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

Camping the first time in the new trailer

Well, I decided to go out last weekend (since I had a 3 day weekend) and try out the new trailer before the big Eagle Etc weekend. So I drove up to Lake Claiborne and was able to get my favorite spot on the hill. It was just me and the dogs so we got to take long walks. And of course Little Bit had lots of fun chasing squirrels and of course Missy chases him....

Here is a picture of the trailer and Missy in spot 25...


It was a very enjoyable weekend...and this coming weekend Mom, Dad, Wesley and I head up to DeGray for their Eagle Etc weekend. Hopefully Wesley won't volunteer to pick up the Eagle poop this year!

Love to all...Cathy

New Camper

Well...those winds were so disturbing last time we camped that I decided that we needed a bigger trailer...

Here is the old trailer...just had it a little over a year. It has been a good one, but it is time to move up.

So the Saturday before last I bought a new 8 cylinder 4Runner which can haul up to 7500 lbs. And then last Saturday a got a new trailer.
The awning is almost longer than my old trailer! We go up to Eagle Etc the last weekend of January so we will be able to be very comfortable!
If you want to see more pictures of the inside after I brought it home click here.

Love you all.... Cathy

Gulf Shores

After Christmas I took Mom and Dad and we headed down to Gulf State Park in Gulf Shores Alabama. I had wanted to start out around 5 AM that morning, but I got a nail in my tire so I had to get that fixed before we could get on the road. We finally left around 9 AM. It took us 9 hours, and it was dark by the time we got there. We got all set up and sleep like a log.

Gulf State Park is built around an inland lake that is .2 mi from the beach. We woke up early and I took this picture of Mom as she was looking at the lake. The state park Pavilion on the Gulf is right across the water from us.

It was a very nice day. We went walking on the beach and then drove the beach road to look at houses that we could rent next time we come down. We went down to the beach by the outlet of the lake we were staying on and it was beautiful. I brought a couple a chairs for Mom and Dad to relax in while I took pictures. Looks like they were having a good time!

We went to the store and bought some fresh scallops to cook on the grill for supper. But before I could cook the sun started going down. So we went back to the beach and got some sunset shots. The pelicans were out, the winds were blowing and the sunset was spectacular and the grilled scallops were pretty good too!

We had a really stormy night, but we didn't blow away (I think we had at least 40 mph winds). After breakfast we went to the beach for a short time, but it was threatening rain, so Mom and I decided to go to the outlets mall while Dad stayed at the trailer and relaxed (read that...slept...). It really stormed at the mall, but we had a good time shopping. We ate lunch at Lambert's...the home of the "throwed" roll. It was pretty good "down home" cooking. Mom and I were really full and Dad ate our leftovers for his supper. The storm was finally over by sunset and we had another nice sunset.

We got up early the last day and drove down to a bird sanctuary. It was really cold that day, so there were not really very many birds out. But I got a good picture of Dad on top of the observation tower... I took it with my cell phone!

After we left there we drove on in to Santa Rosa Island. We found a place to eat called "Flounders". Mom had crabcakes that she said were as good as the ones that she had in NC, Dad had a hamburger (he doesn't like seafood), and I had shrimp. That was definitely a go again place!
Then we took a walk on the beach. ...got a picture of Mom and Dad walking down the walkway.

After that we drove on back to Gulf Shores to pack up and head home the next morning.

I think that Mom and Dad enjoyed themselves. I think it makes them nostalgic when they get around the water and the waves. I really liked this picture of both of them just looking at the water...

If you want to see more pictures from the trip you can click here to go to my webshots album. I think I got some good ones of Mom and Dad. And here is the picture that I took right before we got on the road to come home.


Love to all... Cathy