A Wedding, A Camp Out, Everything is Everything Blog Post...

We made it out for another camping trip last weekend to Twin Dikes Corps of Engineers Park with the purpose of spending the weekend celebrating the wedding of cousins Kassidy and Pryde at Rayburn Country. 

It was a great wedding and I say cousins because both are my cousins from different sides of the family. Kassidy is my 3rd cousin on my mom's side and the connection to Pryde is through the Nerrens on my dad's side. My 3rd great-grandfather George Washington Nerren and his 4th great-grandfather Benjamin Franklin Nerren were brothers.  

I knew way more of the Wiley side of the family than I did of the Nerren side of the family present and I had a great time talking to younger cousins Caleb and his girl friend Angelica and cousin Justin.   

Thanks to Connie for the photo. Cousin Dixie sent it to me.      

Twin Dikes was a good enough camp. The lake views were great and another camper tipped me to a fishing spot in sight of camp but sites were much closer and less privacy than we are used to having on the beach and in state parks. Seemed like all the campers around us were part of a group or family and there was a rotating party that each of the camps took turns hosting. 

Lots of black squirrels in the campgrounds. 

We didn't fish but rode bikes all around the area. This photo taken at the nearby fish hatchery. Years ago I remember taking the old scout trip for a tour of this facility which was in a different but near location off the river and the scouts got to fish in some canals running between holding ponds. I recall one little boy whose name I don't remember having such fun fishing that we practically had to drag him away. 

The hatchery was closed today, the ponds were empty and there are tours on Tuesday and Friday that I'll have to bring the grandkids for.    

I made this photo from the Twin Dikes boat ramp and I think this must be the spillway for handling overflow. The lake is still scheduled for a draw down due to dam repairs so this won't be in use anytime soon.  

Locals probably have a name for this island but I don't know what it is. It's right there beside old Rattlesnake island and I would imagine as my dad used to say the bottom of the lake between them is "paved with beer cans." 

We checked out of the campground Sunday morning and stopped by another Nerren cousin, Della.  Della is my Grannie's sister Winnie's grand daughter. She lives in Brookland ,Tx and her home is a renovated dog trot house furnished with antiques and historical pictures from the area and the Willis family that previously owned the property. The house sits lakeside in an area once occupied by the Ayish Indians. Della gives you the full tour when you visit and as one of our hobbies has been touring old historical homes I can assure you this is one of the better history lessons you can get. 

It was a good weekend. A wedding, a camp, cousin visits and if life gets better I don't know what I'll do.         

Things My Dad Used To Say...

 My dad, Gene, passed away Oct 26, 1991. He's been gone a long time now and I am older now than he was when he passed. Cathy's dad Bill has only been gone 4 years and I had the time to know what he thought about everything so sometimes when I'm in a situation I wonder, "what would Bill do?" I'm left to wonder what my dad would have thought about this or that in the world today so to help me make my way I recall some of the things my dad used to say.

 Keep reading at your own risk because my dad used profanity. He didn't cuss the family but it was often said he liked his job because he could cuss and rear to his hearts delight. 

 

"How in the hell did that get like that?" Usually used when observing a tangled fishing rod. I use the expression in almost any situation. 

"Did he take it plumb out of sight." A question when bobber fishing for him to determine how good a bite you got. I ask my wife this all the time when we are on the lake. 

"Is he trying to run under the boat with it?" An attempt by my dad to determine how hard the fish you were fighting was pulling. I still use this. 

"It could outrun the stink of it's own a##." Occasionally used when describing the muscle cars of the 60s and early 70s but most often used to refer to some one speeding down the river with a 20hp boat motor. I wonder what my dad would think of the 200 and 300hp models common today. There's plenty of people trying to outrun it.  

"Couldn't stick a finger in his a## with both hands. An inept person usually one with a college degree. Used because though he had practical engineering knowledge his formal schooling only went to the 8th grade.  I have a college degree, my wife has a degree, my brother has a degree, most people I know have one and some of his grandchildren have college degrees. We might could convince him to change his mind.  

"Whatever she wore you had to be able see up it, down it or through it." Comment on women's fashion. 

"Giving it an enema" When you see a neighbor working on his car and requiring a combination greater than 3 of hood, trunk or doors open at any one time. 

