Planning Our Return to the Donut Shop

Well, even though migrating birds are starting to show up, it is time to think about our return home. We've had a couple of objectives: celebrating Easter with our Mississippi friends and seeing Rich, Lydda, and grandson Bronson in Ohio. I want to take our time and check out the birds that are migrating with us.
So we will say goodbye to Goose Island this weekend. I like to go through Houston on a weekend so we'll do that Sunday stopping at Viilage Creek SP north of Beaumont. It's a small park with some nice trails and a river where we may be able to kayak. ( It was too high on the way through in January.)
Then to another park we've enjoyed, Natchez, for a few days. We stay at Clarko in Quitman, MS while visiting our friends in Laurel.
Two years ago, we stumbled on a coffee/donut shop outside Alexandria, LA while heading home. It was a beautiful morning and we ate outside in the springtime air just enjoying the moment. It was one of those "remember that place we had donuts?" that we mentioned when recalling our first trip.
Then last year, on a different route home, things suddenly looked familiar and I said to Mary, "I think our donut place is up ahead." Well, we drove and drove and I was starting to think I was wrong ( for the first time all trip) when sure enough, up ahead was the place. The tables were gone and a new building next door but the people were friendly and the coffee and goodies as we remembered. And it was another nice day to sit outside a while.
Well, in planning this trip, I realized that the shop, if still in business, is right on the route from Natchez to Clarko.
We'll head north the Monday after Easter, probably stopping in Alabama and Kentucky for a few days, arriving in Xenia on Thursday. We'll park beside the house for a few days and then, Monday the 16th head east toward Vermont, arriving Tuesday night if all goes well.
So, I roughed out the segments and made the mistake of adding up the mileage, saying to Mary, "Do you know that it's 2216 miles home the way we've planned?" it's a good thing we want to see friends and family -otherwise she'd be tempted to fly to Dayton, then Albany.
But then, she'd miss the donut stop.
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My Latest Interest: Geocaching

I was out looking for a bald eagle's nest at Fountainebleau State Park when a Texas auto pulled up. The driver asked if I'd found it and having been there before, helped me locate it through my scope. When I asked if they were birders, he replied, "No, we are geocachers from Biloxi."

Well, I knew what geocaching was since our grandson, Mac, had just gone on a Cub Scout geo outing. When my new friend asked, "Want to see one?" I followed him up to a little path into the underbrush. He reached down and lifted up a root, showing me the drilled hole in the underside, with a small cylinder inserted. He showed me the rolled up log sheet inside - and I was hooked. I went to his website (Gulf Coast Geocachers)read up a bit, downloaded an iPhone app, and was off and running.

Here's a little of what I learned (from Wikipedia):
Geocaching is an outdoor sporting activity in which the participants use a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver or mobile device and other navigational techniques to hide and seek containers, called "geocaches" or "caches", anywhere in the world.

A typical cache is a small waterproof container containing a logbook where the geocacher enters the date they found it and signs it with their established code name.



Larger containers such as plastic storage containers (tupperware or similar) or ammunition boxes can also contain items for trading, usually toys or trinkets of little value.




Geocaching is often described as a "game of high-tech hide and seek", sharing many aspects with benchmarking, trigpointing, orienteering, treasure-hunting, letterboxing, and waymarking.

Geocaches are currently placed in over 100 countries around the world and on all seven continents, including Antarctica. After 10 years of activity there are over 1,532,000 active geocaches published on various websites. There are over 5 million geocachers worldwide.

So, I've done some geocaching at Fountainebleau and Lake Fausse Pointe in Louisiana and at Village Creek annd Goose Island state parks in Texas. I find that it goes well with dog walking, biking, and birding and like the fact that it gets you outside. I also like the geeky aspect of gps and online record-keeping and tracking objects around the country and the world. I also like the inter-generational potential of it; kids love it.

So for now, it's a "give it a try" activity to check out. When the birds are resting, it is a chance to get out the iPhone and see where the closest geocache might be. And perhaps, there's a new bird waiting there as well.

Farewell to Goose Island

We leave in the morning for Falcon State Park after eight days here at Goose Island. It’s finally shorts and T-shirt weather and we’ve enjoyed getting out to walk, bike, and run. Penny has become pretty well-known with her running alongside the bike. Lots of little yappy dogs here which tend to drive her (and me) a bit nuts.

The first morning we were here, the roar of airboats awoke us about 4:30 A.M. It was the last day of duck season and all the good old boys were out. It calmed down considerably after that although guides take out anglers about every morning -- with the resulting racket.

The birding has been wonderful -- and we’ve met several interesting folks. Last night we went on an owl prowl -- which turned out to be a walk along an oyster shell filled trail through the puckerbrush with Mary and fifteen others -- but no owls. The night sky through the trees was quite something -- these Texas nights can be quite spectacular.

This morning, after coffee, scones, and wifi downtown, we went to say goodbye to the whooping cranes. Three flew over as we approached and later, as we watched, a male from the group of three that reside there drove the newcomers off.

