Part two

Now we've been at Goose Island for a week or so. Had some cool rainy weather. Had some warm sunny weather. Got too cold and windy on the bayfront, so we moved into the oak forest. Perfectly still back here and feels much warmer without the wind chill. We figure we'll head farther south when we're through exploring up here. Can't tell when that will be. Every couple of days we sign up for a couple more days. The weather is much too nice to move now. We may have to hope for some rainy crummy weather soon.

Seen lots of cool stuff. Lots of birds: some new to us. Big birds like whoopers. Favorites like pelicans. Exotic ones like roseate spoonbills. Cool ones like harrier hawks. Goofy ones like wild turkeys. We've been in the middle of a pack of javelinas, and seen lots of deer and raccoons. We had a six armadillo day. We met a nice lady from England who guides birding treks all over the world. We saw gas for $1.16 a gallon.

Found a great restaurant called the boiling pot. They come to your table, cover it with butcher paper, tie bibs around your neck, and leave a roll of paper towels. Then they bring your boiled dinner of king crab, snow crab, blue crab, whole shrimp, slices of spicy cajun sausage, corn on the cob pieces, and potatoes, dump it in the middle of the table, hand you each a wooden mallet, and leave. (They leave small loaves of bread, butter, and a cup of melted butter for each of us for the crab.) There are condiments like cocktail sauce for the shrimp, but no place to put them except to squirt a pile on the table. What fun! What great food!

Both pets are eating a well balance diet. Judy feeds them at the same time. The cat eats all the cat food he wants, then switches over to the dog food. The dog thinks the cat food tastes really great, so always saves room.

We might have to change the cat's name. We've been calling him filbert in reference to apparent brain size, but we may have to switch to fat albert. He is really packing it on. And he is so limp. Know how when you come through the door with both arms loaded with groceries, and the cat is in the way, and you push him out of the way with your foot? It doesn't work with this cat. He doesn't get the hint and leap out of the way. As soon as your foot hits him, he just falls on the floor. Then to get the door open the rest of the way, or make room to close it, you end up driving him around the floor with your foot until you get him where you want him.

Every night, in the middle of the night, if you get up to pee, the cat is right there with you, falling on your feet and purring and making it difficult to walk. He really is great company. We're glad we brought him. Today we took the puppy with us all day in the car and took the cat too. He just rides along, sleeps a lot, says hello when you come back to the car, and doesn't cause any trouble at all.

This is day eleven with no racquet ball. We went to the athletic club in Corpus Christi. They would be glad to sell us a short-term membership. They have racquetball courts, but no challenge nights, and no shuttle. Nothing I can step into to find some immediate competetive games.

Now we have a three-quarter waxing moon. Crummy for stargazing. Perfect for moonlit evening walks through the oak forest: well lit with clear moonshadows and lots of great gnarled oak tree silhouettes against the sky.

We found a private boat for a birding trip. Captain Sally will take just the two of us out to remote undisturbed places so we can see all the birds we want. Looking forward to that.

OOPS! Got up this morning to heavy fog. Waited for it to burn off. Met Sally at the boat ramp at one pm. Still soup. No birding today. Maybe tomorrow. Can't recall what we did the rest of the day, but we must have enjoyed it. But tonight, we had the spookiest moonlight walk. Still very foggy, but not very deep, so it was darker, but we still had enough moonlight to see by. The gnarly oak silhouettes got stranger. We found ourseves saying things like "Do those two lights in the distance look like giant cat eyes?" and "Don't go out onto the moors at night." and "Whatever you do, don't leave the road."

We stayed on the road. Walked all the way out to the bayside sites and back. Disturbed lots of creatures in the dark as we walked by. They croaked and groaned and complained and scuttled and flapped and clucked and splashed as appropriate.

We get the puppy so tired at night after playing all day long and long walks in the evening, that if we don't go to bed in time, she gets so tired she jumps up into her crate, falls asleep, and starts snoring. Way cute.

Went seafood in the motorhome tonight. Crab legs, lobster tail, steak, baked potato, and a glass of wine. Camping is not like it used to be.

Found a nice house for sale on the water in Key Allegro, a nicer section of Fulton. We pulled up in front. Judy guessed the price at one million-five. Knowing things are a little depressed around here, I guessed the price at under a million. We walked around it and looked in the windows. Large rooms. Lots of glass. Small lot. The large deck on the rear fronts right on the water. A cement bulkhead. A person could catch flounder for dinner right from the deck. Great view of the bay. The bay looks like the ocean, except there are no swells. It is so large, you can see islands and boats, but you can't really see the other side. Two hundred seventy-nine thousand.