Trip08

Wow! We drove over two hundred miles today. Almost two hundred fifty.

Got to sleep to the sound of rain all night. I have to remind my Pacific Northwest brothers that's a treat. Took a walk in the morning mist. Cold and foggy. We walked on the birding boardwalk around the wetlands. At the time of its construction, this was the longest boardwalk in the world, constructed entirely out of recycled plastic. It wasn't as long this trip as it was last trip. Neither was the fishing pier. They had a hurricane in July.

Got to see the spoonbills, and snow geese. Got to see all the usual ocean shore suspects: pelicans, gulls, turnstones, sanderlings, willets, sandpipers, egrets. You know. And in the marsh, we got to hear a clapper rail.

I'm happy to report that the boat covers held. They never blew off yesterday. And they hold water just fine too. Two boat cover lakes on top of the Jeep in front of us.

We left Port Lavaca, drove north through Point Comfort, glanced off Houston, and came to rest right back by the water again at Sea Rim State Park. It's a parking lot campground, right on the water. We headed into our spot rather than backing in. Now we can sit in the front and look right out the big windshield across the dunes to the waves and water. The water is all of 100 feet away. Good wave noise.

I got to run on the beach today. It involved long sleeves and long pants, but it was a run on the beach.

Judy has been reading the park literature we got at the gate. They have mosquitoes here. We already knew that. We noticed the bug clouds forming as the sun went down. In their literature they're proud to announce they have sixty separate species of mosquito that inhabit this park. Wow! Guess we'll have to start a new list. I might need bigger binoculars. We accidentally popped a window open briefly a few minutes ago. Now Judy is busily killing sixty species of mosquitoes. She knows she only has to kill the females. The males don't bite. But since none of them are exhibitionists, she has to kill them all.

Sure glad we're not sleeping in a tent. There are four people in the 23 foot class C next to us tonight. Three adults, one kid, a great dane, and two other dogs. They're expecting three more adults and two more dogs to join them Saturday. The three more adults are supposed to sleep in tents. I couldn't sleep in a tent in this bug-storm. I'm guessing they end up with seven people and five dogs in the 23 footer. We're sure glad to have this nice tight motorhome.

Annie is a bug-killer. Whenever Buck saw or heard the fly swatter, he would run for cover. Aha! Another mystery. How could a big strong dog like Buck get negatively conditioned to the fly swatter? Any answers? Any speculation? Children? But Annie. Annie loves bugs. Every time she hears the fly-swatter smack, she comes running to see if something tasty will fall off the ceiling into her mouth. During a serious bug smacking event, like tonight, you can't smack the furniture or walls without smacking Annie at the same time, she is so anxious for her morsel.

Good bird news. I've been reviewing the park bird list, and they have a wren here we've never seen. It's called a sedge wren, and it's listed as abundant here, so this one will be a slam-dunk. After all, how hard could it be to find a bird that's listed as abundant?

It is warmer here. I turned the furnaces off for a while for the first time this trip. They've run a lot keeping us warm and comfortable.

Now Judy is roaming the motorhome with a sponge, cleaning all the bug smears off the walls.