A Toilet In The Road

Kemah, Texas
Only Edition
IF YOU CAN'T FIX IT WITH A HAMMER, YOU'VE GOT AN ELECTRICAL PROBLEM
Today’s adventure was not anything like I planned it to be. Several things caused delays that prevented or hurried some events I had planned to cover.

Bolivar Peninsula was the location for today’s planned adventure. To get there from Kemah, the closest way is to go through Galveston and take the Bolivar ferry over to Bolivar. In my past life the ferry would back traffic up for hours and vendors would come through the cars peddling all sorts of stuff.

Today the wait was two hours long and no vendors were about. However the powers that be had set up portacans in the esplanade for the waiting families to take care of necessities. The return trip was only an hour of sitting in the hot sun.

The ferries hold a lot of vehicles each, but only two were running. The trip across the Houston Ship Channel takes about twenty minutes and the ferries do not go slow.

The scenery along the way is very historic in places. As you leave Galveston, on your left will be a special park. It was an old quarantine station when I was a child. My dad took us over to it and we walked around looking at the primitive housing. It was like a South Seas movie set. The barracks were on stilts with verandas all around them and screen wire for the top half of the outside walls. Palm trees were in abundance. It would be nice to have some pictures from that time of my life. Now it is a dressed up family park.

The first thing noticed from the ferry is the destroyer escort permanently set in concrete for display. As you go a little farther along the submarine Cavalla becomes visible in its permanent spot. Both of these vessels can be toured and certain groups even have sleepovers in the vessels for kids. It has been many years since I was in either of them and the area around them looks like it has been cleaned up a lot.

Next is the Seawolf Park Pavilion and fishing pier. For a fee you can fish from the pier into around fifty feet deep water. Before the pier was put in, we used to anchor the boat there and catch all sorts of large fish like sharks and stingrays. That was a fun time in my life. In the right back ground you can see the concrete ship.
The concrete ship was the SS Selma. It was one of twelve built by the US government as an experiment. It developed bad leaks and had to be abandoned at that location. It was over 400 feet long. When I had power boats, I have been along side the Selma. Some fishermen used to get out onto the Selma to fish. Once I had the bow of my eighteen foot boat against the sand about midway along the Selma and the depth finder at the stern was reading 38 feet of water depth. That is a steep underwater cliff. It is very close to the ship channel.
Over on Bolivar is sooooo many things to visit that I ran out of time before I got to very much at all. Be forewarned that this report will continue tomorrow with a report on Ft. Travis.

Meanwhile, the Bolivar or North Jetty that protects the Houston Ship Channel can be seen in the next picture. It is the long line of very large granite blocks piled in a scientific manner, that extends way out to sea. It was built in the 1890’s by the Corp of Engineers to protect the ship channel from silting from the alongshore current bring sand and silt into the channel. It extends about five miles out into the Gulf of Mexico. There used to be a paved walking surface that went out two miles. The end of the walking surface has had my presence at night and it feels odd to be that far from land in the dark. Additionally under bad conditions I have seen waves breaking clear over the walking surface. A place where extreme caution is required. In this picture, the low brown strip running left to right is the jetty and it continues on to the right out of sight.

Another point of interest is the Bolivar light house. It was built in 1872 and used until 1933. It was replaced by the light house at the end of the South or Galveston Jetty. (This is a whole other story in itself) Now the Bolivar light house is privately owned. According to records, several times folks have taken shelter in the light house during bad storms and watched the area get blown/washed away. The nominal elevation of this whole place is around three feet to five feet, so storms can really wreck the place.
These topics have good coverage of details when a search of the Internet is done. Copying and pasting the individual information was my first thought. The first pasting came out to seven pages. My decision was to let the reader research any interesting topic on their own. This is blogging not booking and I am at page five now.

