On Sunday Sherry wanted to go to Caney Fork to kayak with the Sierra Club, so I dropped her off at the day and then took the rod and fished until time to pick her up.

That's Mom in the yellow rain suit.  She was dressed for any possible emergency.	At Betty's Island the bold kayakers wait for the road crews to load them up and take them home.

Saturday we visited a Hunting Island State Park, a South Carolina barrier island rumored to have a clutch of sea turtle eggs ready to hatch that night.  We celebrated Travis' birthday at a seafood restaurant and a jolly time was had by all.

Sunday we fooled around Savannah, had lunch, and made our way back to Jacksonville to take our plane home.

Oh, no!  A giant spider is going to get Sherry!	What a quick and cute crab.  I believe it is a Sally Lightfoot.  It was dining on rotten fruit.
Beautiful flower we found in the park.	This June Bug liked the flowers too.
That afternoon Travis took us to Bluffton to paddle around on Kayaks furnished kindly by her editor on the paper.  It was very pretty and we saw two grown dolphins and a baby.  Very nice.	Mom and Pop pose on the tranquil evening waters.  The tide had finally stopped and the wind had died.  It was very peaceful and serene.
On Saturday we went out to Hunting Island, South Carolina.  This deer was casually mincing about near the Park HQ.  Actually, we came to see the sea turtles hatch.  The word was that this was the night that they would crawl up out of their nests and scurry to the sea.	Once we made our way past the misquitos and the campers, the beach was nice and cool.  The yellow barriers in the middle left mark the spot where the baby turtles are buried.  We never saw one hatch. Found out later that we were a month early.
I show my form and Travis waves across the waves.	Sherry makes a turtle sculpture.  It was a fine sculpture, but no substitute for the real things.
Back home, I picked some okra that had got a bit past their prime in our absence.	But!  The Blue Lake String Beans have finally come in and these young and tender ones are better than anything else you may wish to name!

You get a good look at most of the garden.  That's Mom's big bed in front.  The tall thing to the left is a creeping cedar and to the left of that is the morning glory, both raised high on canes.	This is the small bed, close to the house, full of really nice flowers.
The morning glories are really nice.  I finally realized that they only open in the morning.  The seem to have a light glowing inside.	This is the entire plant.  It has at least 4 canes inside supporting it.
The creeping cedar is a beautiful red.	There are morning glories growing up its trellis too.
This is from the north side of the bean trellis.  Butter beans in foreground and blue lake string beans start half way down.  Note that plants from both sides have migrated to the south side.  Also, they ignore the horizontal members and climb up the vertical ones.	Today I found the first butter beans beginning to fill out.  Only a few at this point.  Another week or three before we eat.
I also found this blue lake pole bean.  Only two so far.	Peppers love this garden, but why did I plant four hot salsas?
We have three rows of roma beans, planted at intervals.  Two of them have edible beans now and a lot more little ones.	Despite being planted behind rows of tall tomatoes, we are getting three or four okra daily.  The ones on the north side of the bean trellis are finally producing some.  Should have planted them before the beans had got above ground.
That's a little Ichiban eggplant and the black things below are dried up banana peals, supposed to be good for them.  The weeds got pulled up today.  We've had several good rains lately and I used today to catch up with all the weeding, lawn mowing, hedge trimming, etc. that got neglected last weekend when Frank visited.	The cherry tomatoes love our garden.  Some of the large ones don't do so well--Bradleys and Better Boys and Romas.
The bell peppers like it too.  We now have a few ripe ones and a lot of small green ones.  They are my favorites pepper.	Tons of banana peppers and jalapenos.  Why did I plant so many?
Nice hefty small mouth.	Four turkeys.  Gobble, gobble.

We got up to Creek J about 3pm and fished for an hour or so.  We had had two big rains in Nashville, so there was no way to know what the creeks were like.  As it turned out this one was a little high and tinted, but still clear enough for Frank to catch 3 or 4 out of this hole under the leaning tree.	The two Bubs take their own photo before changing clothes and making their way home to a great meal prepared by Ms. Sherry.
Friday we went to Creek Y and as you can see it was crystal clear.  The black spots on the rocks are snails.	Frank got a full body immersion early on, but it probably felt good.
After lunch, Frank took his traditional nap and I explored the creek.	We turned around and headed back at this point.  That's a deep hole beyond Frank.  We saw quite a few good fish but caught only 8 or 9, most of them in the 12-14" class.
On Saturday we went back to Creek J.  It had cleared up but the fish weren't biting very hard.	This is the upper end of the creek.  Upstream for a mile or more are terraced rapids like the ones behind Frank.
We didn't care.  Those little guys fight hard.	One day too late the bigger fish started biting.  I caught this one on Creek Y on Sunday afternoon, the day Frank left. It measured 15 inches to the mark on the rod.

