Whoopee!

There was a recent discussion on one of the Facebook RV sites about early risers with diesel motorhomes that disturb everyone when they fire up their rig at 7am to head out.  I joked in response that they didn’t have to worry about us, we had to set an alarm just to get on the road by 11am.  It’s not totally a joke.  We’ve become very relaxed, some might say lazy, in the morning.  By the time we have several cups of coffee, check email and FB, have some breakfast, plan the day, it is frequently noon.  So when we planned the boat trip to the Aransas Wildlife Refuge to see whooping cranes and learned that we’d have to show up at 7:15am at a dock over an hour from where we were parked, I was apprehensive about whether or not we could get there and would it be worth it.

No fears about making it.  Knowing we had to get up by 4:15am I was awake at 2am.  It was cool cloudy, rainy and foggy, even as we left the rig at 6am.  Dawn was just breaking as we left the harbor.  Was it worth it?  Absolutely!  

Leaving Fulton Harbor

The first whoopers we saw were just white specks on a distant island.  We motored on until the captain found a pair closer to shore.  We drifted in quietly and stopped.  The cranes, showing no fear and apparently curious, moved closer and closer until they were only about 15 yards from the boat, strolling unconcernedly among the vegetation.  It was an unforgettable encounter with a rare animal.  There are only about 500 of these birds left in the world, up from just 40 or so at one time.  Intense conservation efforts restored the flocks to the current levels, but the situation is still precarious.  Interestingly, much of what we know about cranes world-wide is thanks to the International Crane Foundation in Baraboo, WI.  Well worth a visit if you're in Wisconsin.  Crane Foundation Website

Along with the cranes we saw many more birds including a peregrine falcon, osprey, red-headed heron, oyster catchers, terns, curlews, egrets and so many more I can’t remember.  It was a serious birding trip and well worth the early morning efforts.

Whooping Crane

Leaving Fulton, we headed for Big Tree Park.  Yes, everything in Texas is bigger and at Big Tree we saw, well you can guess, a big tree, a really big tree.  It’s a 1000 year old live oak and is very impressive.  Equally impressive were the 3 whooping cranes wandering around the houses in the neighborhood.  It was a good day and the nap later in the afternoon was sweet.

Big Tree trunk

Entire Big Tree

Yesterday we drove to Victoria, TX, a small city about 40 miles away, to do laundry and some shopping.  The Travel Maven searched TripAdvisor for a good place to eat while we were there and found Big D’s Barbeque and Thai Food.  Yes, that’s where we had lunch and, believe it or not, the Thai food was really good.  We passed on the barbecue figuring we’d have more of that later.  We didn't eat at Mi’s Tex-Mex and Chinese Restaurant, though that looked intriguing also.

Today we move to Port Aransas on Mustang Island for 3 nights.  No more really long stays planned for this trip.  Too bad but it’s time to be thinking about heading home.  See you soon.

Artsy fartsy tree trunk