We left Prime Hook National Wildlife Refuge and Milton Delaware for parts west. We had a great visit with the highlight of our time spent here being the time we spent with Marisa and Sammy our 3 and 2 year old grandchildren. On several occasions, Bill and Ann (Son & Daughter-in-law) took a weekend off and sent the kids home to the RV with us. Boy did we have fun. One day to the beach, a trip to the board walk at Rehobeth, an evening driving around looking for deer and other wildlife, coloring, playing with toys and all kinds of things that grandparents like to do with grandchildren.
At the refuge we spend several weeks presenting an educational program on insects to local second-graders. Four days a week, twice a day, Sandi and I and 4 or 5 other volunteers would make inquisitive youngsters entomologists by collecting and studying grasshoppers, beetles, and butterflies. Lots of fun.
On additional duty we had was to man the hunter check station. Several times during our stay here we would man a hunter check station where we oversaw the lottery for blinds for deer and duck hunting. Deer and waterfowl abound here at Prime Hook Wildlife Refuge. Snow Geese are here in the tens, perhaps hundreds of thousands. Teal, mallards, black ducks, Canada geese and others are seemingly everywhere.
In addition to our grandparenting duties, and volunteer activities on the refuge, I also took the time to do some hiking on the Appalachian Trail in New York. I caught a military hop out of Dover AFB and flew to Stewart ANGB. Worked out great. I can now say I have hiked some of the AT in every state north of the Mason Dixon line. I also managed to go fishing numerous times and although the fishing was not as good as last year I caught something almost every time. Usually I caught us a meal of bluefish ans several times caught strippers that were just shy of the 24” minimum. Skates and sharks made up the difference.
Another highlight of the visit here was golfing with Bill, my son, and Ken, my brother. We’d all been bragging about our golf prowess and each of us fell considerably short of our proclaimed skill level. Never-the-less we had a great time.
I turned 60 a few days ago. Had a nice birthday party with Sandi, Bill, Ann, Marisa, and Sammy. Bill and I had played a round of golf and I used the carved fossilized mammoth tusk greens keeper that Bill got me for my birthday. The fossil is about 10,000 years old and I think Bill got it for me so I would not feel so old.
