Adventure Location: Rockport, TX
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The Teams did not get rolled yet. We are giving it another try this morning. There was a couple of things that had to be handled and when the way was clear it was too late to roll. We definitely need a new location for trying to have tooooo much fun.
UPDATE:1325
Rainy mess on the roads. Made it to Sabinal TX and having lunch. Traffic fairly light.
Final Update
Corpus Christi in morning
pic
Del Rio in afternoon
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| It is called SUNSHINE |
Tells the whole story of why!
Adventure Location: Rockport, TX
Adventure Report Date: 1/29/2019
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It is time again for “THE QUESTION” that causes the OFM lots of misery each time he moves on.
Where are you going? Remember we are talking about RVers who usually have a few years under their belts. Here is what the conversation usually goes like.
Q. Where are you going?
A. Westerly in general.
Q. But where.
A. Just towards western Texas/New Mexico.
Q. You HAVE to know where you will stop!
A. Nope. The Teams just roll and stop when we get there.
Q. Get where?
A. Where we chose to stop.
Sometimes the conversation is more elaborate but is still essentially the same. By now they think the OFM is just being a smartass. It is impossible for most folks to understand that a boondocker capable rig does not have to have an exact plan to just roll on. Never in 12 years of Rving full time has this type of conversation come out well.
If we just say some location like XXXXX, Texas, then they try to pin us to an exact date we will get there. Why can’t we just be allowed to meander westerly? On top of that since the blog tracks us, if we don’t happen to go to XXXXX they all too often get upset we did not go there.
Q. “well then where do you have reservations?”
A. We don’t have reservations.
Q. “How do you know there will be a place for you?”
A. we don’t.
And the horrible circle of questions goes onward.
Now here is the question for our readers. How do you handle these situations? They are not good ways of trying to have tooooo much fun.
Adventure Location: Rockport, TX
Adventure Report Date: 1/28/2019
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ARRRGH the pirates have landed at the Rockport Beach Park and are doing major ship repairs.
Perhaps this is why the gunboats were out and about the other day. Pirate protection services?
It was a busy day of putting ourselves together for rolling Wednesday morning. While checking the Castle’s tires, the tire air pressure gage failed. A new one was purchased at Walmart and the checking was continued. All five tires on the Castle need topping off tomorrow. A few other get ready chores will be done so lift off will got smoothly.
The days activities left the OFM HUNGRY come supper time. He opened the refrigerator and composed this melody of wonder eating.
Long green beans and asparagus spears with cauliflower chunks were microwaved to be a little bit crisp. Then the cheddar triple sharp shredded cheese was sprinkled on top for another few seconds of microwave activity. WOW was it good.
Having excellent food for supper is a great way to finish a day of trying to have tooooo much fun.
Adventure Location: Port Aransas Jetty, TX
Adventure Report Date: 1/27/2019
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The Port Aransas Jetty sustained damage from Hurricane Harvey. The OFM decided to take time to check for how much and how bad the damage was for the fishermen. It turned out to be a different day that he thought it would be.
The sand parking area has changed a huge amount. There is shallow lakes where we used to park and new semi-soft sand places to drive to get to the area we used to fish before the hurricane. We forgot to take a picture to show this minor inconvenience because things were happening in the channel when we arrived.
This first picture is from the jetty looking out to sea and shows how big pieces of the walkway are tilted and broken from the hurricane. It also shows a ship on its way out to sea.
When we stepped onto the jetty that ship was right across from the Teams. It had Coast Guard gun boats escorting it out to sea. The gun boats were very active in circling and running around protecting the ship. It was quite a show. Here is one of the gun boats and you can see one of the machine guns forward on the boat.
In just a few minutes all the excitement was over and the OFM crawled out from behind the big rock where he was hiding from possible bullet encounters. One thing for certain all kinds of things happen here at the jetties and we have seen some interesting sights over the years.
