by Cecilia Gill

Today, Lonnie, Morgan and I went to the FOR (Friends of the River) San Bernard "Can You Dig It 2" Event that Mark Andrus passed on to the club. It is an effort to publicize the fact that the San Bernard River mouth is clogging up with sand and that the fish and other wildlife can't get from here to there any more, barring flooding and storm surges.

I have somthing to say about MapQuest, and its not particularly flattering... but that is for another time. Suffice it to say that thanks to the wonderful dirctions I got from MapQuest, we went the wrong way down 2004 off of 288, and didn't figure it out for quite a while......

Anyway, we finally found the boat ramp at the end of 2918 and met a man with a shallow draft speed boat at the dock. He suggested we let him give us a ride, since that's what he was there for anyway, and not try to fight the wind paddling there. I was outvoted two to one before I even put it up to a vote.... The boys loved the idea of getting to ride on a big boat.

After a fast ride there, and only one turn around to go back and get a toy (that floats, thank goodness! Wanna bet next time I tell Lonnie to hold on tight to something he'll listen?), we got to the sandy beach where he let us off. I met the coordinators of the trip, Roy and Jan Edwards, who gave Lonnie and Morgan little buckets and shovels to play with.

We played both in the river and in the gulf. It was pretty neat being able to play in the river, walk a couple hundred yards across a sandy island, and go play in the surf. We had a great time!

Then, everyone lined up, stretching from the river to the gulf, and started digging with little toy shovels and real shovels while a reporter took photographs and a small plane flew over head, also taking pictures. They let us keep our toy shovels and buckets.

After playing in the surf for a little longer, we decided it was time to pack it in and go, so we went back and rode the same shallow draft boat back to the dock. Lonnie got to sit with the driver (Captain) of the boat and "help" him drive. We thanked him and left for home.

Except for the part where MapQuest messed us up, and the fact that Morgan has a partially sunburned hand and looks like someone just slapped the fire out of his upper cheek and temple, (sunburn...I didn't get the little wiggle worm covered with sunscreen as well as I hoped I had...), it was a lovely, sunny day. A great time was had by all!