Ellen and I are off today and got a chance to take a morning walk and bike ride this morning (Ellen-walk, Steve-ride). We do it consistently most mornings at home (well, Ellen is consistent), but it has been hard to do here. We are in the middle of the Central Time Zone as opposed to the eastern edge of the Eastern Time Zone at home. This means that sunrise comes late, currently about 45 minutes later than in Cohasset, too late to get out for a walk or ride on work days.
A morning walk or ride is a treat. Especially since we have the road to ourselves, as there is no commuter traffic (actually, no traffic at all)—unless you count the deer and the feral hogs who are usually hanging about the roadside. The road goes along the wetlands and the bay for much of it and there is always birdlife about: the flocks of White-winged Doves in the trees just beyond the visitor center, the grackles beyond them; there are usually wading birds and shorebirds along the bay, a bunch of Black Vultures in the trees in the picnic area, ducks off the fishing pier and the usual cardinals and mockingbirds in the trees along the road.
I usually go farther than Ellen, all the way out to the observation tower at the end of the shore road. After shooing the vultures off the walkway and viewing platform, I have the view over the wetlands and bay out to the Intracoastal Waterway. The barges are always out there, being pushed along by tugs, but the wildlife is further in. There were several families of hogs to be seen in the upland parts of the marsh and a pair strolling along the beach. Lots of ducks were out there, but mostly too far out to identify. The Roseate Spoonbills were arriving out in the shallows, joined by various herons and egrets and White pelicans. There were lots of smaller shorebirds on the flats, but I could only identify a couple of Willet that flew by. But the treat were the cranes, five Whooping cranes today, two in the nearby flats and three far out, pretty much at the edge of my binocular range. Finally, a Carolina Wren was singing away in a tree right at the bottom of the walkway.
We were off to the "big city" after our walks and breakfast. Victoria is about an hour north and, according to Sarah the biology intern, you can find anything. Our goal was to find a mattress topper, since Speedy's mattress is a bit thin and we have always been a bit uncomfortable at night. They have a Bed, Bath and Beyond in Victoria (also all the big chains, a Starbucks and an H-E-B Plus...but no Whole Foods). The store was big but selection of mattress toppers was much smaller than that at the Hingham store. We settled on a 3" thick fiber bed since it seemed that it would fit our space. We'd hoped to get something firmer, like a memory foam mattress, but they were all too long for the space. The one they had that was the best width was about $300 and we'd probably have to trim it to fit. That was a bit too costly to chance not liking it after we'd modified it. The fiber bed we can bring back if it isn't comfortable.
After getting the fiber bed we stopped for lunch, then tried the H-E-B Plus, a super-sized version of an H-E-B market. It is an attempt to compete with the Super Walmarts. Where a Super Walmart is a department store with a grocery section, The H-E-B Plus is a supermarket with a department store section (I'll just pick-up a big screen tv along with the weekly groceries). It was too big for us. We'll stick with the Rockport H-E-B.
It was then off to the local Supercuts since Ellen needed a trim. I probably do too, but I'm not as fastidious...I'll go for the leonine look as long as I can get away with it. While she was getting her haircut, I looked for pegboard hooks and a retractable clothesline. These were for the trailer.
When we got back to the refuge, we finally were able to move the trailer to a spot next to Speedy. It had been parked about a hundred yards away since we arrived and we were going into it every day. Our original intent was to park it on the site and use it as a storeroom for our gear, but since we got the short site, it wouldn't fit. We parked it where another volunteer cargo trailer was.
This didn't really work and we were finally able to get permission to park it on the grass next to our site. It is much better now. There is a peg board on each of the inside walls of the trailer and we wanted to put up some hooks so we could hang our motorcycle gear and backpacks. Ellen also wanted to have a clothesline inside to hang wet gear on rainy days (also as a clothesline for towels on other trips where we don't have a free dryer).
Near sundown we took a walk out to the Heron Flats trail. The cranes that have been feeding out in that marsh had been reported to be in pretty close today. They were and we got some photos in the low sunlight. A nice end to the day.
Here's a sample. Ellen should have some better ones later.
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