Beach Fun and a Glamorous Camping Spot...

We are back home, at least for now after about 1700 miles and 10 out of the last 11 nights in the camper. This leg of the trip was down to Surfside Beach, Tx. which is one of our favorite places and also the location of a family beach house reunion for my son in law Tim's people, many from out of state and who we had met before at other family events. Their rental was just a short walk down the beach and they made us welcome at their communal meals. 

Instead of roughing it as we usually do on the free county beach with our solar power beefed up by generator use we sprung for the prime camp spot at The Breeze RV Park. We camped here about two years ago when we were still in the RPod Camper and many improvements have been made since then. In addition to the full hook up RV sites there are hotel rooms and I think some beach house property available to stay, beach buggy and jet ski rentals, a bar with kitchen and free continental breakfast, fire rigs, volley ball, cornhole, chair and umbrella set up, and a very attentive staff present to make sure things are going how you like it.    

We rented a beach buggy and the initial one they gave us, which was electric, slowed to an intermittent crawl way down the beach when I was giving Tim's family a tour. It gave his relatives a Texas tale to tell about the big hairy guy who stranded them but the Breeze staff saved the day replacing that cart with a brand new gas powered rig. 

I can tell I'm getting somewhere in life because I have grandkids to drive me around. Remember kids, first one to back the boat or the camper in the garages at home gets $100 prize but then they have to do it all the time after that. 

I did manage to catch a dinner of whiting that I turned into fish tacos. There is no size limit or restriction on Gulf whiting and they are a delicious eating panfish. I caught these on the first day while the water was still a bit green before the west wind turned it sandy brown and slowing the fishing. They were schooling right in the first gut close to the shore and I used a light rod with a tiny hook tipped with a pinch of shrimp. 

Generally there has been good beachfront fishing this summer and I am sorry to miss it but the lack of rain has made the sand loose with some of the beach entrances becoming a bit treacherous. I'm too old to be getting stuck and digging out, especially with a camper. 

There might be an October trip in the works but we will see. 

 

   

 

A Quick Travel Blog and Then Off Again...

We have been traveling and I am writing a quick blog to answer all your questions like where did you go and who is that woman in the closed beach area and so on. 

We have traveled to Kentucky for my cousin Carolyn and husband Doug's 65 wedding anniversary. It was a great party with great testimonies from their kids (cousins I'd never met) to their love, good food, music and fun. 

Along the way we camped in addition to our stay in Kentucky, Tennessee and Arkansas. The total trip was a little over 1500 miles.  

All the parks we stayed were familiar places to us being we camped there before and in Kentucky at Lake Malone State Park we always see sister Margret and Kevin at their lake house which is right across from the state park swimming area. You can see the house and dock in the trees behind Cathy. I guess since we area back in Texas maybe Kentucky laws concerning the use of closed swimming areas no longer apply. 

We are not home long and depart for the beach shortly where the swimming areas are always open. 

This is a month for travel because with Mary off from work with the baby we have have some free time. More blogs soon. 

A Road Trip...

 We are back from an 1800 mile round trip to Danville, Ky to see the Great American Brass Band Festival. It was a fun time at the festival, we stopped to visit family and along the way stayed in nice campgrounds in Arkansas and Kentucky in our camper. I'd highly recommend Jacksonport State Park.   

There was a very good little museum in the park headquarters telling the story of the area. It's the usual thing where big rivers and steam boats make markets and other places accessible, slave labor and fertile ground produce riches for those that have them but then there are floods, war and eventually the railroad bypasses the place and makes the steamboat obsolete and judging from the population stats the area has been in steady decline. You can see it in some of the houses and yards we passed on the way in the park. There were run down properties with old boats, cars and lawn mowers abandoned in the yard. 

You see the same thing in our East Texas area or maybe in our volunteer work for Saint Vincent de Paul we see it more. When we go homes to see how the charity can best assist people it literally looks like something has blown up there from the debris scattered about. Even in my neighborhood there are places close by with this junk car/trashed out chic look and I don't think the people there are particularly poor. 

