Saturday, February 28, 2009

Texas Trip-Day Two

Another day of traveling. I mean petal to the metal driving. We drove 603 miles. We felt like true Road Warriors by the end of this day. We did see several annual birds. When I get my birds all into my birding program I will post the entire list. We got into Texas as far as Yoakum. It was a nice little town to stop in. Right beside the hotel was a decent restaurant called Harley's. Teri, in answer to your question "Does Texas have cactus?", yes they do. The first cactus I saw growing was the infamous prickly pear cactus. It was growing wild in the fields and especially noticable growing up through fences. I image that the birds eating the fruit planted the cactus along the fence lines. Prickly pear cactus is better than barbed wire fences if you would ask me. Many of the prickly pear cactus looked almost like trees with brown trunks and the paddles only being green.

15 comments:

Unknown said...

prickly pear cactus would make a great fence, I agree. are they native there? they are considered a pest/weed here...so people can not see the beauty. I love them though

Q said...

Dear Lisa,
I just love the way the Prickly Pear Cactus grow in the fence rows. They are wonderful habitat.
I saw some in bloom in the LRGV.
You WERE road warriers! Long day in the saddle. Texas is big!
Looking forward to hearing about the birds and maybe a butterfly or two?
I so enjoyed seeing many new to me birds when I was in Texas. I do not keep an actual life list but I know the birds I have seen and the one's I have not!
I have the Audubon Life List Journal. I have lists of birds I have seen on trips...maybe one of these days I will get the journal filled in....
Sherry

Lisa at Greenbow said...

Messy Fish I believe they are native in Texas but I can't be sure of that. They are all over I can tell you that.

Lisa at Greenbow said...

Sherry, Did the ones you have seen have yellow blooms or the reddish blooms? I didn't have luck with seeing any blooming. I saw all shapes though. Some were oblong rather than more paddle-like.

I have a "few" butterfly pictures. Unfortunately that arctic cold made its way all the way down to the LRGV while we were there. It was cold during the morning but warmed up nice in the afternoon. We didn't see many butterflies. I will do a post about them for you soon.

yoon see said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
yoon see said...

Wow! You have so much fun. thank you for sharing with us Lisa.
Texas also got nice prickly cactus.
Just so amazing!
Glad that you are back safely and hope you will have the chance to revisit this beautiful place again!

SandyCarlson said...

Amazing! Did the speed put a new part in your hair?

Teri said...

Wow Lisa, I love how you did your pages with the map pieces and sketches and words. You spilt pepsi in your lap?! Are we related? lol

I thought TX had cactus. Fence rows of them sound very effective.

I hear you on the miles, we usually drive 700 to 750 a day when we go back and forth. I am still wondering why cuz we are retired dam it!

studio lolo said...

Your long drive reminds me of the time we drove cross-country from Rhode island to Calif. Now we're hoping to go back but the drive seems daunting! We're now 16 years older and less adventurous :P

Sounds like you had a nice trip :)

Margaret Ann said...

Love the mixture of goodies on this page...Love the prickley pear along the fence rows! :) You certainly are one artistic road warrior...you! ! :)

Anonymous said...

Hi Lisa, welcome back home. That is an incredible amount of driving. My caboose hurts just thinking about sitting that long in the car. Did you have those vibrating heated car seat thingeys? I look forward to seeing your bird lists, photos and drawings. I always love seeing Vinny too. I need to borrow him for our squirrels are waking up from hibernation I guess. They are digging everywhere and on the bird feeders and the mat where the seed is scattered for the ground feeders. We need to teach them some respect!
Frances

steviewren said...

I like the way you included parts of the hotel brochures. And the way you used the map to trace the trip but drew on it too.

Julie said...

I also love to see all the different paddles on different prickly pears. They are awesome!!!

marianne said...

I agree, which brings me to an idea whiich I can use for Cactus Monday tomorrow
Did you make a picture of those pricklies?
That´s quite a time in a car! This summer we want to go to Sweden......the drive is something which I don´t look forward to Felix and I get carsick easy....
Glad you saw so many birds which where on your list.
Can´t wait to see all your journal pages and the ATC´s!
This one is lovely!

soulbrush said...

what a lotta miles, true intrepid pioneers. love prickly pear cacrtus, we had them in South africa. great photos and drawing.