me. This is a two lane highway, so I went to the only place I could, the ditch. At 70 miles an hour. And it hurt, a LOT. I had both hands on the wheel, and was feathering the brakes for all I had. Didn't want to stomp on them and start skidding (but I was skidding anyway). I watched in absolute horror as the load of steel tubing I was carrying started shelling off the back of the truck right into the traffic behind me, and felt my gut drop when my welding skid (with my welder and plasma cutter) flipped out of the back of the truck as well. The ditch was ROUGH and everything in the truck was scrambled. The middle passenger side toolbox popped open, so I was spewing handtools as well. But I finally got stopped without rolling. Only because the truck is so heavy and low to the ground that it is almost impossible to turn over.

And the bastard didn't even stop. He left black lines on the pavement where he was trying to get his truck under control, and then he just drove the hell right off. The big truck behind me laid black marks too, trying to get stopped before hitting all the shit that came flying out of my truck, right at him. He got stopped and bailed out with a fire extinguisher. With all the dust, it looked like I was on fire, so I bailed out too. No fire, thank goodness. And this sweet trucker blocked the road and helped me load up all my shit. We picked up as many tools as we could find, but I scattered that stuff about 200 yards, and I am sure we didn't find all of it.

The truck is a bit bruised. It tore the air dam off the front, bent the bumper down and back, blew the bushings out of the sway bar on both sides, bent the right front rim and put a monster dent in the oil pan. But it still runs. The welder is ok, the plasma cutter is hurt, but I don't know how badly yet.

And I hurt, a lot. In several spots. I have a solid band of bruise across my hips, where the lap belt grabbed me. And I am pretty sure I have a cracked or broken rib on my right side, where the shoulder belt rides. Plenty of other aches and bruises, and I bet I find more tomorrow. At least the rib settled down once I wrapped it up nice and snug.

I just hope I can go to work tomorrow. Hell, I hope I can get out of bed. The longer I sit, the worse it is hurting. Not funny.