Lake Claiborne - July 2008

Hanna wanted to go camping with me and the dogs before she went back to school so we headed out to Lake Claiborne. She was a very good camping buddy and I really enjoyed having her with me.

We got there Friday afternoon and got set up. She got all of her stuff ready to go to the beach.

And then she was ready to hit the beach...We got my new canoe in the water and paddled down to the beach. While Hanna dove for treasures, me and the dogs just paddled around the beach area. The dogs like the new canoe. They have a lot more room to move around.Hanna found a lot of stuff diving in the beach area. She found a bracelet, about 6 quarters, an earring and lots of mussel shells. She was a natural on the canoe. After I told her how to paddle, she was the paddling queen! We had a lot of fun and I think I'll have a great camping buddy from now on! If you want to see all of the pictures from the trip go to my webshots album by clicking here.

Cathy

Lake Ouachita

Mom and Dad and I went up to Lake Ouachita the first weekend of May. Going up we encountered tornadic winds and rain. It was quite something. Listening to the news when we got up there, we found out that we had driven VERY close to where tornadoes had struck. So we were very fortunate to have made it through with no problems.

Here's Dad relaxing after we got there.


The winds were amazing Friday and Saturday on the Lake. We had 40 mph gusts with a constant 20 mph wind. So I was not able to get out in the yak at all until Sunday. But the sunset Sunday evening was quite nice.

We had a great time, and I have a few more pictures in my webshots album. You can go there by clicking on the title above.

We plan on going to Lake Gilham the end of the month although from what I understand the camping sites are underwater right now...so that may change.

Cathy

Mom and Dad's 65th Anniversary

Mom and Dad's 65th Wedding Anniversary was May 10th. Carole arranged for us to take a boat ride down the bayou in Jefferson, Texas. So we all gathered there for a picnic lunch and took off. It was lots of fun. I posted the pictures in the webshots album, so I'll only put the family picture here.


You can click on the Title of this entry to go to my webshots album.

Camping in Feb-April

Well, we have been camping quite a few times from February until April, but I really haven't been so pleased with the pictures. So I have the only ones that I liked all put into one album on Webshots and you can look at them by clicking here.

Our trip to Lake Quachita State park in Feb was quite cold so I didn't get out in the yak at all. And we went on an eagle tour of the lake and we did not see any eagles at all. I got some good pictures of Mom and Dad, but I seem to have misplaced them somewhere... I'll find some soon I hope. Below you will see the only picture that I really like out of the ones that I took on that trip.

Then we went to Jimmie Davis State Park. We had never been there before and we were quite pleasantly surprised with the park and the lake. I was able to get out and kayak 3 times during the weekend, and the water is very clear. The bottom of the lake is sand on top of clay, so the clarity of the water is great! There are many undeveloped parts of the lake, so it will be very nice to kayak in during the summer when it becomes necessary to do a lot of swimming in the lake to say cool as I kayak.

I saw a lot of wildlife while kayaking. I was able to get pretty close to some beavers. I don't think that they liked me hanging around taking pictures.

There were several different types of ducks. This is one I am not familiar with and I'll have to look it up.

It stormed pretty bad the day that we drove over to Jimmie Davis State Park, and I found out that my 4Runner was pretty uncontrollable when big trucks passed us on the highway. I spent most of the drive with "white knuckles" because it was such a tense ride. So I figured I had better bite the bullet and get a vehicle with the right wheelbase and weight to handle the 7000 lb trailer. So, I went the next week and traded in my 4Runner for an 8cy 5.6L Tundra Truck. What a difference! It was so much easier to haul my trailer when I went to Lake Claiborne a few weeks ago.

I love my new truck!

We are going to Denby Point in Arkansas in a week for four days. I am hoping that I can get a lot of kayaking in while there.

Love y'all! Cathy

Eagle Etc at DeGray

Well, we had a great time at DeGray Lake State Park. Although the drive up to the park was quite hazardous. The temperature was 27-28 degrees with falling sleet. But I took it easy at 55 mph and we made it just fine. By the time that we got to the park the whole trailer, hitch and all were encased in a half inch of ice. I took a picture of my car mirror the next day after it had gotten above freezing and you can see it is still encased in ice.
It was pretty hard getting all of the locks unfrozen. But I had stopped and bought the last can of deicing spray so we had them open after about 5 minutes of work on each one.

The birds were awesome as usual. I got quite a few up close pictures. I like this one... Wesley had a good time and he traded eating worm larvae for a chance to go an a midnight golf cart safari. Yes he really did eat fried cheese covered worm larvae...yuk!!!!! Here you see a red tailed hawk...he is fascinated by two little girls who are wearing yarn hats with tassels on top...I think he is saying...they look yummy! Every one of the birds of prey acted like that when those girls walked close...I guess those hats looked like a great dessert!

We took the eagle boat tour, but by Sunday it was sunny and the eagles had gone elsewhere to look for food I guess...so all we saw was one immature. Dad looks a bit cold... We had a good time even though it was wet and freezing. The new trailer was great and with central heat it was nice a toasty inside. And we had plenty of room with the four of us. Mom, Dad and I head up to Lake Ouachita next weekend for another eagle boat tour. Hopefully we will see more than the one that we saw on the DeGray boat ride...

If you want to see more pictures from the trip click here to go to my Webshots Album.

Until next time...Love to all...Cathy