In contrast Kentucky, where visit to see family and have found a couple of music festivals to like, seems like an unusually clean and orderly place and I can't quite put my finger on why. There is lots of agriculture work which can be difficult to make a living from but I rarely saw a disorderly property and it sure looks like they like to keep the yards mowed. 

For reference I'll post this photo of "The Lawn" where spectators sat on the Center College Campus where the brass band festival was hosted. It's very well kept and much of the surrounding area is like that.

I don't know if it's the influence of people working the land, the Amish community near by or the local  Shaker Village history that contributes to this neatness but it's certainty a notable thing. Some might even use the word, "picturesque." 

Whatever it is we could use some of it around here. I don't know enough about the history of the area to be aware of any boom and bust times as seen in the Jasksonport area that have had generational impacts on recovery. Makes me wonder, not to say anything good about data centers, they seem universality opposed by the general population locally and in Kentucky but if they pass us by will it be like the decline of steamboat usefulness and the next thing you know we can't keep our yards mowed? 

The Kentucky countryside outside of Danville was dotted with these signs. I did not see any signs in favor.  

I'll keep thinking on this and welcome any comments on ideas readers may have. Upcoming blogs will run down the music and bands seen at the festival, something I know about. 

 

  

     

Holiday Weekend Driving...

 I don't know if it was the high gas prices or if maybe everyone was home on their phones but the highways and campgrounds for the most part were very manageable on our recent trip from East Texas to Indiana. Even a pass through Little Rock, Arkansas which seems to be a magnet for every big truck in the tristate area was easy. Only one campground was really packed and on out final leg home Sunday the Love's Travel Stops where I buy gas because I have the 10 cents off per gallon app had crowds but it might have just been the fast food boxes of fried chicken livers that all these in the Midwest and south serve. 

Our first stop outside Memphis was T.O. Fuller State Park. It's a famous place, built by African American CCC workers it was the first state park east of the Mississippi open to their use. The pool was our of order which is something that seems common in these older CCC built sites but there was plenty of good day use areas in addition to the camping and an Indian village, excavation and museum which we will have to check out in the future. It's usually the kind of site I like to visit but with just an overnight stay I'd have had to ride my bike 4 miles on a farm road that was pretty narrow to share with automobiles.        

The most crowded park was John J. Audubon, also a CCC built park, in Henderson, Ky where we made three nights. It was handy for visiting family in Evansville, In. and close to attractions and good restaurants. Not crowded the first couple of nights but as the weekend progressed the campers poured in and sites were close and as there were more arrivals I noticed some challenging camper back ins and there were lots of kids on scooters and bikes. I tried to capture it in these photos. 

There was the John J. Audubon Museum on the grounds which is the largest collection of his art in the world and though he was very prolific and hard working he was very much the starving artist. 

Our last camp on the way home was Willow Beach, a Corps of Engineer facility located off the old Arkansas River. Good spaced out campsites and we had one of the best. Campground was full but only a couple of groups using the beautiful day use picnic sites along the river on a holiday weekend Saturday. Guess they were on their phones or something. 

There was a good boat launch and plenty of people fishing from modest boating rigs instead of the big bass boats with not a live scope sonar in sight. There something calming about casting a spinner bait and not worrying about gas prices. Works for me every time.  

  

 

    

The Latest Road Trip...

We are back home after 1641.3 miles and 33 hours of driving that saw us, along with Cathy's brother Matt visit Evansville, Indiana and see their sister Margret, husband Kevin and daughters Grayson, graduating from high school and Addison who had a birthday. We stayed in campgrounds in Tennessee, Indiana and Arkansas. You can check the truck dashboard photo for the full statistics.  

Here's Cathy and Matt at T.O. Fuller State Park in Tennessee. All equipment performed flawlessly. I'll probably do a run down of my campground reviews later.  

Cathy, Margret and Matt. 

Margret, Addison and Kevin celebrate Grayson's graduation from Signature School in Evansville, Indiana. She will be headed off to Georgia Tech to major in bio-medical engineering. Georgia Tech is a good place to be for that degree.  

