I decided after Mother Nature declined to allow me to kayak, that walking to Balanced Rock would be a good second choice.  I expected to have the rugged trail to myself, but as I got to the trail head after being jostled for miles on the washboard-like road, I found several cars were in the parking area.  As I was gathering my camera gear, another car pulled in, so I gave the people time to get well ahead of me.  I rarely see much wildlife when other people are around.  They’re just too noisy and never stop talking!  I took my time looking for anything unusual or something to move, but about all I saw were many little lizards scampering around.  It was after nine o’clock. There may be more foxes and other critters earlier in the morning, but I find that something really spectacular doesn’t play by the rules, just all of a sudden OMG there it is!  I didn’t see much, maybe there were just too many people, so I followed the trail... » Click here for the full story.

       I know I’m burning out, but I still have some spectacular places to go on my meandering route through the warm places of our country before I get back to Ocean City and SpringFest, Fager’s Island Deck Parties, the beach, steamed crabs, all that stuff I love there and I’ll be headed that way soon.  I did find a couple bartenders who could mix a comparable Margarita to what Suzie at Mother’s mixes, so I satisfied that fix!   I know I’m ready for some Ocean City, though.  Today it’s time to stop and putter, organize my nest (slide-in camper on a pickup truck) regroup, reconnoiter, and rest.  I know it’s time. I drove from Ft. Stockton, Tx. to my camp site here in Big Bend National Park (http://www.nps.gov/bibe/) without stopping to take any photographs!  That’s not me.  Yeah, it was high sun (10am-4pm, which produces drab colors in photos) and hazy, and I’ve been here... » Click here for the full story.

Monday I left Port Isabel/South Padre Island, Tx.  My maroon by a monsoon in Louisiana was behind me.  South Padre Island worked. I got to watch the crazies at the college kids Spring Break, plus a spoonbill flyover!  I headed for Big Bend, but found out the school kids of Texas were swarming there, so postponed that in route and turned northwest to Deming, N.M.  After driving 500+ miles I found my two favorite restaurants there were closed.  Then I enjoyed “Wonder Rocks” a campground in Coronado National Forest on the Az. N.M. boarder amidst towering rocky peaks, “kind of like camping in a high-walled soup bowl.”  An absolutely gorgeous place, I stayed two days, regrouped, and got my game plan together.  I headed for Arivaca, Az., enjoyed birding east of there, ate chili breakfast, found a new (for me) camping spot just outside Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge with more birds and few people, then headed towards Californ... » Click here for the full story.

The town of Arivaca is home to free range cattle and people.  The people are hippies who bailed out of wherever they were in the 1970s and ‘80s or before and are still there.  The Cienga Nature trail is on the east edge of the town and runs through a wetland in the desert.  It always holds something spectacular.  All kinds of birds and wildlife hang out here.  It’s very popular with birders.  Some of the birds I know their names and most I don’t.  This time it was a male pyrrhuloxia (that looks kind of like a large red bird) in breeding plumage, that stole the show.  I didn’t have the opportunity to get a close-up photo, but the red color of the bird was on fire from a distance.  A cropped version is here for you to see and enjoy.  I went back the next morning hoping to get the job done, but never saw one again, but I sure nailed an in-flight Red Tailed Hawk! The spectacular, unusual, what most people never se... » Click here for the full story.

As I walked to the place I was going to have dinner in Del Rio, Tx., I stopped for a cold one.  I asked a local next to me, when the school kids Spring Break was; he said right now!  I knew that meant they’d over run Big Bend National Park where I was headed.  The next day I started driving early, taking US Rt. 90, which goes west through desolate nowherelands.  In the little town of Sanderson I knew there was a visitor center for Big Bend N.P. and my road went right through there.  I found it, went in and asked what they thought.  They said, if I had a choice, go to Big Bend some other time!!!  That did it.  The circumstances thrown at me were overwhelming, although changing my course was disappointing.  Last year I put this place off, one of my favorites and near the top of my Don’t Miss List, and I never got back.  Last year I struck it to avoid monsoon-like rains that were forecast for days.  This year the monsoon ... » Click here for the full story.

