Swamp Tour

Norbert LeBlanc - explaining that "right there" is
the only place you can kill and alligator.

Egret or Heron?  

Our tour of Lake Martin into the cypress swamp was amazing.  We had the best guide ever - such a character: Norbert LeBlanc He speaks fluent french and our other passengers were French so he spoke both French and English for the entire trip.  Jade was fascinated because she wants to learn French.  Not a lot of that spoken in South Texas I'm afraid.  We would motor along and he would tell us the history of the place and then we stopped in the shadows of a grove of cypress trees and he'd give us some more information.  So relaxing, informative, and enjoyable.  He even offered us a sip of homemade moonshine!  Jade tasted it - didn't like it; Mya got a dribble on her finger, licked it and said, "No, thanks!". After a few tentative sips, I followed the example of our European fellow travelers and "bottom's up"!  It burned all the way down; I could feel it hit my stomach.  Not exactly Bud Light:-)  It's made from peaches.  Actually tastes quite good once you get used to it.  I could have sat there all day listening to his stories and drinking moonshine!  I wonder what a day-long trip would cost, with moonshine - lol!  We didn't get to see an alligator though.  He said the best time to see them is at the end of March.  This time of year the mama's are all on land guarding their nests. The babies take 60 days to hatch.  The dad alligators wait patiently for the babies to hatch and then try to eat them as they head for the water.  That's just not right!!!  Although, I'm pretty sure that a few times along this trip Jeff has wanted to eat his young - especially the last week or so.

Water Lily - an invasive species but pretty.

But we did see a lot of birds like the Great Egret. I thought it was a Heron but a Great White Heron has yellow legs. I've got my bird book and it's so confusing.  One little difference like yellow feet instead of black and it's a different bird. (FYI - a Snowy Egret has a black bill and legs and yellow feet, in case you were wondering!!)

Banana Spider - ACK!

The swamp was covered with these water lilies the leaves of which are HUGE!  Such beautiful flowers.  But sadly they are an invasive species and taking over the area.  It was like floating through Jurassic Park what with the big flowers, big trees and big spiders.  This giant spider was the biggest I've even seen.  Mya came up with a joke - what do you call a banana spider cut in half?  A banana-split, of course - har! har!  The other thing we've seen are hundreds of cormorants. There are so many of them and they look so funny sitting out on a limb drying their wings.  Looks like they are trying to get a tan or something.

Cormorant drying it's wings.

We did finally see an alligator in the swampy area alongside the road as we were leaving and I tried to take a picture but the camera focused on the leaves and not on the 'gator.  But at least we got to see one.  There is a sign posted along the road that says "Don't feed the Alligators!"  Maybe we'll have to go back during spring break when those mama's aren't guarding their nests.  Oh, Mr. LeBlanc said there are somewhere around 1500 alligators in Lake Martin (the swamp).  No place for swimming that's for sure.

Cypress trees - had some homemade moonshine sitting in here! 

Jeff caught this guy just right.  Tons of them eating
pesky bugs.  We didn't see any mosquitoes. 

So we are in a final spot of the vacation on Lake Livingston in Texas.  The girls would have liked to just zip on home but Jeff and I wanted to have a few days to just relax and play in the water, and me, to kayak.  We also have found that giving the RV a good cleaning before we head home is easier than trying to clean it when it's sitting on the street in the neighborhood on a slant and we can't leave the slides open.  So today was cleaning day and we will head out early tomorrow morning for home.  The girls have asked us every day, "How many days now?"  They miss their friends.  People told us this would be an issue as they got older and they were right.  I don't know what we will do next year. We are going to have to find some kind of compromise or something.  Or maybe shorter, closer to home trips.  We'll see. I'll have to put together a slideshow of all our photos and remind them of all the cool things we got to see and do on both these trips these last two summers.  Maybe that will convince them it's a good thing what we are doing. I mean really. How many people can say they road horses across the battlefields of Gettysburg - geesh!  So we'll have to see how it goes.

Cypress "knees".

That reminds me.  Jeff and Mya and I were out in the lake here swimming and Jade was just finishing up her lunch.  I came inside to make my lunch and the whole inside of the RV smelled like propane!!  I looked at Jade and said, "Did you turn off the stove?"  She gave me that duh-13-year-old-mindless look.  She had made some soup and left the back burner turned on with the flame out!!! Kaabooom!  That would have been just a lovely ending to our summer - good grief! I have her and Mya a lesson on what NOT to do with a gas stove.  Oh my.  It is time to go home.

Great Blue Heron