Dad's 85th Birthday Celebration

Well, this is not about camping or kayaking, but it will be about my Dad's 85th birthday party. My sister Carole had the idea early in July to have a meeting of the family to decide what we would get Dad for his 85th birthday. We thought at first about renting a place up in Arkansas and having a family outing like we did when Dad turned 80, but Nancy reminded us that Elizabeth's baby being due in October meant that she would not be able to travel. So we thought about having the party closer to home. I was going to look up renting a party barge on Lake o'the pines and Susie got information about renting one on Cross Lake. In the meantime, our TV broke down and I was "forced" to buy an HDTV. I loved it, and thought about how Dad would like it too. So I suggested that we all pool our money to buy Dad an HDTV. I researched and found a set that seemed like it would be a good fit. So below are the pictures from Dad's 85th birthday. Can I just say that he was very surprised and I think that smiles on his face pretty much say it all....

This is right after we brought in the box.

Everyone gave individual cards.

Look at his face...I think he likes it!

Carole and Bill had also bought and installed a rooftop digital antenna (which Dad never saw before tonight), so Bill got the TV hooked up to the cable and it recognized 13 digital channels and a few Christian channels that are standard channels that Mom will like. We got to see the President's address with the new TV. Too bad they don't have an HD camera in the Oval office!

After that we sang Dad the Happy Birthday song and ate cake (made by Carole) and ice cream.

I think we did the right thing in getting Dad that HDTV. I think he will enjoy it a lot! Thanks to all for helping Dad have a great 85th birthday.

Love to all, Cathy

PS. Click here if you want to see some of the pictures that I did not put on the blog.

Denby Point - Lake Ouachita - August 2007

I left Thursday night for Lake Ouachita with the two dogs. Mom and Dad had to work Carole's estate sale so I only had the dogs for companionship. I left about 4:30 PM from work and went by the house to pick up Little Bit and Missy. They were all excited. They love road trips.

I was between Prescot and Arkadelphia and heard a strange noise from the back of the car. I pulled off the highway (hoping I would not be blown over by a big truck going by) and checked everything. It all looked ok. I got back on the road, but was still troubled by the noise (flap, flap, flap...), so I pulled in to the next rest stop, got out and did a better inspection of the trailer and car. I found that the passenger side tire on the trailer had shredded and was coming apart! I had prayed before I ever left for God to protect me from my own ignorance! Thank God he did! I walked the dogs and put them back in the car and started getting the tire and jack out of the car. But an 18 wheeler pulled in next to me, so I asked him to help me change the tire, and he was very nice to do just that. I tried to pay him, but he considered it his good deed for the day.

So after an hour of downtime at the rest stop we were back on the road. We finally got up to Denby Point on Lake Ouachita at 9 PM. This was the first time for me to try camping without a direct water hookup, so I had to find the water spigot to fill my fresh water tank. Did that and got backed in to the site (VERY HARD TO DO IN THE DARK). Got everything set up, turned on the AC in the trailer and we went for a nice walk around our part of the park. The next morning dawned bright and a wee bit hot, but it was still a beautiful day.

Friday morning I got the kayak down and put it in the Lake. After breakfast we went out for a while. It was pretty hot so I did a lot of stopping to swim. Little Bit did too. Everytime I turned around he was jumping out of the yak! And Missy made the journey quite a trip too...as she moved her considerable 25 lbs from one side of the yak to the other we leaned precariously close to the water several times.

After a while I saw a blue heron dive into the lake.

It was pretty neat to see it make off with it's lunch!

Site #34 was a great one. It was right on the water and we had a lot of room between us and any other camper. I could let the dogs wander around and chase squirrels...which both are really good at! I got lots of pictures of them looking/chasing the squirrels. So if you want to see more like the one below you can go to my webshots page.

The sunset wasn't really anything great, but I like the picture with the skier going by.

Saturday morning we are awakend by a huge gust of wind at 7:45 AM. I jumped up got dressed and got everything tied down a bit better. After the little windstorm, the day turned out beautiful. It never got above 80 degrees and the breeze was blowing all day. I really enjoyed being outside. We took lots of short walks (still a bit crippled from the knee injury). And I sat outside and read while looking out at the water. We got out in the kayak once, but the wind was so high that I was afraid that between it and Missy we were sure to end up in the drink... So I decided to just relax the rest of the day.

Missy looked quite cute, so I had to take a picture of her sitting on the chair. She doesn't like sitting on the ground...

I got a cute one of Little Bit just looking at me as he was trying to find a squirrel to chase.

Sunday morning we got up and I started packing up. Little Bit and Missy watched me from the trailer.

We had a nice drive home with no more incidents. We had a great time...the dogs got to run around and chase a lot of varmits and I got to relax and enjoy the downtime.

Because my boss has a daughter who plays soccer at Rhodes, we won't get to go anywhere until the last weekend in September. He will be out of town every weekend to watch her play...so I will just have to make do with going kayaking close to home. But until next time...

Love to all...Cathy

Hot Hot Hot days of summer...

