Migrating Monarch Monday - October 12, 2015

Oops, forgot to mention a couple of items from our drive south to San Angelo. Bob and I take turns driving. I try to drive on main highways and avoid driving in cities whenever possible.

On Sunday, when I took over driving duties from Bob, we weren't but 10-15 minutes into our drive when I saw something black flapping at the 5th wheel tire. I thought maybe the tire was coming apart. Found a good place to pull over. Bob got out and checked to see what it was. Apparently the cover for the dump tank, that screws onto the outlet, had come loose and was flapping in the breeze.

We took off again and I was singing along to one of our CDs when I looked in the rear-view mirror 45 minutes later and saw the door to our propane compartment swinging back and forth wildly. It had come unlatched. Pulled over to a safe spot again and Bob duct taped that compartment door shut.

There was quite a breeze as we headed south, so the trailer was doing some swaying. Sigh. Time for Bob to drive again. San Angelo State Park was a welcome oasis after six hours on the road!

Our main objective in staying at San Angelo State Park was to see the migrating Monarch butterflies. They're on their way south to Mexico and blogger friends mentioned the monarchs were there (on our -- and their -- way home).

First thing Monday morning, we paid for our night at the state park (and our new yearly pass). We asked the ranger where to find the Monarch butterflies. She told us they were at the north campground but couldn't be more specific than that. All-righty then, we'll find them ourselves.

We drove five miles to the north campground at San Angelo State Park. There were two entrances but one of them had a closed gate so we headed for the open entrance. As we drove into the park, Monarch butterflies were quickly evident flying around the park road. We scoped out the trees, but didn't see where they were hanging out.

Through the campground we went searching for the "butterfly tree" but not finding it. We saw a young family packing up and stopped to ask the mom where there was a tree with butterflies in it. She was very helpful and told us if we drove down to the end of the road we would see lots of butterflies, but the tree was across the river. She didn't think we could cross the river from the side of the park we were in and told us to use the gate on the other side of the river. We thanked her and slowly drove out of the park.

As we were headed out, I was watching prairie dogs on my side of the truck. All of a sudden Bob slams on the brakes and says, "I've got to show you something, you're gonna love it!" He then backed up and showed me this...

SNAKE!

This snake was about five feet long. Not a rattlesnake, no rattle on it, even though the pattern kind of looks like one. It was huge. When it got to the grass, it went around in a circle, looked back at us, then disappeared down into its burrow in the grass. Kind of a "now you see it, now you don't" disappearing act. I'll never walk on grass the same way again...I'll be thinking about what lives in a hole under the grass.

Snake circling the wagon, head toward us on the right.

It's no wonder that snake is so big if it's been feasting on the prairie dogs on the other side of the road!

A little farther down the road, we saw wild turkeys, but I could only capture one of them in the shadows.

Find the wild turkey.

Back out of this part of the campground, we turned left, headed across the river, and turned left at the closed gate entrance to the equestrian part of the campground. Bob got the gate open and we continued our search for the butterflies. I remember someone saying they were near a pavilion. We drove the road all the way to the end, saw a pavilion (and some wild turkeys), saw lots of Monarchs, and I hopped out of the car to hopefully follow them to their tree. Bob kept driving and parked the car on the other side of the grassy area where all the trees were.

More wild turkeys

I found the butterfly tree!! Happy dance! Ever since we vacationed in Pacific Grove, California for seven straight years (another place Monarch butterflies migrate through), I have wanted to see them. In Pacific Grove it was always the wrong time of year. So happy we finally saw migrating Monarchs.

Monarch butterflies in the tree.

When their wings are closed they look
like fall colors or discolored leaves.

So beautiful!

Grove of trees where we found the majority of the Monarchs

Wild turkeys

These turkeys paid us no mind and kept on eating.

The other thing I REALLY wanted to do while we were in San Angelo was the water lily Volksmarch. However, my feet were still so sore from all the hikes over the weekend that the water lily walk was not an option today. We plan to return to San Angelo for a long weekend trip and do the two Volksmarches and other exploration then.