Now back to the jetty evaluation. We turned to look inland and saw the wreck of the University of Texas Research Pier was still in place. According to the newspaper article we found (and lost), the physical plant, research in progress and basically everything was totally ruined and /or destroyed. This pier was a reinforced concrete pier out to a small house in the channel.
Research was carried out with the use of this pier that is not normally available anywhere else in the world. It is all gone now. We moved in closer to check what is the damage. Well it is pretty close to total devastation. You can see the rebar and other structural parts are beyond repair. The way the columns were tilted seemed odd to the OFM.
Well when we found the newspaper article, it said a drilling ship had slammed the pier during the hurricane causing the pier failure. Now that adds up with the way the columns were damaged.
We were lucky that Google still had the picture of the ship up against the remains of the pier in their Internet site. We took a copy of the picture to show our readers what the clean up folks found when they got to the site.
That is not a pretty site to us.
The jetty has had some topping damage in several places. Some of the big rocks have moved a good bit. All in all it is now fishable but if you were familiar with the jetty before, you will have to learn new places to scramble around on for fishing now.
We do consider it a different than before but still a good place for trying to have tooooo much fun.
Adventure Location: Rockport, TX
Adventure Report Date: 1/26/2019
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Special notice: 10:52pm The local server is doing all kinds of stupid stuff to this blog tonight. I cannot seem to control it.
The pain was real and persistent. It is known as HUNGER PAIN. The OFM had to get busy and fix some good food. But the day had been very full and busy so nothing was close to ready. LOOK OUT the OFM is fixing to wreck havoc in the kitchen. And he did. In fact he was so concentrated on preparing the pork chops, green beans and asparagus he forgot to photograph the Chaos in the Kitchen. But he did remember to photograph the aftermath of the event..
The pork chops were pan fried gently. Of course they were fried in a 3 liter pot with a lid to contain the spatter from cooking meat in olive oil. The long green beans and asparagus spears were steamed in a bowl in the microwave for four minutes. That was about thirty seconds too long. the OFM really likes to have a bit of crunch to both of those vegetables. However he did not turn away from them.
There is a set of photos waiting to be processed yet. But they will wait for another entry. A near disaster happened at the parking lot at the fishing spot. A couple of days ago the OFM dropped his rod reel down on the pavement. Bad error normally but the reel seemed to work ok. So a few scratches was the damage.
Here is the reel after today.
That is just before it went to the trash can. It started acting up really badly after the first fish today. Then it cost the OFM Fishing Team a couple more fish and an $8 lure. We shut down the fishing and went back to the Castle.
Quick examination revealed the jumble of internal pieces that used to be reel parts. Oh Well at least the OFM is experienced enough to purchase from the low end of the Shimano spinning reel line.
Two more of the reels were waiting in a container in a cabinet of the Castle. The busted reel was only about ten years old with 874562 miles on it. The replacement is only about 8 years old with less than half that mileage, so it should do just fine.
Another of the many things we did today was laundry. Laundry takes about 30 minutes to wash and 45 minutes to dry. That gave the OFM about an hour to mull over the less than perfect weather in the neat future. After the laundry was finished and put away, he went back to work on deciding on a good departure day. After lots of consideration he decided to maintain the January 30 departure but cut the first day of travels down to less than 75 miles. A couple of days there will let some of the weather have a chance to give up and move on. Then we can start towards the Rio Grande again. It might be interesting to see what the Teams really does.
We are well into page three and ready for sleep after a hugely busy day of trying to have tooooo much fun.
Adventure Location: Rockport, TX
Adventure Report Date: 1/24/2019
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The thought hit the OFM in the side of the head like a big pot. KAPOW. The large pot that the Teams has had for years has not been used in years. Watch this MsB, this is how to do it. The OFM reached down into the depths of the cabinet under the sink and dragged the pot out. Look at all that dust. Yep is has obviously not been used for several desert trips. It is time to go RIGHT NOW.
After the picture, the pot was taken to the FREE table at this RV Park. Where it went after that we have no idea but it is no longer loading the Castle with extra weight and dust collecting.
