A long and full Tuesday

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Or course we woke up praying hard for the successful surgery of dear friend Robin, and then checked out of the hotel and headed into the heavy traffic for Pedernales Falls State Park.

In fact we were out of signal range until we finished our walking and birding and headed back to the headquarters, just in time to hear the good news that the surgery was complete.

We picked up so many new LIFE birds – and the photos are named if you are interested. Of course the most coveted was the very rare and indigenous Golden-cheeked warbler. We had heard him for 2 days every now and then, and as the traffic had delayed us so long this day, we feared we would miss him again. But we heard him, searched for him, David spotted him and within seconds he was off again – but not before the essential photo to prove it!

We even saw a road runner, but he was gone too fast to take a photo so we can’t count him.

That white bird on the wire is a scissor tailed fly catcher.

The drive to and from the Park was thru amazing hilly countryside, and not very wide roads. There’s a photo of the creek that constantly overflows the very very very narrow road.

We ate lunch out of the back of the car – just peanut butter, celery, apples and cheese, and then headed west some more. As we approached Fredericksburg there were wineries everywhere. Isn’t it a bit hot? Seriously, about every 100 yards a tasting room and winery.

We stopped in Fredericksburg at the German bakery for sausage & cheese roll (a knachtwurst, which was very tasty) to share. We had visited that very interesting town years ago and went through the Pioneer Museum, and another time the War in the Pacific museum (Admiral Nimitz was born there). The bluebonnets ended in that area.

Roads were great, 80 mph speed limits in places. We arrived in Van Horn TX, a very dusty and windy part of the country, at the edge of the central time zone, and in fact our smart phones have jumped, so heavens knows how we can set the alarm at the correct time. We went to an historical hotel restaurant here at the intersection of the roads to Carlsbad Caverns and Big Bend National Park, to enjoy their special: pistachio encrusted fried steak with jalapeno gravied mashed potatoes. Good thing we split that with a salad!

What we learned - no tumble weeds yet. Lots of dust and wind. and the population in Pecos county density is around 4 per square mile. The ground is pure limestone, very pale. the nicer houses are all built with at least that as the bottom story. The roads had to be cut through the rolling hills of limestone - what a job. We finally saw mountains - over 8000' to the south of here. Gas $3.89 near Austin, and $4.09 nearer here.

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