When we were in Missouri last fall, I went to find a grocery store and saw this Lawn tractor with a cart behind it in the parking lot. That was what someone drove to the store. I thought it was interesting, so I snapped a pic with my cell phone. It's nice to always have a camera at hand,-M
We have a street we like to drive down on our way home from town. It's one way and has a walk/bikeway on the bay side. The water is so clear and there are always some birds to watch. There are also some private piers. New ones and old worn out ones.
I think the speed limit is 25mph, but we roll down the windows, so the dogs can stick their heads out and go about 15mph. (as long as no one is behind us) I would guess that it's 8 blocks long.
Yesterday was a nice sunny, but cool day, by our standards. But I know in Nebraska people would be out in their short sleeves and shorts! We have become pansys, in our jeans and sweatshirts. Vel was feeling the effects of her dental appointment from the day before, so she nursed her head pain all day. I went to Wally World for a few things and then checked out a few shops downtown. There was a guard dog at one of the shops, a 9 week old, long hair Chihuahau. Very cute, reminded me of Luxi when I brought her home. 
I bought some beads, I've made a few hemp bracelets, just for fun, so I'm expanding my supply. 
It was a sunny afternoon yesterday, so we decided to go over to Port Aransas and find a few geocaches. Geocaching is like a Treasure Hunt. Anyone can find one and anyone can place one. The best way to learn about it is to get on http://www.geocaching.com/ You type in the area of the country or world that you want to find one and it will give you a list of geocaches for that area. Each geocache has coordinates. So,then you place the coordinates into your GPS device and it will take you within 3 ft of the cache. The cache page has the date it was placed, the size, maybe a hint as to were it is or looks like and it will give you a list of people who have found it. 
Once you find it, they always have a piece of paper that you log the date and your geo name on. You then place it back exactly how you found it.Then when you get to your computer, you need to log your find on that geocache. The geocache site will keep track of your finds and placements. There are Travel Bugs and Coins that have a certain number on them and you can pick those up and log them in the computer and then place them somewhere else on your travels. We have a Travel Bug that we are going to drop off somewhere in NE, but it started in NM then went up to Nova Scotia and around the New England area, then back down to TX. The goal for this Travel Bug is to hit all 50 states, so we are going to help it do that. 
The pictures are some geocaches that we have found. They can be as small as the tip of your pinkie, to the size of an ammo can. Some have just a log and some have trinkets or Travel Bug/Coins in them. It's a great way to see places that you normally wouldn't go to and after the purchase of you GPS unit, it can be a low cost hobby. So, with our traveling, it's perfect! -M
Saturday Morning we took the dogs to the park for a walk and then drove over to Fulton Marina to find that it was Farmers Market Day! We were bad and picked up a couple of homeade individual pies. Vel had the Cherry and I had the Blueberry, Very Good! 
On the way home I shot this picture of a White Pelican. There a alot of the White and Brown pelicans around here. The Brown Pelicans will dive head first in the water for their food, but White ones will not. They just scoop the fish while swimming. My bird book says that Brown Pelicans made a stunning comeback from near-extinction after the banning of DDT in 1972. Damn Chemicals!
Saturday afternoon we decided to do a little geocaching. We tried for 6, but found 4. We will be back for the other 2! The challenge is fun! One was to the left of this Gazebo. It was at a little park at the end of a residental area. A place we would of never gone to, had there not been a geocache. It is a very pretty view overlooking the bay. A good place to let the dogs go for a little walk also, but we had to be careful to avoid the sandburs!
There was another geocache by this sand dune, that I climbed up on, to the take this picture. Another area we wouldn't of found without the geocache being there. We drove down the beach and found a group of people around a bonfire, it looked like they had just finished a day of surfing. What fun! 
We have stayed at a few Casino campgrounds on our travels. They are either free or very reasonable. Of course the idea is to spend big bucks inside. But since I don't gamble and Vel usually does well when she gambles, I think we do pretty good all in all. The pictures above are at Firelake Casino in Shawnee OK. The spaces where close together, but we had a nice landscaped creek area behind us. 
