April 30, 2018 One More Celebration! HAPPY BIRTHDAY TRISHA

One more celebration tonight!

Forty-something (ok, 46) years ago our first born arrived in Poplar Bluff MO!  The most beautiful baby, bald headed until the blond locks started appearing, looked like the Gerber baby for the longest time.  

Tonight we celebrated at "Pad Thai Restaurant" with Trisha's favorite cake for dessert.  We missed Brady and Natalie who are away at college and Landon, who is serving with the Air Force in California.

Jeff and the birthday girl Trisha

Jeff, Trisha, Tanner

Jeff, Trisha, Tanner

Trisha and Tanner

It was a fun evening--even with Trisha suffering from spring allergies--a-choo, sniffle, and sniff!  Tanner was going home to write the last speech for the semester!

April 28, 2018 The Last High School Function (still in Greenwood AR)

Tanner participated in the last high school function (except for graduation) Saturday, April 28, at the Regional Trap Shoot in Jacksonville Arkansas.

Tanner's team did well but did not qualify for State Competition.  He was second high shooter for his team--38 out of 50.  

It was a great day to be outdoors, 85 degrees, sunny, and breezy.

Here's some photos from the day.

Glen, Tanner, Gayla, Trisha

Natalie Burklow and Chandler Henning, joined us for the day.

Gayla, Trisha, Jeff; Natalie and Chandler

Trisha and Tanner

Trisha, Tanner, Jeff

Glen, Tanner, Gayla

Trisha, Glen, Gayla

Tanner

Tanner, Gayla

Glen

Tanner in action

When the trap shoot was finished we headed west to Russellville Arkansas, home of Arkansas Technical University, where Brady is finishing his sophomore year.

Brady is nearly finished, ready to clean out the apartment.  We loaded things in both trucks, then went to dinner.

Left front: Tanner, Trisha; Right front: Brady Wilkinson, Gayla, Glen

Front: Jeff Burklow, Trisha Burklow, Tanner Wilkinson, Brady Wilkinson

One more special day this week!  Stay tuned.

April 25, 2018 The Past Week (Arrived in Greenwood AR)

Thursday, April 19, Glen met with his doctor at MD Anderson, and after reviewing the lab work, learned that he is doing great.  The lab numbers indicate everything is stable, which is good.

Friday, it was a long day as we left Pioneer RV Resort/Park at 7:35 A.M. and arrived in Greenwood AR nearly ten hours later.

We had a great reunion with Trisha, and Tanner, and Jeff over the week end.  
Jeff is very busy with flying for American Airlines.

Trisha and Tanner are counting down the days to the end of school.  As a senior Tanner just has ten or so days left.  Trisha is not returning to teaching so she is very interested in the "last day of school."

We celebrated Tanner's 18th birthday last night at Fuji's Sushi Bar in Ft. Smith AR.

Tanner and Glen

Tanner with his favorite: selection of sushi

Gayla, Tanner, Gayla

Tanner, Glen, Gayla, Trisha

Tanner, Glen, Gayla, Jeff, Trisha

I reveled in a much needed massage this morning.  Ah, the relief, the disappearance of all the stress in  my shoulders and back.  

There are more fun time coming the next days and weeks.  Stay tuned.

April 17, 2018 Tuesday One More Day Trip (Pioneer RV Park, Mustang Island, Port Aransas TX)

All of the sightseeing has been to the north; today we went south.

Mustang Island State Park is closed for repairs due to Hurricane Harvey.  At the point where a channel of water separates Mustang Island from Padre Island we went toward to Gulf of Mexico to Padre Island National Seashore.  

There are two primitive campgrounds with no hook ups but beautiful views!

We found one area that was dedicated to wind surfing.  There were ten surfers in/on the water.  In conversation with someone on shore we learned that the average age of the surfers was 65.  One of the surfers was age 76 and a retired ER physician.

It is fun to watch!

Water was waist deep at the most.

Walking into deeper water, stepping up onto the board.

Getting ready to surf.

Off they go!

