Spring Migration, it’s time to head North

Winter is long over and its getting hot and humid in South Texas on the Coastal Bend.. Too much for us Winter Texans so the Northward Migration is in full blast. Earlier a group of friends from Oklahoma left and now the rest of them are leaving.

We gathered to watch our friends go and the first to leave were a couple from South Dakota, Doug and Maureen. The Happy Hours Cat, Susie also watched, (she is a feral cat that allows us to per her!)

There was a short delay as the next couple had to remove their state flag, Colorado, from their rear view mirror, but Kenny figured it out, (it was all in good fun as his fishing buddy, we won’t mention Bill’s name, from Michigan admitted the prank).

Next to head north were friends from Oklahoma, Lynn and Bobby, Joyce, and Ed and Marsha. Most of their Oklahoma contingent had already left. Finally, Pam and Roy, Renita’s sister and her husband Roy started their four-day drive to Iowa where they work as campground hosts in one of our favorite county parks.

The park was emptying, and the next day we joined the exodus along with our friends Dan and Barb. They are fulltimers, stopping for a birding week at High Island Texas, before trips to Alabama and Tennessee. We don’t pull our fifth wheel anymore, but have it stored twenty miles from the Gulf of Mexico’s Coast, hoping to avoid any possible hurricane damage. We are traveling further than anyone else with a migration of over nineteen hundred miles. As I am writing this, we are staying in a motel in Ogallala, Nebraska, watching snowflakes welcome us back to the North, (we see snowflakes in May and June at our home in Star Valley, Wyoming, (we live at 6200 feet in elevation). Tired and sore from four days of driving we are going to spend a couple of nights here before we get back on the road. This gives us time to visit a couple of rock shops! One can never have enough rocks, (it’s a safer investment than the current stock market) Clear skies Ps RVers never say goodbye but instead like to say, “See you down the road!”

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!

Black drum

It’s been too long since I have written in the blog, (which is really my personal journal). It’s now time to catch up! Our jewelry and rock shows are about to start and my excuses for not writing are many. So, the first catch up blog is basically a fishing report. I have been fishing with my friend Dave who as usual out fished me in the catching department. We have concentrated on black drum, mostly with lots of small fish and an occasional keeper. Did I forget to mention oversize fish? Both the red and black drums have slot limits. For the black drum the fish must be at least fourteen inches and with a maximum size of thirty inches. All others must be released, (unless you catch a black drum over fifty-four inches which is not going to happen). The huge black drum are the spawners. They are tremendous fighters and difficult to get in the boat. Their bite starts as a few taps and then they run. Twice this year Dave and I have both been spooled. That means that the fish decides to head out for Gulf of Mexico and takes all the line off your reel. Yup all the line! Tightening the drag, already set, causes the knot or line to brake, (which is a good way to release the fish as the hook quickly rust out) Another tactic of the fish is too head for the nearest barnacle covered object. When the fish gets around it the line is quickly cut by the razor-sharp edges. Sometimes I use reels with fifty-pound braid, with the same result! The largest we boated this year was the one first pictured, a black drum that measured forty-six inches, (estimated at forty-nine pounds, with the world record being over one hundred and thirteen pounds).

My largest this year was thirty-seven inches and the one pictured is thirty-two inches and all were safely released.The one in the cooler is twenty seven inches and tasted great!

Did I say that they are one of my favorite fish to eat? The pictures speak for themselves, Clear skies, and tight lines!

Summer shows and friends visits

It’s been a crazy busy three weeks! In that time, we have attended, set up, and sold at three shows, had visits from two sets of friends, and even found time to go fishing. While I have already discussed the Alpine and Cody Shows, which are multiday shows, we also had a very abbreviated show at our rv park.

Renita did take an image of me actually working at the Cody Show, (several had suggested that I make her do all the work, which is not true as I do help her with advice…. She also took some images of the 4th of July parade at Cody, Wyoming.

Last week our dear friends Bob and Nancy visited us. Unfortunately, hot weather arrived and their VRBO did not have any air conditioning. We don’t have it either and we never had air conditioning when we lived in Gillette. Here the temperature drops as soon as the sun sets and is usually in the forties or fifties. Bob and I did attempt to go fishing at my secret fishing hole, but the altitude made the walking treacherous and so after an hour we slowly headed back to our place, (we caught and released four large trout, three cutthroats and a brown. These are all wild native fish. That evening they told us they needed to return home, but not before we taught them how to play Jokers and Pegs. Last weekend we had a record sales in the show at our park. Renita was so busy with the credit cards that I almost felt guilty, but she knows better than to let me mess things up. My job is to tell stories, which are mostly true. We may sell at another show but we really need to make cabochons to replace all that we have sold. Our biggest selling stones for this year were made of Kingman turquoise, larimar, and Wyoming jade. We usually make the stones in the summer and then finish them into jewelry in the winter time. We have also played quite a bit of Pickleball, and even though we love playing we have been beaten badly, even getting pickled, (when you don’t score a point). It doesn’t matter as long as we get our exercise and try to improve our game, have fun, and don’t fall!

Finally, we were visited by an old friend Robert Woolery. I mentored him when he was a new hire in Gillette and he told us he won teacher of the year in his Arizona and Syracuse Schools. It was so nice to see him again and to tell old teaching stories. Thanks for the visits! Clear skies