Travel day. South through more of brother bill’s favorite desert southwest.
Past the city of rocks. Past faywood hot springs. Around the southern
point of the mountains and back to the north. North to elephant butte state
park for lunch. On to bosque del apache for the evening. Coyotes. Quail.
A crissal thrasher, new bird for us. White crowned sparrow, meadowlark,
ruddy duck, ringneck pheasant, lesser goldfinch, western kingbird Here is the campground sign. Can you imagine a more appropriate place for
us to be?
Silver city
The view from our spot.
Silver city
Happy autumnal equinox. It was feeling like Fall in Colorado. We retreated south to Summer. Silver
City, New Mexico. Eighty-five and fifty-five all week. Low humidity, as
low as Colorado, but the skin doesn’t feel as dry. I think humidity in the
teens at eighty degrees is different from humidity in the teens at thirty or
forty degrees. I really like it here. I haven’t had a chance to look around much, mostly
just back and forth from work, but what a beautiful spot we’re in. High
desert. Kingbirds, curve billed thrashers, canyon towhees, spotted towhees,
white winged doves. Got to go. First time job. It went very well. The job finished today. Exit
conference. Time to leave. Manyana.
Silver city
Our site at Silver City.
Silver city
We watch the progress of Hurricane Rita with interest. Category five,
projected landfall somewhere along the Texas coast between Corpus Christi
and Galveston. Our property is on a barrier island, a sandbar, outside
Corpus Christi. Our island has a job, to protect Corpus Christi from
hurricanes. It does that by taking the first hit, absorbing some of the
force, sapping some of the hurricane’s strength before it hits the mainland. It looks like the island, Mustang Island, has been there a long time, but on
a geologic scale, it probably shifts like sand with the winds and tides.
Like, say, a sandbar. Don’t know yet where the hurricane will come ashore.
Corpus Christi to Galveston. We don’t have a lot at risk compared to most, just a cement slab and some
landscaping. Maybe it will all flood then dry out fine. Maybe the
landscaping will wash away. Maybe the cement pad will wash away. Maybe the
whole island relocates. Whatever, we don’t have a lot at risk compared to
most. We watch the progress of Hurricane Rita with interest. We watch from high
and dry in New Mexico.