As we get ready to roll on 1-30 it would come as no surprise if more things crawl over to the FREE table. The batwing TV antenna has been under scrutiny today since we have not used it in at least four years. If the weather is nice, it may vacate the premises also. That would be good to not have it vibrating on the roof as we roll down the road or wind storms hit us in the camp grounds.
Another change happened today that was a great success. The OFM made a spreadsheet a few years ago showing when to be in several cities areas. We had found it to have some flaws in our entries and needed to be updated. That is a lot of work. As the OFM started to gathering the latest data he had a brain burp and came up with a better system. The town is listed on the left side and across the page is listed the months when the average temperature in the town is not below 50F or above 85F. The 2-3 weeks each side of the listed month could easily have temps almost inside the criteria. That will take a judgment call as to whether to try being there in the nearby months.
This morning it was very cool inside the Castle. The electric heater was running on the very low setting that is usually enough. ??????? A look outside at the heavily frosted grass gave us the answer. The temperature here in the campground got lower that the expected 48F. In a few minutes the Castle was warm again and the day turned out bright and sunny with a high of 64F.
On the way to do a bit of fishing the Teams grabbed this picture of Aransas Bay about a mile from the Castle.
Lots was accomplished today along with our efforts at trying to have tooooo much fun.
Adventure Location: Goose Island SP, TX
Adventure Report Date: 1/23/2019
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This trail is a nice less than a mile walking trail through some old trees and brush. A lot of this growth and definitely many of the trees have been here over a hundred years. Our plan was to see the neat old trees along this trail.
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| Turk's Cap Trail |
The trail is a developed trail and is on the upper left of the park. The little people hiking and red dots show the route of the trail. On google from start to finish and back to Sierra was just short of a mile. We got major surprises with all the extras we saw beside ancient trees.
The trail starts pleasantly and mostly stays just like in this photo for the whole way to the end at the bird watching station. We started at the parking lot shown at the top of the map.
When we got to the end, the return route along Warbler Way was chosen since it went right by a necessities building. The campground along that road was full of Canadians and Minnesota folks.
The first of the huge number of large oaks is close to the start of the trail. It is a massive tree that just begs to be photographed. Naturally the OFM obliged.
We need to add that there was lots of colorful leaves and other neat things along the trail that was not expected. The OFM had not walked this trail in about 25 years.
There are benches every now and then along the way. However this was the only bench under another old tree canopy. There were no footprints on the trail this day. We guessed the recent rains had cleaned the prints of folks away. The OFM sat for a few minutes on this first bench and fiddled with his camera settings. Then he was happy and away we meandered.
After crossing the slightly wet portion of the trail we entered a tunnel of trees. All along the trail were downed or partially downed trees of all sorts. We hope to make it back when the trees are all leafed out to enjoy again this tunnel of trees.
There was so much other neat things to notice that the meandering really went slowly and was fun. The new header picture is one of the many colorful pictures take today.
Somewhere along the way a tree critter took a close look at us. We do not know its name but that long necked critter with the topknot certainly gave us a good looking at.
Ok this leaves us a lot more to talk about for another blog entry. It is a wonderful State Park for riding bicycles and walking. A favorite wonderful memory of the OFM was when his son was about 3, they did some walking around in this park. His son is now 39. Great memories live here.
Yep we got very close to having tooooo much fun.
Adventure Location: Rockport, TX
Adventure Report Date: 1/22/2019
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It was late afternoon when we got back in town from a major photo taking adventure. There is still over 85 pictures to cull and edit but the OFM did not want to leave the old entry up for another day. So here is the afternoon summary.
About an hour was spent trying to fish in the Allegro Channel this evening. However the howling wind made it very hard to accomplish. As you can see in the next photo the wind was splattering the waves against the breakwater. Then the saltwater was carried onto the parking lot to soak the vehicles. Sierra was parked on the other side of the parking lot and still got soaked.