 

In the lower right of this photo made from the balcony Grayson accepts her diploma and gets a hug from her grandfather, Bob, who is the President of the Board of Directors of the school. The 80 odd graduates on stage represent 24 million dollars worth of scholarships to top colleges around the nation. Signature is a very good high school.   

Since Georgia Tech is in Atlanta and we must drive right through there to visit Morgan, Ali and the grandkids is South Carolina we might see more of Grayson in the future.  

It was a good trip and I am sure I'll write a bit more later but in the mean time I need to get ready for the next one. 

Beachfront Camping Report...

Once, in another life, I was parked beachfront in my truck just sitting on the tail gate enjoying the sun. Three girls came walking by and said hi. I was at a loss for words but quick thinking led me to ask them if they wanted to toss a frisbee. I did not have any idea what girls wanted to do but I was giving it my best shot. One of them said, "Nah man, I could never throw one of those things," and they continued on down the beach. I've never asked a girl if they wanted throw a frisbee again. I've never even asked my wife if she would throw a frisbee. She'd probably say,  "Nah man, I could never throw one of those things."

We made of first beachfront camping trip of the summer this week at our secret spot on the Brazoria County Free Beach. If you are a regular reader here you will know it's where we camp free on the beach. No hook ups but bring water, run solar on the camper and a generator as needed. It's a sweet deal. We stayed Monday till Wednesday morning, avoiding the weekend crowd and pretty much had it to ourselves. The fish left us to ourselves as well with a rough surf and wind making conditions less than ideal for the surf. By Wednesday morning the wind had subsided, the surf lay flat and the sea weed rolling ashore had diminished and green water is expected with a couple of tide changes. 

In fact browsing the fishing reports looks like they caught them off the jetty yesterday and the surf was good this morning. I had netted a few live baits and tried lures since I did not feel the percentages were going to be high for me but I'll be ready with some shrimp for bait next time. 

Water looks pretty in this photo and even though no bites I wouldn't say I had a bad time. Some one once asked Cathy if Carl had to catch fish. She said, "I don't think so. He looks at stuff, makes pictures." I like the beach and I'm glad my wife is a beach girl. 

Water looks pretty in this reflected photo off the camper glass. 

On those windy days the fire felt good sitting on the beach at night as the air cooled when the sun went down. We never used the air conditioner but on the morning we left it was warming, the wind had dropped and made it easier for the biting horse flies to torment you. If the fish are biting I have enough repellant to make that tolerable.   

If ever on Surfside beach and you see a guy that looks like he wants to throw a Frisbee by all means, stop. 

 

 

Camping at Broken Bow, Ok...

We made a spring break trip to Beavers Bend State Park in Ok. It was our second trip to this area and we really covered some ground this time with camping, kid activities in town, hiking, cooking, a bit of fishing and more. It was a multi-family trip, really all one big family as we took grandkids Warren and Coraline, Great Grandma Geneva, the Zamora family and the Smith family. 

The Zamoras' and Smiths' had planned on tent camping but with rain in the forecast and thundershowers through the night ended up splitting a rental place (very nice) and we camped along the river.    

Geneva will soon be 86 and traveled to Broken Bow pulling her own camper. 

Our campers at the dam. This was where we saw the most fishermen and the only place I saw someone catch a trout. Last trip I caught one trout be this time I really saw few fishermen at the community holes when they have periodic stockings. This makes me think trout had not been stocked lately.  

 

The Smith Family. 

We had a couple of good hikes over steep rocky terrain. I report no chest pains and Mary checked my pulse once and it was only 120 so not too bad. 

Last trip I saw some folks catching a mixed bag of fish on earth worms and I brought some but the coons ate them. 

One day I may look back on these hikes with the grandkids like I look back on that 2019 climb to the top of the Statue of Liberty. Glad I did it then cause isn't happening today. 

I took a bunch of scenery photos so ya'll will think I spent the whole summer camping. 

Did I mention the groceries? Thanks to Travis for all the cooking he did. 

We don't have another big trip planned till May but hopefully with the rains our lake comes up and we squeeze in a few local camping trips to fill our days. 

