Sun Came Out

The sun came out this afternoon and it warmed up to 70, so I took a couple of photos.

This is the boat docks looking up to the old clubhouse.

The boat dock and fishing pier. The trees in background is an island. The river changed coarse after hurricane Bertha years ago and the docks are now on a channel.

Our site, with the clubhouse in the background, right now no one is beside us for several sites. We are on an corner space. In fact, there aren't that many in the park right now, there are about 100 sites with few permanent mobile homes.
They are having Christmas dinner and small gift exchange, so we went to WalMart to get a few things for it, Stouffer's Mac n Cheese.

The maintenance crew are very nice, asked if we needed anything to extend our sewer hose. We visited some later and he told us alittle about the island, it is a wildlife sanctuary, closed to public. There are supposed to be ocelots over there.
We then meet a neighbor to the park, his dock is next to the parks and usually is full of brown pelicans. He is a WWII veteran, wounded in Okinawa and has been in a wheelchair for 60 plus years, his is 82.
So, we're getting to know the people around here. The manager Carol is very nice and helpful. We've gone up to the local bar and grill and had lunch, they have great hamburgers and BLT's.
Stay warm back home! It's to be in the 80's here the next couple of days.

All moved in

Sat. we checked out a few of the birding areas that were in Raymondville area, they didn't pan out very well since we didn't feel comfortable driving on some of the roads or walking who knows how far til we were at the site. We did see birds in a field across from the WLR,a field of snow geese and sandhill cranes. So not a complete loss, and we saved a turtle crossing the road. We got moved to our long term space this morning. It turned windy and wet and cold this morning and it is not Kens favorite thing to drive in the wind, but we had only 40 miles to go.
I'll post photos of our park when it is nicer weather for me to take photos.

Chasing Butterflies again

We started our birding today while learning the area. We were near Santa Ana NWR so we stopped to check it out. We saw our first Green Jays at their feeding station. We walked one trail and we saw several Zebra Heliconians we've seen them at local butterfly houses but never in the wild. Ken didn't bring a camera and we didn't bring any binoculars or have mosquitoes repellent on so one trail was it. We did stop at their butterfly garden and I tried to get photos of some butterflies but they turned out blurry. I think we saw Sickle-winged Skipper and a Little Yellow and Brown Longtail. They are to have 300 butterfly species here, but I hear it is nearly the end of their butterfly season.

We also drove out to Laguna Atascosa NWR, we didn't spend much time there as it was after 3. From there, we went and reserved our space for a couple of months at Hummingbird Cove RV park, we'll move in Sunday. We did look at another park that is not in the congested area and rent was twice as much so that clinched the deal for Hummingbird Cove. There are more than 500 parks in the area, and like AZ they all have park models. So we'll see how we like being away from all the action.

In the Rio Valley

Here's some pretty flowers to brighten your day, I took them at the Visitor's Center in Rockport, TX. We spent Weds. nite in Sinton, TX 25 miles north of Rockport. We left this morning in the fog for the Rio Grande Valley area, stopping for a couple nites in Raymondville till we find a spot for a couple of months. We arrived around noon so we looked around some today, Ken had looked at a few on the internet so we checked them out. We may have found the perfect place for us, quiet, small, friendly and close to the Wildlife Refuge but no McDonalds or Wal Mart for 20 miles. It is inexpensive and spaces are nice. On the drive out I spotted a field with Sandhill Cranes. We may not spent our 3 nites here next to the noisy road. It was a very balmy 80 degrees and windy today, and I hear wind is common around here.

Lake Charles, LA

We had a few things to do today, mail a couple of packages and Ken wanted to check out a letter he received from SS so he went to the SS office and waited for 1 hour and 30 mins but he got it straightened out. While he was at the SS office I went to the Town Hall and took in Tasha Tudor exhibit. She was an illustrator, in fact did The Night Before Christmas by Clement Moore. She passed away June 08 at the age of 92.
We went down to the beach and took a couple of pictures and had lunch at Steamboat Bill's, Ken likes their chicken breast dinner, I usually get the special which was Shrimp Creole today, I love their Louisiana rolls.
I was hoping to see the Port area but didn't get there or to the fancy home section of town.
It was 70 degrees most of the day but by 4 the temp dropped to 50 with a few sprinkles. We feed the squirrels this morning, and I took their portraits.
Tomorrow we hit the road and travel west how far I don't know.

Lacassine Refuge

Here are my photos from our visit to the Refuge today. It was 70 degrees and as the day went on it got breezy.

Relaxing Sat.

We had a relaxing Sat. took a walk on a trail, found a BBQ restaurant and had lunch then took a drive to Lacassine Refuge. We found it filled with water birds, Ken didn't have his big lens so we are going back tomorrow. It is a beautiful spot, so birding photos tomorrow.
Here are a few photos I took here at Sam Houston Jones State Park. There are a couple of very tame deer, they came right up to our car. Pic from our river walk.

The beautiful lob lolly pines at the campsite entrance.

They have several trails thru out the park, some geese, and muscovy ducks they will walk up to you looking for food. We didn't see much on our walk today just a few holly trees, pines, oaks, and cypress trees.