Martin Dies Jr State Park | A Relaxing Kayaking Adventure!

Good morning. Welcome to Dude RV. I appreciate you stopping by. And of course, say it with me, you got here just in time. That's right. Just in time. Be it's not Friday. It's just in time because this is vacation. Just in time for a vacation. We came down here to Martin Dy Jr. State Park for Piny Woods Days. This is the Dooders Facebook group gathering in the fall October. Right now we're doing it at Martin Martin Dy Jr. State Park BA Stunningham Lake. It's October and it's still muggy and warm and the mosquitoes are still out in force. So, if you've been following Friday's finds, we're going to actually put that screen room to use this week because the mosquitoes so were were so bad last night. We all had to retreat inside. You've seen this campsite before. This is exactly We were here a year ago, this exact same time last year. I have I've been told that they're going to be closing this side of the state park. So, this is the south side of of the state park. We're in site 528. There's like 800 campsites in this state park. I'm not going to do the typical dude RV tour because I've I've done two of those already. Two or three. Done several. Uh, I want to try to find a different experience for us. This is a long-term camp for me. So, I set up this screen room. Longterm being seven days with the charcoal, the big old concrete. What's what's frustrating is we don't have a lantern hook, so we we we can't camp in style. I end up having to bring my own hook. So, we've been hanging out, talking. I went out kayaking yesterday morning on the new paddle pedal kayak. And oh, this is just a beautiful place. So, first thing we're going to do, or the next thing where we're going from here is out there. Uh, I'm going to go show you some cypress trees and maybe we can find some some weird maybe we can find some lake related stuff from the kayak. I'm not going to fish cuz my hands hurt. So, we're just going to go pedal on a kayak. We are We are a float. We are. We're going to deploy the rudder. We will be going in crazy circles if we don't. There we go. Let's go see some Cypress trees. Giant Salania is really bad on Lake BA Stingham. Let me I'm gonna turn you around. All this green stuff is an invasive species. And it gets so thick that a kayak can't get through it. Ah, I think we're going to be stained. I don't see a clear path through any of that up there. I came through here yesterday and it was it was so thick. There were a couple of places. I'm not going to try it. You can see him his head right there. Course I saw him when I was over at my site. When I was over there and I could see him in the water. He's like 7 ft long maybe. He's pretty big. Maybe he'll get a little closer. Maybe I get a better angle. Think he's about six feet. That's what I was a big splash. He's done this before. He He knows. >> Oh, yeah. He knows. >> He knows what's real, what's not. The camera is not going to do it justice, but man, this is so with sunset happening back here, but it's lighting up the forest over here. That is so cool. We just saw We just saw our first alligator for the visit. Well, no, actually the second. I saw one yesterday, but it wasn't up close. This was pretty close. And the white is gone. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] Heat up here. Heat. Heat. [Music] [Music] [Music] I'm on I'm on the kayak this morning. Hold on. I get the camera sorted out here. Okay. I'm out on the kayak this morning and and this is like the third day, maybe my fourth day on a kayak here at Martin Dy Junior State Park attempted. I'm I'm really fascinated by the cypress trees here in the cut between the island and the mainland. And so I I'm coming back up in here and it's different every day because of the giant Salania stuff. Yesterday I I could I went back in through there, but it is so thick now that I can't even paddle much less use the the kick drive. And there's road noise today, whereas yesterday there was no road noise. Anyway, think I'm gonna put a hook in the water somewhere today. [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] He blinked. [Music] Definitely a nest. There's a Let's see. Hard to tell on this little bitty screen, but it's at the top of this dead pine. [Laughter] That's also the piating. I think that's the male. There he is. They're both up there now. Oh, there's three. Maybe there's several nests up there. Hard to tell from here. I don't have any binoculars. Note to self, small binoculars for kayak outfit. I'm going to drift on down. I'm about to drift into some trees. So, I'm going to y'all are going to be seeing some some new shorts, a new style of short for Dude RV. I' I've been out here for I don't know about two hours now, just shooting three minute segments. Three minute meditation. That's what they are. Threeinut meditation videos. Just sitting here in the swamp at the state park listening just being silent woodpeckers and all all kinds of birds and background auditory. It's just a neat experience sitting here drifting. All right. So So you're going to see these three minutes. I've also launched a Tik Tok uh and a Rumble. I'm not sure where I'm going. with those in it. But all these Friday Find video, all all of the Friday's Find stuff that I'm relicate that out to some other social platforms, your participation would be most appreciated. So, if you're on Tumblr, um, or if you're on Rumble or Tik Tok, uh, I'll put links in the description below. If you could go give me a follow, that would really help. And, uh, yeah, I'm going to go back to being quiet. That's the craziest thing. They've been swirling, swarming right here all week. I'm not complaining. I love it. It keeps the bugs down. But it's the only camp that I've seen, actually the only campsite where I've seen this many dragon flies. Just crazy. Do they work? And I'm here to tell you they work. So, I've been here camping at this lake for over right at a week now. And at night, you can't stand out here. the the mosquitoes will tear you up. Everybody has a screen room here. But I have found that these these incense sticks work better than anything else that I have tried. And I have tried I've tried a lot over the the past week. I've gone through just about everything you can buy on the shelf in the local retail. Fortunately, I brought these with me. These these work extremely well. Worth the money. And they smell good, too. Mark, good morning from Martin Dy Jr. State Park. Man, this has been just the most This has been a great week. This park was packed full this weekend. There were tents everywhere. Boy Scouts, church groups. It was it was nice to see all of these kids out playing and having a good time in nature and this is such a great place to do it. If you've not ever been to Martin Dy Jr. State Park and you like Texas State Parks, then this must be on your list. Make sure you get on the water while you're here cuz that's really what this park is all about. It's it's about this right here. come out here to learn how to paddle a kayak or a canoe, see some wildlife, see some alligators. Yeah, make sure you bring your deak. But we're done. I got a bunch of boxes sitting on my front porch. We got to go back to work. So, if you're still with me at this point, I I have at this point I have no real clue as to what this video was all about, how how this video played out. I kind of have some ideas, but I I literally just shot the footage and then saved the files. I gota I got Now at this point I'm I'm not real sure how this video turned out. Uh I'm not too keen on the dude photobombing me though. So if you're still with me at this point, thank you. I do appreciate your time. I know it's quite valuable. Thank you for spending some watching my production. If you've not already, it would really be helpful if you could click the subscribe button right down there. That helps. That tells the algorithm that people are interested in what we're doing. Uh, and the more people that click that, the better off we are. We really appreciate your support in that matter. All right, moving right along. For those of you have already clicked that button, thank you so much. Thank you so much. I truly appreciate that. And for our patrons, your generosity is most appreciated. Thank you very much. You guys, y'all are buying the new Doo Derby GoPro camera this month. So, thank you for supporting the channel. You guys rock. All right, y'all. Come back now. You here? Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music]