Camping McKinney Falls and HonkTx!....

 For the third year in a row we camped at McKinney Falls State Park outside of Austin, Tx and used that as a base of operations for attending the HonkTx Street band Festival. HonkTx is one of those things I always yearned to attend when I was working and it seemed like that's what I was doing every time they scheduled it but now I'm free and the festival is like a band geek paradise if you want to dress up, dance around and fit in like you have never fitted in in your life because you were like this weird guy or girl that played a horn that no one else did. 

Water was a little cold but on hotter days Cathy and grandchildren have jumped off that rock she's standing on at the Lower Falls.      

One thing attending HonkTx re-enforces for me each year is that there is a place in the world for everyone.  

Our old friend Darwin, who lives in Austin stopped by our camp for a visit and some biking on the trails. 

Great park for bikes. Probably 40 years ago me and Darwin would have been scrambling down that cliff to get down and fish and swim in the creek below and would have done it carrying an ice chest full of beer. Now days I don't drink beer and while with the getting down part gravity would be your friend but getting back up might be a challenge as would taking the long way around looking for a short cut.   

HonkTx is a free festival. It's all kinds of music from everywhere and it's for everyone. If you were a band geek and never really quite fit in here is your chance to dress crazy, find a place for your music and dance wildly. It guess you could say it's woke and it feels good.     

I think I took some of the best photos of live music I have taken in some time and I was using an old kodak camera from several generations back after a couple of newer ones became causalities of rigorous outdoor use.   

I also met some internet friends, Dylan in purple on drums with Emperor Norton's Stationary Marching Band is in a Doom Brass Band I have been following called Eight Foot Manchild. It's distorted guitar and tuba with lots of effects pedals. ENSMB and Eight Foot Manchild share members and Dylan writes the music. I had on Eight Foot's tee shirt and I think I snapped this photo when Dylan saw my shirt.  

Looks like Alison, on tuba for both groups also saw my shirt and at the end of the day we all met and introduced ourselves.

The Kosmonauts from France. 

Many tubas. 

My friends think I have nice adventures and I tell them I just do free stuff like this festival. Of course they ask for donations to support it and the bands sell music and tee shirts which of course we bought but these are my people and it's good.   

 

Adonis Rose and the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra at Temple Theater...

 Last might we saw great music by Adonis Rose and the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra at Temple Theater as part of the Angelina Arts Alliance Series concerts.  It was a great show, the kind we need to have Lufkin to grow into a city where vibrant, varied and insightful music comes to us. 

We did not buy season tickets this year choosing to cherry pick the shows we liked best and for this last minute impulse we got the cheaper balcony seats. They were first row but when ushers noticed Cathy might not be seeing over the rail well they upgraded us to more expensive seats a row back. Also one of the Huntington High School band directors, an acquaintance who I have played together with in the civic band brought his kids and they sat as a group in the balcony. I like this because sometimes when I meet younger players they are playing really well but may not be exposed to different styles of music and are not well versed in what is actually possible on the instrument. It never fails that when I visit a place like New Orleans and see someone doing somethin with a horn that I've never seen before.       

The Jazz Orchestra's take on New Orleans music was a very big band style sound that gave Jelly Roll Morton and Louie Armstrong tunes and updated sound in addition to the many original compositions performed. Lots of good solos by each section with intricate trade offs between members of the sax, trombone and trumpet lineup. The trumpets were really screamers with all members hitting the high notes. 

Back in August we saw an abbreviated version of this group at Satchmo Summer fest that calls itself the NOJO 7.   

They ended the show in Fine New Orleans tradition with a second line parade through the audience.   

From the Jazz Orchestra web site:

NOJO stand in solidarity with those on the front lines fighting for justice and equality. The losses that black people have suffered and continue to suffer at the hands of those who pledge to protect and serve must stop. 

In the spirit of healing, NOJO Will continue to use alchemic power of music to create transformative experience is that inspire social change.

Also of note in town yesterday was The local brewery hosting The Rusty Axe Blues and Brews festival in downtown Cotton Square. We stopped by before the Jazz show for a great meal from Viet Fusion Food Truck (they ask how spicy and on a scale 7 to 10 was pretty good) and a set of blues standards by The Brickyard Blues Band. Playing later was The Mighty Orq who we saw in Houston opening for Fantastic Negrito. Orq puts on a good slide guitar show with lots of time altered effects which make him a man after my own heart. I how he was a hit for Lufkin. 

I guess when I had my last drink Lufkin was still a dry town (I think there is a history of temperance movements which rid the town of saloons) and you could not buy it in stores and breweries were unheard of. It still takes me a bit to get used to people walking down the street drinking it but like the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra playing here changing times brings new things.  