So you get to wait until tomorrow for the part of today’s trip to Ft. Travis and the pictures of that adventure and some other things that happened. The pictures from that trip still have to be sorted and gotten ready for publishing. WOW for a messed up time table I certainly came close to having tooooo much fun.TheOFM

Walking The Planks

Kemah, Texas
Morning Edition
A MOUSE TRAP PLACED ON TOP OF YOUR ALARM CLOCK WILL PREVENT YOU FROM ROLLING OVER AND GOING BACK TO SLEEP AFTER YOU HIT THE SNOOZE BUTTON

After the mouse trap bit me, a trip to Bay Area Park for some peaceful scenery seemed appropriate. The boardwalk there was vacant so the opportunity to show my readers about it was taken. The entry is covered by trees to make a dramatic start.

As you walk out to the gazebos you are surrounded by swampy grass and water. The water hyacinths have really taken over in the last couple of weeks. As you approach the first gazebo you can see across a wide part of Armand Bayou at a bend. Later in the day there will be lots of yakkers out in this area. It was as hazy as it looks in this picture. Hot and humid and hazy.

Among the swamp grasses is morning glory vines. The blooms are rather nice in the morning light don’t you think. The fragrances were very pleasant from all the different swamp blossoms in among the grasses,

After leaving the boardwalk, my path continued on around to the launch area. Just before the launch area was this wooded picnic area that has been my lunch spot several times in the past. Today it was already 83 degrees at 8 am so this spot is a little warm now.

As my walk approached where the truck was parked, the kid playground area yielded this nice picture.
At least two family groups were setting up for big feeds and fun. The kids of all sizes were aver at the ball fields having a rip roaring good time .

At the launch site there was a couple heading out to play with the wild life like birds, turtles and hopefully not the alligators. The water is actually a dirty green/ brown and not very appealing for me to play in. They looked and sounded like they were about to have a lot of fun.

Evening Edition

This afternoon and evening the threatening weather kept me close to home. If the traffic on the road in front of the campground is any indication, then every place for fun was very crowded. The loud traffic indicates that all of the Houston area was out running around alllllllll afternoon. A few emails and a small pastel painting and a short nap took care of the afternoon and early evening. Tomorrow all the folks will be back in the work environment and I wil try to have tooooo much fun for them and me. The OFM

A Nice Morning

Kemah, Texas
Afternoon Edition
AVOID CUTTING YOURSELF WHEN SLICING VEGETABLES BY GETTING SOMEONE ELSE TO HOLD THE VEGETABLE.
Early this morning around 4 am, a violent thunderstorm woke me with the trailer rocking and horrible rain pounding the sides of the trailer. Ok no need to get up early in that type of weather, so back to sleep until late. By then the sun was out and it was warm and humid. Yesterday a park in League City caught my attention, so this morning was explore the park morning. The park is very nice and once there I recalled visiting it before.

The old trees have seen a lot of history and I wish I could speak tree to hear their stories. The scars bear witness to many children having fun here. A very peaceful place it was this morning and reasonably cool up under the trees. An inviting spot like this one can be one heck of a demotivator.

The red caboose is a concession stand during events like the concert tonight. Just around to the right and behind me is a very elaborate playground. Look into the background of this picture to see some younger folks having a great basketball game. The guys are playing very hardcore basketball with everything they have. However it is very friendly when the play stops.
A very nice attraction I do not recall from when I was here a long while back is the pond. A beautifully done pond with a small bridge, water lilies in bloom and a waterfall fountain. A very relaxing scene.
In the pond are turtles in abundance. When you cross the bridge many of them come swimming in a hurry and pause waiting for the handouts they normally get. Here is a picture of five of them that are enjoying the hectic activity of pond life.

Some railroad tracks that are seldom used run near the park and across the tracks are some tourist trap stores being set up. It could be a very attractive area is things go well. Among the store fronts are two statues.
The first is a wrangler in full gallop.

The second is near the front where a longhorn steer is keeping a close eye on the happenings.
About 10:30 am a light rain started, so I retreated to a building and tried out their bench on the front porch. It was great. However when the rain stopped, the temperature went up and the humidity became very bad so I headed home.