Camping and Fishing Report Hanks Creek, Sam Rayburn Lake USA...

 If I counted up right as I reviewed back through this blog there have been 10 camping trips this year. For #10 we did not range too far from home as we set up at Hanks Creek which is about 20 minutes from our house and the jumping off point to our favorite fishing spots. As blues man Taj Mahal said "many fish bite if you got good bait" and bite they did this weekend. 

Though we camped by ourselves we were joined by daughter Katie from Chicago who was in for a funeral of a friend's mom, the Zamora family (there was fried catfish to eat) and our friends Sherri and Peter. Final total for catching fish was 42 for this three night trip with is right in line with a trip we had 15 years ago this weekend where we tent camped, it was colder, rained and we caught 48 fish. 

By the way, all those fish were eaten.

The lake is almost 9' low as you can see from the large exposed beach in the background of this photo. The fish were holding in the creek channels about 7 feet deep so they are still hanging in the same areas but it's worth a note that we have caught 100s of fish on that exposed sandbar behind these fishers. 

Yeah mama, eat it every day if I could. 

I don't think I got a photo of Katie or Miguel but they might not have fishing licenses and in a surveillance society no need to incriminate.   

Big gator living in the campground cove. This photo taken in sight of our boat docking spot. 

Bikes always fun on a campout. 

Not many campers in the park. We saw maybe 6-8 sites occupied but many are still closed from hurricane damage last summer or spots where you could pull a boat up are not close to the water with the lack of rain and dam repair draw downs. One bathroom is closed. All camper we talked to were catch catfish but I think they were mostly fishing deep so take your pick. Fish are everywhere. 

No trips currently on the books but I'm open to suggestions. 

 

Best I Figure 2010 Miles...

The best I can figure it from place to place of latest travel trip in our camper was 2010 miles over 11 days and that's not counting detours for fried catfish, the Moogsuem and thrift shopping. We visited family, Morgan, Ali and kids in South Carolina, Cathy's sister Margret in Kentucky (with a side trip for the rest of that crew in Evansville, In.) where we missed a visit with my cousin Carolyn because she was under the weather and the Jessie Mae Hemphill Festival in Clarksdale, Mississippi and a final stop to see nephew Chase and HD in Shreveport. I don't think I've missed anything.  

Morgan and crew on Lake Harwell.   

Margret and Kevin's Lake house in Dunmor, Ky on Lake Malone. We camped in Lake Malone State Park just across the lake. This is Muhlenberg County of the famous John Prine song. The house is nice but no photos of the inside which is all torn up for renovation. This lake which is about the size of the old papermill lake back home looks like a great place to fish and hang and enjoy some old school lake time.  

Great scenery around the lake and though we are not big fall color people you could catch a breath of the changing season as we cruised around the lake. 

Our next stop for the Jessie Mae Hemphill Festival was the old Stovall Gin Company outside Clarksdale Mississippi. This is the exact location where folklorist Alan Lomax recorded blues singer Muddy Waters for the library of Congress in two session during 1941 and 42. It's still a working farm bt there are four camper hook ups for water and electric. No showers or other perks and we had the place all to ourselves. A worker for the farm stopped one day because he though we were the crew to set up the stage for the upcoming Mighty Roots festival on the grounds next weekend. 

Clarksdale is a great place. I had last been through for a brief lunch stop 30 odd years ago but the people are friendly, at the festival you could just sit around and chat with the performers, food was good, when seeing the love music there was places for old people to sit and there were no crowds. Oh yeah, the music was great also.  

At the festival you wouldn't see the big worldwide names but there were plenty of local and regional legends. Names like Kimbrough, The Rising Stars Fife and Drum Band, the organizer of the festival Lady Trucker of boundless energy and huge singing voice, Lighting Malcom a great Texas band Spitcup and the Jukes and more. Together they put on a great show. 

One example was this guy who they all called Mr. Farmer. He filled in for Mr. Joe Ayers, famous as a member of Jr. Kimbrough's band who had had a fall. If this is the fill in act I know Joe would have been great. 

The family visits were great. We can't wait till next time. Clarksdale, see you again.