This Winters Last Gathering, A Free breakfast

We had managed to accumulate a small amount of money from our Monday Morning meetings, Sunday Ice Crean Socials, and a small amount from the Valentines Day Dinner. Not wanting any let over money we decided to hold a Free Breakfast. The menu was to be pancakes, sausage, scrambled eggs, with milk added, fruit cup, coffee, tea, and Sunny delight orange drink. Our friend John, who organized many of the breakfast gatherings, gave us a suggested menu and its cost per person. He also suggested how to cook large quantities of food for our gathering. Putting up a signup sheet we ended up with sixty people, including many who never attended a potluck or other social events. At the next Monday Morning meeting we asked for volunteers and were happy to have so many volunteers.

Dan cooked the eggs, Barb, the pancakes and hall set up

, and Marsha the fruit cups and orange juice. I ended up flipping pancakes and we had several assistant chefs who were busy,

Maurine prepared the batter,

Doug the egg and milk mixture, and Sherry, Shelly, Betty, Rhonda, Diana and others sliced up the fruit and poured the orange juice,

(my apologies to those I missed naming). Breakfast was served from 9-10 am and the Recreation Hall was crowded! We barely kept up with the pancakes but survived the onslaught and even ended up with a few extra pancakes. We ended up serving fifty-six people at a total cost of about one hundred and forty dollars, which came out to two dollars and fifty cents per person. Thanks for all who volunteered and everyone involved! Today, some have already left, and most are leaving very soon. As rver’s we don’t say goodbye, but we simply say see you down the road! Clear skies and safe travels

A Blue Lagoons happy hour fish fry.

Each Year we have a fish fry. These fish fries have been going on for at least twenty-three years. This year was harder to plan as we didn’t catch enough fish, at least for a while. Finally, nine different fisher people, (men and women), had just enough fish so that we could feed the twenty-four people in our happy hour group.

Dave and Jane always host the event, and we hold it in an empty space in the rv park. Dave prepares the fish, with very little help from me, and then he sets up his deep frier and I shake the fish in his special coating, (it took eight years before I was promoted to be the official shaker).

Meanwhile Jane and others set up tables with covers and filled them with each persons dish. Denny always does the beans, Barb bakes bread, and Renita makes a sugar free coleslaw,(low carb of course). Then when the last of the fish are fried, dinner is announced and after a short prayer the line forms. As always, we barely had enough fish to feed the hungry group, (twenty-five or so), and no one leaves hungry. That’s one of the many feeds we put on in our rv park. Spending the winter here allows us to make friends from all over. In the first picture are people from South Dakota, Michigan,(both trolls and Uppers), Illinois, Wyoming, Colorado, Iowa, Alabama, Texas, Oklahoma, and Minnesota. Thanks to Jane and Dave for planning and hosting the event!

The Lunar Eclipse, 3/14/2925 2 am Central Standard time

I am always amazed when I see a total Eclipse of the Moon. How can some people think that the earth is flat when you can see the curve of the earth’s shadow as the moon enters the penumbra and then the umbra, (the Earth’s shadow). It’s just one of the many ways that flat earth believers deny that the earth is a sphere and make fools of themselves. last night I got up early and Renita and I attemped to view and photograph the Lunar Eclipe alongside of our fifth wheel.Fog had moved on and tin clouds gave us brief and short glimpses of the Eclipse

I changed the iso and the shutter speed trying to get the best image. The cloud cover finally became totally overcast and at three am we gave up and called it a night. I actually feel pretty good about the images as we were fighting the weather conditions. Clear skies

The Gulf Coast Gem and Mineral Society Show, Robstown 2025

Each year our first major show is the Gulf Coast Gem and Mineral Societies show at Robstown, the first week of March. We look forward to displaying our new pieces of jewelry and we also look forward to it as a buying opportunity. Last year, our sales at this show decreased, leading to some uncertainty about future expectations. Would people still enjoy our work? Will the show be financially successful, (gold and silver prices have dramatically increased our costs)? It is after all one of our most expensive shows of each year.

