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Change in plans

 Sunday.  Travel day.  Our first interstate day.  Straight down the road 260 miles past Sonora, Ozona, Fort Stockton and Balmorhea.  We meant to spend the night at Balmorhea State Park, the place with the giant freshwater spring fed pool.  (The spring is giant, and so is the pool.)   But the State Park is full today; no room for us, so we drove on to the Van Horn KOA, another 68 miles.     2017 Arizona Trip Map Suddenly we’re at 4,000 feet elevation, with a desert humidity of 11%! We have experienced a lot already this trip.  We’ve been hot, we’ve been cold, we’ve been dry, and now we’re high! Good cell and internet.  The first day we’ve been back in touch.  We can catch up on trip reports and everything else. Saw two violet-green swallows. 
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Saturday, MOTS

 More of the same.  There is a lot to like about Llano.  More walking trails than a person can hike in a few days.  Four different bird blinds.  Some of the birds are the same in every blind, like black-throated sparrows, they’re everywhere, but each blind is in slightly different habitat, and so attracts a few different birds.  We have to visit each blind every visit; some more than once. Texas Hill Country scenery.  Some of it is even for sale. Here is the listing. http://www.landandfarm.com/property/Whitetail_Springs_Ranch-2768774/ It’s got some nice photos of the property. Saw Pine Siskins and Spotted Towhees. 
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Day Friday

 How many cities did we drive through today?  We turned left out of Lost Maples, drove a scenic road.  Turned left at a highway intersection, turned right at the next highway intersection, and turned left when we hit the interstate.  We drove 75 miles, and the first city we encountered was Junction.  Junction, Texas.  Our stop for the night.  South Llano River State Park. 2017 Arizona Trip Map  We spent some time looking for WiFi in town.  Found a connection at the McDonalds, but that only worked for the computer.  That’s a big deal, getting to catch up on email, but we want data on the telephone too, and that didn’t work.  Not that life totally sucks without internet. It was so cold here this morning there was frost!  We’ll spend the weekend here anyway.  J Saw Woodhouse’s Scrub-Jays and Dark-eyed Juncos.  
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Day III

 No Verizon.  The Camp Wi-Fi works for the news.  We don’t really need the news.  It doesn’t work for email. Not only does lack of Wi-Fi and cell service matter for work and email, now it matters for birding too.  It never did before, but now we have digital tools.  With the eBird app, we can make contemporaneous entries on our phone to record what birds we’re seeing right as we’re seeing them.  If we’re not sure what bird we’re looking at, or what birds we should expect to see, we have diagnostic tools right at our fingertips when we have Wi-Fi or cell service; and we have Wi-Fi and cell service practically everywhere we go.  Something we never had for all our lives, and now constant contact matters more and more every year.  We have Alexa at home; the Amazon Echo, home helper.  Every question or request has to start with “Alexa” to alert the machine to pay attention to what’s coming next.  Want to guess how many times Alexa’s name has been called out already this trip?  Saw Rufous-crowned sparrows.  
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Day 2

 A short day to Lost Maples Wildlife State Natural Area. Through Tildon, Pearsall, Sabinal for lunch, Utopia, and Vanderpool.  Utopia has a general store. 2017 Arizona Trip Map We don’t come here often, because it’s not really on the way to anywhere.  No easy access from interstates.  That’s probably what keeps it so quiet and nice. Wi-Fi at the entrance station.  Maybe I can hook up there to send and receive. It’s hot here.  91 degrees for a high. Two nights here, then we’ll move along. Saw a Hutton’s Vireo.