July 12, 2006 - Lake Tawakoni, Point, TX

So, after a month of silence, here we are again.  Hale and hearty.  And hot!  As I write this, it's 11 AM and 98 degrees outside with a goal of 105 or so.  Low humidity (32%) and a brisk breeze off the lake, so it's not as bad as it could be.  But it's still hot.  We're still hanging around to see if we have to go to Austin for a hearing on that tax issue.

Was chasing striped bass in Lake Texoma and Barb tagged along with the camera.  If you look carefully, you can see some splashing not far from that Great Egret.  Those are shad, a fish that will be about 2" to 6" in length, and a favorite food of the striped bass--great egrets, great blue herons, and most any other bird like the kingfisher like them too.

Great egrets and great blue herons are long-legged birds that will stalk their prey in the shallows, standing perfectly still on their long legs, waiting until a snack swims within striking distance.  Usually.  But here we've seen some unusual hunting techniques.  At least unusual to us, probably not to the birds.  They'll come swooping in like the one above is doing and try (sometimes with success, but not always) to scoop the fish up while flying.  And then they'll land on the water and sit like a duck!  Stabbing at the fish while sitting there, and then fly away as if it was totally natural.  We've been watching these big birds for many years in all kinds of places, but never observed that method of hunting ever before.  Thrill a day, eh?

Too far away to see for certain if the "stab" was successful or not, but you can see the water where the effort was expended.  And the method I was using was totally unsuccessful.  The idea is that I have this little jig/fly thing on the end of a 6' leader tied to a weighted bobber.  Fling the whole apparatus out as far as I can, hopefully in the middle of some shad, and then "jig" the rig back to myself and try all over again.  Good exercise, eh?  I'm wearing a glove, because this new-to-me braided "Power Pro" line strips the flesh off my fingers after a couple dozen casts.  Great line, and I really like it.  30# test with the diameter and handling characteristics of 8# test.  Doesn't twist, holds knots like nothing I've used before and can't be cut with nail clippers.  Have to use a knife or, in my case, a pair of children's (snub nosed) scissors.  Got introduced to the line in Florida where it's popular with bank fishermen who have to contend with oysters cutting the monofilament line.

Gee, anybody'd think Barb was the camera man for this trip!  These flowers are all over OK and TX, and we both like them.  And when we got home, we saw this airplane sitting there like it belonged.  Reminded us of our Alaskan days when almost any lake we fished was shared with airplanes.

Lake Texoma (2/3 in Oklahoma and 1/3 in Texas--thus the name) is really a very nice place.  We particularly enjoyed all the wildlife.  Barb saw a doe one day on her way from work (volunteer work that is), we've seen armadillo signs, raccoons, and all kinds of birds.  Right outside the door to our Road Abode is this big bush (small tree?) with a mockingbird nest in it.  We'd enjoyed watching the adults flying in there with their beaks full of bugs for the babies and were hoping to be able to see the fledglings come out.  And one day, they did!

We had baby birds all over the place for a couple of weeks, and then those that survived flew off.  We had evidence of a feral housecat around the place, so I imagine that not all of these little guys made it.  Good thing too, I guess, because if every one of them lived to maturity and had babies of their own, we'd be overrun with them!  And I was busy enough as it was cleaning up after them.  They seemed to like sitting on our ladder to the roof, and leaving their signatures behind.

Rather unimposing building, housing an absolutely wonderful array of memorabilia here at the Grayson County airport.  Was Perrin Field during WWII, named after a pilot who was killed testing a bomber.  Mainly a training field for pilots.

Learned about the place from a real great guy, Maj. Bill Byers, retired.  Met him one day when I was throwing that weighted bobber at some fish.  We got to chatting and I learned he'd lived in Alaska for a while, flew small planes up there, and found out that he was a great story teller and a good listener as well.  Rare combination.  And he had a boat which he didn't much like taking it out by himself.  Well, what more could I ask for, eh?  And sure enough, he was kind enough to call me one evening, but I couldn't go because I had some rubbing compound on the roof that had to come off the next morning.  I was afraid I'd never hear again, but I was wrong.  He called again and we went out and I had a ball.  Even caught a couple of small bass.  He caught three of them and gave them to me so we could have fresh fish again.  Sand bass, he called them.  Nice and tasty, too.  And I learned he was a volunteer for this museum, so that just added to the fun of visiting it.

