REFUGE ADVENTURE

todays adventure started by going thru down town rockport and saw a few green blue herons flying then we nothiced many many more and thought this is s rookery so we stopped found a place to park got out and walked to the areawhere we saw the GBH's...we noticed many 75--100 or more birds in the area..many in trees and we sure tried totake pictures of all of them...but i am only putting one on the blog...it was most interesting to see this and we thought this has made our day..

then we went to goose island state park in the look out for whooping cranes...well we saw some..along with rosetta spoonbills-lots of ducks-shore birds-lots of differnt birds...then it was time to move on so off we went to aransas refuge area...

there we took the driving tour around the refuge and got out to walk severla of the trails where we saw more birds..and even more whoopers and some family members and we don't know which sinde of the family they are frm ..you can tell from one of the pictures..hahahaha...

all in all it was a good day we saw many more differnt birds than we ever thought we would..even deer-wild pigs-armadillos--and many more things that were hidden in the weeds..

so we had a good day..even had to shed our winter coats and wore just flannel shirts..the sun was out but the temps were only about 50...

CHORPUS CHRISTIE

WE are now in rockport not to far from chorpus christie...there just aren't any campground very near there so we found one about 20 miles away...yesterday it was rainy-cold all day so what did we do but go do laundry then after we took a driving tour around the city we are in and visited the visitors center for info...also bought some fresh shrimp..

today we went to padre island to get a national park stamp and what a bummer that was...they were in the process of sanding the floors and WOULD NOT LET US IN to get a stamp so in a way i was a tad disappointed by not getting a stamp...(but i guess i can get ove it) i know we were here i just won't have it in my book...

it wsas not a day to be on the beach and even the birds were staying put...we did see some sand hill cranes on our way to the island and lots of waterfowl on the water...some we knew what they were...lots of pintails-canvasback-redheads-scaup-coot-rudy-and now sure what elese there was out there...it has been a good visit here...

SPACE CENTER

today we spent at the houstan space center learning more about space travel..another most intersting day was spent...at the movies we saw and the shuttles were taking off i could just picture it for real especially after seeing one in person..we are glad tom had a bucket list of seeing a launch and we went along...just makes a person marvel at what can be done with a little be of thought of what is up there and lts go take a look ..

the space center was not very busy today which made it nice to get into all the exhibits whitout waiting..no school groupd or even bus tours early on...

so we have now been at cape canaveral--seen a launch--been to the space center so what's next..maybe a flight into space...oh i don't think so but it is a good thought anyway..

tomorrow we are heading down to corpus christie..and maybe warmer temps ..but the forecast is for cooler weather....i guess we will just enjoy what ever the weather will be....

SUPER BOWL SUNDAY

what do you do on super bowl sunday nothing that we wouldn't be back to the rig in time for the game...so what do we do go off to a wildlife refuge not to far away fro mwher we are right now...we spent probally 3 1/2 hrs touring around the refuge and watching the wildlife..

it was mostly waterfowl as a matter of fact there were thousands of snow geese that were fun to watch...alos lots of ducks some we are identify and some were too far away to really get a good sighting of them...

lots of different shore birds..

and there were some other wildlife that we weren't sure what they were...we called the the texas longhorn water buffalo ahhaha...(or just plain old cows)...so a good morning/afternoon we had..

now back to the rig in time to cook and eat before kick off...

GO GREEN BAY!!!!! or our numbers...

GALVESTON ISLAND

THIS MORNING WE DECIDED TO MAKE THE TRIP DOWN TO GALVESTON ISLAND---oops so off we went on a round trip around to the island and back again...we had to take a ferry over to the island the way we went but no on the return trip...the scenery reminded us and several different places we have been in the past...

off the ferry and into town where we went to the visitors center for some info..we decided tp park the truck and go to a seafront museum..which we fouund most interesting..alot of it was about shrimping in the area and how much they bring into the economy...we haven't bought any yet but it is on the list of things to buy one of these days..
we also picked u a brochure about some of the carving you see in the pictures..after hurricane ike went thru in 2008 there were alot of really big old trees that came down ..so instead of cutting them all down to the ground someone decided to carve things in them...so we picked up a map of the carvings and tried to see most of them (there are over 20 or more) so we made a good dent in seeing some...they are of dogs-sea life-frogs-one is of the tin man from the wizard of oz and that statue is in front of the directors of the movie..

decided to eat lunch out and we picked an english pub so of course i had fish and chips which was very goo and lar had crab cakes...

so another delightful day on the road...

FRIDAY THE 4TH

first i'll mention the pictures...lar in his new shawl and beanie with this cold weather and drafts in the rig lar thought he might need a shawl and beanie so i mad ehim one..scenes around the campground this morning..

we got up this morning thinking we might leave by 9am but with the forecast and the weather overnight we changed our minds...finally around 11 we left..but

first we had to get all the ice off the slide toppers which was a job..especially with all the rain we've had that turned into ice..it took us 45 min or so to do this job...but once we finally got on the road they were wet and all the bridges.overpasses were sure covered heavy with sand...so we were thankful that the roads had cleared up and only wet...

the schools closed the night before on the forecast and some of the schools around the area we were at have been closed almost all week..wonder when they will make up the time...

we are now in wallsville, tx for a few days thinking of going to galveston,tx and maye the johnson space museum near houston...

good to have wi-fi in the rig...

it sure is a good feeling that we don't have to be somewhere by a certain date at lest right now we have 3 weeks to get to the next build so we aren't worried..just hope we can see and do as much as we would like too..and the weather holds up and warms up a tad...

WE'RE BACK

it has been awhile hat i haven't be able to blog we have been in campgrounds that we have needed to go to the office in order to get message and no convient way to blog...but now we are in a campground where we have wi-fi at our site...

we are now in wallsville, tx...we have been in lafayette,la ..where we camped at a campground that had several ponds that we couhave fished in but the weather sure wasn't fishing weather..to cold but the birds were fishing...visited and got my first national park stamp so that has been a plus cause we weren't expected to get one here...then we went to longfellows place where the name of his estate was named envangeline after his very famous poem..most interesting and we wer glad we stopped there..

the weather hasn't been all that pleasant--yep we've been caught in the "storm"..we got mostly heavy rain but also ice..this morning we wer covered with lots of ice which delayued our departure from the campground...when we finally got on the road it wsa almost 11 which is late for us..roads were wet and bridges sure had been covered with sand..but the travcel was ok...

picture are of crossing the MISSISSIPPI--sunset at the campground-and downtown Breaux Bridge..