The OFM finally called it a day. His legs were tired after all the meandering that was done today. We certainly did get very close to having tooooo much fun. Full report another night.ZZZZZZZZZZZ
Adventure Location: Rockport, TX
Adventure Report Date: 1/21/2019
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The OFM was planning on not typing a blog tonight but his fingers swelled up and were about to burst with all this boring information in them. So he had to write just to save his fingers.
It was about 1000 when the Teams got the OFM out for some exercise at the Beach Park. Walking was the plan. Sierra got stopped and parked at the far end of the parking lot near the Allegro Channel. There is a lot of uneven but not rough sandy area there to give leg muscles a bit of a work out. So out across the grass and sand we went.
The bulkhead around the Saltwater Pool got in our way so the OFM decided to walk the narrow (for a wobbler like him) top of the bulkhead. He was doing fairly good and the water next to us was only about two feet deep. We noticed that a lot of concrete is breaking off the top of the wall since Hurricane Harvey came through. That is not good news.
The gazebo repair work nearby is slowly moving along. Today they had a small crane helping to set the rafters in place. Apparently it went well because the crane was soon gone to its next project. The workers then were busy banging things and yelling to each other. We hope it goes well for them.
The Teams joined up and talked the OFM to get off the top of the bulkhead as we got near the deeper water of the Allegro Channel. He resisted but we convinced him with a big rock to behave and move over onto the safer sand path. The water was really clear today as you can see in this picture.
The water is about six feet deep at the bottom of the picture and the darker area at the top is where the sand slopes off into the channel. The important thing a fisherfolk will notice is the total lack of bait fish in the water. apparently we need the water to warm up a couple of degrees to bring the critters back into the bay waters.
We reached the Allegro Channel Jetty breakwater safely in spite of the OFM. As we walked out on the breakwater, the OFM was carefully studying the bottom structure to decide where to fish when the fish arrive back in the area. Then we headed back to the parking lot, or we thought we were going back at this time.
We got about halfway back to the main land area and ended up talking with some really nice folks from Minnesota for nearly an hour. WOW that was fun.
We started on back again and at the point where the breakwater meets the land it happened again. A very nice couple from Iowa asked a question and another half hour disappeared. It was great.
The Teams made it back to Sierra this time. After starting the engine we noticed it was nearly 1400 and the OFM needed to be fed.
And after some food was implanted in his enormous stomach we headed back to the Castle where our last incoming mail was waiting for us.
The day was beautiful, cool, a bit breezy and very sunny. Put this all together and it was a wonderful day of trying to have tooooo much fun.
Adventure Location: Rockport, TX
Adventure Report Date: 1/20/2019
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It was a surprise comment from an old friend yesterday. “Your blog has gotten boring lately.” No helpful information was forwarded to the OFM. As those of us that attempt to do creative things that the public gets to see and enjoy knows that after eleven years of nearly daily effort put out into the public eye, some of the efforts will be less that the best. Helpful comments that are part of a solution instead of part of the problem are very appreciated. The OFM basically just shook his head in his mind and went on with the visit.
It was a cold morning of 39F when we got moving. During all the running errands of the day we picked up a couple of “boring pictures and stories” for your enjoyment.
On the way back from Aransas Pass the Teams voted for a quick trip to Light House Lakes to check out the super low tides of the last couple of days. And they have been LOW. This is the much photographed bench that we use as a reference to water levels and a couple of other things. It shows the very pretty sunny cold day like it was bikini time. It wasn’t.
What it did show us is that the camera has a trouble now. The image in the view finder is about 20 degrees higher than the view of the lens. So now the OFM has to compensate his aim when looking through the viewfinder. It must be time to consider a new camera. Luckily the funds for a new camera arrived Friday and are on the way to the bank.
While we were meandering near the bench we, actually the OFM, stumbled across a piling stump that is normally covered in water. This is shooting straight down on top of the stump.
When we first spotted it we were looking straight down at it and could not figure it out. Then the OFM moved to the side a little ways and we could see it was an old piling. That is one goofy looking stump isn’t it.