Senator Sam Rayburn was the "Guardian of Perrin Field," and there were pictures of President Kennedy visiting the place and everything.  All the gear in here, all the pictures, everything in here is donated by somebody or some group.  The museum isn't government funded, it survives on donations.  Cash, labor & articles, all donated.  Impressive.

Both Barb and I were thrilled to see this ballot.  And the money.  If I remember correctly, Bill's son is currently in Okinawa, but had sent this to the museum.  For some reason, this Iraqi ballot was the most impressive thing we saw.  Maybe because it's part of history in the making, not something that happened before we were really aware of the world around us.  I was five and Barb only two when WWII ended, you know, and most the museum was from WWII with some from Korea and some from Viet Nam. 

We'd heard about this deck of card, of course, but never actually seen it before.  Look carefully at the detail work on those tubes. 

Pretty amazing, eh?  When Tom Brokaw wrote "The Greatest Generation," he wrote about guys like this.  Makes me proud to be an American to know that even as POWs, our guys could produce beauty like that.  There's Bill with his hand on one of the spare MIG engines stored here.  Yes, that's right, a Russian fighter jet, the MIG.  He explained and pointed out the differences between that engine and the engine I'm standing by as I took this picture.  And Bill's usually smiling like that.  Makes me think he knows something about something that is funny to him, but not worth sharing.  And then sometimes he would share it, and it was usually funny.  Great guy.

These were the actual post office boxes from when this airport was a training base.  People have "bought" them as donations for the museum.  Barb and I are standing by one of the training jets used at the field.  Two person, side-by-side seating.  Twin engines, and looked like it would be a blast to fly. 

If you lifted the lid (and, of course, Barb had to), you'd see yourself in the mirror in there.  Now remember, everything in here is donated.  From individuals.  Makes me wonder how anybody got one of these in the first place!  No, I don't really want to know.  Bill did explain that things like that spare MIG engine belonged to one of the museum supporters who owns and flies the MIG to air shows, so that kind of thing I can understand.  But a toilet out of a plane?  Hummmm

Pretty cool stuff in here.  I'd heard of these, but never seen one before.

Bill has all kinds of information about all the things in here, and I only remember a small portion of what we were told.  Like the story about this life raft.  At first they were made so they were all that day-glo orange.  Until it was discovered that while it was easy to spot them from the air, it was also easy for them to be spotted from under the surface......by the sharks!  So they made them black on the bottoms and day-glo orange in the inside.  Much higher survival rate, I'd guess.

Throughout the museum were mementos like this to different people.  Never did get the story on the "Lucky Bastard Club" and sort of wish I had.  Maybe you know?  Let us know if you do, OK?  There were several members of that group displayed here. 

See those planes to the right?  All but that one in the upper left corner were cross-stitched by a fellow (yes, a fellow!) who flew some of them!

An example of the cross-stitch work.  And then a catfish restaurant we just had to get a picture of.

We have a grandson named Huck, and we'd never seen the name in a public place before, so naturally we had to get a shot of this.

That bug isn't really a bug.  It's the exoskeleton of one.  The inhabitant just split the back,and crawled out.  Left eyeball covers, whiskers, tiny little claws on the feet, mouth parts and everything.  Truly one of the many amazing things  God created.  At least to us.

And speaking of bugs, that hornet nest was in the office of Ranger Chris Lynch of the Corps of Engineers where Barb worked for six weeks.  One of the largest (if not THE largest) we'd ever seen.  We still try to make paper as fine as these hornets make, but we can't.  We get close, but only close.

Then a change of scenery.  Barb finished her volunteer work on June 30,and we headed back to Nacogdoches, TX, to get some grout re-done on the kitchen floor again.  For some reason, that one spot has given us grief since we first had the tile laid back in August of 2003.  Barb suspects it's loose, but I can't tell.  On the way to Nacogdoches is Lake Tawakoni, where we're staying again on our way back out of Texas after having the work on the coach done.  And yes, the tile was loose and reglued, regrouted, and resealed.  A two-day job.  Except that rather than taking just the two days and being done at no cost to us under the wonderful warranty Foretravel has, we got to spend another day........ 

