 |
| Visitors in camp this morning |
 |
| Nosey, living up to her name |
Woke
to the braying of a donkey not far from the trailer. 😏
When we got outside no sign of the troops…but as we were finishing up
our cereal, the parade approached from the left. First was the brown Clydesdale, then the
donkeys straggled along with the gray cow behind them and the other Clydesdale
bringing up the rear. All grazing as
they moved along. Meanwhile, the little
white pony, Nosey, that visited us yesterday was walking beside them until they
got opposite of us. Then she stopped and
looked our way…took a few tentative steps…stopped again and looked…then came on
into camp. Perhaps someone remembered
that this was the camp that had a tasty treats. Kim got what he thought were the last two apples for her. Turns out she’s a
trick pony…she paws the ground when she wants more...and from what we saw, she’s just a one trick pony. 😉 Then, as she was getting her treat, we saw 6 or 7 other heads turn our way and make for our
camp. No waiting to see if it was safe,
just came on over. Six donkeys and a
cow…the Clydesdales just kept on grazing their way back to their camp. Dug out some more apples for the donkeys but Nosey
wasn’t willing to share nicely or wait her turn. She would muscle her way in by Kim and we
watched the bigger donkeys backed off like she was the boss. Little but mighty! But the donkeys got their share of apples,
Nosey got a bigger share and the cow got none.
It just stood off to the side like it wanted to participate but didn’t
know how. Anyway, when the apple were
gone, most moved on while Nosey and a tiny brown donkey hung around hoping for
more. Then one of the bigger donkeys
turned, faced our camp and hee-hawed loudly several times…and we watched as the
little brown donkey turned away from us and quickly headed out to the others. Like a general barking orders and a private
hopping to it. Nosey went too but at a
slower pace. Then they headed back over
to their pen area, but I don’t think they went in…last I saw they were having a
good time chasing after each other.
----------
 |
| The Twisted Sisters...337, 336 and 335 |
We
can now say that we rode The Three Twisted Sisters, which sounds a little weird
to me, but it apparently sells a lot of t-shirts. Three Ranch Roads (337,336, and 335) and
about 10 miles of Hwy 41 form a ride route that has gained some popularity with
bikers and car enthusiasts. I thought
the designation Ranch Road meant the road lead to a ranch…not so. Apparently it means the same as the Country
Road designation back in Michigan. So we
were on decent roads…along with more motorcycles than I think we’ve seen this
entire trip put together. It was a
beautiful day and it seems like a popular destination. Each road is the same yet has a unique
quality…337 was more about getting up and over a mountain, so it was more about
sharp curves and steep grades that really keep me on guard….336 had the curves
and grades also, but there was also a fair amount long winding curves as we
rode through some hills…and 335 was the closest I’ll ever get to the up and
downs of a roller coaster while riding a bike.
It also had some curves but it was more about going up a hill, getting a
glimpse of the view before going back down the hill…over and over and
over. Like I said, a roller coaster
ride, except without the loop-de-loops.
Ate a very late lunch in Camp Wood before starting back for camp. Decided to prolong our ride today by turning
toward Bracketville, which as it turns out is the little sister to The Three
Twisted Sisters…or at least that’s how I thought of it because it was Ranch
Road 334.
----------
Kim
rides the hills, turns and curves fast than I do and eventually will pull over
and wait for me. I came around a curve
today and caught the sight of something white dashing off into the trees. I came up with only one option: mountain goat. I rounded a couple of more turns…Kim was
waiting up ahead and he came through the headset, “Hey, was that albino deer still by the side of the road when you came
through? He almost hit me!! He came running down the hill and was just
coming onto the road when he saw me and stopped. It was really quite exciting!” So what I saw wasn’t a mountain goat, it
was the butt of an albino deer heading back up in the trees...Kim got to see the whole deer.
