Happy St. Patricks Day

Today most of North America and probably a large part of the population elsewhere makes claims of having some Irish Heritage and I am no different, my maternal grandmother, Annie (Kee) Brown came across from the "old sod" back in the early days of the 20th century looking for a better life for herself and her children to be. Well Grandma, thanks, cause for the most part you found that better life and your descendants are still reaping the benefits.

We started off the day with a walk around the park. We haven't got up to Dortha's 2 miles yet but we are over 1.5 miles so far, maybe tomorrow. But after a week of non-stop eating at Kerrville we are happy with 1.5. The move down a couple of days ago was through the rain most of the way and the Jeep was covered in grime so we scrapped all that off and it is looking as good as new again.
This fellow in the site next to me must have missed the Safety Meeting that focussed on the safe use of ladders. Didn't appear to have any fall protection on either.

We went for a walk along one of the beaches near our site and ran into these colourful young ladies in their Spring Break finery.

Now here's the mark of a true friend, someone who will haul you and your fishing pole, in his barefeet, across the water, all the time walking on partially crushed oyster shells.....ouch!

We went down around Goose Island State Park and snooped up and down a bunch of little roads. We found the Lamar Cemetery and as usual Brenda was out looking around and visiting all the residents. It was an auspicious day to visit here as the oldest grave marker is that of Patrick O’Connor (1822-1854), a direct descendent of Roderick O’Connor, the last king of Ireland. There were a lot of headstones of infants and many of their mothers who died in childbirth, tough times back then before Medicare I guess. The picture below was of one of those small roads that eventually led us to the "Big Tree". The Big Tree of Lamar is one of the most famous in the world.The giant live oak is a charter member of the Live Oak Society of America, and has been the subject of one of Ripley's "Believe It or Not" cartoons. It is measured to be more than 35 feet in circumference, 44 feet in height and has a crown spread of 89 feet. The Texas Forest Service estimates the tree to be over 1,000 years old.
The Big Tree is also known as the Lamar Oak, Bishop's Oak and the Goose Island Oak. It is recognized as the State Champion Coastal live oak. It is said to have been a council tree for the Carancahua Indians and for the white men who came after them.

After all that sightseeing we of course had to stop at a "Home Accent" place cause you never know when the perfect do-ma-hickey will turn up for the motorhome. And we didn't forget our mandatory daily stop at a grocery store but this time it was the HEB in Rockport, guess the Walton folks will have to go on short rations what with us not being in Walmart today.....yet!