July 22, 2006

Thanks to those of you who wrote to Barb about chiggers.  Was fun to meet new people and hear from some old ones as well.  Hummmm.  That's not really what I wanted to say.  Well, actually it's what I wanted to say, but it doesn't sound nice, does it.  Anyway..........

We're in Hot Springs, AR, and, boy, did they give us a warm welcome!  Been over 100 degrees since we got here on Tuesday, except for today.  Sightseeing in the mornings and listening to our air-conditioners merrily hum to us in the afternoons.  Barb has even learned to sleep with the noise, thank goodness.

On the way here, we stopped for a spell at Lake Tawakoni, TX, at the 1000trails preserve.  Lake is a bit low.  On the right is the boat basin.  Talk about needing a shallow draft boat in here!!

With minimal effort we could still get to the water's edge, and here on the left Barb caught the stump markers sticking waaaaaay out of the water.  And on the right, even the lily flower is a long way from the surface.

Can you imagine threading your boat through the "forest" getting out to the main lake?  And the boat basin from its entrance.  That little shed on stilts is the fish cleaning station.  This preserve is apparently an excellent one for fishing.

A few sad views of the normally nice basin with its docks.  You can see that little paddle boat hanging by it's mooring lines, and then a sailboat that didn't get hauled out in time as well.  The floor of the basin looks like a desert.

I wandered down to look at the sailboat.  Hummmm.  I wonder.........

"Huh?"  "Whadda mean 'Forget about it'."  "I wasn't thinking anything...well, maybe I was just thinking about what a nice boat it could be if....."  And that sign is so far away from the water it's totally useless right now, although we sure can see the hazards.  But still, someday the rains will come again, and it'll be useful.

OK.  Look on the handrail above the head of the vulture on the right.  Yup.  A mockingbird.  In this case, a mad mockingbird.  And in the picture on the right, that blur between the vultures is the mockingbird on a strafing run; the vultures have apparently invaded its territory.

And then some more shots of that super aggressive mockingbird.  Not as much fun to watch it harass the vultures as it is the squirrels.  The vultures are totally nonplussed about all the commotion, whereas the squirrels always run away.  Persistent bird, I'll give him that.  Or maybe it was a female.  We're not very good at gender identification with these guys.  And look at the legs on those vultures.  White!  Never saw that before.  Blew the pictures up, thinking it was just some of that mud we see below, but nope, their legs are white.

Either the mockingbird got tired, or it finally dawned on it that it was wasting its time.  In any event, it took to just sitting on the rail and yelling at the vultures.

If anybody out there knows what kind of turtle this is, we'd like to know.  My uninformed guess is "red-eared slider" but I could be way off.  Loved it's smile and interesting eyes though.

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