Left at 7:30 for a 11.3-mile bike ride…back at about 9:30. We stopped several times…to look at vultures and take pictures, for water/potty breaks and a drone video. Just the normal stuff that makes a bike ride take longer than it should.
We had planned a longer ride, but Mom was feeling the heat, so we turned around at the cemetery. Back at camp, we tried to sit outside but the air felt heavy as well as hot. Had the A/C turned on, so we sat in the relative coolness of the camper until early afternoon. Then it was time to do something, go somewhere...go blow the stink off, as my mom used to say.
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Next, I wanted it to create knock, knock jokes about thirty-one vultures. The responses made me think that AI was channeling its inner child because the jokes made no sense, but this one had me laughing at its directness:
Knock, knock! Who’s there?
Thirty-one. Thirty-one who?
Thirty-one vultures sitting on your poles, and they’re tired of waiting for the punchline!!
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Kim wanted to use the drone to make a review video for AIPAS, the maker of our bikes. He’s been getting emails about writing a review and receiving free stuff in return. In effect, buying our endorsement.
We set up our video shoot on our ride. The drone wasn’t fully charged and when its battery got low enough, it went rogue and wanted to go home, wherever that was. Kim thought he was keeping it nearby, but we kept losing sight of it. It’s small and can move fast if it’s returning ‘home’.
We had to do a search and rescue mission. Finally found it down the road a bit, hovering a few feet above a cornfield…on the other side of the canal. Crossing his fingers that it had enough battery to make it over the canal, he told it to come to Papa…and it did. Back at the camper, Kim was ready to watch and edit the video only to discover that he forgot to push the record button… Agh!! We’ll have to try again tomorrow.
The two cell camera idea finally paid off…Camera #1 caught the backside of limping bobcat ducking under the fence at about and Camera #2 picked it up as it was coming around the bush. We brainstormed ideas for the limp: caught in a trap, shot at, cactus thorn in its paw, glass cut its paw, got into a fight with another animal, etc.
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In the afternoon, we took a drive to Coolidge to do errands. It’s a 20-mile drive, long enough to get us out of the camper but short enough that it doesn’t take much fuel. Diesel is now over $6.00 at some stations. Ouch!!
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It was a strange day, sky wise. The entire day it was hazy/cloudy out in the distance but the immediate area around us was clear and sunny. When we were driving to Coolidge, it looked like the city was surrounded by dust; but as we got closer, the air cleared up and the dust/haze disappeared. It’s like we had a patch of sunshine that was traveling with us.
Until we were on our way home, that is. The sky had darkened up and it was looking like rain. Sitting in the trailer at 6 o’clock, we could hear thunder, but it didn’t rain. Lightning started about 8 p.m., but no rain. The wind picked up, but it wasn’t cooling…it was still hot out. Bikes are covered, just in case it rains overnight.
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I checked online for an update of the status of plans to build a wall through Big Bend National Park and nearby Big Bend Ranch State Park. AI gives this overview: As of late March 2026, plans for a physical border wall directly through Big Bend National Park and Big Bend Ranch State Park have been scrapped by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) following intense local opposition. Instead, the area will be monitored using "smart wall" technology—surveillance, cameras, and sensors—rather than a steel barrier.
The website cbsnews.com had a much longer article but these two paragraphs speak to the question of ‘to build or note to build’: Since news of a proposed border wall in the region spread in February, plans have changed multiple times. The most recent iteration, according to local officials, includes a physical barrier through land to the west of the state park, but not within the state or national parks. Advocates and officials say that while they view it as progress, they will continue to fight against any physical wall in the region.
Later in the article:
On Monday afternoon, local elected leaders confirmed to CBS News Texas that over the weekend CBP regional leaders said a 5.6-mile wall through Big Bend Ranch State Park was no longer a part of the plan. Instead, the physical wall is now proposed to start to the west of the state park, with detection technology installed through the state and national parks
Several other websites confirmed the plan to build a wall through the area’s national and state parks has been changed to technology-based surveillance. However, according to an article on the website marfapublicradio.org, private land in the area is still being considered for the wall.
Elsewhere in the Big Bend — in Presidio, Jeff Davis and Hudspeth counties — border wall plans appear to still be moving forward for a 175-mile stretch beginning at Ft. Quitman, south of Sierra Blanca, and ending at Colorado Canyon in Big Bend Ranch State Park.
Landowners in those counties have received right of entry letters from CBP in recent weeks. The documents, obtained by Marfa Public Radio, describe the plan as a “30-foot-high barrier made of six-inch-squared diameter steel bollards,” and state that other parts of the project include drainage gates, fiber optic and power cables, lighting poles, surveillance cameras, staging areas, utility shelters, water use and “up to 12-foot wide maintenance roads and up to 24-foot wide patrol roads.”
The documents go on to advise landowners in the path of the wall to either cooperate with CBP or face eminent domain proceedings initiated by the Department of Justice. I wondered if eminent domain would factor into this somehow. I don’t have to wonder anymore.
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Kim has decided that he’ll be taking his telescope down tomorrow. Clouds are expected for the next two nights and the moon is getting brighter also. We leave Wednesday morning and the truck bed needs to be packed by Tuesday at the latest.
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