Annie goes crabbing.
Port a
Well, Seattle winter weather has settled in on the Gulf Coast. Cool and wet as far as we can see. Heavy rain this morning, but we had an appointment in Corpus Christi, so we unhooked the utilities and took the coach in for chassis service. They determined we need one new shock absorber, but it’s a Bilstein, not one they have in stock. So, after a day driving around in the Jeep while they had the motorhome, we’re back at Gulf Waters. When you’re on a trip, stopping at night then driving off again the next morning, you settle into this nice rhythm. It’s all so easy. When you stop for a week, it takes a little more time to get ready to go when it’s time to leave. When you’ve been somewhere for a month, it’s like you put down roots. It takes a whole day to get everything sorted out and put back where it needs to be for traveling mode. We’ve been here a month, but we didn’t have to go through that much today, though. We just unhooked and left a bunch of stuff in our spot at Gulf Waters. We considered going on to somewhere else tonight, but realized one of the things we left at our site while we drove in separately to the repair shop, was the tow gear for the front of the car. We didn’t want to go anywhere else separately, so we just came back here. One hundred twenty-seven days until the Americas Cup Challenger Series.
Along the way
Sometimes you don’t see any black skimmers at all.
They like to hang out in flocks on the beach. They always stand facing into the wind together.
To fish, they fly along the surface of the water with that oversize lower mandible right in it, and snap up anything they hit. Looks risky, but it works and it is graceful as all get-out, except for that part where their heads snap down when they hit something. They’re so good at it. We’ve never seen one of them hit a stick and do a header into the water.
They like to hang out in flocks on the beach. They always stand facing into the wind together.
To fish, they fly along the surface of the water with that oversize lower mandible right in it, and snap up anything they hit. Looks risky, but it works and it is graceful as all get-out, except for that part where their heads snap down when they hit something. They’re so good at it. We’ve never seen one of them hit a stick and do a header into the water.
The birds…
The birds are back. All the usuals. The beach is packed with sanderlings; swarming with small plovers. Every day is different. Warmer weather. Temperature in the fifties doesn’t feel cold like the thirties and forties did.
Along the way
Caving in to a fast food craving, I pick out a table as far as I can from the teenage girl describing to her friends exactly how wasted she got the night before, while Judy waits at the counter for our tacos. The next customer orders. The cashier asks: “for here or to go”. He pauses, answers, then turns to Judy to ask: “What difference could it possibly make?” Judy volunteered that maybe they needed to know whether to put his food on a tray or put it in a sack. He said: “It’s a coke!” The more he thinks about it, the more agitated he gets. His coke shows up at the counter. He can’t help himself. He asks the cashier: “It’s a coke! What is the difference between here or to go?” The young kid at the counter patiently explains to him: “Some people want to eat their food here, some would rather take it with them.” Speechless, the customer left.