It looks like an extended visit to Georgia and the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge is in my future for next winter. I can’t wait to explore this new to me region of the country. Gracie, the volunteer coordinator, and I were able to chat on our excursion to Grand Bay NWR today. I hope to firm up arrival and departure dates tomorrow. Can you tell that I’m excited about this? Having to be in Georgia late next fall throws a different slant onto what I might do this coming summer. I’m thinking the west is out, and I’ll be staying east of the Mississippi for a while. There are so many possibilities…
The Okefenokee group and I headed for Grand Bay NWR this morning to introduce them to this refuge and the Grand Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve. I posted about this reserve last February. The afternoon activities included a canoe paddle. We were cautioned not to bring any photography equipment with us unless we had a dry bag. Well, I don’t have one of those, so I had to leave my camera behind.
We paddled down this bayou, and as it turned out, I could have safely brought the camera with me. You just never know, though, so I took their advice. Dog gone it, as I got into my canoe, I painfully twisted my wrist which only aggravated that miserable arthritis I have. Sometimes, growing older sure is a pain in the asparagus! I felt like a real dinosaur trying to maneuver over the struts to the back seat. Ugh! Why is it that the body can’t keep up with what was so easy a few decades ago? I gritted my teeth, and had a marvelous paddle.
After the canoe trip, we returned to the visitor’s center and the rest of the group took the tour of the building. I wandered outside trying to get a picture of the huge fox squirrels that can be found around here. Once again, they alluded me, but I purely enjoyed a flock of pine warblers that were bubbling through one of the big live oak trees.
After we returned home, Russell, one of the Okefenokee volunteers, took out a canoe for a paddle down the bayou here. I sure would have liked to join him, but my wrist wouldn’t permit it, and it was more important to spend some time with Emma outside. She had been cooped up all day in the rig. I’ll have other days to make this paddle…
Thanks for stopping by… talk to you later, Judy
