Texas Thoughts
December 16, 2006
Since we have been on the road for over two years we have been in 30 states. From those that I write to and from those that I have met on the road I have been asked a very logical question. Unfortunately I have never been able to answer with a reasonable response. That question has been phrased something like, “Where (or what) have you been (or seen) that you like best. The average person would have a response to that question without having to think about it. We have met a lot of other campers that move from one location in the summer to another location in the winter, and that is all they do. It is pretty apparent that they KNOW where they like the best. We have also met people that never vary their travels east and west, but only stay perhaps “east of the Mississippi,” or from Texas to Michigan and points in between. Some people travel between the homes of several children and grandchildren. As you can imagine it is difficult to travel between daughter, when that is singular.
A lot of the way I feel is influenced by the fact that I grew up on a farm. If there is a field that is being plowed, or being planted, or growing, or ready to harvest, I enjoy seeing it. If there is a pasture with cattle or horses or swine I like seeing it. I am not too enthused with goats, but sheep are not bad. I did not grow up in orchard country but I still get a little excited when I see the rows of trees heavy with fruit that is ready to be picked. I have seen crops growing that have only been something I have heard about or seen in a picture in a magazine in years past. Since most of the country has lots of farms and ranches and orchards I have a visual feast almost anywhere. Other things that I enjoy seeing are rolling hills or mountains, and water in rivers, lakes and oceans. I could go on about the things that I enjoy, but by this time you have gotten the idea that my interests are wide ranging. Anywhere I go there is something that I enjoy, and there is often the bonus of seeing new kinds of animals that did not live in Kansas or Colorado, where I have spent most of my life, and of course some that did.
There is one thing that I have seen that I never want to see again. We were in a RV Resort in Willis, Texas. It was early on a cold frosty morning, one of only a few we have experienced. The back of our Vectra was next to the main road that came into the resort. It was not long after six o’clock when we heard sirens that seemed to be too close to be out on the main highway. Erma got up to see what was going on outside. She called to me and said that there was a fire in the resort. Just down the street from us a motorhome was on fire. By the time I got clothes on and the camera out, the firemen had gotten the flames knocked down till there was mostly smoke. It did not take much longer for the firemen to finish extinguishing the smoldering hot spots. The ambulances left for the hospital with the people that lived in the motorhome. In a couple of hours the firemen were sure that there was no residual flames that would restart the fire and they left. One of the spin-offs of the fire was the disruption of the electrical power to a large part of the resort. During the day there was a lot of generators being operated so that people had electric in their homes. The transformer was replaced, new electric lines strung, the power pole stabilized and the power was back on around seven o’clock that evening. We heard later that the man had turned on the heat pump in their air conditioning unit to take some chill out of his motorhome. The circuit breaker outside had kicked out, so he went out to reset it. Apparently whatever caused the breaker to kick out also caused the fire to start. By the time he got back into the coach it was on fire and his wife was behind the flames in the back. He went through the fire and dragged his wife through the fire out the front door. He told someone that he thought they were both going to die in the fire. I guess that he was very close to being right. The woman was wearing nylon socks and other clothing that was burning as she was being dragged outside. She sustained second and third degree burns on seventy percent of her body. He had burns on his hands. Before we left the camp we heard that the doctors had started to do some skin graphs and had many more scheduled in four to six months that she would in the Burn Center of Houston. We also heard that the motorhome did not have a smoke detector installed. Of course there is no way of knowing but the question arises, would a functional smoke detector have given them enough warning to get safely out?
JUST MINUTES AFTER THE FLAME WERE PUT OUT
There is never an end of the things that we might see. Several times in Colorado we have seen cattle or a herd of sheep being moved from one pasture to another by men on horseback. We have seen the same thing in Kansas by men on foot. I think those were actually the farmer and his neighbors putting animals back into a pasture they had gotten out of. In Fort Worth, Texas there is a cattle drive that goes through the streets of the city twice a day. In the morning the cattle are driven to some stock pens beyond the railroad tracks and then about four o’clock they are driven back to the feedlots. Along both sides of the streets are restaurants that provide a good view of the cattle drive. While I am not positive I believe that all the cattle were oxen. They would be much less apt to be frightened by anything that might happen on the streets. I would rather not think of the damage that could be done if these longhorns should happen to become frightened and run through the crowd. We saw them on their afternoon drive and it was pretty obvious that the only thing they were interested in was getting to pens where they knew that food would be waiting. Along the side of the street there was a cowboy that had a single steer that had a saddle and bridle. A lot of people were mounting it to get their picture taken. It was really a beautiful animal and the cowboy was definitely picturesque. After the cattle drive was complete the cowboy got into the saddle and rode the steer to its pen for the night. The whole thing was one of those touristy events that is really rather hokey but is very fun to see.
As I have mentioned one of the things we enjoy is viewing animals. So far the best place that we have been in to view the white pelican is in the Rockport area. These are such beautiful birds. They are so very large that they tend to overshadow any other bird. When they are sitting on the water or on the top of a post it is hard to see the black feathers they have on their wings. However when they are flying the black feathers stand out prominently. They can be identified at a great distance. When only a white spot is seen in the sky, it may be difficult to identify the bird, but if there is a black marker at the ends of the wings the identification is easy. When a white pelican is ready to breed it grows an additional bump on the top of their beak. When you look at the picture you will note that many of the pelicans have that bump. The rest of the white pelicans are juvenile birds that are less than two years old. In this photo there are sixteen white pelican and it only shows about a fifth of the birds that were gathered in the area. There were also a quite a few juvenile brown pelicans; they are smaller pelicans with the top of their heads covered with light yellow feathers. There are numerous fish cleaning stations along the bay in Rockport. If a fisherman walks up to one of these stations most of the pelicans and seagulls within a block will see an opportunity to get a free meal and they flock close. I do not have a doubt that if the fisherman turned his back on his catch for a few seconds he would have nothing left. I have heard fishermen talk about the danger of losing all their bait out of their buckets if they let their guard down at all. In addition to these scavengers there is frequently some type of egret or heron that is eager for a handout.
WHITE PELICANS AND SOME OF THEIR FRIENDS IN ROCKPORT, TEXAS
I was very surprised when I discovered that someone was advertising the location of the place that I had spent nearly thirty years working. This was a place that we created it, shot it, and kicked it around. The only thing I never really thought about it was giving it a name. The center that I worked at was in Golden, Colorado, but I found the sign for it in Willis, Texas. I guess that it simply shows that this is a small world. But no bull may you all have a MERRY CHRISTMAS and a HAPPY NEW YEAR.
Till Later This Is Doug Of
PEACE ON THE ROAD
PEACE ON THE ROAD
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