Saturday I borrowed Mom's kayak and tried the mouth of Marrowbone creek.  Long way up to the current and then few bass.  Someone has built a huge bridge over the creek and there is a place that looks like a camp as well.  Looks like the place is getting civilized and it won't be long before they'll have NO TRESPASSING signs up.

Went on the the mouth of Creek C and found the little kayak very easy to paddle and able to float in a few inches of water.  This let me get up the shallow part of the creek with little noise and fuss.  Caught the 17 1/2" small mouth below on a gold broken back rapala.  I had switched to 6# line as was glad I did.  I also caught several other small mouth and one very nice large mouth.  The new reel has a fine rear drag which let me adjust it during the fight without reaching across the line.  I like that.

A swirl of bass attached the lure and at first a small one had it, but I saw the big one coming so I didn't set the hook and the next thing I knew she snatched it away from the small bass and was raising almighty hell.	The sweet 100 cherry tomatoes are doing fine.  I pick 8 or 9 a day and we enjoy them to the full.
Poor little eggplants.  They start out this way every year, eaten up with aphids.  But, as we pass into fall, they grow new leaves and pick up steam.  Some years they are still producing when the first frost comes.	So far I've had only a few banana peppers and the plants don't look as if they are going to produce many more.  Maybe the heat.
I don't remember why I planted these long hot peppers.  Must have been thinking of something else.  Hanley will like them.	These are the roma bush beans Sherry likes.  It's a flat bean and you eat the whole thing.  Another week and we'll have some.
These are roma tomatoes.  For some reason, I find them on the ground when they are half ripe.  This morning I found 4 under one plant and they seemed to have long hairs stuck to them.  Cats?	In the right foreground you see the blue lake string beans now flowering.  The far half of the trellis has florida lima beans which I call butter beans.  They are coming on slowly.  Hard to wait.
A lot of the regular tomatoes have bug damage or are split.	These are in Mom's large perennial bed.
Another part of the large bed.	Here's mommy's pretty flower bed near the house.
The tower of Babel I built for her Morning Glories to climb.	When they are open they seem to have a light bulb inside.

Went on to Creek D to try to find access points.  Found one downstream and paddled up, stopping and getting out to fish.  Caught two nice small mouth before a very impulsive citizen decided that I was trespassing since I was not in my boat.  I left peacefully, since it was hot and time to go anyhow.  Must remember to float through that stretch in future.

Sunday I took Mommy to the Caney Fork to try out her new kayak.  She loves it and says it is very easy to propel.  I'll have to try it one day.  I dropped her off at the dam and went down to Happy Hollow to wait for her and the fish were rising like crazy so I tried all the tiny lures that were supposed to be guaranteed to catch them.  Caught one on a dry fly I'd had for some time.  That was it.  You can't believe anybody when it comes to what the fish will bite.

Not really the first fish caught on the new reel, but the largest of the day and the only one I remembered to photograph.

Shot this on the roof top track at the YMCA on Friday.  I thought it was pretty neat.  Maybe not.  Actually, I forgot to shoot Mom in her new kayak.  What a dumbo I'm becoming.

Sunday I fished Creek D from an easy access at a bridge.  It was completely changed from what I remember many years ago.  Then it was narrow and fast with a hard rock bottom.  Now it is open and has a gravel bottom in most places.  But it is sunny and easy to get to and no one has "keep out" signs up.  Caught 5 or six really nice SM.  Great day.
 

See that dark hole under the trees?  I put a tiny torpedo splash dab in the middle of it and a depth charge went off.  After at least 5 minutes of trying to get her to the bank on 4# line she broke off.  Last I saw she was headed for parts unknown with my little lure.	Just before I lost the fish I've just described I caught and landed the one below just off the gravel bar on the left.  All the way down stream I had been using soft plastic crawfish imitations on a light jig.  Coming back I switched to top water.  I think the combination of coming upstream, later in the day, and top water accounted for my much better success vs. early and going down.
Isn't she cute.  Almost 17" by the marks on the rod.	Looking upstream on the last hole below the bridge.  Caught three very nice fish here.  All over 15".  Definitely a place to take Frank.

In the garden the new beans are up and running and the cucumbers are very apt to hide until they are too big to eat.  Takes careful looking every day to catch them.  Nice cherry tomatoes too.  I also have lots of hot peppers.  Why did I plant them?  I still have two quarts pickled from last year, so I guess I'll just have to give them away.