Day 4,5,6:

We rolled into the fishing cabin early Tuesday morning and opened it up. Once we opened all the windows it didn't take the gulf breeze long to blow out the stale air from the cabin's lack of use the last few years.

My Mom and her friend Charlie hung out for a while showing us the basics of the camp before we went off to lunch and then left us to fend for ourselves. After a bit of straightening up and rearranging we soon made it into our home away from home.

The cabin is a rustic old-school fishing cabin. It is one of the original shacks on the river and has over the decades been surrounded by larger fancy modern affairs that dwarf it. The stairs are warped and creaky and the deck is a little scary for a big (read fat ass) guy like me until I walked around it a few times.

This is a bare bones party cabin designed for a couple of guys to spend a few days fishing and hanging out. There are real nice ritzy places for the rich and infamous on the river but this isn't it....And that is why I love this place so much.

The girls weren't to sure at first but once we got settled in and they walked the dock and relaxed a bit they were hooked. We learned last year that Jane is a fire ant magnet. She steps out of the car and she gets bit.

This turned into a week long battle between her and the ants in the cabin. I'm still not sure who won but both left with battle scars in the end. Our next visit will include enough anti-ant stuff to wipe out every ant for a hundred yards.

Texas has been in a major drought for the last year that is causing havoc everywhere. The bad side is the ground is dusty, dry and cracked. The good side is the lack of rain water means nowhere for mosquitoes to hatch. That combined with a rare freeze last spring and Texas is insect free. No mosquitoes, spiders or creepy crawlers to be found. The ants have managed to survive though.

We set up the patio umbrella on the porch and made it comfy for the week of relaxing. The heat was crazy but the constant Gulf breeze made it tolerable as long as you didn't work to hard. I flew a kite up high during the day tying it off and letting it sail unattended all day without a worry in the world.

Dave brought out a pack of chicken legs to use as crab bait. We tied a leg to the fishing pole and would throw it in off the dock and reel in crabs that would clamp on and rip it apart. The larger crabs were netted and put in the live barrels hanging on the dock. The crab trap caught a few also and eventually there was enough crabs to make a small meal for the crew.

A few cabins down was a family with a little girl that gave our little one a playmate. Scott and Amber had rented that cabin for the week. They are out of the Dallas area and brought with them a boat load of saltwater fishing knowledge.

The docks all have theater style spot lights shining into the river to attract fish all night. the river would be lit up with people nite fishing avoiding the day's heat.

We all hung out on their dock and watch the kids fish and take pointers that we used on our dock. The basics are obviously the same but knowing what the fish are and which ones you can safely handle made life easier. Scott, Amber and their daughter were a lot of fun and we hope to cross paths again one day.

Just sitting on the dock watching the jellyfish drift by was enough make the drive down worth it. The mode of survival in the 100 plus dgr heat was to sit in the shade as much as possible and consume liquids... A task that I have no problem with when on vacation. We spent hours every day sitting high off the ground on the porch soaking up the view under the large umbrella.

Most of the docks along the river were built for fishing. Having small rooms with sinks, benches to relax on and roofs to provide shade from the Texas sunshine. The live barrels are made out of large plastic barrels hung on a rope from a crank system allowing the barrel to be lowered into the water through holes in the dock. The sea water would fill it up through lots of holes drilled in them and the bait or catch would live under the dock until needed.

Dave and I left the cabin to the girls one night and camped out on the porch under the stars. That was an awesome night sleeping in the gulf breeze. It was the best sleep I got the whole trip. The wind off the water was the only thing making the heat bearable.

The heat is the reason the three kayaks we took down never left the van. It broke my heart and everyday they were on the to-do list but sitting in the sun paddling against the wind for the afternoon didn't sound appealing. Actually just taking the yaks off the van in the sun was enough of a deal breaker. Our next trip will allow more time and will be later in the season to avoid the heat.

On Wednesday I took the girls over to the beach for their first saltwater swim in the waves of the Gulf. The water was real warm but still felt refreshing. I found body surfing a bit more of a challenge being old and fat than I did as a skinny teenager living briefly on the coast of the Mediterranean.

Growing up our family spent time on the gulf every sumer when I was young. Watching Jane's daughter play in the surf brought back memories of how much I loved those trips when I was her age.

We walked the coast finding beach glass and shells for a while before stopping for lunch at Pier 57 on the way back to the cabin. Every time we stopped there we were greeted by a cool ass little pirate dog with a white eye and a dark eye. She was a sweet dog and made the visit even more special.

Come Friday we were really settling in to the lifestyle and it broke our hearts to have to close it all up and head for Michigan. Texas is a thriving state running strong on the Republican agenda in their capital and you can feel the promise and pride in the people. It is a stark change from the doom and gloom of the Democrat agenda driven disaster of Michigan's economy.

We packed up and rolled north to Houston where we visited my Mom and Charlie and with Charlie's help tracked down a few bottles of a rare Tequila for CK back in Michigan.

Then we were off to make our way to my brother's place in Illinois for a planned visit.