Well, it has been a long time since I posted. I hurt my knee in a fall while solo camping the first weekend of June, so I have not been very mobile. And I had not kayaked at all since then.

I had made reservations earlier in the summer to camp at Lake Greeson in August, so Mom, Dad and I went up to the lake last weekend. When we got there the temp was 102! It was sooooo hot it took several hours to cool the trailer down to where it was comfortable. Of course we had to set up in the heat of the day...someday I'll learn to do things differently... I went kayaking for the first time in two months that first night. There was an ok sunset, but nothing to really get excited about. I took a few pictures which I'll post later (since I am writing this after work and don't have access to my pictures here).

Saturday it was another hot day. It got up to 105 in the SHADE! needless to say, it was just too hot to do anything except lay in the bunk and read. But I still enjoyed just getting away from Shreveport. If the temperature gets better in a few weeks I intend to solo camp with the dogs at Lake Ouachita. If it isn't below 98 degrees though I think that I'll cancel that trip.

We packed up early Sunday morning and headed back to Shreveport. So...not a very memorable trip except for the heat!

I am looking forward to seeing my brother Jim as he is coming in Wednesday for a few days. I hope he can bring some milder temps with him as he flies up from Miami...

I'll post some pictures from some of my camping trips in the webshots albums soon.
Love to all...Cathy

Lake Ouachita State Park - March 07

Mom, Dad and I headed up to Lake Ouachita State Park last Friday. We got to leave early since I had put in lots of OT lately helping to get our new website up and running. It was really nice to get up to the lake in time to get set up and in the kayak by 4 PM. The weather was great for my first paddle in a few weeks. The water was still about 50 degrees, but the sun was warm and the temperature was around 65. The water was very still so there were some nice reflections on the water of the sky.
I absolutely love the Werner bent shaft paddle that I got. It is so light and I am able to paddle for long periods of time with no pain in my thumb. The paddle made a nice prop to showcase the sun on the water. The coots looked like the only bird I would see that evening, and every time I got a little close off they flew! So, I called it a night and went on back to camp hoping that the next day would be nice and warm so I could kayak a lot. Mom and Dad had already eaten by the time I got back to camp, so as Dad made a fire, I ate and took some pictures. Can you see my kayak tacky light? Pretty cool huh? It was thundering and lightning by the time we went inside. I got the DVD player ready and we watched the Charlie Chan on Broadway movie. Mom and Dad had never seen a Charlie Chan movie before we went to Lake Greeson last month. But they found that they are pretty good clean entertainment and they have quite a few laughs too. After the movie was over it was 10 and we went to sleep. I had really had a hard week at work and I slept so hard that I didn't even hear the storm that we had during the night.

After Mom cooked the waffles for breakfast, I went down to the water and headed out in the kayak. I had a map of the lake so I was hoping that I would not get lost. I paddled for about three hours. It was so good to get out and just paddle until I could not paddle any more. There was a slight wind to battle coming back up to our little inlet, so by the time I got back to the campsite I was pretty beat.

The lake was about 50 degrees and my feet were just too cold even with the sunshine on them. So, we ate lunch then we got in the car and headed in to Hot Springs. I wanted to go to the kayak shop and get some water socks. I found the water socks looked at a few kayaks and then we headed further in to Hot Springs and went to a little shopping mall so Mom and Dad could get some walking in. We shopped for about a hour and then headed back to the park.

When we got back to the campsite, I got my socks on and went to paddle. I wanted to explore the other side of the little inlet that we were in and I was hoping to find some birds who would not fly away when I got close. Down at the very end of the inlet I found a pair of ducks. I looked them up when I got home. They are Northern Shovelers. They winter in the southern US. Click on the picture to make it bigger and look at the bill on those heads! They definitely named them correctly! I paddled up the south side of the inlet and into a small stream that comes in to the Lake. I found another bird that I had never seen. It just pretty much ignored me so I was able to get really close to take a picture of it. I looked it up when I got home and found out that it is a Northern Flicker. It is a kind of woodpecker and it also winters in the southern US. After that I went back to camp so I could cook our traditional grilled steak dinner. After we ate and washed up, we watched another Charlie Chan movie (I have all of the Warner Oland Charlie Chan movies) and then turned our clocks ahead an hour and went to bed. I slept great again that night.

Rain was threatening again on Sunday, so we packed up after breakfast. I let Mom and Dad finish the packing and I went for a last paddle. I wish I lived on a lake. I would paddle every day! I stayed out for about an hour then headed back to the ramp to load the kayak. Mom just did not feel like another sandwich so we left around lunch and stopped in Hot Springs for our noon meal. We had rain on and off until we got to the state line, but the trailer pulled great. I'm glad I got the Weight Distribution Hitch. It made a real difference in the way the trailer pulls.

Well, I guess that's it for this time. I'm not sure when my next trip will be. We'll go somewhere in April, just not sure yet where. I have a few pictures on my webshots album that I did not include here. Click here if you want to go see them.

