Day 2 at Lake O' The Pines

Friday, June 19

Ed skipped breakfast, so I just had a poached egg on a tortilla with salsa. Which was not enough. It would have been enough for a typical Friday, where the only exercise I get is a one-hour walk at around ten in the morning.  (Wow!  I only have one more typical Friday left!) But not for a camping Friday.

The dogs got a short walk--not super short but not the long one Molly has come to expect.  Then we got the boat loaded and headed out fishing. There were almost no birds at all, which stunk! There were plenty of fish down there but we didn't catch many--just one nice dark crappie for me, about 11 inches, and a couple of small catfish for Ed. I had another fish on the line but I failed to get it into the boat.  I'm sure it was a huge bass, alas.

After about one o'clock the fish seemed to stop biting. We searched around for spots to try and found several that looked promising, but nothing happened. So we headed home, arriving a little after four o'clock.

Then the dogs got their exercise. It wasn't all that hot, either, hurray! Some clouds came through and there was a bit of breeze from time to time. First I took Zack for his walk (Molly came along but she didn't really enjoy it all that much; imagine a young, long-legged dog having to walk at the pace of an elderly, crippled Shi-tzu). Then I tried to take Molly swimming, but the spot I had picked out had children in it. I didn't want to let her loose in a lake just then and I don't trust her around kids yet. So we went back toward the boat ramp and the fence to the camping area, and found a spot where the lake bottom was nice, squishy mud.  I waded out up to my hips and tried to encourage her in. She wasn't having it--couldn't see the point, I reckon. I know she knows how to swim, so I can only guess she didn't see any thing to swim for.


So instead we went for a long walk, with deer--five at least. Molly was finally able to see deer and smell them at the same time--I'm not sure she'd been able to do that with the ones she saw in our back field. Those were always at a distance and very fast moving; these were willing to stop and pose for a while.










As for me, I saw:  Brown Thrasher; Red-headed Woodpecker; Wren, probably House; Oriole, almost certainly Orchard, in the grass by camp. Fish crows, several--I don't think I heard an American Crow in all the trip. Eastern Bluebirds. Annoying and unidentifiable sparrows in the grass. Mockingbirds. Cardinals. High-pitched warbler-ish bird in tops of pines. A couple of small, flitty gray birds that sounded like Gnatcatchers. Cormoronts on lake. This morning I caught sight of a duck or two but they were moving rapidly away from me and ducks are difficult at the best of times. Great Egret across the lake.

Brown Thrasher

The campground that night was lit up like a circus and nearly as noisy as one. It's hard to believe that Ed and I leave our nice home, where the only lights are the moon and stars--and all the stupid LEDs on every freaking electronic device we buy--to go someplace where people hang out Christmas lights. In June. At home all we hear is the distant hooting of owls, the sqreak-squauk of frogs, and the bark bark bark of silly Molly Dog. Sometimes she barks at sounds in the distance, but sometimes I think she barks just to hear some noise.

So maybe that's the answer--we leave home and go out to be amongst our fellow men...and to remind ourselves of why we prefer to NOT be amongst our fellow men.