While fixing my lunch of Cole slaw with honey mustard dressing, okra and shrimp, the rains hit again. This is getting tiresome with the trails and golf courses all wet and the wind keeping me out of the yak. Still beats the best day in a cubical. As I am about to publish this entry the thunder and clouds look like the end of the world is approaching.

Late Evening Edition

The ugly weather did not hit here, but the strong winds did. No damage was evident anywhere so we came out well. The two highlites of the evening were a walk down to Home Depot to get out of the house and popping a bag of popcorn in the microwave. The early bedtime planned for tonight should give me a jump start on having toooo much fun tomorrow.TheOFM

Old Memories

Kemah, Texas
Laundry is exciting isn’t it? An adventure also, right? Any hoot, that was the big event for this morning. Then of course vacuuming my one hundred sixty eight feet of mansion added a lot to the experience. And after piddling around like a lazy bum for a good while, the clothes were actually put away into their proper storage locations. Since I have no partner in this home, the entire two feet of clothes rod is for my stuff. WOW.

Since the morning had been so overwhelmingly exciting, this afternoon had to be a little calmer. Away down memory lane I went in the truck. Much of my very early memories were based in the area of the Galveston South Jetty where the Houston Ship Channel enters the land from the Gulf of Mexico through a narrow strip of water. In this picture looking across the entry, one can see the other side of the narrow channel. Click on it and it will get very large so the other side is visible between the ships parked there awaiting their turn at the docks fifty miles away in Houston.

As docking space frees up, the ships up anchor and start into the ship channel. The out going ship passes the incoming ship with only a few feet to spare. The best thing to do if you are in the area where two ships are passing each other in a small boat of under thirty feet is turn and run as fast as you can the other way.

When my dad took me down to this point about a million years ago, remnants of the old bunkers, machine gun pits and artillery spots were still in evidence. Several times we wandered around in the old fort structures. Now they have been all covered or removed and only this sign to talk about the history of the area. Across the ship channel is another old fort that is being slightly preserved.

Now to go to the beach it costs $8. A lot of the places we camped overnight for fishing is closed to folks. Many new vacation resorts are being built and condos also. All in all it is very disappointing how badly the city/county authorities have let this area go to waste. At one time it was a great area for families to enjoy time together. Now it is not so nice.

Arrival back home was delayed a little by some more disappointing sight seeing of memory lane places of which I have chosen to not show pictures. It will stay in my memory as it was when the areas were family friendly and free.

Since I was late getting back and lazy beyond belief, the cute, good Mexican Restaurant in League City got my business tonight.

The food is good and the service excellent. It is at the intersection of hwy. 3 and hwy. 518.
Now I am going to get myself belly up and dream of trying to have tooooo much fun tomorrow. TheOFM.

Lightning Rules

Kemah, Texas
Beautiful weather greeted our start of the round of golf today. Before we got very far into the course, the rain started. Then lightning became a real issue. After sitting in the shelter of a building on the course for quite a while, having lightning strikes near us the vote was to leave at the first chance. Finally a break in the heavy rain and away we went. At one point the green behind our shelter had water running off it about 2 inches deep.

Wally treated us to hotdogs and drinks. Thank you very much Wally. After a little conversation the weather let up some more and we scattered for the hills. In this picture are three golfers and me. It is left to right Bob, Bill, TheOFM and Wally. These are some very neat folks to play golf with. We will be back next week to use our rainout passes for another try at hitting little white or yellow golf balls to the place intended.

After I left the course, Academy sports store was the next stop. The special long sleeve shirt I wanted to look at was in stock. OK I thought. A quick check of the price tag and a big NEVER MIND. No wonder those shirts are good. A long sleeve cheap worn thrift shop white dress shirt will have to do for me when out fishing or yakking.

On the way home, the roads were flooding at three different places due to the excessively heavy rain. My high road clearance truck was wonderful to be driving. The campground had not received any rain when I got home. A few minutes later the rain hit with a vengeance, but only for about thirty minutes. This evening it has been less hot and the trailer even got an airing out.