Neches River Fishing Report...

We made the trip to Chandler River Park on the Neches River to fish the white and yellow bass run. White bass were in short supply and we only caught a couple but the yellow bass, which have no size restriction or limit cooperated and in about three and a half hours or so we had supper.   

I can imagine this area could be crowded if the bite was on good for a weekend day but we were pretty much by ourselves at a favorite spot where we have caught these fish three years in a row now. We had pretty much stopped fishing and were sitting on a log eating lunch when a couple of guys came by and asked how we were doing and when we said a few they immediately stopped and started fishing. We had spread our chairs pretty wide on the bank taking up a lot of space so for a community hole like this I don't know which was the worst manners but since the bite had slowed we let them have it.  

I'd like to bring my canoe here sometime and I did talk to a kayaker who claimed it was the worst year in 30 years he has been fishing the spring run. I had seen some internet chatter that the yellow bass had taken over this part of the river. That's ok with me as the white bass is a bit of a course meat and I've eaten enough of that in my life and prefer the more panfish type quality of the yellows. We don't need a freezer full of these things. Nothing is fishier that a package of white bass fillets caught during the spring run thawed out for a 4th of July fish fry. I doubt the yellows would freeze well either.   

SOMEBODY said I looked like an old man in this photo. Maybe just a river rat. 

Thanks to my friend Quince who gave me a package of inline Mepps style spinners purchased off TEMU. I'd say they produced a dozen of these fish with second place going to the old favorite Roadrunner and third a simple ball head jig.    

Without the TEMU lures we would have had a nice fish fry for me and Cathy but with them we had enough fish to invite the Zamoras over. 

Yellow bass fillets makes an attractive plate. 

If you invite this crew you better have 21 fish. 

I also made a dew berry cobbler with a bag of berries the boys picked last spring and with the vines loaded with blooms I thought I better clear it out of the freezer. 

Sitting around the fire made everyone want smores. I passed on these but the warmth felt good. On a windy March day I don't think anything can be colder than sticking your hand in an ice chest full of white bass to fetch another fish to fillet. Somehow we will carry on.   

 

Open the Envelope...

 At the risk of a free trip to El Salvador I'll say I'm not a President Trump fan. I think he pulls levers to the apparatus of the world that he knows not what the results of his actions will be. Good evidence of this is his reversals of of announced actions and the walking back of awkward statements. I see that today Trump announces the release of government documents pertaining to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and this gives me the idea for a speculative fiction novel. 

The Kennedy assassination has long been the territory of conspiracy theorist of which I am not one. I do imagine a story, a novel, a movie where as the event fades into the confusing mists of time and no one even remotely concerned with the plot is still living there are unknown players in place. The way these mysterious characters operate is that each one of them is an isolated cell from the other and they are each in possession of a set of envelopes. The envelopes have a triggering event written on the outside which on occurring the envelope is opened and the actions on the inside are initiated by the unknown player. There are many players and many envelopes and sometimes a player has more than one envelope.  

For example (and this would not be my blog unless I could make it about me) I know someone whose father was in the school book depository that Oswald used as a sniper station on Nov. 22nd, 1963. This was never part of the investigation but say this man's name was made public.  That would be a triggering event for the opening of an envelope and events would unfold from there. These events might even cause more envelopes to be opened.  

The release of secret documents by a sitting president could also be a triggering event and lead to the opening of another envelope by another unknown player and then the results of that leads to another envelope and so on. 

The envelopes are levers that produce actions, some large and some small throughout the world. So much has been speculated about Kennedy's murder for all we know an envelope is opened and an action initiated every day. There will probably an envelope opened today.      

If you like my movie idea it's for sale or this would not be my blog. 

              

The Great Spring Break Catfish Roundup...

We headed out to the lake with the Flying Zambroskis who have been on spring break. The wind was out of the perfect direction for some catfish slip corking at one of our favorite spots which by the way did not produce last trip. That trip turned into a good one, just had to hunt the fish down but this one was high on the excitement plan as everyone had some good action. 

If you note the details of this picture you see a blue cat on the floor of the boat in a net. The deck crew was busy netting the first fish while the second fish was busy almost pulling Cathy's second rod in the lake. 

 We had a practice session on casting and reeling the day before this trip so the boys were ready and Luca hooked and landed his personal best blue cat which we did not weigh but I imagine a good solid 5 pounds at least.

