Alpine, Armadillo, Austin, April and Addendum

Alpine, armadillo, Austin, April: What's the common bond? Texas AND the A in the "Blogging from A-to-Z Challenge" which starts today. So "A" could also be for alphabet, which is what we'll be working through each day in our blogs. Bob reminded me A is also for adventure which is the type of life we live.

For those of you new to my blog, welcome. Sit back and learn about new places, a different kind of lifestyle (full-time RVing), and our family of travelers--my husband (Bob), me (Susan), and our two cats Bowie (as in David) and Sunnie (as in Sonny and Cher).

Why Texas? Well, we're headin' down the road April 7 and plan to sit a spell in Texas. Current plan: go through Alpine, Texas, on our way to Big Bend National Park where we hope to see armadillos, continue to South Llano River State Park, Kerrville, Fredericksburg, Luckenbach, Pedernales Falls State Park, Austin, New Braunfels, and San Antonio.

Neither of us has spent time in the great state of Texas, so now is our chance. We'll spend two weeks in the Texas Hill Country, one week of which will be at an RV Rally.

When we finish in the Hill Country, we are heading to Corpus Christi on the Gulf Coast to work as gate guards for the oil companies. Three months is how long we expect to guard gates.

Moving on from Texas at the end of July, we will head for Yellowstone National Park where we will spend two weeks in August (another A word) hiking, sightseeing and enjoying the outdoors. 

Adios and adieu.

Travel Bug out.

Addendum: Astronomy. Our walk this afternoon took us around Sparks Marina Lake (photos below). On our first lake go round, we saw a sidewalk astronomer promoting the local astronomy club. We didn't stop. 

Second trip around the lake, we heard large booms and bangs, saw some smoke, thought kids were doing fireworks. As we approached the City of Sparks park office, we noticed the door was open. I said, "I bet it was the park workers setting off the fireworks to scare away the birds." Bob said, "Do you want to ask them?"

Not being shy, I walked up to the door and asked. The ranger at the park said they use the fireworks to scare the birds away because people feed the birds and the birds die...even though there are signs everywhere along the lake telling people NOT to feed them. He said the bread people give them swells up in the coots' stomachs and they find dead coot by the lake.  : (

The ranger asked us if we had stopped by the sidewalk astronomer's booth. We said, no, we hadn't. He was very enthusiastic in telling us about looking at the sun through the telescope today. It was worth a look.

Rich the sidewalk astronomer on the left.

Rich (on left) with his telescope and curious bystander.

The first thing Rich the astronomer had us do was don eclipse glasses (kind of like sunglasses except you couldn't see anything until you looked at the sun). Using the eclipse sunglasses is the safe way to observe the sun. Next, he set his telescope so we could see the sun and solar flares. We took off our eclipse glasses and could see solar flares through the telescope. Way hot! Loved being able to do this. He recommended we visit the following site to learn more, see photos of the sun and planets... http://sdo.gsfc.nasa.gov/ which is the website for NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory.

Sparks Marina Lake walk photos:

South Lincoln Way, Sparks, NV--heading to the lake

Sparks Marina Lake, Nevada --east side

Sparks Marina Lake --center

Sparks Marina Lake -- Susan -- west side

Blossoms are coming out!

Bob on trail around the lake--it's 45 degrees and he's in shorts!!!

Scheels Outdoor Store at Legends Mall

 

Lakefront condos, south side of lake

Tyrannabbit Rex or Bunnasaurus Rex? These people have an Easter sense of humor!

Legends Mall signs along Interstate 80 in Sparks, Nevada

Hi, squirrelly squirrel.

Camouflage?