When we went to move the coach into the shop the second day, it wouldn't build any air pressure, so we had no suspension and no brakes.  Well, enough to get to the shop from the parking lot, but that was it.  Turned out we didn't get away for free after all.  We bought an $800 air dryer instead!  But what a blessing to have it die right there rather than out on some freeway someplace in the middle of nowhere.  Now ask us, do we think the Lord is taking care of us..... all the time?  You better believe it.  Whether we know it or not, and whether it's a fun experience like this or not.  The bible promises He'll never leave us or forsake us, and we constantly have proof of that promise.

Anyway, while we're at Lake Tawakoni, we discover our timing is perfect.  It's "First Monday Trade Days" in Canton, TX.  Part commercial vendor and part just a huge flea market/garage sale combination which takes place the Thursday-Monday of the first Monday of every month (thus the name) .  I'm looking for a ballistic nylon bag for my binoculars I can hang on my belt and a good looking $5 case for the cell phone, neither of which I found.  You can see Barb down there with her hands on her hips trying to decide which way to go.  Tough decision......until I got there and made an arbitrary and capricious decision to go "thataway" for no good reason other than I wasn't going to stand in the sun any longer!

I'm obviously missing a male gene or two.  I love going to these places!  I get a real kick out of watching Barb pick stuff up, look at it, think about it, and put it back.  Over and over.  What's going on in that pretty head, anyway?  What makes her do that?  Is she thinking about what it is in the first place?  Is she thinking about "if we had a house"?  Is she thinking maybe she could get it for a better price?  Is she thinking at all??  And besides, I like to figure out what the gadgets laying there all covered in rust were built for in the first place.  I too think about getting another house when we finally find a buyer for our current Road Abode, and what I might do with the garage.  See, it's "her" house and "my" garage.  Mostly.  Well, some of the time.  I mess up her house and she'll clutter my garage, but that's fair.

This "First Monday" event is a big deal.  Even if we were younger and had more stamina, we couldn't cover the whole place in a day.  We pay $3 to park, but there's no entry fee.  Another thing I look forward to when we go to things like this is eating something I've never had before.  Getting harder and harder to do that, we've been doing this for so long now.

Texans love their gates.  I mean they really love their gates!  There may be a very humble abode behind that nice gate, but the gate will be impressive.  And this one is one of the more impressive we've seen.  That elk/mountain scene is all one piece.  It may be welded together, but it's all hinged on the left with the chain and padlock on the right, and it's truly impressive.  Not garish in the least (in our opinion) but elegant beyond any other we've seen.

That scene across the top bar isn't unique to this place.  We've seen it elsewhere, but what a story it tells.  That looks like copper sheathing under the figures of the hunters with their pack animals carrying the elk, antlers and all, through the woods toward the bears.  Now, do the bears ramble off into the brush?  Looks like a grizzly and her cubs and, at best, they're unpredictable.  If it was a black bear, they'd take off for sure, but a griz' isn't nearly as docile as its cousin.  So, what happens next?  There's only the two guys with those 7 animals and plenty of fresh meat.  Is mama griz hungry?  Does she want to teach the kids how to chase people and eat what they leave behind?  Is there too much going on, and it's better to just leave quietly?

And what about the place behind this gate?  Ever wonder why city folks have lawns in front of their houses?  Here's why.  Beautiful pasture with a holding pond for watering the stock.  A real "estate".  Get it?  Real Estate?

The barn/storage shed with a guy watching me and the main house.  Pretty nice digs, eh?  Sure appears to be well maintained, not unusual in that regard.  Lots of pride of ownership in this part of the country.  We see much smaller homes than this all nice and clean with all the pasture between the house and the road well trimmed by somebody with a mower.

Last stop before getting home after the First Monday.  Peach ice cream (was as good as it sounds) and then Barb stocked up on fresh produce.  No, that's not the watermelon she bought.  She didn't even by a smaller one.  But the tomatoes were fresh and good as were the rest of the veggies she picked out.  And for the record, that watermelon wasn't grown.  It was made.

Barb would like to know if anyone out there has ever experienced chigger bites.  She did, won't soon forget it, and wishes to never do it again!

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