We went to the harbor at the last of the daylight today to check out a modification (successful) to the fishing gear. While we were there some of the birds of the area kept edging over closer to a plastic bag on the bulkhead. But the presence of the OFM scared them too much to get closer.
The OFM decided to check out the trash and throw it into the dumpster. It is a common practice in that area that if you are about to leave and have some still good bait left, you leave in in a container on the wall for someone else to use. When the contents of the bag was identified, it was dead 5“ finger mullet in good shape for fishing. The OFM looked around and we were about the only fishing person left along the wall. So the OFM dumped the ten or so mullet out of the bag on the ground for the birds.
Then the empty bag was dropped in the dumpster. By the time the bag was placed in the dumpster and the OFM got turned around a large bird had closed in and was having a wonderful feast. It did not take that bird long to swallow all of the mullet.
The bird was just walking around when we left. We wondered if it ate too much to fly! We bet the big bird considered that event as trying to have tooooo much fun.
Adventure Location: Rockport, TX
Adventure Report Date: 1/19/2019
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Blogger and friend Tess of the blog Trekking Tess, https://trekkingtess.wordpress.com/ , asked the OFM about the big blue crab sculpture that used to be at the Rockport Beach Park entrance. She lives in central New Mexico up on the side of a mountain range. Her blog is usually pretty good, so check it out.
Here is what it used to look like BHH (before hurricane Harvey).
Donated funds have been being collected to pay for building a new crab. The poles are still there. All that is needed is more money apparently.
We were amazed at the number of folks that stopped by the sculpture for photos of the crab with other folks posed below the claws. The crab site is right in the middle of the Harbor/BeachPark/Ski Basin and general good time location in Rockport, Texas. Winter is only permitted here for the first three weeks of January.
That is why the OFM Teams spend so much “winter” time here trying to have tooooo much fun.
Adventure Location: Rockport, TX
Adventure Report Date: 1/26/2019
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The pain was real and persistent. It is known as HUNGER PAIN. The OFM had to get busy and fix some good food. But the day had been very full and busy so nothing was close to ready. LOOK OUT the OFM is fixing to wreck havoc in the kitchen. And he did. In fact he was so concentrated on preparing the pork chops, green beans and asparagus he forgot to photograph the Chaos in the Kitchen. But he did remember to photograph the aftermath of the event..
The pork chops were pan fried gently. Of course they were fried in a 3 liter pot with a lid to contain the spatter from cooking meat in olive oil. The long green beans and asparagus spears were steamed in a bowl in the microwave for four minutes. That was about thirty seconds too long. the OFM really likes to have a bit of crunch to both of those vegetables. However he did not turn away from them.
There is a set of photos waiting to be processed yet. But they will wait for another entry. A near disaster happened at the parking lot at the fishing spot. A couple of days ago the OFM dropped his rod reel down on the pavement. Bad error normally but the reel seemed to work ok. So a few scratches was the damage.
Here is the reel after today.
That is just before it went to the trash can. It started acting up really badly after the first fish today. Then it cost the OFM Fishing Team a couple more fish and an $8 lure. We shut down the fishing and went back to the Castle.
Quick examination revealed the jumble of internal pieces that used to be reel parts. Oh Well at least the OFM is experienced enough to purchase from the low end of the Shimano spinning reel line.
Two more of the reels were waiting in a container in a cabinet of the Castle. The busted reel was only about ten years old with 874562 miles on it. The replacement is only about 8 years old with less than half that mileage, so it should do just fine.
Another of the many things we did today was laundry. Laundry takes about 30 minutes to wash and 45 minutes to dry. That gave the OFM about an hour to mull over the less than perfect weather in the neat future. After the laundry was finished and put away, he went back to work on deciding on a good departure day. After lots of consideration he decided to maintain the January 30 departure but cut the first day of travels down to less than 75 miles. A couple of days there will let some of the weather have a chance to give up and move on. Then we can start towards the Rio Grande again. It might be interesting to see what the Teams really does.
We are well into page three and ready for sleep after a hugely busy day of trying to have tooooo much fun.
