There in the road January, 8,

It’s aTexas Indigo Snake.

Native to Texas, they’ll eat almost anything that moves, including rattlesnakes!

This one was only about 5 or 6 feet long.  They’ll get as long as 8 feet!

Harmless to humans, they just go on their way.

Can you find the January, 7,

Sleeping Pauraque

Too easy?

Too hard?

We could try a different bird.  Can you find the yellow-crowned night heron in this picture?

Here is a clue on the pauraque.

And another.

And the close-up.

And here is a clue on the night heron.

2019 January, 5,

Let’s add another number to the list.  We’ve got 4,219 miles to go to get to Fairbanks.  We haven’t started that trip yet, but it’s in our plans starting the second week in May.  I’ve got 56 hours of continuing professional education to go by the end of the year.  I’ll probably finish that early and make it look easy….  And we’ve recorded a few birds this year.  Our number remaining to get to 500 for the year is now down to 415.

But something else occurs to us.  There are 254 counties in Texas.  I’m thinking we should record at least one bird in each of them.  We’ve done that for a lot of counties in Texas already anyway:

Only 138 counties to go.  We’re almost half way there!

So our current totals are:  4,219, 415, 56, and 138!

I’ve been thinking January, 4,

What is the perfect size for an RV?

At rest, bigger is better.  It’s nice to have more room and amenities inside.

But could we improve on the design and get even more room?  Why not start with a double decker like this, and fit it out as a motorhome?

Think how much stuff we could stuff into a double decker.  That would be awesome.

Except maybe highway overpass clearances would be a deterrent.

For more space then, why not a reticulated bus?

Oh.  Wait.  I mean articulated.

That’s better; but too many articulations.

This one.

That’s better.

So there we have it.  Buy one of these articulated buses and fit it out as an RV.  Room for everything we can think of.  The perfect machine.  Unless of course you’d like to park it in an RV park some time.  Unless they have 100 foot long spaces, it wouldn’t fit.

Let’s start over.  What is the best possible motorhome that will fit in every campground?  A twenty-footer, maybe twenty-five.

They can go anywhere!  And they’re small enough to get around town; don’t need to pull a tow car.

So, we should design the coolest possible motorhome that doesn’t exceed twenty or twenty-five feet.  It can’t hold very much, but it can go anywhere!  National Forest Service campgrounds here we come!

But how do we get the best of both worlds, I wonder.  And thus my “aha” moment.  Create a small agile RV and combine it with the “articulated” concept.  Make the combined length 40 or 50 feet.  In our current motorhome, when we’re hooked up to tow, we’re 60 feet long and we can fit into lots of RV Parks without unhooking.  Make the front module a self-contained unit though, so when you’re through with highway driving and RV Parks, the back segment can be dropped, and the front part goes and fits anywhere!  You don’t have to haul a tow car either; just disconnect and use the front part to drive-about.

Like this, only with a pass-through while they’re connected like a passenger train or passenger bus.  Maybe the front part is shorter and the back part is longer.

Brillant!  If I do say so myself. (And even if I’m the only one saying it.)