A twilight drive revealed quick stepping, pudgy tummied, boopy topped birds scurrying at the roadside. Quail. One, two, three towering fire scorched barren trees are topped with the gigantic forms of great horned owls. They stand sentry for a few moments then swoop silently off into the shadows. Evening among the wild things, wonderful.
A perfectly shaped paw print in the dust on the motorhome door. These adorable little creatures are pretty forward. We make sure to close the door as evening settles in.
The Great American Trailer Park Musical. Hot pants and lots of cleavage. Trashy talk and sexual innuendo at every turn. Hysterical pregnancies, agoraphobia, kidnapped babies, infidelity and of course, the trailer park slut (she’s a stripper too). It was hilarious and that was even with me missing probably a third of the fast paced dialog. There was live music; two guitars, drums and a keyboard….right in line with the Armadillo Acres set.
The last line of the musical delivered the moral of the story in the life of hard knocks: “Make like a nail, and press on.”
Victoria Texas community theatre.
Fine hair-like nasties that work their way into any exposed skin to sturdy 2” long spikes that spear through about anything, even heavy leather gloves. We have been widening a trail right through some pretty dense stuff. My wrists have taken the worst beating. Stout spine covered ivy slips between glove and long sleeves. We are about done with that now, thankfully!
We are seeing some of the brightest pink spoonbills we have ever seen. They seemed to glow in the bright afternoon sun today.
Our UTV riding/driving is much more sedate that during our test track fun. Maybe it has something to do with pulling a trailer most the time.
Engineering!? Flashback to LONG ago for Kent. He started off actually drawing pencil and paper then stepping up to a bit of CAD work on Sketch-up (thanks Mike). They need to rebuild a number of trail bridges and boardwalks and modify an accessible fishing pier. The hope is that Kent’s drawings will get them a bit of a head start through their regional engineering staff so they can get moving on these structures. We have our fingers crossed that we will actually get to drive some nails on those projects before we leave here in April.
That’s what it cost us in the little town of Tivoli, TX. We got a flat on the Miata. It was in camp so no biggie to change it and it gave me a chance to spend a bit of time with a wonderful older couple who run the simple little garage in Tivoli.
That’s what they call baby Javelina or more scientifically, baby Collard Peccary. The little fellows are adorable. Two of them stayed close beside their mama as she rooted for tasty tidbits near the visitor center. The locals claim that they move into this area in the spring…we’ll be watching to see the little guys again.
Clambering up dirt piles and plunging down the other side. Wallowing through trenches and holes that made my seatbelt pull tight and my free hand fly out to the grab bar. Pushing through head high undergrowth that snapped past the roll cage and reminded me why hardhats and safety glasses are required gear. We took the driving portion of the Fish and Wildlife Service’s off-road vehicle class. It was pretty exciting for me even though we actually ran it in stodgy Utility vehicles (the Polaris that maxs out at 70 mph and a Kubota that will run 35) not the super sporty ATVs that the fire crew runs around on. It was a fun couple hours and great way to get a feel for how the machine reacts. Once off the training course its back to mild-manner trail maintenance crew driving 25mph down a nearly flat trail hauling shovels, saws and pruning shears or great piles of limbs destined for the burn pile.