Pascagoula River and an awesome weekend

OK I'm fiddling with Picasa and trying to post a dozen or so pictures because I can't pick my favorites from this AWESOME trip up the Pascagoula river on Saturday. But my son who is currently addicted to Roblox is pestering me for the computer and trying to be as annoying as possible so as to disrupt my concentration, not to mention the dog begging for a walk. I'm giving it up for now; here's a few pictures... I'll try again to post the other good ones. It was a great trip.

Sunday cycling -- the cycling doesn't seem to jive with photography as well as paddling, but just as fun.
I'd like to sum up my trips and progress lately on the bike. 42 mi, 53 mi, 62 mi, 66 mi, 62 mi, 45 mi, 33 mi. I like the regular GCBC weekend ride.

Yeah, it's gonna take me a little fiddling to update my capabilities to do all I want here on the blog -- upload the pictures, optimize the template, save the darn thing so it's not lost to never never land, and last but not least, get the GPS tracks going again. Google Earth -- a great and wonderful thing, but I need some lessons on how to get the tracks as I had them on Expert GPS.

Visiting Kaykers

Family visiting from AZ, NC, and OR went out for some Mississippi Kaying this morning. The day was beautiful! Low tide gave us plenty of mud to look at. Shrimp jumped and fish swirled. The water was clear enough to see crabs meandering around at the water's edge. The two new kayaks did well. It's nice to have a good fleet.

Saw two ibises which was a first for me. Peggy sees them all the time in Florida, but these are the first I've ever noticed here. They look like they could get some critters out of the mud.

The mullet were jumping today... they must have known the Mullet Festival was going on in Gautier! I spent some time there at a booth promoting the Gulf Coast Heritage Trails Partnership. The web site should be up soon: www. gulfcoasttrails.org. They promote hiking, cycling, horseback riding, kayaking, walking, etc. Hope to see more good stuff out of them in the near future.

Cycling

OK I'm a cyclist now.... I did a metric century (62.5 mi) last weekend. Although I've heard you're not a real cyclist until you do a centry (100 mi). I'll get there! This event was great. I could defintely get hooked on doing this type thing.

I'm enjoying the bike a lot, although the only problem is... its so time consuming.

Back to paddling, soon. Fall is the perfect season.

Maybe if I just quit work, I'll have more time for the fun stuff. The next elected U.S. President will take care of me. (ha!)

Fay, Gustav, and Ike

Hurricane season so far has brought us small adventures, but happily no large adventures. Tropical Storm Fay blew winds from the west and pushed water out of the back bay, showing us the lowest water line that I've ever seen on Front Beach. In this picture you can see the brown part of the beach, which is always covered by water, and above it the lighter color sand which is normally the only beach. Fay brought gusty winds but no rain or bad weather.




The sunset picture was taken right around that time (8/20/08). It was a blah sunset, and then for 5 minutes everything lit up from below. Like I said, you just never know...














anyway, Mom and I went out (here's me in the new kayak) that weekend and had some wind to contend with but overall, nice conditions.

Gustav brought a surge, tropical storm weather, and a big tide line to clean up. It also tore up the dock. Could have been worse...

Ike brought a surge and wind, even here. I can only imagine what it was like in Louisiana and Texas.

Overall, I'm feeling lucky.........! But it's not over yet for the year.

New kayaks

Bought a pair of new kayaks last weekend! They are one year old, actually, found on Craig's List and being sold by a nice young couple in Pensacola who has a baby on the way, which as I remember tends to to perclude other pursuits. They are both Riot - one is a Riot Regency and the other Enduro. They are a very pretty blue and white. The Regency has the features I wanted compared to my Old Town Millenium - smaller cockpit, sleeker design, and thigh braces - and a few nice features I hadn't even thought about - paddle rest, cargo net inside over your feet, good storage and handle design, nice look. The Enduro is good for kids, beginners, and anyone who wants to go for a liesurely stroll around the bayous. The Regency will be good for distance runs and I can't wait to take it out for one. I've been in it twice for quick paddles and so far I love it.

Stunt Kite

Here's me out on Ocean Springs Front Beach flying one of our newest stunt kites, the HQ Symphony 2.7. Barely a breeze and still that thing has a pretty good pull. I love the parafoil kites because there's nothing to break and they fold up to a flexible pack. They catch the breeze really well, too. Anyone who wants to learn to fly a stunt kite (hold a string in each hand and steer it around) should definitely start with a parafoil. They're very forgiving. It's a lot of fun. There are SO MANY things I love about living near the water!

This past weekend wasn't a big paddle weekend, but I did get in a couple of quick paddles, plus a nice 5 mile run, 22 mile bike ride, a few other various workouts, some tennis one day last week and today at lunchtime. Tomorrow I do a spin class at lunchtime and play racquetball after work. Variety is a wonderful thing when it comes to exercise. I've spent plenty of years being a couch potato so I'm just really enjoying being relatively fit where I can DO all this stuff. Speaking of tennis - how about that Wimbledon! Awesome. Both Women's and Men's finals were spectacular and inspiring to watch.

Continuous Canvas

YOU JUST NEVER KNOW when the sky will come up with some new painting. It's random (Tyler's favorite word) and spontaneous, and when you least expect it, the most interesting lights and clouds appear. This morning there was an incredible rainbow as I crossed the Biloxi-OS bridge. This last few few weeks have been scattered and isolated thunderstorms. The best part of that is there is plenty of room between them to be able to see the tops from near and far away.

Still can't believe that awesome bay, always there to glide around in, sometimes just inviting you to bump around crossing from shore to shore like a ball on a pool table. That was about the size of this evening's paddle.