Busy Day

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Our friends Dave and Sally are here to visit, and yesterday we visited Langtry, TX, about 10 miles west of here, and went to the Judge Roy Bean Visitors Center. We also stopped along Route 90 to see the "Buffalo Jump", a high bluff with a sudden drop-off into a steep gorge, where ancient people, on foot (prior to the Spanish bringing horses to North America), chased buffalo to their death, and then killed them for meat, hides, etc. We returned to Seminole Canyon and went down to see Fate Bell shelter, which is the third picture you see. The second picture is an example of the rock art in Fate Bell, typical of the lower Pecos area. The first picture is viewing Fate Bell from further down the canyon. After spending a good while looking at the rock art, we then walked a little way down the canyon and took some more pictures. It was so quiet, with a few birds calling, and no evidence that we were in the 21st century. After climbing back out of the canyon, we then went down to Panther Cave. It is accessible only by boat, but we went down to the end of the trail at the Rio Grande and took pictures #4 and 5. You can see the 23 foot panther behind the chain link fence. This fence is necessary to keep idiots out and try to stop defacement of the rock art. To your left of the panther are many more paintings. This shelter is located where Seminole Canyon ends at the Rio Grande. Due to the amount of water in Lake Amistad, water has backed up into Seminole Canyon (but not to the point where we went into Fate Bell Shelter.

It was a great day, and we returned home to our RV and shared a meal of shredded beef enchiladas with Dave and Sally. We are so thankful to be able to live here and see the beauty of this remote land.

It's off to Del Rio today for grocery shopping, and sadly, Dave and Sally are going back to Georgetown tomorrow.

Love to all our dear friends and family,

Gary and Judy

I've been trying to wait until I got some good pictures before I posted again, so here are some bird pix, plus a fox. I took all these pictures from our dining room window. We have tinted windows, so I have to manual-focus my camera for these. There is a tall shrub (tree?) right outside our window, and we put a seed bell up for the birds.

The first picture is a brown towhee (pronounced toe-hee). The second is a fox who thought he was being pretty sneaky trotting across the road, just right outside our RV. There were very few campers in the park that day. Check out the broken tail!

The third picture is a pyrrhuloxia, in the cardinal family and occasionally seen in this part of the country. The fourth picture is a white-crowned sparrow, a small bird with lots of kinfolk. They gorged themselves on the seed bell.

I've been trying to get the last bird's picture for a long time. He is a cactus wren and a very busy, quick little bird. They're the ones who build the round nests down in cactus plants here.

We've had our friends Dave and Sally here for the past few days and have been enjoying them very much. Last night we talked Gary and Dave into playing Sequence, and we stopped at 2 games, tied. We then went outside and sat around watching the beautiful sunset and stars coming out. As soon as we got out to the picnic shelter, Dave spotted a skunk. Fortunately the skunk went the other way. It was a lovely evening, temperature perfect with a slight breeze.

However, around 3 am this morning, the cold front came through with a vengeance. We got a little rain along with the high winds (up to 31 mph) during the morning. All windows had to be closed as the rain was blowing. It's cold, damp, and windy outside now. Hmmm, just the kind of day to bake snickerdoodles!

Our friends and co-workers (volunteers) Pat and Marshall are leaving Wednesday. We are sorry to see them go. They have worked very hard for this park, always going the extra mile and doing more than necessary. Like I said in the past, RV'ing can be tough because it seems you are always saying goodbye to someone. Hopefully we'll see them again; they volunteer at some neat places, and we hope to visit them early this summer as we go through Wisconsin, their home base.

That's about all for now! I hope to have some more pictures soon. Thanks for checking on us!

Forgotten treasures

We have a beautiful day here in southwest Texas. The south wind is blowing but it is cool, about 75 degrees outside.

Don't you love finding forgotten pictures on your camera ? Gary took all these on his Nikon, so I can't take credit for any of them.

You may recall that we stopped in Marathon, TX, on the way here to Seminole Canyon. Gary took the first three pictures there shortly after sundown. I think they're beautiful and didn't do any editing of them at all. These were taken at the Marathon Motel, which also has RV parking.

The final two pictures are ocotillo plants which are blooming now. This land is semi-arid, and pretty flowers are few and far between.

About the continuing refrigerator saga...we took the RV in last Wednesday and the people at Norcold had finally authorized the cooling unit to be shipped. The guys at DelTex RV in Del Rio did a great job, and the refrigerator has been working perfectly. They also put in a new ice maker and it's working great, too. We're keeping our fingers crossed that this was really the problem, and not some other intermittent problem. We're also thankful to the great folks at Tiffin RV, manufacturer of our coach, who put pressure on Norcold to fix our refrigerator speedily. We hope not to move this RV again until December.

This is a very busy week and weekend for us. We had students from a Montessori school in Austin for 4 days this week. There were kids everywhere! They were well-behaved, though, and didn't leave as much mess as some adults. They all left yesterday and we cleaned every campsite plus spiffed up the grounds around here. This weekend is the Rock Art Foundation Rendezvous, so we have lots of campers who are attending the festivities over across Hwy. 90 at the White Shaman preserve. We've been trying to keep on top of reservations plus folks coming in wanting a campsite. So far, we've managed to please everyone.

Tonight we're going over to the White Shaman preserve to eat dinner. We get to go because we're volunteers here. It'll be a good Texas meal of barbeque and beans.

