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.

Texas Trip - Day One

I am so happy to report that we are home. We had a marvelous trip. I got several birds that I had never seen before. We hadn't been to the Valley in 6 years so it had changed quite a bit. It is amazing how populated and clogged with traffic it is now. The birds don't seem to mind. So I had to have a mind change and just disregard the noise and traffiic and enjoy the beauty of the region. The Lower Rio Grande Valley, well actually most of Texas, is in a dreadful drought. It was so evident with the naturally brown landscape looking dead except where peopl have access to good water. This is my first page in the journal. Our many hours of driving. UGH.. I don't know if we will drive down there again. It was a long.... long.... drive. We drove 3178 miles. I did enjoy the drive for the most part. I did a little sketching while driving. Mostly I sketched in the hotel at night. Even that dwindled off toward the end of the trip. I got worn out. I have lots of ideas for sketches though. I will start posting my sketches day by day.

It is so good to be back. I will get around to eveyone's blog soon. I must go now and get the car unpacked.

Doggie Thursday

I couldn't resist posting about our house guest. This is Vinny. He is the dog of our good friend. He came to stay a few days with us just prior to our departure on Vacation. Vinny is a frisky boy. He keeps Luna on her toes.
Most often when he is outside he is looking for squirrels. He has made a believer out of the squirrels. They don't mess around much in our garden when Vinny is on patrol.

Happy Doggie Thursday.

Vacation Bound

As you can see I made a cover for my Texas watercolor book that I am taking along. I had a pin from a previous trip there so I added it. I will probably collect more while in Texas.

We are departing for Texas today. My visits to your blogs will be sporatic if at all. Be sure I will be collecting much blog fodder while out and about. Hopefully I will be able to check in from time to time. Until then farewell my Dear Blogging Buddies.