I went to SheepsHead street, where I saw an Orchard Oriole last year and a bunch of other migrating birds, but nothing this year, so much wind.  I thought about just taking my nest (slide-in camper on a pick up truck) and going to get breakfast.  I decided to give the area near the convention center a shot.  I’ve seen lots of birds there, plus they’ve built a National Bird Center next door, here in South Padre Island, Texas.  I parked and walked to the birding area.  The wind was blowing strong, then some butterflies feeding on the pollen of a flowering tree presented a photo challenge as they pitched back and forth (use a high shutter speed and you may have to go from a ASA of 100 to 400 to stop the action and get a sharp in focus photo).  The pink color of the blossoms was contrastingly vibrant with the orange of the butterflies –Great Pics!  I was about to leave when I saw an elderly gentleman standing on the sidewalk.  I co... » Click here for the full story.

I had a pickup truck strapped to my backside all day yesterday; today I just don’t feel like driving or moving my nest (slide-in camper on a pickup truck).  I drove all day yesterday not today.  There’s a free bus to the beach and a Spring Break Party going on in South Padre Island, just across the long bridge from where I am in Port Isabel, Tx.  I walked to Manuel’s, a small mom & pop texmex restaurant, and had a football sized tortilla stuffed with avocado and shrimp. Then I caught the bus to the beach.  What Manuels’s put in front of me was incredibly delicious!  I saw the salsa had barbicola (pork cheek meat), gee can I fit that in? I rode the bus across the bridge to South Padre island where the party was.  At the hosting hotel’s entrance a security guard said I could not take a camera inside, so I said OK.  It’s easier to go along with the rules than contest them.  Of course on a public beach takin... » Click here for the full story.

Orange Beach has become my first stop going west from Florida.  It’s a resort which the tourist masses are discovering, but there’s still lots of local seafood restaurants.  I was attracted here by a Bizarre Foods episode that featured one of them.  I couldn’t find it, so I settled on Doc’s Seafood Shack, a diner-looking place, near where I decided I could park my nest (slide-in camper on a pickup truck) overnight.  The food was good and the staff very friendly, so I went back this year.  I’d ordered steamed oysters last time, but the cook put Old Bay on them, so I couldn’t taste the flavor of the oysters.  This year I said NO Old Bay before and after I ordered!  They were delicious and I’d wanted steamed oysters for the two months I was in Florida.  There they didn’t seem to know how to steam seafood and wouldn’t.  Eating raw oysters is iffy at best, although delicious, so no thanks. &n... » Click here for the full story.

    On the last day of February, I pulled out of my annual stop in the jungle of Big Cypress.  Weeks in the Keys and in the jungle happen in the beginning of my Adventure each year, because it’s always warmer here than any other place in the U.S. in December to the end of February, but from here my destinations are not as certain except I go where the weather is nice.  My first stop was back to Immokalee.  There I knew I could park overnight at the casino for free in spots designated for RVs, charge my batteries, that my solar panels feed with reddy kilowatts on the electric hookups at each spot.  With all the cloudiness my panels needed some help, so I’d have electricity to run my computer.  The casino’s purpose, I’m sure, is that the RV owner will spend plenty of money gambling at the casino.  I never even put a nickel in a slot machine.  The downtown is a short walk away and there’s a diner there with ... » Click here for the full story.

I’m at Pink Jeep site campground and I’m usually the only camper (parker - I don’t pitch a tent anymore. That’s real camping!) here.  I walked into site #1 from my site #2, and immediately spotted a grapefruit lying on the ground.  I looked up into the tree and there hung three more!  I’ve been here many other times for days or weeks and I’ve never seen grapefruits here.  The tree is 30-40’ tall, so it didn’t sprout recently.  I’ll enjoy.  These grapefruits are so flavorful and taste so much better than any I buy in a super market. Multiply the flavor of a store bought one by about 10 and that’ll be close.  There’s several a short walk from here, where I’ve picked them for years, but it’s so wet I may need knee boots to get to them this year.  Now, I have some near my doorstep! I’ve been thinking (hoping) maybe this will be my Adventure that goes without a majo... » Click here for the full story.