Still round the corner there may wait
A new road or a secret gate,
And though we pass them by today,
Tomorrow we may come this way
And take the hidden paths that run
Towards the Moon or to the Sun.
-J R R Tolkien
There had been little or no moon the night before, but Tuesday was supposed to be sunny (and therefore, Tuesday night, mooney). I promised to give myself a long, delicious moonlight walk on the beach that evening. The night before when I'd taken Zack for his final walk, I'd been nibbled to pieces by mosquitoes in the parking lot; but for my moon walk I figured I'd put on some repellent.
Speaking of the night before, wow! had it ever been a reminder of why you don't to camp next to a marsh! (or maybe, you do. I certainly do.) It was loud out there! Every frog, salamander, bug and bird was croaking--croaking, creeking, peeping, brrring, and buzzing. Ed went out at about eleven p.m. and reported the next morning that he couldn't hear himself think.
We'd slept with the windows closed, due to the slight chill, so the noise was just a pleasant hum. You couldn't hear the ocean--too far away for that. And although we expected to dream of biting vampire hordes, we slept well.
In the morning I grabbed a quick breakfast and went for a jog. With binoculars, which turned out to be a great thing even if it was against my rules. I saw an odd plover on the ground which let me approach closer than I would expect, but just as I was getting my glasses up it revealed itself to be the same old killdeer. Without the customary squee-squee! racket, I didn't automatically assume it was a killdeer like I would have back home.
Gallinule and Coot:
Then a couple of black-necked stilts adorned the marshes as I jogged past--wish I'd taken my camera! It turns out that although the campground is small, the day use area is large. The road and several parking areas stretch on far enough that two circuits plus a jaunt along the ocean made for a fifty-minute jog. With bird-watching stoppage--I almost for sure saw a caracara flying by but since I didn't expect to see one in the air, I missed the mark on it. I absolutely for sure saw a common Yellowthroat--male, singing in the tops of the low scrub--and a white-tailed kite, perched at the top of one of the few low trees to the north of the park.<-pied-billed grebe="" p="">
I didn't go fast and I didn't go far, but it was one of the best jogs of my life.
On my return I found Ed still sitting at the picnic table, and he regretfully informed me that a park ranger had stopped by. The Governor of Texas had spoken--all Texas State Parks were closing. We had to be out by five. Oh, well. We'd sort of expected this all along, but the timing could have been better. If he'd held off until Friday....
We made a half-hearted attempt to find a private park nearby--we called exactly one place, but they didn't take single night visitors. We didn't persevere. For one thing, in my experience finding a nice private park along that stretch of the coast was iffy at the best of times. Most of them were simply glorified parking lots with hookups. And for another, we probably weren't "supposed" to be traveling at all. Texas didn't have a stay-at-home order in place, but a lot of people were doing it anyway.
It just seemed best to go home. The birds and the frogs and the glorious sandy beach would still be there, even if the people were not. But first we took a morning walk.
We headed out toward the boardwalk, and right there, large as life! were a pair of Black-Bellied Whistling Ducks. Sitting on the boardwalk rails. Can you believe the ridiculous color of these legs?
The ocean was much calmer, but a near grayout of spray and mist filled our eyes. (I'd like to be poetic and say tears, but that would be lying. We weren't teary, just disappointed.) There was a whole flock of White Pelican on the sand, and the usual peep that I had no hope of identifying.
And that was that. We packed up and departed. We weren't in a hurry, but had no especial reason to dawdle, either. We averaged 53 miles per hour for the 343 mile trip, stopping only for gas and a lovely little rest area on US-69 in Cherokee County north of Jacksonville.
http://www.jacksonvilletexas.com/loves-lookout
The rest area is placed on a long, flat-topped hill that extends north and south about nine miles. The east side looks over a broad valley - a wide expanse of beautiful scenery as it is described. You can see 30-35 miles.
Arrived at 6:30pm and unpacked. And in the imitable words of Sam Gamgee,
Well, I'm back.
Birds seen, Martin Dies Jr. State Park:
Common Gallinule, American Coot, Red-bellied Woodpecker, Northern Cardinal, Eastern Kingbird, Northern Parula, Carolina chickadee (v), Caroline wren (v), Great Egret, Little Blue Heron (life bird!), almost certain Wood Ducks but no positive ID, small falcon, Great Horned Owl (2, v), White-eyed Vireo (v).
Sea Rim State Park:
Boat-tailed Grackle (life bird although I know I've seen it before!), Pied-billed Grebe (life bird!), Red-Winged Blackbird, possible Brown Pelican, possible Caracara but no positive ID, Blue-winged Teal (life bird), Black-necked Stilt, Plover sp, Cave or cliff swallow on ground--why?, Killdeer, Common Yellowthroat, White-tailed Kite (life bird), American Avocet (life bird although I'm sure I saw them in FLorida), Black-bellied Whistling Duck (life bird), a whole bunch of peep, White Pelican.
NOTES:
1. Knowing that we can drive about 4-1/2 hours on a full tank of diesel fuel, we should plan our refueling stops in advance rather look them up while we're on the road. My RVParky app will easily find us truck stops on interstates--it has pre-programmed locations for Love's, TA, Pilot, and a couple of other big names. But our last few trips didn't involve interstate highways, so we figured we'd wing it. But I'm learning that if I attempt to search for "truck stop" on Google, I get all kinds of junk--a few truck stops, sure, but thousands of ordinary gas stations and a sprinkling of other things that don't appear to be fuel-related at all. While traveling at sixty miles per hour down the highway, there is no way to tell the difference. (Searching Diesel Fuel doesn't help, either--it limits me to diesel engine repair shops.)
So, rather than guessing, worrying, and listening to that little beep beep beep sound that lets us know that fuel is running low, I should just plan them out while I have plenty of time to search. However, I have to admit that on the Lake Livingston trip I had a Buc-ee's stop planned on the interstate, but we chose to skip it. We were running late and worried we'd have to unload in the dark.
2. Always remember to stop at that lovely little rest area on highway 69.
3. Picture taking takes a long time, and picture "processing" isn't all that speedy, either. I keep the camera set on "burst shot" mode, for bird photos, but that gives me all these identical shots that then need to be deleted.
When I'm doing stationary objects, there's no point in it. I need to refresh my memory of how to quickly switch modes, between 'single' and 'burst' shot.
4. Before leaving the fast internet at home, download the park map PDFs to your phone.
5. If you ever get retired for real, make an ocean trip at least once a year. Just because.
6. For now and the rest of your life, never put off things. Do them now--or you may never get to.
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