Tomorrow is an unknown as to what activity will happen. Be assured that a severe effort will be made to have tooooo much fun. TheOFM

Little White Balls

Kemah, Texas
For those who like to see waterfalls, check out the pictures in the site below
http://www.bigbendchat.com/portal/forum/other-stuff/slumming-around-pennsylvania-t6074.0.html;topicseen

This morning was spent helping the owner of the campground get the cable fixed to the new sites where I am located. It turned out the leads at the distribution box were incorrectly labeled. Once we put the right cable to the right place we had cable for the new sites. But it was past noon and I was starving. Like any good full timer, I had lunch and took a nap.

In order to be prepared for tomorrows golf game, my modified driver needed to be tried out for proper play. When I got to the practice range there was my friend Claude from a couple of days ago. His ability is very good and we spent until almost dark working on his grip, turn and short game. He is a very quick study. My hitting of the modified club showed my limited ability, but the club performed very well. Any trouble with finding the fairway will be my fault.

So tomorrow the golf course will receive a lot of my time trying to have tooooo much fun. TheOFM

The Squawking Wheel

Kemah, Texas
What's the difference between The Old Fat Man and a catfish?

One is ugly, has a big belly and smells bad...

And the other one's a fish.

This morning started with a big nasty thunder storm that had the area wet, hot and rocking in the wind. Man o Man it was nasty. Right before it hit, I tightened the stabilizing jacks on the trailer and that proved to be a good thing.

This evening I sent to a lot of folks an email about a man in New Mexico who had been killed and partially eaten by a mountain lion. Those areas I like to wander are wild like that. The problem is I run in to a lot of fools who think wild animals like alligators, bears and mountain lions will not mess with humans. Most are fortunate enough to not get eliminated from the gene pool, but some get to enjoy the stupidity of their ways. It is guaranteed that messing with alligators, mountain lions, bears, sharks, sting rays or most wild animals will NOT give you a day of having tooooo much fun.

The good part of the storms is that I took the time to trim the golf club that needed trimming. The campground has a small shop that they graciously allowed me to use for re-gripping that club. The chore was easily accomplished and tomorrow the club will be ready to bring the course to it’s knees. Sure, right, ok, believe that and I want to sell you a boat.

Now for the big excitement. My truck has occasionally been making a funny sound on turns. Kind of a loud SCROANCH. Everything works well, but the weird noise bothered me. Checking of the normal stuff has been done at least three times and I found nothing visible. An auto shop was recommended to me by the owners of the campground. Off I went.

Naturally when I tried to get the truck to sound off for the mechanic, nothing. The mechanic took it out for a spin without me, then put it up on the rack. In less than two minutes he motioned me over to see. You could grab the right front wheel and wiggle it back and forth at least 1 ½ inches. PANIC AND DESPAIR ON MY PART. If this wheel came off while towing or not towing. I could have hurt or killed an innocent person.

The wheel bearing assembly was replaced. There had been no weird tire wear or pulling of the steering or anything but the noise. Thank GOD I finally took the problem to someone who could figure it out and repair it. This truck must have had a problem from the day I purchased it with 56,000 miles on it, because it drives very different and very well and tracks like on rails now. The price was $450 for the part and $150 for the labor. Add the Texas rape tax for a drive out of $660. But now the truck is safe and likely not to hurt anyone. Here is the place in League City, Texas who treated me straight and no nonsense, met the price quoted, the time schedule quoted and delivered an exceeding pleasant experience.
First the business front



Frank at the front counter who provided excellent service and helped me calm down that the wheel would not likely have just come off, but wobbled enough for me to stop driving and get it fixed.


Jack who did the diagnostics and repairs and answered my stupid and endless questions like I was being sensible.
And importantly for my readers who happen through League City Texas, this is the business card for this business.


This was not a great day of to much fun, but it relieves my mind so tomorrow I can relax and eagerly chase having tooooo much fun. The OFM

New Recreational Housing

Kemah, Texas
If I could live off all my body fat only, then I could go forty days without buying expensive groceries. That would save a couple of hundred dollars certainly. This wonderfully interesting tidbit was the result of an item on the internet the other day.