----------
The campground we’re in, Chalk Bluff Park, is along the Nueces River. Don’t remember hearing it our first night but the river rose a bit, widened out some after the big rain of Saturday night, so we can hear it now. On our ride today, we were riding down Ranch Road 334 and encountered a Road Closed sign, which Kim almost hit because he was looking over at a field. He didn’t seem too rattled about it but it looked scary from my vantage point. Anyway, we decided to see what happened to the road to close it. We had come that way on Friday, so we figured that rain must be the culprit for a washout. Not a wash out…the Nueces River West Prong was rushing…I mean rushing…over the road. And it looked deep to me. Rushing and deep water crossing the road certainly warrants a road closed sign. We watched the power of Nature for a bit, then turned around to head back to camp.
----------
As we’ve traveled around the area the last 3 days, we’ve crossed the Nueces River several times in different locations. Earlier in our stay I wanted to know about the origin of the Nueces River and on one of our trips into Uvalde I was able to download some information. Here’s what Wikipedia had to say:
The Nueces
River (/njuːˈeɪsᵻs/ new-ay-siss) is a river in the U.S. state of Texas, about 315 miles (507 km) long.[1] It drains a region in central and southern Texas
southeastward into the Gulf of Mexico. It is the
southernmost major river in Texas northeast of the Rio Grande. Nueces is Spanish for nuts; early settlers named the river after
the numerous pecan trees along its banks.
The Nueces rises northwest of San Antonio in the Edwards Plateau, in Real County, roughly 50 mi
(80 km) north of Uvalde. It flows south through the Texas Hill Country, past Barksdale and Crystal City, approaching to within
35 mi (56 km) of the Rio Grande on the border with Mexico. East of Carrizo Springs, it turns to the east,
flowing through the scrub plains of South Texas, across rural Dimmit, La Salle, and McMullen Counties. In
central Live Oak County, it is joined from the
northwest at Three Rivers by the Atascosa River and Frio River, then flows southeast along the coastal plain past Mathis, where it is impounded to form the Lake Corpus Christi reservoir. It
enters Corpus Christi Bay on the Gulf of
Mexico at Corpus Christi.
----------
Since we’ve been seeing a variety of birds at the Chalk Bluff Park, the other day I bought a bird guide for central Texas. Saw a vermillion flycatcher today around camp…it’s not in the bird guide but it’s one I know from our time at Marathon. Even with the guide, it’s not easy to identify birds because who can see the yellow underbody when the sun is shining? And I never realized how many bird species are brown, brown spotted, streaky brown or the same but in gray…it’s all the same to me when they flash by. I have to take pictures for identification purposes and then it’s all about the ends for me….beak and tail. Since so many look similar in coloring, I look at their beaks and then their tails. Who cares about little yellow circles around the eyes anyway…beaks are the true identifier!
----------
Kim did some imaging last night. The breeze moved the clouds out of the way and then the breeze died down. A little chilly out there comparatively but still better than freezing. I wandered out to use the bathroom, heard something barking and asked if those were coyotes…no, those were dogs barking. But then Kim said that there are some animals out in the dark making the craziest screaming noises that he’d never heard before. Wait...you're outside in the dark...there are screaming noises...and you're gonna stay out there?!?
----------
Got on my bike today and noticed a little problem caused by the rain Saturday night. My gas tank was on about half and when I checked the remaining miles, it indicated I had 534 miles left on the tank. I don’t think so! Both my tripometers (is that even a word?) were screwed up, too. I reset the Trip A to track today’s mileage and figured I’d deal with Trip B later. I’ve been using that to track total mileage we’ve ridden and had to do some math before resetting it. Gassed up in Camp Wood and thought maybe that would reset my ‘remaining miles’ number. Reset it all right…now it said I had 999 miles remaining on the tank. I really don’t think so!! But as the ride continued it dropped by leaps and bounds and by the time we were back to Camp Wood (about 100 miles later) it was back to where we figured it should be. Haven’t noticed any other problems caused by the rain.
----------
Rode
163 miles today…saw 87o at 7 p.m.
No comments:
Post a Comment