Still the reason we have learned to work stone is because of the training and friendship of members of the Society. We extend our deepest gratitude to all of our club members, with special acknowledgment to the memory of our mentor, Dick Cline, who passed away at the age of ninety-three. Our friends Linda, Jerold Simpson, (Jerald taught us how to grind and polish cabochons), Mark Wolbrink, and all past club presidents and shop foremen whom have taught us how to slab rocks and maintain our own equipment.

The show opened with a short line of people, but attendance improved. We did learn that while the numbers were slightly down, Sunday’s attendance was much larger, and by the afternoon it was crowded! We both had some time to do a little shopping, (I bought some slabs, and Renita found some Jewelry). Still, we were barely breaking even until the last couple of hours when two different buyers showed up. They were both buying and purchasing multiple pieces, (our pieces are expensive), enough to make it a good show. Where before we were not sure if we would do the show again but we will definitely show again in 2026! Clear skies

The club had just elected a new president, who did an outstanding job in the set up and showed a great ability in attracting volunteers! Most importantly the club has rented a place for our club to set uo its equipment and reopen its doors to a rock lab. Classes will be offered in silver smithing, lapidary, and wire wrapping. The club is also planning on buying new equipment and the Grand Opening is scheduled for March 20! The club is looking for land and hopes to build its own building in two years! Outstanding!

Port Aransas, Bollards, A Bittern, and Black Drum

We hadn’t been to Port Aransas for a while and we have been meaning to go see the Bollard coverings. Each year volunteers cover the bollards, (posts that prevent cars from entering areas, with knitting that decorates them. The coverings are removed before spring break.

Dan and Barb had also planned on going so we got together and planned a mutual adventure. Arriving at the beach, after purchasing a beach permit, we started to walk, view, and photograph them, ( we did this several years ago and tried to just take pics of the newest ones).

We were surprised to see that there are now over four hundred covered bollards, and the walk turned into a pleasant form of exercise.

Here is another of our favorites!

After finishing our walk our next plan was to go birding at Charles Pasture and then the Leorna Turnbill Birding Center. We had just finished eating our picnic lunch at Charley’ Pasture when Renita spotted an American Bittern. They are extremely hard to spot as their camoflague is excellent. Renita had her camera and I had left mine in the car!

Dan also had his camera which has the same zoom lens we do and so they both followed the American Bittern as it walked and stopped looking for its prey! The large bird didn’t seem to care about us but it stayed in the brownish brush, making it difficult to focus.

Still, Dan and Renita both got some good shots, (the first two are Dans).

It turned out to be a new life bird for Barb and Dan, they already had a least bittern, one bird we have not yet seen. It was a fun day at Port Aransas! Thanks for sharing the day we us!

Another day Dave and I went fishing to one of our favorite places. I had an exceptional day catching three Black drum. Two measured just under thirty inches and a third was twenty six inches. I ended up taking two home, (I accidently dropped the other twenty nine inch fish overboard while trying to put it into the live well). While I have caught my limit of black drum, these were the three largest I have caught in a single day! Clear skies

Blue Lagoons Eight Ball Tournament February 2025

I noticed that there were quite a few billiards players in our park Billard/Game room. In the past there were usually a few but now there were quite a few regulars. As Activities Coordinator I thought perhaps an Eight Ball Tournament would be fun and so I put out a signup sheet to see if anyone was interested. With a little prodding there were eight people signed up, the cost was five dollars, and so we picked a date, February 21st, at nine am. I had watched the others play and since they were quite a bit better than I am I still added my name to the list. After all the tournament was about meeting other people, winning any money was furthest from my mind.

As the date neared, I decide to buy a pool cue and luckily found a Chinese made one that was on sale before the imposition of any tariff. It cost me about seventy-five dollars, which was a lot, but it was first pool cue I had ever bought.

