Month: January 2013

  • IN SEARCH OF .... "BOB"

    Although we started early......

      

     

    ...he was ready for our arrival, whatever it brought

     

    "Damn! Too late to leave, they've seen my car !

    Bob Burgess has lived a full life several times over. he was one of the first, if not the first to study the phenomenon known as the Bermuda Triangle. He served in Italy in WW2, then stayed in Europe to continue his education. He worked as a stringer for several magazines, and covered the American movie stars who hung out in Spain, befriending many. He has made thousands of deep-sea dives, and salvaged old wrecks. These and other adventures are the subject of over a dozen books that he has written. 

    Seriously, we wait here until invited into his yard. You don't get on his lawn without permission.

    30 minutes, and they won't go away....ahh, just get it over with......

    Your humble blogger, Our Host, our entertainment

     

     

     

     

    Bob accompanied us to lunch, a  very good seafood diner, then we checked out some spots on Lake Seminole...

    ...and some of its denizens, such as these Coots

    ..and those ducks in the other picture

    Bob, Ron, and Hoppy. Which man has a Wikipedia entry? Who was featured in Chopper? Which two have been in Florida Sportsmen countless times because which guy is an editor for the rag?

    Lotsa land here, hopefully off limits to development

    Both cool guys, but which one is preternaturally chilly?

    Jim Woodruff Lock and Dam, one lock I never traversed

     

    Bob showed us some spots on the lake where he used to anchor his sailboat and fish for whiting, bream. and trout. He gave us some history of the area, and took us to a nice park where I found some blewits, a tasty and pretty mushroom...

     

    It was a good day, a typical day in my retired life so far; now let's see what day four brings.

  • THE LEGEND OF THE PINK PELICAN

    He's no legend, I have seen him, he's real.

    That's my cue...enter, stage right!

     

    well, sorta pinkish, anyway. I figure he's either an albino brown peilcan, or a cross between a white and a brown pelican

     

    Others were curious about the bird as well

     

     The news spread fast

     

     

    Still, he seems to get along with his fellows,

     

    Joiwind did the googling, and learned that this is a Pink-Backed Pelican, no legendary creature...

     

    I was mildly disappointed, until I discovered that MY Pink-Backed Pelican.....

    ...can actually walk on water!

  • CAPTAIN SHOT THROUGH WINDSHIELD

    Cruising downriver the other morning, it was too cold to venture outside the wheelhouse, or even open the doors, in order to get a glare-free shotSo I didn't bother....

     

    These barges have been aground since Isaac passed through

     

     

     

     

    Those are ducks, and they number in the thousands around any of the grain terminals along the  length of the Mississippi River

     

     

     

     

     ...and the grain elevator of choice for this discerning flock is Cargill Westwego

    Formerly Continental Grain, it can offload or load two ships at a time, from either barges or silos on land

    One of the area's most popular attractions, and a very good friend of mine, The Aquarium of the Americas!

    It's just steam, so we are told

    A Corps of Engineers towboat, and several quarterboats, probably part of a levee repair project. Those barges are each 200-feet long

     And we batten the hatch on another photoblog, and wish you all the best of New Years