Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Which one doesn’t belong?

Today was a day that was almost all about my rig.  After all, that’s why I’m in Scott, Louisiana.  Shortly after 8:00, the tap on the door let me know that it was time to pack up and move the rig to Southern Tire Mart to get six new tires for the motorhome.  Billy, the owner of Thibodeaux’s Premiere RV, had said he would drive the rig there as I followed in the car.  He wanted to take a test drive to check out the fixing he had done yesterday to the MCD shades.  I was all for that as driving the rig isn’t my favorite thing to do; especially in city traffic.

We dropped the rig off, and I drove Billy back to the repair shop.  What to do then?  Emma and I were homeless for a while, so I found a place to get the oil changed on the car.  I drove right in, and exited less than ten minutes later.  Easy peasy! 

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Since I knew it would take several hours before the rig would be ready to pick up, Emma and I headed for Lake Martin, south of Breaux Bridge.  We had been there about two years ago, but it was in January that year.

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A blog reader had commented a couple of days ago reminding me that there was a rookery at Lake Martin.  Birds weren’t nesting when I lasted visited, but since this time it was April, I decided to give it another try.  I’m sure glad I did.

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I was simply amazed at the thousands of birds that were nesting along the swampy lands surrounding Lake Martin.  There were roseate spoonbills, great egrets, little blue herons, cattle egrets, snowy egrets, and anhinga's that I observed.  

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I just put the car in first gear and slowly crept along the gravel road as I enjoyed the sights and sounds of this huge rookery.  I’ve seen other rookeries before, but this one was simply immense.  What a sight!

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Emma and I took a nice stroll around the relatively short boardwalk that can be found on the perimeter road.  The last time we did this, the cypress didn’t have their needles yet.  Lots of warblers were singing, and we flushed several wood ducks.  Emma’s nose was working overtime as we made our way.  Between the nesting wading birds, the warblers, and the frogs, we had quite the symphony as we walked along.

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Then it was time to turn the car around and head back.  Of course it took me forever to get back to the highway as I slowly cruised the rookery once again.  We saw different sized great egret chicks along the way hoping their parents would have something for them to eat.

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                              The adults that weren’t at the nests were out hunting for tasty morsels.

Eventually, we got a call that the rig was ready, with it’s new shoes, to be picked up.  I was happy to find out that the price was a little less than quoted.  (Of course, $8 doesn’t seem like much on a $4000 bill.)  We stopped at a gas station on the way back to Premiere RV to fill the tank on the rig.  Now I won’t have to worry about that when I head out for Minnesota.

It had been a pretty long day, and I was looking forward to getting the rig set up and turning the AC on.  Ha!  As we arrived back, Billy drove the rig right into a service bay to take care of some of the maintenance items on my list.  Up into the air the rig went, and the oil change/engine check and generator service were taken care of.  It was a little after 5:00 before I got my home back and could relax.  Most things on my list have been taken care of, and now it’s just a matter of waiting for the new MCD shades to arrive. 

So, with all of the work that was done on the rig today, and the oil change for the car, it seems the trip to Lake Martin doesn’t belong in this day.  It sure was better than sitting in a parking lot waiting all day though…

Thanks for stopping by… talk to you later,  Judy