Cathy

Daisy State Park - Feb 07

We went to up to Daisy Feb 16 to camp and go on an tour of the lake hoping to see eagles. We got to Daisy around 4:30 Friday. It was pretty cold so I chose not to put the yak in Friday evening. I was hoping to have good weather Saturday. But we woke to 30-35 mph winds Saturday morning. It was a cold but sunny day,and I don't think I have ever seen a wind that strong and that steady. It was amazing to see the wind blow so hard that the water was whitecaping down the middle of the Lake. None of my pictures did that wind justice! It blew from early in the morning until around 5 PM. Then the winds died down some, but were still too strong to put the yak in. And the eagle tour was canceled because the winds were too bad for the party barge to steer.Dad and I went down several times to the launch area to look at the lake. One of the times, I got a pretty good picture of Dad.

Since we could not go out on the lake, we took a drive around to the local Corps of Engineer parks on the north side of Lake Greeson. There were several that were ok, but none of them have water at the campsite. I can do without the sewer at the site because we can "dump" on the way out of the campground, but I would hate having to haul water by the 5 gallon buckets to the trailer everytime we needed to fill up the tank. So I guess those campgrounds are off my list of places I want to camp. There is nothing like being able to turn on a water spigot in the camper and have hot running water and soap to wash with! I love my hybrid!

It was much nicer Sunday, but still very cold. So we packed up and headed home. I am sooooo looking forward to warmer weather! Well, until my next post...

Cathy

Degray State Park Eagle Etc Weekend

We went camping last weekend up at DeGray State Park outside Hot Springs. It was our second year to go to the Eagle Etc weekend that they plan. We met Don and Susie up there. They stayed at the lodge which is beautiful. Mom, Dad, George Wesley (nephew) and I went and camped in my hybrid. I thought George Wesley was the perfect age (9) to introduce him to bird watching. I think that he really enjoyed it.

The weekend starts out Friday with tours on the lake and different educational classes about birds of prey of Arkansas. It is a very interesting two days.

We got up there Friday afternoon around 5 PM and set up the hybrid in my favorite camping site #78. The lake was up 9 ft, so if I had brought my kayak (way too cold for kayaking), I could have gotten into it easily from our campsite. We asked the ranger what the water temp was when we were out Saturday in the boat to look for eagles. He said it was around 45 degrees. So I am very glad that I did not bring my yak! Besides it was cold and rainy most of the day Saturday so there really was no opportunity to get a good paddle in.

Friday Night we went on an "Owl Prowl" to see if we could call up some owls. Unfortunately they all decided to stay away so we did not get to hear any wild owls calling back to the ranger. After the 10 PM walk in the woods we went back to the conference center and George got to dissect an owl pellet. It was really cool. We found 3 heads all from a western rat like animal. I think I enjoyed it more than George...it kinda brought back my biology lab days. I always ordered owl pellets for my classes to dissect when I taught.

Saturday morning we went out on a party barge looking for eagles. It was very cold and damp, and I had misplaced my gloves and heavy coat so I was pretty miserable the whole time. And as we were starting back to the landing it started to rain. We only saw one eagle the whole hour that we were out, but we were able to get pretty close to that one. We got back in and went back to the camper to eat lunch and warm back up. That afternoon an eagle that had been rehabilitated was released. It had been shot with buckshot and could not fly. It was picked up by the Little Rock Zoo and nursed back to health in time to be released during the Eagle Etc weekend. It was really great to see it step out of the cage, get it's bearings and fly off into the misty afternoon.

We also had a "Meet and Greet" with the birds that the Little Rock Zoo brought. These are all birds that have been rehabilitated and cannot be sent back to the wild for some reason. I got a couple of pictures that I liked. Especially of the hawk and owl.

And George got to pose with an eagle. It kept trying to take a small bite out of him!

The program ended Saturday night with a wonderful talk by a naturalist who works with the birds of prey. She is a very interesting speaker. But my back was hurting from sitting in those awful plastic chairs for two days, so I stayed in the lobby of the resort and fell asleep on the couch there. Don and Susie woke me up as they were going up their room. They told me that Mom and Wesley would be along soon...as soon as George finished picking up the poop... It seems that the naturalist had asked for a volunteer...without telling what they were volunteering for...George got his hand up first...whoopee...he was the pooper-scooper for the night! So he had a lot of poop to clean up before he could leave! LOL! That will teach him to volunteer before they tell him what for!

Sunday morning it was 21 degrees! The water was frozen coming out of the spigot and the hose coming in to the trailer was frozen too. Dad had to go outside with my hair dryer and blow hot air on the spigot and hose so we could wash up after breakfast! But we were nice and warm inside the hybrid. When we finally ventured out of the trailer we found that one of my back tires on the 4Runner was flat. Luckily Mom (on her way to the park bathroom) talked to some boy scouts who were camping and they said they would change it for us. Thank goodness good deeds are still done by the Boy Scouts! They got out in the cold and got on the wet ground and had my tire changed within 30 minutes. I'm very glad that I did not have to call AAA to come out. It probably would have cost a good bit since we weren't close to any town.

Well that's it for this report. We were so busy going to the seminars that I did not get any pictures of the campsite... I do have more pictures from the trip on my Webshots Album. You can click here to go to the album.

'til next time

Cathy