Grocery shopping this morning reminded me of the fact that the “fat” part of my stage name is not a joke. A little over forty dollars for a weeks worth of groceries for just me. Less than a year ago it was normally about 28-29 dollars. After the groceries were put away and the trash taken out, a trip to the camp ground office was in order. My mail had come in and my new special housing had arrived. In the time I have been not working, there have been a few places I wanted to visit in depth that did not allow Rvs. Now I have my new Recreational House so I can spend some time at these special locations.

One place is Enchanted Rock State Park. Only tent camping is allowed there. You are not allowed to sleep in vehicles at all. All my life I have wanted to be on top of one of the peaks on a clear no moon night. Now I will be able to full fill that dream.

This afternoon I went down to Bayou Golf Club in Texas City to practice before the big game on Thursday with a bunch of old cronies. They have a good course with very good prices if you go at the right times.

As lucky as I am, while checking in a very nice fellow and I decided to play together. Claude turned out to be a wonderful gentleman and a fantastic golf partner. We had lots of fun on the course and even hit some very good shots. Of course Claude hit the largest share of great shots. But I made the biggest divots.

Walking the course ended up being very tiring for me. My guess is that Claude stampeded a herd of buffalo over my body about the fifteenth hole. My body is SORE. Apparently I need to play more golf while carrying my clubs more often. After all it is only about six miles to walk a golf course. My score is unknown since Claude and I together could not count that high and ran out of counting ability by the thirteenth hole.
No matter any silly score or my body pain, I believe that I achieved having tooooo much fun today. TheOFM

Morning Riding

Kemah, Texas
Morning Edition
The alarm clock sounded off and nearly got killed at the stupid time of 6:30 am. However, if a bike ride is planned in this heat, early is the only way to survive. And it is a guarantee that that was not to early for an old fat man to be on a bike in this heat.

The Armand Bayou Hike and Bike Trail was the target of the ride. Parking at Bay Area Park again seemed like a good thing. There are several forums I read often and smash and grab at remote parking locations seems to be a serious threat in the area now. The Bay Area Park has some security and lots of folks who might call police if they see a crook in action.

As I set off on the paved section of path, my bike and body seemed to be in good working order. After I crossed Bay Area blvd the path turned to crushed rock, but was still decent to ride on. The intermittent shade from the trees was very pleasant. Every now and then there would be a little bridge to cross some drainage ditch. This one provided a good spot to stop and slug down some water in the shade.

On down a ways the trail crosses some bayous. Typical of the low swampy area here, they are dirty and sluggish. Personally I prefer not to play in them, but a lot of folks do go paddling in them. In this picture on the right is some grape vines that grow wild in this part of Texas. They are good for jellies and wine. Harvesting them is a nasty dirty sticky job, but the flavor is excellent.

The heat was getting to me a little so I turned around earlier than the trail did. The ride back was hot and sweaty. But reasonably ok for this weather.
It was a wise choice to cut the ride short at ten miles. By the time I had the truck loaded, I was pooped out. For my buddy Kevin in Washington, ten miles is a warm up, but for the old fat man it is a ride, especially at 92 degrees and 84% humidity.

Now I am home in the A/C getting ready to start lunch of home made last night veggie stew and some raw vegetables.
Go Play Safely.

Evening Edition
A wonderful afternoon and evening was spent with old friends Wally and Gene. It has been many years since I got to visit with these folks and tonight was better than I could have dreamed.
We conversed on subjects of various types and old times from when I first met them in Oct. 1971. OH MY that is over thirty six years ago. These are incredibly nice folks to know and have for friends. It is completely impossible for me to have had a more pleasant evening than I had tonight with these old friends.

Today will be difficult to beat for having tooooo much fun. TheOFM

Hoppity Hop In The Morning

Kemah, Texas

This morning started with a wonderful event. Breakfast with old friend Charlie and his granddaughter. They make quite a pair to start the day with. The place for breakfast is called Skippers and is right across the street from the campground.

