HACKED BY CYBER-ATTACK - ALPERENBTN

[Guest]

Expected to see more on the subject of yesterday's Big Shell Clean-Up, in the paper if not here, but maybe the crew is still celebrating/fishing/resting up. Looked to me like Billy Sanderfer organized his best program ever, having gone well past the 25 MP this time. Surf was up but clear, and so was the tide, so I hope there weren't too many trailers full of trash stuck on the way north.

Lotsa familiar faces, and plenty of helping hands, so congrats to all to the participants. Saw a couple of new things this time: C.H. found a 3-foot western diamond-back at the edge of the dune vegetation, and I think I found 5 peyote buttons in the high tide drift.

Saw some of the usual foolishness, too. Right at Yarboroughs some clowns had blocked the low road with their lines and were attempting to block everything else from their camp to the water with markers, but after maybe 50 drivers yelled at them to move their rod holders I think they figgured it out.

Best of all were the new BSC T-shirts distributed. Plan on wearing mine to the PINS public meeting at the museum Wednesday night, and urge others to do the same. 'Course, I'll have to wait until after the meeting to wash it , 'cause it's only an X-large, and I'm, well, you get the picture.

[Seabass]

Thanks to all of the volunteers who spent there day making PINS even better. I had to work, and couldn't get down there. But I'll be sure to pick up a couple extra bags worth of trash on my next trip.

I plan on attending the PINS public meeting in San Antonio on Tuesday. I'll be looking for others to join me there. Carpool, anyone?

Seabass

[FlakMan]

Rangers loaded up two heaping loads in their front-end bucket loader just out of my 8-ft pickup bed. Looked like lots of folks out there picking trash - much more that last year. This year's tee shirt is a great one - I will wear it with pride!

Plastic trash and rope made up most of our catch. We did drag several boards with nails up into the dune line to help protect tires of the unwary.

Surprized at all of the ballons. Where were they released?

I did almost nail a little white Toyoda pickup that cut suddenly in front of me! As I was coming off the beach. The young man that was driving that truck needs to look behind him before he pulls that kind of stunt. I would think it hard to miss my 23-ft long Ford SuperDuty with a bright aluminum rod rack up front and the lights on!

My thanks to all that participated.
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Ahh sand between my toes!

[fred]

The Brush Country CCA bunch started out with 16 workers, 5 trucks and 3 trailers, but got turned around at the 25 due to a blown front transmission seal on one of our trucks. That reduced our productivity, but we managed to fill 2 trailers and one truck bed anyhow. We also noticed quite a few clusters of ballons as being different from past trash pick-us. The group out there yesterday seemed to be more motivated than usual. Congrats to all.

[jerry]

I had a great time. Had the good luck (I think it was good) to ride with Johnny. This was the firist time I had been down the beach that far and it was great to ride with someone who knew as much about the beach as Johnny. Now if I knew how to attach pictures I would attach a pic of the snake.[/img]
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Broken or not fix it!
NRA Life member
CCCTKF

[Alfish]

Glad to hear there was a good turn out. I couldn't make this one due to my suburban is running 7 cylinders & couldn't make the trip down. Any idea of the tonnage picked up this year.

Great job Billy & all the volunteers!

Al

[ShawnQ]

Seabass,

I'll be heading to the meeting. I'll see you there.

FlakMan,

That toyota (which is actually a 'big' toyota compared to most, ) was a friend of mine in our 'camp'. He said he had just recently looked to see where you were behind him, and thought you were going around on the right. He also wanted me to apologize for him if I could find out who it was. I'm sure he'll be more careful next time, scared the crap out of him to see a big Super Duty headed towards him! Thankfully you were aware and paying attention.

As for the cleanup: What an awesome sight! It was amazing how quick everyone moved down the beach. That was my first cleanup, but definitely not my last. I plan to attend everyone I can from now on. It's a good feeling seeing how dirty the beach is when you pull up, and then seeing how clean it is on the way back. There were a lot of people giving it their all, and I definitely appreciate it. I hope Capt. Billy feels the same.