  Note the orange marker buoy to the right of the net handle in the photo. We use these to mark drop offs and chummed areas. Ezra hooked a fish I would guess in the 5 to 7 pound range which tangled him in the buoy which then hung solidly on the bottom and between all the pulling and the fish fighting and everyone trying to help managed to break 15 pound test line. Ezra was not disappointed as he got to see how big the fish was and it was an exciting experience for all of us and a good man against screaming beast struggle. This is an indicator that Ezra enjoys the quality of the time spent on the water over the quantity of fish boated.     

Besides he caught more and got to drive the boat. 

The fish were in water about 6' deep next to a flooded island. We used slip cork rigs. If you don't know about these they are rigged by using a bobber stop knot on your line at the desired depth you wish to fish followed by the cork and then a weight and a treble hook. We have been doing good lately with a smaller size hook than we usually use.  

Milo, who fought and threw a rusty fit to get his turn at backyard casting the day before seemed content to laugh like a little manic every time a fish came in the boat. 

With the big fish coming right off the bat and all the excitement I was slow getting on the leader board but I finally manage a couple of channel cats and one decent blue. It seems we are catching more and bigger blues this year because it normally takes 20 or so channel cats of fillet size like I'm holding here to feed the Zambroskis and lately they have been sated with 9 or 10 blue cats. 

I do note that the guided catfishery similar to Lakes Tawakoni and Texoma  seems to have arrived on Sam Rayburn with guides advertising services by posting pictures of ice chests full of fish like Luca's and usually one big double digit cat. I knew this would happen as techniques improved and spread and also with the use of the live scope fish finders. 

Just for the record I've fished that spot in the photo of me and Milo for almost 50 years and caught at least 7 species of fish there. My dad showed me the place and now my grandkids know it too.     

Final count was 12 fish. A very rewarding, happy day on the water. 

South Carolina Trip...

 We made a camper trip to see Morgan, Ali, Parker and Cullen in Greenville South Carolina where they moved due to a job promotion with Morgan's employer West Fraser. We traveled pulling our camper and the Zamora family along with Uncle Matt met us there. As you can see it was a grand reunion of cousins.    

I think final totals for our travel was 1842 miles and about 40 hours of driving. Our camp spot in Greenville was just your standard RV park 15 minutes from the Wallace residence but we had nice Corps of Engineer spots in Mississippi and Alabama. Lake Hartwell on the border of Georgia and South Carolina looks to have a fine hybrid and striped bass fishery and I look forward to camping there and taking advantage of that. 

Greenville has a nice downtown and lots of outdoor type activities nearby. Population is listed at 72,000 but even though the greater economic and cultural region counts north of a million folks it was easy to navigate area and restaurants and attractions never seemed crowded.  

This was Conestee Wildlife Preserve located just a short drive from the RV park

Of course there were spaghetti and meatballs. 

Me and Morgan. 

What ever I am doing if anyone says, "lets get the cousins together," I'm gone. 

In fact we got a chance to get together with my cousin Marilou and husband Mike on a stop in Stone Mountain, Ga. Thanks for lunch guys! 

Our next trip is in a couple of weekends to McKinney Falls State Park here in Texas where we will go into Austin for the HonkTx street band festival. It's free and I invite all Austin peeps and brass band geeks to meet us there!  

  

  

Mardi Gras Fish Fry at St. Patrick's...

We had a great Mardi Fras Party at St. Patick's Catholic Church. Proceeds from fish dinners donated and cooked by the Knights of Columbus and Pop-Pop's Famous Gumbo which I cooked went to our church St. Vincent de Paul Conference. Looks like we sold about 125 plates and they were good heavy servings of fish and all the gumbo you could eat. 

If you know anything about SVDP you should know that it's a world wide organization that helps our neighbors in need.  Different conferences do things like food pantries, thrift stores and food kitchens but our group seems to have found a place helping the working poor who have hit some kind of bump in the road that got them behind on bills or people that have become stuck in our city and need help for a a bus ticket to a place where they have more support. It's necessary for our neighbors to have a way forward and the basics of our ministry is a home visit to determine how we can help since our funds are limited to what is donated by the members of our church which we could see by the success of this fish fry is solid.     
 

If you ever wondered what you can do to help people, this is it. 

It was great to see Father Denzil back in action. He has been laid up recovering from a back surgery and he has been very instrumental in starting our group and it's been unusual to not have his energy present in the parish.  

Cathy decorated for the party while I cooked. If everyone has a ministery or a calling I guess one of ours is throwing a great party. Thanks to all who helped with cooking, serving, clean up and more. 

 My grandson Milo stood behind me in our newly remodeled hall kitchen begging, "bite, bite" all the while I cooked.