The campground manager knows the owner and history behind the place. Every thing down here in Kemah seems to have a special history of some sort.
After breakfast lovely nice granddaughter had to show me her handiwork. She and OF Charlie had put together a robotic rabbit. That sucker ran around on the sidewalk like it knew what to do. She showed me the multitude of adjustments that you could make to how the rabbit operates. It was a very cute project. Here is the two heroes of the morning showing off the mechanical rabbit.


Evening Edition
The evening storms are arriving right on schedule. Maybe something will change soon to allow evening activities outdoors for a change. Rain does not stop me but the lightning does. Here are two pictures of the nasty clouds. Pointy bottom clouds always get me excited.


About eleven this morning, the printer was in the process of being repaired when a migraine hit with vigor. That shut me down for a few hours until my vision came back and just a screaming headache was left to endure.

When functioning was possible again, the new to me path along Red Bluff road was calling. It is about fifteen minutes from home without much traffic to fight. The parking lot is nicely paved with portacans for restroom facilities. There is even a drinking fountain. The facilities are part of a grant from the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. The sign shows what is available along the trail.
In the background you can see the crushed rock trail running among the trees. The trail runs for miles and miles through the trees. These pictures are just around the main parking area. This trail ties into the one I reported on recently from the Bay Area Park on Bay Area Blvd. The docks for fishing and boat launching are very nice. I believe a person could launch paddling boats there very nicely. You will have to portage them about fifty yards to the water. The launch dock is on the right and fishing dock on the left. This is looking down stream.

On the south side of the area is the picnic tables and a fishing dock with hand rails. This is a nice area for lunch in cooler weather. It was 96 degrees and 80+% humidity, otherwise known as miserable.

Of course on the Texas coast is always hazards to be cautioned about. This sign explains the proper way to handle alligators that live in the bayou. Mostly just stay away from them. Alligators and I have had toooooooooo many encounters and even a small three foot gator will win 110% of the time.
If you see an alligator on its feet like in the bottom picture, you are way too close. Get out of there,NOW.

Finally I headed along the trail for some physical and mental therapy. The trees were thinner along the highway so the little breeze could come through to help cool the body. However it was not near enough cooling for my fat body, so I cut the walk short to about two miles. The humidity prevents your sweat from evaporating to cool you.


As I write this portion of the blog the storms are passing to the west and the rocking of the trailer has diminished considerably. Hopefully tomorrow I will be able to get out and chase having tooooo much fun. The OFM

New Opportunities For Funnnnnnn

Kemah, Texas
Searching for a different RV took most of the morning. PPLMotorhomes used RV lot was the destination on the other side of Houston. The trip turned out to be forty miles one way from Kemah. Lots of traffic to keep you company also. Negative information was all that came out of the visit. Any type of self propelled RV is wrong for me. The larger trailers are definitely not worth the fuel cost. Probably a fifth wheel will be the next home for me somewhere in the 27 to 30 foot range. Then again maybe this one I am in will do for a long time also. See how decisive I am.

On the way home I noticed a new to me biking trail and two new to me places to put in the yak on one of the bayous, sometimes called alligator homes, around here. After fixing and eating lunch, there were some emails and a phone call to return. As I was finishing the correspondence, a flash of lightning and a loud crash of thunder caused me to jump. The typical lately afternoon thunderstorm was headed our way.

Yesterdays storm knocked out a lot of electrical stuff on the west side of Houston. The crews were still out putting it back together when I was over at the RV dealers place.

A ride around the area for adventure seemed like the thing to do instead of stand out on a golf course being a lightning rod. One of the things happening in a neighborhood northeast of here is swamp reclamation efforts. This next picture is of a spot that just six years ago was fundamentally a muddy ditch. The replanting of grasses and control of access has brought it back to a viable nursery area for animals and aquatic type critters.
This is what I consider progress.

