Last night at 11, on my last bathroom run, the air was chilly and as I climbed into the trailer, I was hoping that Dan and Roseanne had plenty of blankets or a heater in their tent…from experience I know a tent at those temperatures can be cold. Heater might not keep a tent warm throughout the night but it can take just enough chill off that it’s easier to get out of the warmth of the bed. We were snuggled in our little tin box with a heater going and I was still cold in the morning. Woke to a chilly 43o at 8:30 a.m. But the sun was out and the temperature started rising. High today was predicted to be 68o…not quite what we’d been used to but still good with the sun out. However, it would take into the afternoon to get that high.
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Last night when we came checked into the camp, we didn’t know if we’d be staying one night or two. This morning we decided to stay another night for several reasons: we woke up late…we needed showers…checkout is 11 a.m…Abilene has a zoo, so we had something to do if we stayed. In my previous life, going to a zoo was something I did whenever I could. Traveling along with Jeff to some of his meetings, I’d take every opportunity to visit the local zoo or aquarium…if we were just driving through a city that had a zoo, I might have been known to ask if we could take the time to stop and visit. I’ve been to zoos all over the country…I enjoyed it. Still do but it’s not such a priority anymore. My mom and I were in Texas about 12 years ago…and when I mentioned to Kim this morning that we could go to the zoo, he asked if I’d been there before. Well, my mom and I were in Abilene but I don’t remember going to the zoo. So off we go and we arrived at about the same time as 3 busloads of kids. 😊 It’s fun to watch kids at the zoo…they don’t always take the time to appreciate what they’re seeing but they’re fun to listen to. So we spent a few hours at the Abilene zoo today with about 100 school children. And it wasn’t until we were standing in front of the lion’s cage that I had a flashback…I’d stood in front of this cage and listened to a lion roar! I have been to this zoo, but it was much tinier then. Still I should have remembered before being ¾ of the way through the place. I probably have a squished penny from it…I have quite a collection of squished pennies, and for years, I kept them in a smiley face jar, but I broke that so now they’re in a plain ol’ jar. Anyway, most touristy places…national parks, zoos, aquariums, etc….have a penny squishing machine. It’s a cheap souvenir and worth absolutely nothing but a memory to the one who has possession of it. Anyway, I got another one today…I’ll put today’s date on it and add it to the jar when I get home. 😊
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I stood for a long time watching a fascinating creature called Meller’s Chameleon and I could have watched it longer but there was more to see and Kim was patiently waiting. I’ve seen chameleons before but this one was active and it was right up by the glass, which meant I got to watch its eyes in action…separate action. And it’s feet…OMGoodness, this is the first time I’d seen chameleon feet up close. Each was like tongs, able to spread apart and wrap around a branch, limb or whatever. This particular fellow was trying to grab at a bar over its head with its front feet while the back were firmly grabbing the branch he was sitting on. So the feet fascinated me and I had to find out more. On the website twistedsifter.com, there is a list entitled ‘10 things you didn’t know about chameleons’. While it was all interesting, I was mostly curious about the eyes and feet:
It's all about the feet and the eyes |
3. Chameleon eyes have a 360-degree arc of vision and can see two directions at once. Chameleons have the most distinctive eyes of any reptile. Their upper and lower eyelids are joined, with only a pinhole large enough for the pupil to see through. They can rotate and focus separately to observe two different objects simultaneously, which lets their eyes move independently from each other. This gives them a full 360-degree arc of vision around their body. When prey is located, both eyes can be focused in the same direction, giving sharp stereoscopic vision and depth perception. Chameleons have very good eyesight for reptiles, letting them see small insects from a long (5–10 m) distance.
6. Happy Feet. The feet of chameleons are highly adapted to movement in trees (arboreal locomotion). On each foot there are five clearly distinguished toes that are grouped into a flattened section of either two or three toes, giving each foot a tongs-like appearance. On the front feet the outer group contains two toes, whereas the inner group contains three. On the rear feet this arrangement is reversed. These specialized feet allow chameleons to grip tightly onto narrow or rough branches. Each toe is also equipped with a sharp claw to help grip on surfaces when climbing.
There were many other interesting exhibits and I took lots of pictures but the chameleon fascinated me. Those eyes and feet are freakishly mesmerizing.
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I have eaten so much Mexican food in the past two weeks, most of it authentic. But no margaritas…I haven’t had any margaritas. I wonder why.
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This afternoon, we went for a bike ride. Nowhere in particular, just picked some roads that led away from the city. Rode north up Hwy 83/277 to a town called Stamford, where we found that the auto parts store did not have the brake calipers that Kim wanted but it did have a very talkative employee. Followed Kim out the door to talk bikes. Then we headed back south to go west on Hwy 180 to a town called Roby, where we turned south on Hwy 70 and headed for Sweetwater. From Sweetwater, we jumped on US 20 East to get back to camp. Sort of rode in a loop, except it wasn’t round, it had corners. 😉
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Just outside of Roby, there were 100s of acres of tilled clay fields. What kind of crop grows in clay? So I did a little research…what I found out is that it was probably ‘sandy loam soil’ that I was seeing and that there is a lot of cotton grown in the area. Not exclusively, there are other crops but cotton is the major crop in Fisher County. On Wikipedia I did find a couple of trivial facts about Roby and Fisher County:
Trivial fact #1: Forty-two lucky residents of Roby put $10 each in a
lottery pool in 1996 and won the $46,000,000 jackpot on Thanksgiving of that
year, making 6-7% percent of the population millionaires instantly (before
taxes).
Trivial fact #2: Fisher County is a county located in the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2010 census, its population was 3,974. The county seat is Roby. The county
was created in 1876 and later organized in 1886. It is named for Samuel Rhoads Fisher, a signer
of the Texas Declaration of Independence and a
Secretary of the Navy of the Republic
of Texas. Fisher County is one of 30 prohibition, or entirely dry counties in
Texas. (Emphasis added by me.)
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Got back from our ride about 7 and all I heard from Roseanne was some yelling at Bear, the dog. A somewhat peaceful evening. Of course, after supper I was doing the laundry, so I was out of hearing range.😏
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Got back from our ride about 7 and all I heard from Roseanne was some yelling at Bear, the dog. A somewhat peaceful evening. Of course, after supper I was doing the laundry, so I was out of hearing range.😏
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Rode 140 miles today
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Who doesn't marvel at the balance of a flamingo? |
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