Until I can think of more to post...thanks for joining me here!

Special photos

Now before you go "Eek!" and get all disgusted, first let me tell you that this lil' critter doesn't sting. This is a vinegaroon, or a whip-tailed scorpion. He, or she, is a pet, believe it or not (not our pet, though).

These creatures are in the spider family and are nocturnal. This particular species is found mostly in west Texas, usually in desert areas. They have very poor eyesight but the front legs serve as feelers, and they sense vibration and movement to catch their prey. The two thick pincers are used to grasp prey and hold it while they eat (they like crickets and grasshoppers). The vinegaroon also uses the pincers to drink water and to dig in the sand. They can also pinch with these protuberances.

When startled or threatened, the vinegaroon sprays a substance comparable to 85% acetic acid from scent glands at the base of the tail. (Regular vinegar is usually 5% acetic acid).

I used to hear of vinegaroons when I was a kid, and people thought they were very dangerous. Now I learn they were wrong. Of course, that was a lot of years ago!

Oh, the vinegaroon's name is Dale. Of course, he could be a she, and then we'd have to call him Dale Evans, right?

Lovely fall weather

We have beautiful weather today. The cold front came through, and although we didn't get any rain, it's cooler and drier, 74 degrees at 2 pm. This is my favorite time of the year in Seminole Canyon.

We are in the midst of the Monarch butterfly migration. The first two pictures are of a tiny butterly. The third picture is a ragged Monarch. They come tumbling through this part of Texas every year and some of them unfortunately bite the dust as they meet with cars and trucks.

The next picture was taken in front of the headquarters building. The sign is flanked by sotol plants and in the center is the century plant, or agave. The agave is not native to this area but is easily grown here.

The next picture is an ocotillo (pronounced oh-coh-TEE-yoh) plant which is blooming in front of the campground restroom. The plant is tall and spindly, with thorns hidden under its small green leaves. The leaves die easily in dry weather but come back with just a little rain. In the next picture, you can see the entire plant. Some cut the ocotillo spines and make fences with them, and they are also thatched together and used to make a roof.

The building is the campground restroom. It has a nice desert garden in the front with ocotillo, century plant, spanish dagger, and several other species of cacti. We are responsible for keeping the restroom clean and the grass trimmed and mowed, in addition to mowing grass in the campground and cutting brush. We just mowed the grass today in preparation for the weekend.

Monday is Columbus Day and we should have an increase in campers for the weekend.

Have a great one and keep looking for more posts!

We are, unfortunately, still on hold getting our refrigerator fixed. The cooling unit which was SUPPOSED to be in today was only shipped today from somewhere in Indiana. It will take yet another week for the part to arrive. We are very disappointed and want to get this issue settled. It has been frustrating, to say the least, dealing with the Norcold company. I hope to never ever have another product made by them.

This is our day off, so we did laundry and then decided to go out to Langtry, TX, twenty miles west, to the Judge Roy Bean Center, where our friend Miguel now works. In addition to the bar in the picture, which also served as Judge Roy Bean's courtroom, we toured the newly added Opera House, which also served as his home. It is still being finished and was an adobe house covered with stucco, inside and out. We also toured the garden of desert plants and saw all the improvements that Miguel has made since he transferred there. The lizard in the picture didn't seem too upset at the humans in his world, and I was able to get a couple of snapshots of him before he scampered off.

After a good visit with Miguel, we drove south down a little dirt road toward the Rio Grande. I couldn't resist taking pictures of the bluffs and also the scenery toward the west, as seen in the second picture. I really wish there was some way to capture the beauty of this country in a photograph, but I think a painting is about the only way to do that. Unfortunately, I can't even draw a straight line, so it couldn't be me that does the painting!

On the way back, I took the picture of the Pecos River, looking south toward the Rio Grande. The bridge is under construction-repair, and currently is a one lane bridge, high above the Pecos. There is a stoplight at either side of the bridge and a sign warns that there may be up to a 4 minute wait. The other side of the bridge is still under construction. It's a little bit scary going over that bridge.

It has been extremely humid here today. It's really not that hot (only 83 degrees), but when you step outside, your glasses fog up and you feel like you're in a sauna. I'm ready for a cool-off! We did get some rain the other night. We're happy because the burn ban has been lifted in Val Verde County, so the campers can have campfires.

Tomorrow is our weekly trip to Del Rio for groceries. We had hoped to be taking the RV in for the final repair on the fridge! Hope to have more pictures for you soon.

Sleepy Sunday

It's a sleepy day today. We haven't had much news to report here lately. Yesterday we had a little rain, and this morning it was misty and cloudy, but the clouds are now gone and the heat is back...again.

Gary took these pictures of a cardinal right outside our dining room window. The white birds are probably cattle egrets that he saw sitting atop one of the picnic shelters while making rounds. I have seen a few of them at a time, but never such a big flock as this.

We are waiting until Tuesday to see if our cooling unit will be in for the RV refrigerator. We keep wondering how long this thing will drag on. Tomorrow will be our "Friday". The weeks fly by because we're usually busy.

I'd better do some practicing on my banjo to keep my fingers limber. I'm learning a couple of new songs and trying to memorize them. Have you ever seen a banjo player using music? Nope, neither have I! Practice makes perfect. I hope.