Take care
Shawn

[Capt. Billy]

Been taking the day off but thought I'd make a quick comment and give y'all the figures. I lost my starter yesterday pulling one of the fine gentlemen from Brush Country CCA, who was stuck in the soft sand, out so I just kept the truck running all day. What a hoot. I can't be sure of the # of volunteers because the event was moving around too quickly to get an accurate talley. My offical guesstimation is 300, Last year was 196. We cleared 10 and 1/2 miles of beach. From the 18 to the 28 1/2 mile. The area south of the 26 had not been cleaned since the first cleanup and we have never been as far south as the 28 1/2 before. Feds figures say 2,051 bags/39 tons. I believe the bag #s but expected/still think the tonnage was over 39 tons. There was something different about this cleanup indeed. I noticed it immediately when I arrived at the parking lot at 6:20 a.m. and at least 10 volunteers were already there waiting on me. That "espirit de corps" remained all day long and the event was such a living, huge, well oiled machine in action that it was breathe taking to observe; much less be a small part of. To each and everyone involved congratulations on a job done above and beyond what anyone could have expected of you and I am so proud of y'all! I'll get an article and some pics up on my web site in the very near future. Just need a little time to sit quietly and relax. Don't forget the Management Meetings everyone, and I think Johnny has a good idea about wearing our cleanup T shirts. Thank You All Billy

[Magic]

It's wonderful to hear that another Cleanup effort resulted in another great success. Glad Fishbites could be a very small part of it. I must apologoze for not making this one. But Ms. Thelma and I have been under the weather recovering from Strep Throat and Sinus surgery. Figured we just couldn't risk a day in the open on the beach. Truth be known it probably would have done us some good.

Over 39 tons of trash and still counting. You just can't understand how beautiful all those clean miles look until you're on the way out. Talk about a sense of acomplishment.

Thanks Capt. Billy, the SFCCI and all the volunteers.
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Magic

[obsessed]

seabass

a bunch of us from the AAA board are planning on making it to the meeting here in SA, see ya at the meeting, i think we will have a great turn out up here...

[Vern]

My wife and had a great time. We will surely be back every year. My 3 year old even had a blast and got in on a little cleaning too. I was nice to put a face to a lot of names I see on this and other boards. I could not believe the amount of people on the beach. Several times when we moved foreward there was not anyone to the south, and within minutes you looked down and as far as you could see was people and trucks.

[tyler]

I am still tired and still pumped at the turnout. The weather cooperated beautifully and allowed us to clean the beach in perfect temperatures with not too much sun and barely any rain. The forecast did not look good and it warmed my heart to see all of those volunteers that came after the big line of oil field trucks.
I have the photos but this has been a long deal and I will sit back and rest a bit. Is it just me or does anyone elses back hurt?
I brought three new friends down who are cleanup virgins and they too got the warm fuzzy feeling that makes it all worthwhile seeing those miles and miles of beach as mother nature had intended.
The food was great and so were the volunteers and t-shirts too! I can't thank everyone enough for coming out with us. More coming soon!

Tyler

[SALTYDOG]

I just about cried when my truck went out on me. I knew i would miss something special and I was right. I had spent the last two months setting things up so I could help. I will also be one to do as Tyler ask, "Bring out more than you take in."

It was good to read here that this clean up was such a sucess.

Cliff
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SALTYDOG AKA Cliff McKay
(the surveyor)
#1 Fishing Partner is Lorna
My Betterhalf for 25 years

[Stateofconfusion aka Lynn]

Dang, its been a long time!!!! I sure wish I could have made the clean-up........thats two in a row that I have missed!! Oh well, I will make up for it when I do make it to the sand again.

Those are some great stats there Capt Billy.....you guys ROCK!!

S.O.C. aka Lynn B

[Big John at work]

Hey Saltydog,

What happened to your truck? Was looking forward to seeing you cast that new OceanMaster!

It was good to see everyone out there cleaning. I got there late, but did manage to bag some trash before the thing was over. Wow! When I pulled back up to Malaquite on the way out, it appeared the 21yrder was full, and there were still trucks lining up!

Great job everyone, and SD is right, always take out more than you bring in. Just picking up a small area right around were you parked can make a huge difference if everyone participates!!!