Our son Matt has decided how we should spend our senior years. He’ll put the bus in his back yard. We can sleep out there, and every morning he’ll ask “Dad. Where do you want to go today?” Then he’ll play a video tape of a highway on a screen in front of the windshield, and I can sit in the driver’s chair with the steering wheel.
Charming son, that Matt.
A dark and stormy day. Snowy Plover!
Finally!
366!
When she takes the dogs out for a walk at the beach, they get sand burrs in their feet and coats. Either dog will get a flat and stop cold. Judy has to find the sticker and pull it out before they can go on their way. Stickers can happen anywhere, but they’re almost unavoidable near the beach. There seems to be no easy solution. Until now.
She went to Lowe’s and bought a couple squares of sod. We put that on the side patio of the RV site. The dogs can go outside, pee and poop on real grass, but not have to venture out into the stickers.
Brilliant! When it’s time to go, we’ll just leave $5 of sod here.
Western Tanager.
Bird number 365!
Great weather for migrant birds. A steady wind from the south. They can cross the Gulf of Mexico with a tail-wind all the way and not even be tired when they get here. They can just keep on flying. Most of these birds migrate at night. If they’re already here, they can leave the next night on favorable winds. So, great for the little migrating birds but not so great for we people with binoculars that want to watch them! Not very many birds around today. That said, two new year-birds.
Dickcissel.
Cape May Warbler.
Count total, 364!
And flowers, just because.
We merged on to Highway 59 right behind a wide load. (Thank you to the person who made space for us.) A wide load going through a construction detour. There wasn’t much room. We stayed behind for 20 minutes. Traffic had to come to a standstill when it was time for them to make their turn onto a side road. Judy got a number and called the pilot car company from the car in the rear. She told them what a wonderful professional job the three-vehicle procession did. They had to take up both lanes almost the entire time. Lots of twists and turns and barriers on the sides, but they kept up a respectable speed, blocked traffic when it wasn’t safe for anyone to pass, and made as much room as they could if there was an occasion for anyone to get by.
After a few minutes of conversation, the guy on the other end of the call said “Ma’am, it’s the god’s honest truth, in all the time we’ve been doing this, you are the first person to ever call and tell us we did a good job. I’m tearing up right now just talking to you.” Judy, and her sense of justice, feels if we’re willing to call and complain, we should be just as willing to call and compliment.
Later, we drove behind a delivery van with advertising on the outside maintaining that it was carrying a load of Liquid Death. That, we had to google. Turns out Liquid Death is canned water (it’s meant to murder thirst), it has a cool logo, it’s not deadly, and their website claims it is completely unnecessary. It’s expensive though, and is available at Whole Foods.
No new birds today.
Back to Brazos Bend State Park. No new birds today, but a bonus. With a little creative routing, we filled in two more counties.
Before today’s drive.
After.
Only 58 counties to go!
Scarlet Tanager.
Prothonotary Warbler.
American Redstart.
Baby Gator.
Slightly bigger gator.