Adventure Location: Rockport, TX
Adventure Report Date: 1/18/2019
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It was another nasty day and the Teams were meandering around looking for anything to write about. We noticed that the Beach Park nesting area has been in preparation mode for the nesting season soon to arrive. It looked like the sign had been cleaned up. The nesting area had been cleaned up a bit also. Here is the sign explaining that this is a nesting area and do not mess with it.
This is a part of the nesting area that spreads over a nice size chunk of land. when nesting time arrives it is totally off limits to the general public. However there is plenty of land just outside the boundary for those who want to do photography type adventures taking great bird pictures. Some days it looks like a camera tripod jungle around the area.
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| NESTING AREA |
We noticed that the Skimmers were in a pile over by a fishing spot. There is a lot of sea gull beggars in the group also. The sea gulls are master beggars. The black birds still on the ground are the skimmers. They are a bit early but still welcome. Here is the picture of the Bird Herd.
With the nasty wet weather lately that is about the best we could do for trying to have tooooo much fun.
Adventure Location: Rockport, TX
Adventure Report Date: 1/16/2019
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Yep we were out meandering around in a fog. Not the usual mental fog of the OFM, but a real, wet, chilly fog. For some unknown silly reason the OFM decided he needed to update his memory banks about Conn Brown Harbor in Aransas Pass today. So away we went on an adventure in a fog.
The fog was not so bad on the main roads but when we turned toward the bay and harbor the fog thickness increased a lot. It was slow driving after that. Sierra got us safely to the end of the road near the boat ramps and harbor exit. Then we piddled around trying to take pictures in a fog.
We heard a boat out on the water but at first could not tell where the sound was originating. In a few seconds the boat came out of the fog headed out into the bays.
We made a circle in the parking lot with Sierra to get a better angle for another picture. As you can see in this next picture, the boat was already out of sight. Where did it go? We have no idea.
Nearby was the cleaning station with the two pelicans on guard. Pelicans really know how to hunker down in inclement weather. These two seemed to be well practiced at hunkering.
As we swung past the fishing pier we noticed a truck parked at the entrance with Alaska license plates on it. We figure it had to be the two hardy tough folks in this next picture. Sensible folks would not be sitting out there in the chilly wet climate. Notice the two pelican “guards” out there making certain they do not waste any fish by throwing them back in.
On the way back in from the ramp area Sierra tried out a dirt road. Bad choice. All the rain of the last 24 hours had the dirt a bit soft. Sierra is a smart truck. As soon as it got a feel for the surface, Sierra made and abrupt 180 and out we came safely. Thank you, Sierra.
Back on the pavement, we headed for the exit. But along the way the OFM had the Teams stop to let him take another fog picture of a bay shrimper that was wise enough to stay in the harbor and leave the shrimp alone today.
The OFM was lost in a bay fog once years ago and it was not a fun “educational” event. Once was definitely enough.
This was a good day for trying to have tooooo much fun if you didn’t mind not seeing very far around yourself.
Adventure Location: Rockport, TX
Adventure Report Date: 1/15/2019
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We really did not plan on boondocking while here in Rockport, Texas. However around 1745 this afternoon the 120 volt power gave up the ghost for a large section of the surrounding neighborhood. The Castle just switched to boondocking mode and the Teams carried on like nothing had happened. Some of the camper neighbors were concerned and running around trying to figure out what to do.
The OFM actually just washed part of the Castle in the rain with his soft brush for fiberglas. Then he went in and checked the internet for the extent of the outage. AEP said that about 3000 places were without power. So what did the OFM do. He climbed into Sierra and had a nice supper of chicken tacos. That ought to make him sleep well tonight.
When we returned the power was back on and the OFM Teams had not missed a beat. That was about the most exciting thing in two days except for the naps.
Tonight we noticed that BillyBob had finally posted again. It has been about a year since the last post. He is 77 now.
That is about all the excitement around here for the last few days. The OFM says he is finally rested from the beach adventure. As soon as the bad weather cold and rain lets up he is ready to get out running around trying to have tooooo much fun again.
