Two Bebettes, My Mudda, & Me, on the Bayou

Two nights were just enough to convince me that Caddo Lake, Tejas is officially a new stop on my get-a-way radar.  Mudda and I - with little human sidekicks - are scheduled to return this fall, in fact.  Texas boasts many lakes and appealing landscape features in pockets of our vast state, but Caddo Lake is the only au natural Texas lake as well as the most intriguing scenery <in my opinion> destination in the state under six flags.

As rich as the aesthetics are, the history woven through the area is equally impressive.  I learned more in an hour on The Graceful Ghost, a "replica of an 1800's era steamboat and is the last known wood-burning, steam powered, stern paddle-wheel touring vessel in the world," than I have in quite some time, probably since an entire semester of a high school or college history course.  A few highlights:  

• Lady Bird Johnson, perhaps my favorite historical First Lady, was born and raised near Caddo Lake
• I'm aware of a 2011 movie titled "Uncertain, TX" but I'm not CERTAIN if it contains any factual features
• The handcrafted lift enabling large volumes of luggage and travel gear to be transported easily from an upper level parking cliff to the lodging levels of http://www.gatorlodge.com/
• A clock in the lodge that chirps a varied bird tweet for each hour of the day and night
• A leave one/take one book library, complete with a "Knife Laws of the Fifty States" guide
• Weeks of obsessing over a child (or adult) being snagged by a gator, thereby prompting me to include a baseball bat of Char's in my lake luggage - which had the unfortunate result of a certain little boy repeatedly chanting "I wanna kill an alligator" several times each day, while brandishing the bat about
• I don't possess a firearm (which is probably fortunate for mankind) so my logic ran along the lines of if I could not bop said gator about the head in my many imagined attacks with the aforementioned bat, I could simply shove the bat into the awaiting gator's jaws

My adventure photos:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/piangenti/sets/72157633169505154/

Mudda's adventure photos:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/94351246@N05/sets/72157633163569419/

Side trivia:  Don Henley has a small house on the bayou but it's so nondescript that this photo was focused more on the waterfowl than the structure's corner.

General factoids:  Click here! But watch carefully for gators.

I'm on a shirt.

Just a mere few weeks from officialism!  This is the backside of our school's girls' soccer team shirt, for the current soccer season:

In other news, I can most optimistically hope that, like this article asserts, my students' worst fear should ever be boredom:  http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2013/03/17/school-security-newtown-gun-column/1979723/

Of course!  ---> @ristolable: A fun thing to do is walk up to a crowd of people, take off your shoe, put it up to your ear, say "Is this thing on?" and walk off laughing. <Genius, I would glee to meet that Twitter person one day.>

I experienced a flashback/grab-my-heart moment recently when accidentally catching a segment on 60 Minutes.  While working with Job Corps prior to entering public education, I had the privilege of working with one of the Lost Boys of Sudan.  I regret that I do not know what became of him and his journey, and I met the young man when he was extremely new to America - the term "Lost Boys of Sudan" had not yet even been popularly established for the group of around 20k child refugees from their war-torn African home.  The update story that 60 Minutes facilitated is linked below, if you're interested in learning more.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504803_162-57577085-10391709/our-amazing-12-year-journey-with-the-lost-boys/