EVERYDAY CHALLENGES

There must be some law that says Saturday is a work day. I picked the late apples, and then my yard service had to cut half the tree away. Sprinkling system watering isn't healthy for trees.
 
 Maintaining spindly second-growth live oaks has always been tough. Jerod is using a pole saw at least 30 feet long.
 
Jerod and Dave, a father and son duo, backed their rig all over my yard and picked up piles of trimmings from months back and hauled it to the yard waste. My biggest challenge this morning was figuring out how to downsize pictures in my resizer. Less time to load them. Somehow they seem friendlier.
 
Laurie and Ken came by. They stopped at the "new" restaurant in town called the Lucky Penny and bragged about the quality of the food and drink. Located in what was once the Nugget, had me bursting with memories of events that happened there. (Another blog). Jim said sunny days are on the wane so they decided to put the top down.

Pretty cool, man!
 
It's a 1969 Mercury Montego and so long I could barely get it in the frame. All it needs is some dice hanging from the mirror.
 I reread my fast breeze through Texas. I hit the high spots, missed some and didn't give much flavor of the place. An old Texas saying  was coined around mid-1850s in South Texas. The Nueces Strip was notorious for outlaws, thieves and bushwhackers. The only way a man could be safe was to ride the trail with a loyal partner. From this time and place, the saying "He'll do to ride the river..." became the highest compliment one cowhand could pay another.

He'll Do to Ride the River

LaBree and I were partners, we shared a common trail.

We were friends and confidants, we kept each other out of jail.

I remember back last winter, he nursed me back to health.

It's a memory that I treasure, more than a rich man's wealth.

He put down my old sorrly that I'd had for fourteen years.

He knew I couldn't do it and ignored my childish tears.

Many a log we burned while riding open range.

We cut the barbed wire fences, we both resisted change.

We protected one another, it was life insurance then.

I was a lucky man to count LaBree my friend.

He never let me down, he covered all my bets.

Now my compadre's gone and I have but one regret.

I never told you how I felt so listen up LaBree.

You'll do to ride the river, I hope you'll say the same to me.

By Michael Darden Dowd.  (Published in the Stockyard Gazette.)

LOOKING BACK AT TEXAS.

We like it here in Port Arthur at the American Legion so much, we stayed an extra day and just lazed around. I’m reading a Mary Higgins Clark mystery and played with picture files most of the day. I have to qualify my book. I enjoyed her early books and then at some point she got sloppy and so formulaic you could guess the ending in the first five chapters. I quit reading her books. Recently, I picked up another, Night Time Is My Time and hey, she has redeemed herself. I get in the mood for mystery and true crime books. But, so far, Ann Rule is the best true crime writer. My recent favorite books? None are genre books. Night Whispers by Judith McNaught, Before Women Had Wings, by Connie May Fowler, Fortune’s Rocks, by Anita Shreve.

Looking back at pictures over the past few weeks, I’ll just post them willy- nilly. But first, let me warn you :


I KNOW YOU wouldn’t.


A beautiful sculpture of a local hero at Rockport.


Jim taking pictures on the streets of Galveston.


Remember the Naked Mermaid store?  Well, they weren’t ALL naked.


I think this mermaid is drunk. I call her the floozie mermaid.


Getting ready for Mardi Gras in Galveston.


Quite a catch. These were caught with a rod and reel, when sport fishing was really a sport. It isn’t against the law here in Texas to pull your pick-up truck next to the river, turn on a big spotlight and shine it into the water, and net the fish up that are attracted to the light. Night fishing or frogging in every state I’ve lived in is not allowed, it puts the critter at such a disadvantage. Can’t call it sportsman-like. It is slaughter.


Another photo of the great Miss Joplin from The Gulf Coast Museum.


And exquisite glass pieces too.


Beautiful, aren’t they?


The way I look at it is this:   I can’t afford beautiful glass like this. But, I can collect pictures of beautiful objects and keep them forever to look at and enjoy again and again.


I have a hard time to fathom the skill and technique it must take to create these pieces. There is a need for those of us who can only appreciate such beauty.


These tiny birds are not magnificent long-billed water birds, but cute little common street birds. I think I must like all birds, even the pesty jays, woodpeckers and crows.


Indelible impressions of the Texas Gulf Coast are the many boats at many marinas. The shimmering shadows in water, the blue, white, and gray colors.  Lovely.


The black gold that put Texas on forefront of the economy.


This is a common practice to honor an artist who has died. Her paint brushes in the back of a turtle sculpture.
So, this is Texas. This morning, the Commander of the American Legion Post we are about to leave, invited us in for omelets with he and his wife and dog. Bar none, The friendliest post we’ve ever been to. What a way to end our stay here. Unforgettable. We will unload in Louisiana by the end of the day. Goodbye Texas, for now.