Gulf of Mexico from the Visitors' Center at Padre Island National Seashore

One thing we learned at the Visitors' Center is that at one point in time Padre Island and Mustang Island was all one island.  The channel separating the two islands is man made.  Why?  I don't know.

It has been a great week--windy--but great.  Hearing about hurricane damage is one thing; seeing it is another reality.   It is very long term; and another hurricane season is getting ready to begin.

It is on to Houston in the morning!

April16, 2018 Monday Birding Boat Tour Rockport TX

We were part of a group of ten on board "The Skimmer" out of Rockport TX finding rookeries.  Finding a Whooping Crane on the shore of San Antonio Bay/Aransas National Wildlife Refuge would be a big BONUS!

It was a Bonus day.  The boat captain found a sub-adult crane close enough to the shore that we had a great view.  A family of three was also found much farther away using spotting scopes.

Sub Adult Whooping Crane: it has left its parents and is on his own.

Usual migration is the end of March/first of April.  Probably weather in the north (Wisconsin/Canada) has  slowed the migration.

The boat captain steered us to several smaller rookeries, which is a nesting site for herons and egrets.

Roseate Spoonbills, part of a rookery.

Harvesting Oysters.  Each boat is allowed 50 50-lb bags per day.

An all-natural oystercatcher:   American Oystercatcher

Entire rookery on small island.  Birding organization added the perches after Hurricane Harvey took out all the shrubbery/bushes.

A group of three petroleum drilling platforms that were brought from the Gulf of Mexico to the shipping channel at Corpus Christi.

A single drilling platform; it is difficult to estimate the size and height. Something I read indicates it may be 40-stories high.

It was a beautiful day to be on the water.  The rookery cruise was about 3 and 1/2 hours.  We wore jackets even though the temperature was about 72 degrees. 

April 15, 2018 (Part 2) How to be Notified of new blog posts

Note:
You can be notified when there is a new blog post.  Look at the right column (above).  You can follow by Google; OR, Follow by email, which is receiving an email when there is a new blog.

Just thought you might want to know that.

April 15, 2018 ANOTHER BIRDY DAY! (ROCKPORT AND ARANSAS NAT WILDLIFE REFUGE)

Crossing on the 24-hour vehicle ferry this morning we left Mustang Island, heading north about 17 miles to the towns of Rockport/Fulton and then on to Aransas National Wildlife Refuge.

The towns of Rockport/Fulton show much more widespread damage, maybe because it is a bigger area, than here on Mustang Island.  There are MANY buildings (residences and commercial) that are not repaired.

Coming into town we spotted a rockery, which is a nesting site for water birds, in the tops of a grove of live oak trees.  Wow, we could have watched them for hours.

Get ready.  Here comes the bird pictures. Remember to click to enlarge.

(white) Great Egrets and (gray) Great Blue Herons.  Can you see the baby herons?

The rookery: nesting sites

Great Egret showing off his feathery plumes

Great Blue Herons

A mix of egrets and herons

This is a Ruddy Turnstone, on a wall along the bay.

Now it is time for lunch at "Charlotte Plummers", one of our favorite places.  Glen enjoyed lump crab cakes, and I dined on a small portion of oysters and shrimp.  No room for dessert.  Stay tuned.

We then traveled to Aransas National Wildlife Refuge, north of Rockport about 25 miles.  This refuge is home to one of the groups of Whooping Cranes still left in existence.  It is getting very close to the time they migrate back to NW Canada.  They were seen yesterday in the refuge.  We did not see them today.  

Greater Yellowlegs

Pied Billed Grebe

Black necked Stilt

Spring flowers

White Ibis

A deer (obviously), maybe a black tailed

"Charlotte Plummers", part two.  It was dessert time by the time we left Aransas NWR, and made it back to Rockport.  The restaurant is famous for their bread pudding, which was Glen's choice.  My choice was cheesecake.  Both scrumptious!  Yum, Yum!

Tired of birds? Can't be yet.  Stay tuned for tomorrow!