Adventure Location: Mustang Island State Park, TX
Adventure Report Date: 1/13/2019
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Very recently a lady could not understand the OFM’s answer when she asked “ What are you looking for?” in reference to the Teams beachcombing. Everything and anything.
Tonight we finish up the beach trip report. Sometimes the OFM hates to write about a successful meander because so much gets left out. For each picture tonight there was at least 9 more that had to be left out.
One more wind sculpture is needed to show another style of them. Sometimes these get very large and dramatic. There has been a few down on Padre Island that were taller than the OFM. This one looks like a scene from a treasure hunt movie but in reality is only about 5 inches high but about 4 feet long. The edges were still forming because we saw changes in the few minutes we watched it while planning the photograph.
Another item that caught our attention was some sand on an old dead tree trunk. WOW that sounds exciting, right! Well we enjoyed it and seeing the scene developing as we took photos. The sand was still depositing on the trunk as we watched.
Many years ago the OFM incorrectly identified this as coral and a wonderful reader gently corrected him. It is a purple barnacle. However they are very brilliant at times and really catch your attention sitting in the sand and being tumble polished in the surf. This is a very dull example but it still caught the eye of the Meanderthall on the beach.
The shell is a pretty shell. We have no idea the name of it since we are not in possession of a Meanderers Bucket at the moment. A Meanderers Bucket is the subject of a forth coming blog entry. The shell was carefully lifted and checked that no critters were at home to damage the OFM hand. Then the photos were taken. Few really nice shells were on the beach this trip. Sometimes the beach is loaded with them.
And last is the brown shell and other things. The brown shell was one of few this day that were not damaged. The “necklaces” of shells laying around it were interesting also. The scene just struck the OFM’s fancy so here it is in the blog.
As you can tell the OFM had a wander-ful day at the beach and made a pretty good effort at trying to have tooooo much fun.
Adventure Location: Mustang Island State Park, TX
Adventure Report Date: 1/12/2019
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And finally we are ready to begin the meander. Keep in mind we have had to sort down to these six pictures from what seemed like 467032 pictures just for tonight’s blog entry. The OFM is bad about loading the camera card with all it can carry in its 4GB ability per outing.
The hard part was choosing the line of meander after the fantastic find of that Beach Toadstool. Basically we like to choose a line parallel to the water and walk along that line. Then when we hit the end we shift to another line that looks promising and follow it to the end. Repeat as often as your knees can hold out. With a serious thought of close to three seconds our line was chosen to be near the water. And away we went at a snails pace meandering speed. Sometimes we only make a hundred yards in a morning.
There was only one piece of sizable driftwood on this beach. We think it made a pretty nice picture. To our surprise there were about seven pictures of this tree to choose from on the camera card. The sun sparkle on the water was very nice
WIND SCULPTURE
Several years ago the OFM came up with the term wind sculpture for all the nice, odd or otherwise interesting things that happen to sand when objects and the wind/nature combine to make interesting shapes or as the OFM likes to call it WIND SCULPTURES.
Here are two of the simpler types we noticed and enjoyed. This one is caused by two sections of vine leaves interacting with the wind. We really liked the way the ripples of sand radiate out and around.
As we meandered near the dunes later, there was a feather half buried in the sand. It created its own style of sculpture. It amazed us how a simple feather could cause such beautiful curves and ripple in the sand. This was a first for the OFM Teams to see. WOW two first in one trip, a feather sculpture and a sand dune toadstool. I wonder how many other folks have seen either one.
Sea foam is on the beaches often. Many times it is pretty nondescript. But today the sun and sand was playing nicely with each other and the reflections were fantastic. On top of that as you walked around the foam the colors changed and the reflections seemed to create new images from the same blob of foam. It was fascinating.
Then this one is more of a sun reflection from the foam and wet sand. It is special in our mind.
Then the sun on the sand was another really delightful of beauty to enjoy.
So far it has been a great day of trying to have tooooo much fun.
