This being the last month of volunteer work for the Padre Island
National Seashore, an experience that I will not forget. Besides going
through a great deal of monies, most mis-directed to occupying a
permanent seat at the local Korean Bar. Me thinks most of the money
went to the little fat guy in North Korean.
Most of my work has been directed to the renovation of an old cattle
line camp probably built around the late 1800's when cattle was
running wild on Padre Island. Besides coming across snakes, scorpions,
ticks, and working in 19-degree weather, where else can you go in the
winter season and not have a ceramic heater tied to your back side.
The cast of characters at the National Park should be recognized for
their efforts to spend monies at the most obscure non-productive
projects with your tax dollars at work.
First off we have Bubba, now this lad is one generation from the
hills of Tennessee where there was so much inbreeding that this
particular clan has vocal impediment that causes them to speak
backwards, burp in public and is a definite threat to the gene/DNA
pool of living organism. His girl friend, Bulla, who works with the
turtle project, is another displaced person from the hills of
Kentucky. She gets so excited about the turtles that at times you
would find her out on the lawn laying on her back with her arms and
legs in the air speaking in tongue.
Next is Captain Twinkie, whose claim to fame is the amount of beer
that he can inhale in one sitting. He also claims to be a brew master
of beer that's if your taste buds run to drinking the most foul goat
piss imaginable……….
Last of all is the only biologist, so he claims, that has found the
last living form of prehistoric chicken pluckers on the island. This
individual has set a new standard in the wearing of uniforms, find the
worst ragbag homeless guy in the community, and you have him. His
eating habits with chili on everything defy description so much so
that the EPA has declared his office a major hazardous area after
lunch.
And to make my stay in Corpus Christi even better is to get scammed
from my ad in Craigslist selling the canopy to the truck. Don't you
just love life when you get the benefits of being on the end of a
scam. My pop-up camper went quickly and realizing that you have to
reinvent your ad's on Craigslist list every 3 days or the ad just
drops away into obscurity.
The pop-up camper will seem like a mansion in comparison to the truck
camper that I'll be getting. I'll be losing over half of my living
space of the pop-up, but at least I will be more mobile with the slide
in truck camper.
On another frame of mind, my Geocache numbers will exceed 700 when I
leave at the end of the month. They have a real active group in the
Corpus Christi area and I look forward to next years caches, not the
cost of fuel though.
And of course I cannot forget the two lass of undetermined age (60+)
who have been the backbone of my Geocache forays in the Corpus Christi
area. As they both are quote, " The babbling brooks of verbal BS" it
has been to the benefic of my sanitary that I never go out alone with
just one………………
Then of course can I forget the 3-4 dogs of questionable lineage that
are either pooping or peeing on the floor or some area where you just
know you will place your foot.
The volunteer Saturday night dinners at the various Corpus Christi
eateries' where the amount of BS is equal to age of the occupant or
there about. The last dinner for March was celebrated with a couple
that been volunteers for the past 15 years here at Padre Island. Of
the husband wife team, Mr. Super Grump has to go to the head of the
class for being the most obtrusive individual known to mankind. The
gentleman in question sharpens lead pencils all day and the wife reads
funny books with large print at the Visitor Center to the tune of "
Waltzing Matilta" in D flat. They are the only couple when
togetherness gets to the point of wanting to throttle each other that
they stand off at 20 paces and shoot each other with paint guns.
Its west Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and Nevada on my agenda for the
next month or so. So its imperative that I stock up on the necessaries
of life as Black box wine, California dates for gas, power bars so
dense that they to plug to you up for weeks at a time and of course
out dated yogurt to soothe the stomach.
So with Corpus Christi at my back and facing weeks of wearing the same
clothes, no showers, biting insects, snakes and minimizing my contact
with the human race. I leave with the knowledge that friends and
family alike are so much looking forward to my arrival………………right!
Safe travels my friends,
The Greynomad
