A Day at the Campground

In this picture of the lake you can see the root of the tree that I saw fall yesterday.  Obviously something has happened in the most recent years to get too much water up around where this tree was growing because you can tell that the roots just rotted out and that caused the tree to fall.

What a great day this has been!  Of course it started out with a bang - literally.  Kirby and I had almost forgotten what a southern thunderstorm could be like but were reminded beginning at about 1:00AM this morning and it went on for a few hours.  Lots and lots of loud thunder.  Like a rolling loud noise.  And almost constant lightening to light up the sky.  There were a couple of big crashes that made us jump and sent Jake to our bedside.

But all that rain washed away the heavy covering of yellow pollen that was covering everything and left the morning looking like crystal.  We took Jake on his walk around the campground and then went off on our bike ride to check out the boat launch area.  When we were there we noticed a turtle that was about 6-8 inches in size floating down the stream.  We watched until the water got too deep and muddy and then we lost him.  But we did find a nice bridge over the stream that lead to a trail.  Tomorrow we will check out the trail!

It was not a really warm day but it was sunny and nice.  We spent time outside reading and also played some Mexican Train (dominoes).  The park host stopped by a couple of times to trade jokes with Kirby.  Our wonderful day just sort of slipped away.  Retirement IS everything it is supposed to be!

Following are some photos that I took on our morning walk.

The Dogwood trees are in full bloom and strike an amazing pose in the forest.

Early morning fishermen.

I don't know what this vine is.  Probably classified as a weed but I remember seeing them in South Carolina when we lived there.

The reason for all the yellow pollen.  Well, at least the majority of it.  Pine Pollen!