We met a guy today with a Bates sweatshirt so we had to query him -- and learned that he and his wife moved down here from New England about five years ago. He’s a photographer -- shooting birds and and scenery -- and loving living in Texas. I’ve seen the temperatures for this area in the summer. Mary and I, while enjoying the area a lot, have too much Yankee blood in our veins to move south. However, getting down here for part (or most) of the winter is enticing.

Falcon Lake got some bad press six months ago when the guy was killed by “pirates” on the Mexican side of the lake. That story always has had a phony ring to it -- no debris, no body -- so it will be interesting to hear the local version of the story. We hope to erect and launch the kayak but will be staying close to the U.S. shore for many reasons. I think it’s likely safer than it was when we were there last year.

Temperatures down there are forecast in the low 80’s just as the rest of the country is getting ready for another big storm. One side of me feels guilty -- but I suspect as soon as I see a Green Jay and three types of orioles, I’ll get over it.

Seriously, we will be thinking of our friends/family dealing with this tough winter.

Take a look at my latest post on the birds of Goose Island.

Settled In at Goose Island

The trip down on Saturday was uneventful and traversing Houston on a Saturday morning was relatively easy - although the Houston drivers must have trained in Boston. We did go by hundreds of school kids working along one of the Interstate exits and Mary remarked, “They are planting stuff.” Sure enough, sort of a Green Up day in January in Texas.

Once we got south of Victoria, the traffic was very light and the road Texas straight. The trip by Aransas refuge to Goose Island was familiar and it was good to have an easy 270 mile trip done.

Goose Island is very busy so we were smart to have reservations. Texas parks don’t reserve specific sites -- just a slot -- so it is take what you find when you get there. We were bummed that our favorite site from last year was taken but we found a spot nestled under some trees on Bayberry that will do fine. We have other campers a little too close with too many dogs but it is quiet -- I can hear Cardinals singing loudly as I type -- and we’ve already seen some nice birds.
Yesterday was laundry morning so Mary logged some time feeding quarters and I went looking for birds and coffee. We have a couple of little repairs to the Airstream for which I got some bolts and parts. We are settling in for some good birding -- there’s a raptor expert here this week. Penny has had some good runs with the bike setup and yesterday we saw three Whooping Cranes a few miles from here. Since we’ll be here for a week or so, I’ll likely be mostly blogging about birds I see. I’m including a Brown Pelican shot that I took yesterday as a teaser. Visit vtbirder.

Birder Heaven

Leaving Lake Charles, LA, we joined the trucks and RVs on I-10 heading toward Beaumont, Texas. We had decided not to tackle the Houston traffic, given our trailer’s propensity to blow turn signal fuses, and went north on a series of state roads, seeing some of the not-so-touristy side of the Gulf Coast.

Hardscrabble farms and tired towns, with some bright spots. We stopped to pick up some barbecue at a newly-opened restaurant in Conroe, ate it in the trailer at a vacant store parking lot (while the Vizsla napped in the truck), and motored on to Navasota where we camped at a small municipal site near the airport. A rainy, gusty night, a grubby washateria where Mary did laundry, and an impending flu bug made it a less-than-wonderful experience.

The drive to Goose Island State Park, in Rockport, Texas was easy with lots of straight Texas roads with 70 mph limits. We started to see lots of birds as we approached Aransas Wildlife Refuge and soon were searching for a site at the park - where we had made reservations. (Texas has an interesting process in their state parks -- you can reserve a slot for a date or period but not a site -- so you have to decide once you are there which available site you want.)

We found a nice isolated site surrounded by oaks and thickets and right next to a little bird sanctuary and the showers. We set up on the level site and I promptly got sick for two days -- pretty severe stomach bug. Lots of rest, fluids, and good care from Mary and I made a nice recovery yesterday.

I felt up to participating in Saturday's bird walk -- having missed the two earlier ones -- and was astounded at the variety as well as the knowledge of the volunteer guides. We saw about 45 species including willets, gulls, pelicans, ravens, vultures, ducks, and a white ibis. I don't know birds around the sea very well so it was very informative and just spectacular birding.

We really like this place -- it's a wonderful area. We decided to extend for another week rather than keep traveling. Seems nice to settle for a bit and enjoy the weather and the birding. Yesterday afternoon, we drove over to a field where two whooping cranes are living. There were a half-dozen other birders there -- some armed with monstrous lenses for their cameras. The birds were just regal, standing on one leg, preening themselves, ignoring their watchers. It's hard to believe that they fly down from upper Canada and that there are still only a little over 300 of them alive.

This is a nostalgic area for us. Last night out walking the dog, I was watching the sky full of stars and remembering night flying here, decades ago. I happened to remember a night cross-country where I was returning in a F-9 trainer with an instructor high over Houston and we just went inverted and watched the lights of the streets, parking lots, ball field for a while. I did my advanced flight training here, got my Navy wings here, and our daughter was born in this area. Our son got his USMC wings here as well.

So, we've got more whooping cranes to see at the wildlife center, a visit up to Beeville to find our old house and the hospital and the air station, and hope to meet up with my brother Barry and his wife Mica before they head further west. But the schedule is a vacation schedule -- and all plans are flexible. It's nice. Now I need to find those black-bottomed ducks.