Another day on the bayou and some notes from the park

Karen leads our personal hike at Armond Bayou Naure Center

After a night of high winds, rain and hail we awakened this morning to clear skies and really nice temperatures. For most of the day there was not a cloud in the sky and the temperatures held to the mid-60s. One of the nicer days we have had in Texas.

So as not to waste such a great day, Joan and I decided to head back to Armand Bayou Nature Center to enjoy the scheduled 2 p.m. nature hike. When we arrived we learned that we were the only two people on hand for the hike and our trail guide, Karen was there to greet us.

Out on the bayou, guess who's wearing her bonnet

Karen, as it turned out, is a transplanted Michigander (one of many thousands down here) and a local public educator. She and her husband are looking to do what Joan and I have been doing for the past few years when they retire – travel in an RV.

Even more ironic is that Karen grew up in and around Lake Orion, which is just 20 miles south of Lapeer and the current home of our son and daughter-in-law and grandchildren, Addisen and Griffen. So we had a lot in common.

Rattan vines at Armand Bayou

So while she gave us the lay of the land and told us interesting tidbits about the land in and around the nature center we regaled her with the vast knowledge we have learned from our four years of RV traveling.

Much of the trail hike took us through what had been a dense canopied forest, but which had been somewhat denuded by the effects of Hurricane Ike in 2008. Karen told us how she and her family had to evacuate from their home in Pasadena, Texas during the storm.

Wild Iris

Karen led us to the wide open bayou area where we looked unsuccessfully for some nesting Bald Eagles. Bald Eagles are always fun to see, but after the many Bald Eagles we witnessed in Alaska not as much as a treat as it once was.

The 1.5-mile walk, which was done at a very leisurely pace, took about an hour and 15 minutes and after thanking Karen for the wonderful hike we headed back to the Kroger store to take on provisions for the next few days.

That's not a question mark on the side of the building

On the way there Joan pointed out a Colon Rectal Surgery place that we had seen a couple of times when we were driving and thought it would make a funny picture for the blog. That’s why it’s here. Not only is the building painted an ugly color, but just in case you weren’t sure what colon rectal surgery was all about there was a very basic painting of a colon on the side of the building. Luckily the business next to it was not a restaurant.

The Uleskey part of the family will appreciate the colon photo for sure.

After grabbing a photo of the building we continued on to Kroger where Joan once again found an errand for me to run in the store to get me out of her hair for a few minutes. It worked out though, because the store was handing out food samples and I finally got to taste catfish, which I have been curious about, but not willing to pay good money for. It was good, but a little too fishy for my taste.

An uprooted tree from Hurricane Ike

With the shopping done, we headed home and Joan fixed us grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup for dinner, one of my very favorite suppers.

If I forgot to mention it before (and I’m pretty sure I did forget) a license plate from Iowa should up in the park this week, the first new place since we arrived. Today several campers pulled out and for the first time since we arrived there were actually more than one space available in the park.

At the laundry yesterday I met a very nice man who lives in The Villages in Florida, but who was once an Intermediate School District superintendent in Michigan. We had a nice talk while we both worked on laundry. They, as it turns out, leave Florida in the winter to escape the winter crowds and are on their way to California in their Fifth Wheel.

Keep your "gobble, gobble" to yourself

Also in the laundry room are a list of park rules and one of them seemed odd. Apparently it is against park rules to make the noise “quack, quack,” “gobble, gobble,” or any other bird related sounds. I say this because one of the rules says campers are not to use “any fowl language.”

Clearly someone needs to learn to spell.