On the road again

This was day 2 of another road trip to Texas. Day 1 was stressful for Esther, what with me forgetting my ass (really my wallet). It took a few minutes to find it zipped up in my overnight bag. After that it was trying to find each other after my new phone (and navigation device) ran out of power. We were in two cars, ferrying one down to Texas for the youngsters. It seems we go everywhere together now, thus needing only one car. Well, it will work until I get my next motorcycle, anyway. Hmmmm, I'm ready for a cruiser, but no Harleys for me.

Today we arrived west of Atlanta after a short day that began at 4:30 AM. From the room next to ours came the serenade of people getting it on. Squeaks, moans, thumping, bed whacking on the wall - it was all there. It went on for half an hour, after which we both wanted to stand up and applaud. After that I got a bit more sleep, but I don't think Esther did. A short, crappy, hotel "continental" breakfast and we were on our way to a boring drive down US 85.

Getting through Atlanta was a bit bitchy, 6 lanes, 8 lanes, 5 lanes, 8 lanes, finally scrunching down to 3. Things weren't too congested, except for an accident and its attendant rubber neckers.

Sunset after the storm's relent

Superlative and subtle Chincoteague sunset, seen since the storm slackened.

Pink and blue, echoed in the waters, a glowing good-bye to the day.

Deepening, darkening, diminishing - mixing into the marsh...

Evening overtakes us

after a satisfying Sunday.

Cheese-wagon takes on the encroaching swamp

The hurricane Ida nor'easter continues here at Chincoteague. After an especially bad evening tide, the causeway and Assateague Island were both closed. We are trapped! This morning we drove around the island in the Cheese-wagon to see what we could see while doing errands. Cheese-wagon is the name our girls called the Mommy-van/mini-van/kid-hauler. It fortunately has big wheels. This Cheese-wagon (our third) has made 3 trips to Texas, 4 trips to Manhattan, and countless trips to Chincoteague full of crap. I think we will always have one.

Here are a few pictures that will mean more to those who have been here. This shot, along Maddox Boulevard, shows the internal lake-ish sort of swamp that cannot drain while the high tides are around. The water encroaches on the road a bit.

Some of the internal streets are completely covered. Going slowly and having big Cheese-wagon wheels is important here. Priuses are not encouraged.

A lot of the older houses are surrounded completely. They should probably put up "No Wake" signs.

Memorial Park drains down the boat ramp. Wonder who was in charge of grading and drainage on this project.

Our turnoff is on the other side of that swamp/marsh mentioned above. There are two drains here, but they aren't big enough for this kind of storm.

A bit further on, the road disappears.

Then the marsh is right at the door of the Cheese-wagon.

"Neither rain nor snow", yadda yadda yadda apparently means nothing when you are on an island with the causeway closed. While you can still get to your box, it will be empty!

Inundated...

We are continuing to see the remains of Ida up close and personal down here in Chincoteague. It has become a nor'easter with a lot of power. There is still a ton of rain, and the wind is pretty fierce - about 55 mph. It is gusty and carries a lot of sand and water out at the beach. Here is the start of parking lot flooding that happened while we were there. It is not even high tide at this point.

As I stood there, almost being blown over, the job was completed. I took cover inside the van, shivering, to take this picture. We sure have seen a lot more Chincoteague and Assateague in the last few weeks than we had seen before.

Busy, busy, busy

Esther and I have both noticed that retirement seems to keep us busier than when we were employed. It just seems like there is a ton of stuff to do and plenty of places to go. It is nice in a way, but it does not leave much time to do anything serious. Maybe that is the point.

We started off our "weekend" with a last walk over at the Chincoteague Refuge Wildlife Loop. There is always something new and different there. This time it was a whole pile of pointy long curved nose birds (some kind of Ibis, I think).

Then, farther along the road, came a shocking disregard for logic. In a previous post I lamented the labeling of the "Closed Gate". Proceeding around the loop I found this travesty, an open gate still labeled as a "Closed Gate". I know the US government can do better. A proper gate is displayed toward the bottom of this post.

As the weekend drew near we got on the road to visit Dad. He was in unusually good spirits, happy to have had an infected tooth pulled. The antibiotics had erased what doctors referred to as polymyalgia. Dad had been limping around and experiencing back and leg pain for months, with no doctor able to provide relief. The antibiotics seem to have killed that off completely. He was ready to walk, one of his favorite activities.

We headed down to a local boy scout camp that the US Forest Service had taken over years before. Esther and I had never been there. The trail started out on a gravel road, but eventually petered out to a track down the hill. Dad (fresh from his 88th birthday) led us a merry chase all the way down to a washout just above Seneca Lake. This is a view of Queen Catherine's Castle. Queen Catherine was a local Seneca queen and matriarch who lived in the 1700s. Her castle was apparently recreated by local women with a "certain frame of mind". They gathered here to discuss topics of the day. I think they were on holiday from Seneca Falls. Anyway, this was a beautiful spot to gather.

All of the other Boy Scout buildings and facilities were removed by the Forest Service. Our local expert, Clay Grove (a former Forest Service manager), told us that they had been discussing upgrades to the site for a "quarter century", but they had not done a single thing. It would be a lovely place for campsites, a retreat, or any of a dozen other improvements.

Dad's walking was the best I have seen in quite a while.

He lead the way back up hill until Esther disappeared in a cloud of dust. This stretch of the road was very pleasant, running along the edge of a grape orchard.

This park had a proper closed gate installation. There is no "Closed Gate" stupidity going on here, just a pair of reflectors to let you know it is closed.

Anyway, we went on to hike up Taughannock Gorge later in the weekend. This place always amazes me. The gorge is beautiful any time of year.

The falls are spectacular from above or below.

Dad decided to have a fake Thanksgiving since we would not be there for the real one. One unsolicited addition was donated by Clay Grove from his garden. I ran down to pick up these trees before he took off to visit his daughter at Auburn University. The Brussels sprouts were so heavy I could hardly pick these up. The stalks were 2-3 inches thick. You either love these or hate them. We loved them. Note the Fibonacci spiral of the sprouts on the stalk!

My sister always provides a pie for Thanksgiving. This weekend was no different. One of my brothers baked a pumpkin pie. Peg baked a beautiful apple pie with a crumb top. Everybody eagerly began to try it, then stopped simultaneously. Somehow she had substituted two cups of salt for two cups of sugar!

Snow Goose Day at Assateague

We have been making a daily trip to Assateague to walk and watch the waves and wildlife. Today we were just leaving the beach when Esther remarked "Look at the geese!" Right behind the beach is a huge freshwater lagoon that normally has a few geese in it. Today it started with a few, but more and more kept coming.

We began to hear more and more honking, and could see many more flocks coming in to join the traffic pattern. More and more geese kept dropping into small spaces in the water.

They kept getting thicker and thicker in the air. Each flock would join at the top of what had to be a quarter mile stack of birds.

The flocks kept circling and circling, with each pass allowing a few to drop in and a few more to descend.

It was a captivating sight that had people stopping and gawking for 15 minutes or more, until every bird was down.