"I'm getting to where I can't see." After a day of fishing when the evening shadows grew long with great ceremony my dad would remove the clip on sunglasses from his bifocals and say this. It was a signal that he was ready to go home. Once when drinking beer and fishing with my friends I told them about this and as they got more inebriated they began exclaiming this. I use my dad's old tackle box for my saltwater gear. Those clip ons are in there. Since my prescription sunglasses are several scrips old I am actually getting to where I can't see to tie a hook on with them so I may start with the clip ons and day now. 

"This is the day they pave the bottom of the lake with beer cans." My dad said this on holiday weekends. He was referring to weekend pleasures cruisers whom he expected to overcrowd the water, the parking lots, drink beer and litter. In modern times I often go to the lake on holiday weekends because that's when my family has days off and it certainty does not seem as busy as a weekend when I was a kid. It's possible that people are not outside as much and I'm not on the part of the lake that hosts big time bass fishing or maybe my dad just wanted a long weekend in the easy chair.      

    

Once when my son was little he told me, "you are not like other dads." That's another story but I think it's safe to say no dad is like another dad. 

  

High Tides and Alligators Forever...

 I always say I'm one of those life long learners. Earlier this summer camping at the beach, we were still in the Rpod and I learned that winds gusting to 20mph would nearly take the pop out tent off the back of the camper. This trip I learned that the combination of a gusting NE wind, a nearly full hunters moon and probably a storm down south around central America will produce tides 2.76' high which is enough to reach the dunes where we have camped 3 times already this summer when the water did not even get close.  

We made a good day of it meeting Jim and Sandy and Rose and Tim and crew at the beach for some good hang time. This set up is pretty close to the edge of the water and when we left the occasional wave was washing under our camper in the background. There were more campers up and down the beach, none close, than other trips and one guy drove by to say the waves washed sand out from under his tires the night before till the slide out was on the ground.  

At least I did not get skunked on the fishing with the score one whiting which was one more than my brother in law caught. Whiting are a pan fish, no limit or size and while not the glamor of trout, reds or flounder they are decent eating. I'd like to fry up a bucket full on a cool fall afternoon and serve them up with a horsey cocktail sauce. 

The water approaches. Jim had moved his truck three times at this point. 

The tie eventually forced us to withdraw to Rose's driveway in Lake Jackson. Electricty and water is free there, I run the black water tank into a neighbor's flower bed and S'mores taste the same there as they do at any camp ground. 

Brazos Bend State Park is just north of Lake Jackson. We have tried to reserve there before but like most state parks near metro areas the weekends including day passes are often booked. No problem getting a Monday night campsite. We stayed the one night and enjoyed the park trails and sightings of many birds, humming birds, butterflies, deer, squirrel and alligator.   

The park is famous for the gators and though there are many swampy lakes, creeks and old river oxbows it's no boating or swimming allowed. I always find this a curious rule because locally I'm boating and swimming around gators already. Great place for the bikes and I wish we had had ours.  

Any questions about why signage in two languages is a good thing? 

How another life long learner be looking when she realize there's also a bigfoot in the park. 

Del Castillo in Concert...

Well I never saw Lynyrd Skynyrd or Molly Hatchet or Blue Oyster Cult but I've seen Santana, Jose Feliciano, The Gipsy Kings, Rodrigo y Gabriela and now playing at SFASU in the Turner Auditorium I've seen Del Castillo.      

If you don't know Del Castillo they blend Latin, rock and world music with a flamingo vibe and lightening fast guitar fire works and I mean those guys use every finger into a happy uplifting mix that has them dancing around the stage and looking like they really enjoy what they do. 

The reason I contrasted music with a Spanish/World Music vibe with rock bands is that often when I find myself at a festival and wander away from these kinds of bands to catch some rock act I find the most self absorbed 1,2,3,4, beat that sends me back to where things are a little more hopping. 

Thanks to SFASU for a great show! 

 

 

Haiti and Pete Rose, More Alike Than You Think...

 If I get a chance I always go see Haitian music. There's a lot to unpack in that music and it beats standing at a show counting a 1, 2, 3, 4 rock beat. I don't go to baseball games as much as I would like to but I take in the Astros when I can and when in Chicago have been able to see the Cubs at Wrigley Field and since the PK are on the Sox side of town I've been there also. My dad took us to Astros games in the Dome and it's possible I saw Pete Rose play as a child but I really don't remember. With Haitians in the news and Pete's passing it occurred to me how much they are alike.