PORT ISABEL, SOUTH PADRE ISLAND

At last, the weather cleared and we headed for Port Isabel and San Padre Island, which is shortened to South Padre Island in this area. Port Isabel on the mainland was an important port for the fledgling American settlers, Mexico, and a polyglot of interested parties, Spain, France, Cajuns, and local Coahuiltecan Natives.
At the Port Isabel Historical Museum, a real bargain if you decide to visit. A $5 ticket gets you into the museum and a Treasure Museum and the Port Isabel  Light House. Zachary Taylor was a very successful General  in the Mexican American war under President James Polk. Ousting the Spaniards and every interest of long standing and taking that part of Tejas for the U.S. They called him Old Rough And Ready and he was a pretty rough looking dude. He could barely write but became a very good President.

It was here that the Spaniards first brought cattle into the “states” and Texas had some of the biggest Spanish land grants. The photo shows a water delivery boy. Fresh water barrels were dragged by burrow or horse, and delivered to houses from fresh water wells.

Located on the gulf the area was notable for its fish, like this record 800 pound jew fish and tuna that also grew to giant size.  What is even more interesting is the locals didn’t use the plentiful shrimp from the area for many years.  They didn’t know what to do with it. They dumped them into the ground for fertilizer until a foreigner  showed them how to eat them. From the 1950′s through the 1970′s, Port Isabel was the shrimp capital of the world.

I had never heard of nor seen a mantis shrimp until this week. I saw them in the local market and thought they were lobster tails for sale. Now, I know better, but I will have an opportunity to try them as we travel up the coast.

Early Texans, were rough fellows who adopted their dress code and habits partly from the Spanish, Mexicans and soldiering they did for the Confederacy or Union. The Museum is located in the Charles Champion building who was practically a country unto himself. They called his stop the Key to the Gulf.  He had the only store, Post Office, Railroad Station, first telephone, telegraph and Customs House in the area.  He minted and printed his own money that the locals used until one day U.S. Treasury Agents discovered the practice and as they descended on his place he dumped the coins in his well.

This is a local folk-American practice called Curanderismo. It is still practiced here in the lower Rio Grande Valley. Back walking, meditation, herbal teas, healing touch, is drawn from all the mixed cultural influences of Judeo-Christian, Arabic, Greek, Spanish, African and Native American cultures.

At the Treasure Museum, there is very little treasure. It happened that for many years treasure hunters would go to San Padre Island to search for coins that notably washed up on shore, old Spanish coins mostly, from three known wrecks. In the 1960′s an expedition decided to find them using diving equipment and “sounders”. They found two of them and unloaded a wealth of gold and silver. The State of Texas passed a law after that to prevent underwater archeology raiding. Now those sites are historic treasures to be shared by everyone.

The Museum is a great hands on place for kids, with much pirate lore and has interesting displays of marine equipment, ship models, paintings, shells, and stuff you find coming in with the tide. Not all of it good.

The Port Isabel Light House is like any number of “cookie cutter” light houses that remain along U.S. shores, but I wanted to see from the tower the whole landscape of South Padre and to challenge myself on the steps. It was only a month ago and I could hardly walk up a two inch step. I’m now doing llotibial Band Syndrome rehabilitation exercises and walking with minimal pain.

 I’m pleased to say, I managed the 75 steps–slooowly.

But, you cannot see the distinctive shape of San Padre Island from the light house windows.

To see the unique narrow shape of the Island, one needs an airplane. I took a picture of a picture at the Birding Center.

We had a great  lunch at Joes. Its a market and you have to find your way back to the restaurant part. Exactly what we like, a hole in the wall kind of place with good food and cheap eats.

We drove over the Queen Isabela causeway onto the island and pulled in at the South Padre Island Birding and Nature Center. It was National Bird Day yesterday and what could be more fitting?

This photo has not been doctored and we got such beautiful photos we were bragging about what great photographers we are. But, once we quit oohing and ahhing, we realized that the center provides you with 4000 square feet of board walk over this wetlands which allows you to get pretty close to birds. They are used to people and ignore us. The day was overcast with no sun to wash out detail. And, we have good cameras. Soooo, it isn’t the photographer as much as the circumstances. But, in any case, we got great bird photos on National Birding Day.

This is some type of heron.

There was also an alligator with an eerily perfect  cat pattern on his face?

I wonder what they eat, hopefully not birds.

I had to really lighten this photo to get the red color to show. Late in the day, his head looked black.

The water,the weeds, everything was picturesque.

It is hard to believe the bright orange color of her beak.

Looking for some sun.

A white egret.

A type of heron.

Again, it was hard to believe the clarity of the photo, every feather delineated. After our birding walk, we drove through town and passed all the skyline buildings for the open beaches that Jim nostalgically remembered from his visit in 1997. Miles and miles of uninhabited beach where he pulled his motor home onto the beach and spent the night. You can still do that, we found out.
Several blue jelly fish had washed up on the beach.

And a cute little tern. It was getting late and we really didn’t take enough beach photos. This area may be all settled with condos by the time we come back.

On the way back through town, we stopped at the Padre Island Brewing Company for a cold brew and because we got there at happy hour, brews were only $2.75 a pint and fresh oysters on the half shell, 50 cents.

Yum!  Perfect end to a perfect day. (Oops!  I missed the sign on the causeway that said Watch For Low Flying Pelicans.) What a hoot!