Lady Luck Casino in Caruthersville MO had a nice campground. It was along the Mississippi River and we had to drive through the flood wall to get to it. So, I don't think we would want to be there if the river was on the high side. Our rig would turn into a house boat and I'm sure it would sink!
The Hollywood Casino in Tunica County MS had a very nice campground. We had a large field next to us for the dogs to run. There are about 9 casinos in the area and 3 campgrounds. We only stopped at a few of the casinos, they are within probably 20 miles of each other and about 45 min from Memphis.So, I'm sure it's a busy place on weekends. 
Last November we stopped in Memphis for a few days. We stayed at Tom Sawyer RV Park in West Memphis, AR. It is right along the Mississippi River, so we watched quite a few barges going up and down the river. Our rig in the picture is far left. 
We headed to Beale Street about mid-morning and it was pretty quiet. A few stores were open and then about 11am we ate at one of the several BBQ places that are there. I don't think you can go wrong at any of the BBQ in Memphis. I bet this place is very busy in the evenings, with all the bands and bars.
We walked a few blocks to the Peabody Hotel, where they have ducks in the lobby. I guess they live there and are treated royally. What a life!
Next we drove down to the motel where Martin Luther King was assassinatted. The museum was closed that day, so we weren't able to see that. Next door, there was a cafe that had beignets, but that was closed also. We weren't having much luck.
I've never been a big Elvis fan, Vel is more so. We went to Graceland, but just drove by and went to a couple of the Elvis shops in the area. The front stonewall at the entrance to the house was full of sayings that people have left. Across the street you could see his Jets that he owned, sitting out for display. There was alot more to the area than I thought there would be. Very commercialized. I kind of feel sorry for the guy.
We then went and picked up Vel's new glasses. They look nice! She can see again! Ha Ha! We ate Lunch at Catfish Charles. It was on the list of places to eat in the Visitors Brochure, and we also asked the gal at the Vision Office, if it was a good place to eat. She loves it and told us how to get there. Catfish Charlies was very good, we had the Lunch combo Fried catfish-shrimp-coleslaw-french fries-red beans and hush puppies. We were stuffed! Sun Harvest was close by, it's a small Whole Food type, so we picked up a few items.
The temps got up to 70 degrees yesterday, so about 1 o'clock we decided to take advantage of the day and get the kayaks out. We went to a kayak trail that has oyster beds and plenty of birds. The tide was down, so we had to be careful as to where we paddled. I forgot to take along the camera, I need to make a list as to what to bring. (Along with all my other lists) We saw egrets, pelicans, willets, seagulls, blue herons and comorants. Then we saw one we hadn't seen before. It was fairly large, with a reddish head/ neck and dark body. It was fun to watch, because it would dance around in the shallow water, spread its wings and flap, then cock its head. Then it would peck at the water. It continued to do this all up and down the edge of the water, like it was putting on a show. So, we looked it up when we got home and its a Reddish Egret. It dances in the water to stir up prey and spreads it's wing to cast a shadow. Very interesting! 
I threw in a picture of the Pacific Ocean. We were north of Bodega Bay, Ca when I shot this one in 2007. Bodega Bay is one of our most favorite places, it's like a sleepy little fishing town with great scenery. Of course we've only been there on weekdays, never weekends when it's busy. We like to get sourdough bread and a couple bowls of clam chowder and just watch the ocean or bay. That's hard to beat. One of these days we will make it back out to the west coast. -M
We took a drive to Lamar yesterday, to see if we could find the Whooping Cranes that I've heard about. Sure enough, there they were in a field, with cattle, across from St Charles Bay. They don't look that large from the road. My bird book states that they are over 4 ft tall and a wing span of over 6 ft. I don't think I would want to get too close. They are still on the endangered list, slowly increasing in numbers.
Picture of St Charles Bay .
If you look close you can see a dolphin fin, in the last picture. We saw about 5 swimming around in Aransas Bay, close to the road. There are so many things to see around here, as far as wildlife, it never gets boring.
