Backroads and byways

 

 

I could have just driven up I-25.  Instead, I went through Westcliffe, Woodland Park, Buena Vista, and Leadville for the scenic tour.

 

 

Driveabout trip map

 

 

 

 

 

 

And now for something completely different

 

 

 

I brought a tent.

 

Lathrop State Park for the night.  It’s not so hot here.  85 instead of 105.

 

Driveabout trip map

 

 

 

It’s hot in Central Texas

 

 

A hundred degrees.

 

North through Glen Rose, Granbury, Weatherford, Decatur, and Bowie.  West from there through Seymour, Benjamin, Quanah, and Childress.

 

Driveabout trip map

 

 

Backroads and byways, rural roads winding past farm fields and ranchland.  Livestock and cattle egrets.  The little Mazda3 is no RX-7, but even as a hatchback it’s tight on the road.  It doesn’t care about speed advisories on highway corners.  A 75mph road with 55mph corners?  No problem.  That’s just a 75mph road.

 

Walked in a couple parks.

 

 

Mississippi Kite.

 

Saw a number of new counties today as well.

 

Yesterday:

 

 

Today:

 

 

It’s hot here at the edge of the Panhandle too.  108 today.

 

 

Driveabout

 

 

When we were teenagers, we had walkabouts late at night.  No destination, just walking as far as it felt good and returning.  Later, we did bike hikes together.  Pick a destination and spend the day pedaling there and back.  As an adult, Johnny would get in the car for periodic rides.  No hurry, no need, just go on an all-day driveabout.

 

I’ll call this week the Great John B Memorial Driveabout.  In his honor, I’m going to drive to Colorado, not in a hurry, attend the celebration of his life in Boulder on Saturday, and drive home.  The trip has a destination and a purpose, but I will take my time, see some things along the way, and it will still count as a driveabout.

 

Tonight, I’m in Lampasas, Texas.

 

 

 

 

https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/edit?mid=1-xaJLU8H5RTPfw8CVNCnGCH9LrWsM54&ll=31.56553206092654%2C-112.62903813388783&z=5

 

A walk in a park.

 

Watched a juvenile yellow-crowned night-heron.

 

Startled Bambi.

 

 

 

Watched a county.

 

Lampasas.

 

 

Inquiring minds want to know

 

 

Two pillow cases.  They live in the exact same conditions.  We never use one without the other.  We never wash one without the other.  Why is it then, that they are now only approximately the same color?  Two different shades.

 

 

And the prodigal frog returns.

 

The pack is complete again.

 

 

The little frog

 

 

He leaves.  He comes back.  He’s never gone for long.  But now he’s been gone for over twelve hours.

 

Years ago, in Colorado, we had a cat named Yogi.  She was an indoor/outdoor cat and would come and go whenever she wanted.  Sometimes she would be gone for days at a time and come home smelling of fireplace smoke.  We didn’t have a fireplace.

 

Perhaps our little frog will come home tomorrow, smelling of smoke.

 

 

Northern cardinal

 

 

Eating at the feeder.  Then something weird happened.  The cardinal went over next to a different kind of bird.

 

The other bird started begging.

 

 

And the cardinal fed it!

 

 

It’s not unusual this time of year to see a bird feeding babies, but this one was feeding a different species, a blackbird!  Then I realized the big baby bird getting fed was a brown-headed cowbird.  Brown-headed cowbirds are nest parasites.  They’ll sneak in and lay their eggs in the nest of some other bird, and let that other bird raise their babies.  This northern cardinal had just successfully reared a brown-headed cowbird!