The Haitian Revolution, slaves rose up against rose up against French rule to free themselves 1791-1804. It was a terrible bloody time but the French and later the British and Spanish who all came to be involved in the conflict were pretty impressed with former enslaved people's initiative and organization and American slave owners were so scared by it that they banned anyone from Haiti (some slipped into New Orleans) and by 1808 had banned importation of Africans preferring homegrown enslaved people to anyone than might cause trouble. The war probably helped the USA in the fact that the horrible losses of troops suffered by the colonial powers blunted their ambitions in this hemisphere but Haiti was left destitute when in 1825 France sent warships to demand repatriations for those that owned land and slaves. Haiti was forced to take out loans which hurt prosperity and though paid off in 1947 the country has never recovered and is rife with gangs and occupied by U.N. police forces. 

That's the history of the Haitian Revolution in a nutshell as I read in Ned Sublette's books which pile many interesting tidbits on history, culture and music together. Apparently some are still taking it out on Haiti by claiming immigrants in the U.S. fleeing the current chaos eat household pets. That's a long grudge. 

Pete Rose, the all time hits leader in major league baseball bet on baseball and as a manager he bet on his own team. He admitted these things. Pete's nickname was Charlie Hustle and by all reports may not have been all that nice of a guy having led a controversial life and baseball seems to have it in for him by basically ignoring attempts at reinstatement (hind of like Haiti) while other people have been tarnished by betting without suspension and as long as I check the box that says I'll old enough I can download an app to bet on sports from my phone. Don't tell my wife about that as she's all in for Mahomes and I don't want her that far in.   

I think we can connect the dots pretty easily between Pete and Haiti. Both are on the outs with the powers that be. The question is how do you get back in? Do we summon Papa Legba? I may be asking this myself by the time the other hand, which we are never watching reads this blog. 

             

   

     

Chicago, Evansville and All Points in Between...

 We made a great trip to see family in Chicago and Evansville, In. this past week. It's traveling and living and while we are not visiting the Grand Canyon with specular views we are enjoying the company of people we love the most. It can be a little hard to rationalize the joy we have in our lives with the terrible things going on in the world such as storms, war and political unrest but maybe we just do the things we can as we can and pray for the best. 

One thing that might have an effect on the world and something that made me as well as my pocket book happy was the performance of out hybrid gas electric Toyota automobile. We racked up 2049 miles driven getting 50.1 miles per gallon, used 40 gallons of gas and spent $110 dollars on fuel. Maybe I won't save the planet today as my next trip to the beach my Ford F 150 will use 40 gallons to and from my favorite shark fishing spot but driving a hybrid to met the needs we can is a start and a start is what we need. 

Speaking of starts we saw these wind farms along the way. Actually Texas leads the nation in wind farms but the are mostly in southern Texas where I don't often travel. Illinois and Indian, though we saw many do not even make the top 5 list.

We also saw quite a few solar farms. Texas rates number 6 on solar. In Chicago Katie and Peter have a solar plan for panels on the roof which requires and investment but the plan is that by their retirement and of course taking in developing technology that the harvest of power will amount to a passive income stream. 

Also along the way I noted many service stations advertising EV charging. Granted with the technology we have now I could not have driven 12 hours straight from Indiana to sleep in my own bed with the neighbor's cows mooing in the backyard but as with the energy changes we saw it will happen one day. The naysayers may say it won't and that you can't charge your car when the power goes out but one day you will.  

Like I say I did not view the Grand Canyon but while in this save the planet mode I hit several thrift stores and picked up several records (another blog post), a pair of skinny leg black pants and a couple of used climate fiction change books.  

Kim Standley Robinson is a noted climate change author and I've read several of his books. He includes the science to back his stories up. Afterglow is a short story compilation and so far the resounding vibe I get from the stories is hope and that mankind does not start to make changes until it is apparent there is a disaster about to happen and then while the world becomes a quite different place it also becomes a better place while the planet begins to bloom and grow again so do the people. 

That's also a good pattern for us, to love, to travel, to bloom, grow and change.