April 2026 BUSY BUSY
We had a great flight back to Austin and we hit the ground running, Blue sky's and warm weather, we even got a several inches of rain to ease the Central Texas drought.
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| We woke up and found our long time neighbors home was going to be demolished. She had passed a year ago. |
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| In two hours the excavator had it down to the slab, it took tree days to demolish the slab. |
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| A life history erased in a weeks time. |
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| I managed to squeeze in some time to demolish and rebuild a rotting shed door. |
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| It crumbled as I took it off the hinges, got my monies worth! |
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| Should be good for another 25 or so. |
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| Hot Dang, we got to get most of the soccer moms together for a lunch! |
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| The Seattle family is coming to Austin, we went over to get the house ready for them. |
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| Seabiscuit and C are together again! |
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| A walk at Lake Mueller, lots of ducks geese, and turtles. |
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| Its funny, we saw these Egyptian Geese at the Mueller Park and at the Exotic Zoo in Johnson City! |
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| Raise em' right! |
Well this was our first time to see this but it's the Seattle's family second visit.
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| So if you want to put a piece of the food in your mouth, then the Camel will kiss you to get it!, I'm glad this guy demonstrated the technique! |
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This video is a MUST Watch:
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| For $5 you can have a close encounter with a Capybara! |
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| On the way back to Austin we all stop in at the Saltlick for some Hill Country BBQ. |
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| We were all finished when a Japanese film crew came and aske to film Big D eating the BBQ, well had had a few unfinished bites so he obliged them. The video will appear on the Japanese travel site, Japan in a Suitcase ! |
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| We got 18 holes in on a cloudy day! Everyone made a Hole in 1! |
Fort Worth |
| Then it was off to Ft Worth for some more business up there. |
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| The hotel was across from the Trinity River for a nice walk. |
Dallas |
| We got our Ft. Worth business done in 3 days then drove to Dallas to meet The Admirals cousin Ann and my life long friend Martti at the Dallas Contemporary Museum see: https://www.dallascontemporary.org/ |
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Ann arranged for a docent to give us a tour of the current exhibit
Francisco Moreno: Historia Sintética |
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If You have a chance to see this exhibit I strongly suggest that you make time to do so. Full range of emotions and very moving. We also got to meet and chat with the artist Fransico. Thank you Ann for arranging this very special time for us!!! After the viewing we all went to a nearby restaurant and had a lunch together, a rare treat for us.
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Lake Charles, LA |
| After Lunch we drove 5 hours to Lake Charles, Louisiana. The Admiral had already called ahead to get recommendations on where to eat so we drove straight to Seafood Palace before checking into our B&B. |
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We both got teh Shrimp and Fish plate!
Butter was very present. |
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Next Morning a stop at the Louisiana Lawyers office to sign and notarize documents.
We talked to him about driving down to the Cameroon Parish courthouse to get some records at the clerks office. He explained it was about an hours drive and they had a good restaurant down there. |
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| So we drove down Hwy 27, a two lane road built right through the Louisiana marsh land to Cameron Parish Courthouse. |
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| The clerk was very nice, we copied several documents and then went over to the Annex to get some maps. |
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| Jessica at the Annex was very friendly and helpful and found exactly the maps we were looking for, |
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| A plot chart, this area is just to the North on the West Bank of the Calcasieu River |
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| Right next door Venture Global is building a Several Billion dollar LNG plant and Port. Thousands of men work here in 3 shifts 24/7. It is so big it is impossible to describe it, you just have to see it to believe it! |
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Shrimp Etouffee
Blackened Red Fish
 | Built at the Mouth of the Calcasieu River where it empties into the Gulf of Mexico. The view from the restaurant is of the Calcasieu River, in the video you can see a LNG tanker vessel docked on the Southern edge of the LNG PLANT. See my video:
https://youtube.com/shorts/ILd4D1N5Gwg?feature=share
The red is the LNG Tanker, My guess is that the port is already partially operational.
New Apex is the name of the vessel
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That afternoon we found a nice park on Lake Charles for a walk.
The Casinos are the tallest buildings in town.
Then we drove over to Bowtie Marina, we got a slip here back in 2011 when we were on our cruising trip to Florida. We Motored up the Calcasieu River from the Gulf Intercoastal waterway. I wanted to go down memory lane here.
Bowtie Marina See: https://youtube.com/shorts/B8rqiqyeEdk
The river must be running high, I remember a much more narrow entry into the Marina, in fact we were motoring very slow to make sure if we ran aground we could back off.
Our last night we ate at Steamboat Bills
Cajun Music and plenty of natives enjoying the food.
We opted for something light, she got shrimp chowder and I got a bowl of Shrimp Gumbo
The Main Event, Our first time to attend the Board Meeting of the Erwin Heirs Inc.
And we got a Free Lunch, We went even lighter, Shrimp Salad!
The Home of the Original Lake Charles Erwin
Houston 
We decided to break up our drive home to Austin and stop in to see our sailing life long friend Jim Clower in Houston! We had a great time catching up on what all has been going on since we last saw each other.
It was on Jim's boat "Apotheker" that a merry crew of 7 won third Place in thee Harvest Moon Regatta. An annual race up the Texas coast from Galveston to Port Aransas.
I had to stop here in Brenham, I was ready to enjoy some Blue Bell Peach Ice Cream. We made so many trips to and from Houston in our Soccer days going to Soccer Tournaments, and we always stopped here to get that Peach Ice Cream on the way home.
UUUGGG!! I told the lady behind the counter I was sorry they didn't have any Ice Cream, and she said " I know!, The Freezers went out yesterday"
Back In Austin we went out for a walk at Mansfield Park to check on the Lake Levels.
Not to bad!
Low but still a lot of water.
We are glad to see this much and recent rains may add another couple of feet before the draught returns.
This boat ramp is the longest ramp on the lake so when the water gets low this is your only one to use to launch a boat.
You can just see sometimes Islands out there, hopefully the rains continue and put them back under water.
This guy is getting ready to back down the ramp and go fishing, however the loading Dock is not down there, they must have moved it during the low water period, not sure how he is going to get his boat in the water single handed, and get his truck trailer back up the ramp and parked by himself?
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