It arrived five days before the tournament and I practiced for four days meeting the others and discussing the rules and brackets to be used, (most of the people beat me but I did remember how to play from my college days, fifty years ago). The morning of the tournament arrived and only seven of the players showed up, (the eighth showed up after we were in the second round past the place where his name had been changed to a bye). We agreed on the rules and drew cards for the order of play. Everyone started out equal in the winning bracket and if you lost you then moved to the consolation bracket.

To determine your first opponent I shuffled cards, number one through eight, and we each drew a card whose number corresponded to one of the eight starting bracket slots. I got lucky on the draw, (I was not the first, we drew in order of signing up), and ended up with the bye). The games started and I could see that there were some good players. My goal was to win one match and not be the first one out. It was a double elimination, with best of three games for each match. My first match opponent was a happy hour friend, and I could see he was good with his stick. I had already decided that my best strategy was to slow down, hit softly, and try to leave my opponent with a bad shot. Winning the first game, The second game started and I was behind. However, Kenny, my opponent, tried a difficult bank shot, on the eight ball, and scratched, so I won my first match! Because I had a first round bye I didn’t play another match until the final. Here I was pitted against another friend Bob. The day before we had played seven racks and he had beat me five of the seven games. Second place would be good and so I hit soft and played position ball. Bob won the first game, and I didn’t have a lot of hope but my strategy worked and I won the second game! Bob and I started the last game, (rack), and he pulled ahead. Then he broke up a cluster of balls and the eight ball went in by mistake. I couldn’t believe it, just like that I had won the tournament!

In other matches Don and Frank played for the winner of the consolation bracket. It was another close match and this time Don took the match and third place! The important thing was that we had made new friends, and that’s what the tournament was all about. Clear skies

Valentine’s Day Dinner, Blue Lagoons Rv Park

Every user we have a special dinner planned for Valentines Day. In the past we have had excellent prime rib and Cornish hens barbecued to perfection by our activity’s coordinators Zita and Alan. This year they were unable to come down for the winter, and so we had to figure out what to do. I volunteered to be the Activities Director/coordinator and with no one else wanting the unpaid position I won the vote, (it was unanimous). Having led an organization of over three hundred teachers I knew the only hope was to have lots of volunteers.

The key to forming a committee is to have someone bring it up at a meeting and sure enough, Marsha asked about Valentines Day. Now the unwritten rule is to ask the person who brought up a subject up to head a committee, (it worked well for Thanksgiving and Christmas and New Years Eve. Many friends and others provided Marsha with event suggestions. No one in the park felt comfortable about grilling the food and so it was decided to have the food catered. After making several inquiries, Marsha determined that Shack’s Smokehouse and Seafood was the best and only establishment that responded to her request. They offered to deliver four kinds of meat, potato salad, coleslaw, beans, and a spicey barbecue sauce, (remember this is south Texas, so spicy means a sauce that’s Muy caliente)! To round out the meal our local HEB Grocery store made cheesecake for fifty, The total cost for each person attending was twenty five dollars. Very reasonable for a catered hot meal. Forty-six people signed up (the park is not as full as it usually is for this time of year as the last managers were disastrous and were fired along with all their staff).

Before dinner, Dan and Barb greeted each guest and took their photos, which were sold to them at cost. Then everyone picked their places and waited for dinner to be served. The Shack brought the meal in a large, heated cooler and a slice of cheesecake were placed at each setting. After wishing everyone a Happy Valentines, Jane, who made the flower arrangements, led us in prayer and table after table was invited up to be served, (I had nothing to do with the order).

The servers filled each plate with the person’s request, and no one left hungry! It was a perfect Valentines meal served by friends, (we refer to all the people as our winter family)! The night and the food was a success! Thanks to Marsha, and all the volunteers who made it all possible, (where else could you get a meal for less)? Clear skies