Down in one of the neighborhoods was this pocket park. It might not be possible for me to even find it again. Turned around and lost describes my situation when I ran across it. The parking lot had only one slot open when I arrived. The beach area is just past the rocks. Look carefully and you can see a couple of ships in the Houston ship channel. The channel is about one-third of the way across the bay. It is a big bay for certain.

When I finally found my way out of the housing areas, I headed south on highway 146 toward home. Did not happen as planned!!!!! A Whataburger ambushed me with the enticement of a chocolate malt. As I went in, I noticed a truck with a couple of yaks in it with fishing rods. When I went out, I just naturally had to examine them closely to see what I could learn. After carefully examining them, the owners and I needed to talk. Being as bashful as I am I marched myself right back inside to try to spot the owner. It was easy. He was used to folks wanting to ask questions and had been watching me through the windows. When I walked in he waved to me to come sit down with him and his partner. WOW this is the way folks need to be friendly isn’t it.
Oscar and Joe are avid fishermen and had paddled in to escape the lightening and wind. We sat there and talked boats, fun, fishing, yaking and all sort of important stuff. They had done well today and were going out shark fishing tomorrow near Galveston. They were planning to go back out today, so I followed them to the boat ramp I did not know about.
Here is Oscar on the left and Joe on the right.
Oscar is now or used to be on a sponsered Yak fishing team.

As it turned out the weather reformed somewhat ugly and they decided to just go on home. A very wise decision in my opinion.

The ramp is only a mile from my home and an excellent launching point. You can see the nice boat ramps in this picture and they are in a very protected area. The bridge in the picture is the hwy. 146 bridge over the Clear Lake Channel out into Galveston Bay seen in the park picture.

For those folks who would like to see some fresh views of the Galveston to Freeport coast, I refer you to this link that was posted today. Things have changed to the point that I have no idea where most of the pictures were taken. http://www.texaskayakfisherman.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=949846&sid=bc44cde273b4d33e78b295ea4d9fd7ce#949846

Talking with the fishermen was pretty close to having tooooo much fun.TheOFM

A New Blog Style

Kemah, Texas
3:00 pm
Today marks a change in the publishing of this blog. Publishing the last thing at night has become a chore that gets in the way of adventures, so the blog publishing has to change. After discussing this with other bloggers, it became apparent that the blog needs to publish between adventures instead of having the adventures fit between publishing time of the blog. The new format will be to publish as the adventures complete. So the new postings can happen at any time of the day or night. This will be the first mid-day publishing.

Bay Area Park is a good location for paddling or biking or jogging. They have lots of room and parking near restrooms that are usually adequately clean. It was the site chosen this morning for a bike ride. As it turned out, the weather was hot and humid so the ride was only five miles.
This is the sign that explains about Armand Bayou. This is the bayou where I dumped a canoe right next to a “Do Not Feed The Alligators” sign several years ago.


My parking spot was down near the board walk for folks to go into the swamp for critter watching. You can see the shade shelters in the background and the water to the left if you click on the picture. There are lots and lots of picnic tables scattered around in the shade of some wonderful old trees.

Here is the nature trail area and it also has gazebos and benches for use. The cost of entry to this wonderful park is FREE.
The paddle boat launch area is well done with good parking. It is to the right in the picture. There is a long shoreline where you can bring your paddle boat right up to your picnic spot. No Motor powered boats are not allowed.


From the bike path, I took this next shot looking downstream from the launch point. The bayou runs south for a few miles and north for a lot more miles. Yes there are small and large alligators in the bayou.

There are a few bike paths in the area. This one from Bay Area Park leaves the park and runs alongside the roads full of traffic. This particular loop is about ten miles but only about six miles is without road crossings. In my previous life, I only ran back and forth on the safer part. There are no hills but the wind is usually making you very glad to have low gears on your chariot. As you can see, the path is somewhat close to the road.

By the time I got back to the truck, it was well past being tooooo much fun. Future events will need to start earlier than 10:30 am. The kayak club was finishing as I started my ride. The truck has an excellent A/C thank goodness.
Until the next time, go have tooooo much fun. TheOFM