Just Camping

View of our campground from the fishing pier

Another laid-back day soaking in the tranquility of Lake Blackshear.

We had wanted to go fishing today, but it was extremely breezy all day until late afternoon.  And by then, we were out of the mood, so I settled for just taking photos.

When I got to the fishing pier, a huge blue heron (I think) was sitting on the railing.  He let me get closer and closer without moving.  But finally he had enough, and with a loud, raucous RAAAACCCCKKKKKKK!!!!! he flapped his wings heavily and took off.

I think this is a blue heron. I am terrible with bird identification.

I took several photos of him, and one after he took to the air, but I was facing into the sun and he was almost the same color as the gray wood of the pier, so the photos didn’t turn out.

But later, as I was walking back to the campground, I saw him perched near the edge of the lake.  This time he didn’t wait nearly as long to take off, but I did manage to get a shot of him.

Geese

We have also seen ducks, egrets and geese here.  And many squirrels.  But no other wildlife — except for the fish that jump and tease us with their presence in the lake.

I am really enjoying our second autumn here.  At home most of the leaves have fallen, and the ones that remain are all brown.  Here there are still patches of brilliant color.

More autumn in December. 🙂

I thought I’d share a couple of small mods I’ve done to the Casita.  One is a fold-out towel rack in the kitchen that holds 5 dish cloths and towels.  It keeps them out of my way in the tiny kitchen, and also allows them to dry.  I had it in the Aliner, and it’s one thing I made sure I kept, since I’m not sure I could find another one.

The other mod was copied from Andy Baird’s Travels with Gertie website.  I put clear epoxy around the outside holes of the

Fold out towel rack

Modified shower head

shower head, leaving only the center holes open.  Now instead of a broad, soft wash of water, we get a nice, high pressure stream with no additional water usage.

Fishing near the dam

waves lapping at my feet

Clear water lapping at my feet

Today’s our last full day of camping.  I’m so sad to see it end… but so happy we’ve had this wonderful time out here.

This morning started out cloudy, but cleared up, and it was beautiful the rest of the day.

We tried fishing again down near the dam.  Still no luck.  The water down there is crystal clear, but it’s still a lot higher than normal, apparently.  I noticed that there were no minnows or small fish visible along the shore.  I guess there isn’t much to entice the bigger fish closer to land.

Flooded trees

Flooded trees near dam

Nevertheless, it was still fun casting in our lines, feeling the breeze, and soaking in the scenery.

Fishing

Fishing

Untangling my line

Had just untangled my line, and didn't notice Sunny's leg was hung on his chain!

We saw several geese families of various sizes, and different stages of growth.  I thought it was cool that the male and females were together with their young.

duck families

Geese families

wildflowers clinging to the bank

Wildflowers clinging to the bank

I took some photos of wildflowers along the road, but they didn’t turn out well enough to post.    There’s a white shrub that grows along the road that is in full bloom right now.  I wish I knew what it is called.  The fragrance is heavenly and intoxicating.

This evening I plan to cook crab cakes for dinner… maybe I’ll do some hush puppies, too, since it’s our last evening out here.

Rainy Monday

Today was the day for doing laundry and running into town for supplies.

We had heard that West Point had 4′ high sidewalks due to the floods they endured before the dam was built.  But we were rather underwhelmed by the town.  We saw some 2′ high sidewalks, but no 4′ ones.

We couldn’t find a restaurant that looked good in West Point, so we drove into LaGrange.  Didn’t find much there, either, so we stopped into a chain Chinese Peking restaurant, not expecting much.  We were surprised.

The staff was Chinese… in fact, they barely spoke English.  The service was superb, and the food, although the same dishes the chain serves everywhere else, was exquisitely prepared.   We really enjoyed our dinner.

campground ducks

Campground geese

I took the photo of the geese in the water yesterday, and the ones of them walking down the road today before the rain started.  That’s my only photo for today.

Tonight it’s raining.  Ron is curled up with a book and I am surfing.  Am thinking of bringing out the Scrabble game, but I don’t know if we could stand the excitement!  😀

  • Enter your email address to subscribe to Tinycamper's blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

    Join 959 other subscribers
  • Cool Stuff!

  • My Blog Topic Categories

  • Blog Stats

    • 1,026,709 hits
%d bloggers like this: