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Published: December 19th 2008
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Bandera, Texas
a roadrunner? a pig?
a longhorn? The wind stopped howling sometime during the night. We got ready to travel and Nancy noticed all the cowbirds in several trees. During yesterday's wind, they sat in the mesquite trees facing into the wind. We've never seen such flocks of cowbirds! They're interesting birds. They lay an egg in up to five separate nests of 200 possible species. They don't even care if the other birds are the same size. The large cowbird chick outeats its step-chicks. Nancy's bird book said that "it has been suggested that cowbirds became parasitic because they followed roving herds of bison and didn't have time to stop and nest." We left the cowbirds behind and headed out of San Antonio. On the western side of town there were subdivisions and there was a lot of new building going on. In the fields were cotton and, um, CORN. Apparently Texas is experimenting with cotton and trying to grow cotton with longer fibers.
We passed trees with ball Spanish moss instead of the bearded kind that hangs down. Would you call them moss balls? An interesting freeway feature is the turnaround. If you want to get off the freeway and then get right back on to
go back, you stay in the far left lane of the offramp, and a lane carries you under the bridge and back on again without having to go through any lights or out into any traffic. We drove out to Hondo, Texas because Jodie had sent some mail to us there. We arrived at the Post Office at about 11:00 and found a sign saying "Post Office closed 11:00 to 11:30". What? Post Offices don't close! One customer who was let out by the clerk who then relocked the door, told those of us waiting in line that the Post Office was so backed up with packages that they had to close for a half hour in order to catch up! We walked around a few blocks and found a Radio Shack to look around in. We bought some computer paper. The store was selling shirts with the town's motto - "This Is God's Country - Don't Drive Through It Like Hell". They did reopen the Post Office at 11:30 and we got our mail. As we drove on through the Hill Country, it was only 38 degrees, overcast, and there was almost a light mist over everything. A picnic area sign warned that there was no turn-around for horse trailers. We thought that was nice of them to let people know BEFORE they drove down the road. We started to pass ranches with big entrances and electric gates. They had extra high fences, so we were pretty sure they were for keeping exotic game animals in. Pretty soon we saw that were were right. We saw exotic spotted deer, unusual rams and sheep, gazelles, and razorback hogs in different places. Rich said it was like driving through the African veldt because you never knew what interesting animals you might see. When Jodie and Shawne rode their bicycles through this area, they were surprised to see so many exotics, too. I believe they even saw kangaroos! We looked up Exotic Game Hunting on the web and found Wildlife Systems, Inc. They have several ranches with 25,000 to 200,000 acres of animals left to roam free. They boast that their Texas populations of some game animals outnumber the exotics in their native country. You can hunt year round and it costs between $200 and $350 per day for food, lodging, guide, and "game care". Some special hunts go for $3500 for 4 days. They had oryx, axis deer, wildebeest, Aoudad Ram, eland, Nilgai antelope. sika deer, ibex, kudu, and mouflon sheep. What a business. I hope they don't use feeders to lure the animals into a certain place like the deer feeders we've been seeing. In Bandera, the Cowboy Capital of the World, we saw those deer hunting stands and feeders in front of the grocery store and the hardware store. We also saw a real Texas Nativity Scene in front of the courthouse! After we went by the big hunting ranches, we did actually see horses, cattle, burros, and goats of the regular varieties. There was quite a bit of roadwork and there were new buildings being built even out in the small towns. Of course we saw some more intesting signs. One said, "LITTERING IS unlAWFUL". We liked that one, but the one that had us in stitches for miles was the one that said, "Hill Blocks View". Well, no kidding! Here's another one, "Dry Devils River" and it was dry. By 3:30 we were in Sonora, Texas and it was 50 degrees and sunny. We started seeing oil pumpers again. They were all over the place and it smelled like oil. We began to go into pretty country with mesas and valleys covered with juniper, cedar, and other small trees. There were rocky ledges and cliffs and you could see that the layer of soil on top of the bedrock (limestone?) was VERY thin. I-10 here is a pretty good road and it's not crowded at all - on the road or in the countryside. It looks like it could be a hot place in the summer. We've seen prickly pear cacti all over. We went over one hill and suddenly on all the hills ahead were wind generators. There must have been hundreds of them. After those hills, the flora changed to short scrubby bushes and short, dry grass. While we were driving along, Art called from Tennessee. He was so excited because he had made one of those three-way high chairs! We were so impressed that he did it, and already! Their granddaughter, Reese, will see it tomorrow. We arrived in Fort Stockton at about 6:00. We like to stop sooner than that, but there was no place alse to stop out there! We had passed about thirty dead mule deer this afternoon, and this evening we passed three live ones. There was a glorious sunset. "Red sky at night, sailors delight." So, we're looking forward to another good traveling day tomorrow. The RV park where we stopped had a tiny restaurant so we ate there. They were serving local Texas wine. Who kneew that there was a thriving Texas winery business before the California wines took off? Apparently, the limestone soil makes it perfect for growing wine grapes.
We went to sleep thinking about the beautiful scenery and all the animals we had seen today.
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