I took one more photo of our site at San Angelo State Park before we hit the road home. I must say, San Angelo State Park (south side) is VERY close to the town of San Angelo. Easy to get to restaurants and stores. The roads into the parks are very nice.

The state park had lots of wild turkeys and quail. I was surprised to see the prairie dogs. Didn't know they lived around here. We had a most excellent weekend and look forward to more exploration in this part of Texas.

Our site at San Angelo State Park

Travel Bug out.

Off Our Rockers* - Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2015

San Antonio didn't want to let go of us on Wednesday morning. The state vehicle inspection for Rigamarole (our 5th wheel's nickname) is due in November. Since Rigamarole was out of her site and on the road, we drove a couple of miles down the road to have her inspection done. She passed with flying colors, but (there's always a but, right) when the inspector entered the information in the computer, he couldn't find our records. What? We registered it one year ago.

Back to the drawing board. The inspector figured out he had used the manufacturing I.D. number rather than the 5th wheel's VIN number. Once he had the correct number in the computer, the printer spit out our approved inspection. Now we can renew our registration.

With that piece of business behind us, San Antonio was soon behind us as well. The weather cooperated beautifully...no rain, and the wind was not strong enough to push us around, except when we had a tail wind. Thank you, Mother Nature. That's always welcome.

Interstate 10 was our route until Junction, Texas, where we headed north on U.S. 83 to Eden, Texas. Then we drove northwest toward Big Spring. Part of the drive was through Hill Country but no spectacular scenery to note today. We drove through the Permian Basin oil fields and saw some huge oil rigs reaching to the sky, most waving American flags on top or at the base.

In the town of San Angelo, we stopped for diesel fuel and to change drivers. Bob's back was hurting and he needed a break. After we got to our destination Wednesday night, one of my blogging friends mentioned on Facebook that the Monarch butterflies are currently at San Angelo State Park. I think we'll stay in San Angelo on our way back to San Antonio and look for those beautiful Monarchs!

For a while, we drove through areas of oil fields, windmill farms and cotton fields. Some cotton is being harvested. We saw how it is baled, and the cotton picking machines. In areas where cotton is grown you will see Gin Association buildings; those are not drinking clubs, they mean cotton gins (those cotton pickin' machines).

Baled cotton with denuded cotton plants in foreground

Cotton compactor machine - gets cotton ready
to go to the cotton gin. (Thanks, Jerry, for the info!)

I had an oops when we were driving through Big Spring on U.S. 87. Yes, I was driving in a city during rush hour with no freeway. (I HATE that. It scares the $h*t out of me.) Anyway, I was doing fine, the lights were all green; until they weren't.

Going down a small hill at 40 mph I saw the light start to change. It was one of those moments when you have to decide to stop or go for it. Pulling a 17,000 pound 5th wheel is one of those times I should have gone for it. I tried to stop, and I thought I was going to make it. However, by the time I stopped I was in the middle of the intersection and the light was red, I had to run it. So I floored it and no one got hurt. Thankfully, the road I was crossing was a one-way street and everyone waited because they could see I wasn't going to make the stop in time. I was very fortunate and very shaken up. It could have been a much worse outcome.

We made it to Whip In RV Park in one piece. Just before we arrived at the RV park, Bob and I did a Chinese fire drill at a stop sign so he could drive into the RV park. Our site was a pull through with full hookups.

Unhitching was not necessary to go out for dinner as we had leftover spaghetti for dinner from Tuesday night. We settled in and had dinner. Bob watched "Mysteries of Laura" and baseball playoffs. I watched "Survivor."

Our site was near the dog park and the dumpsters. Around 10:00 p.m. Bowie started running around the 5th wheel snarling. He kept looking out the back window toward the dumpsters. He came and sat near me at the computer and snarled like he was trying to protect me from something outside. Both cats were very agitated. Don't know if it was stray cats, 'possums, raccoons, or coyotes out there, but something had them very upset. They finally settled down when I went to bed.

Our mileage today was 290 miles. We left San Antonio at 11:00 a.m. and arrived in Big Spring, Texas at 5:00 p.m. That was enough miles for one day!! We heard thunder and saw lightning late into the evening and again in the morning. We did not get much rain.

*Off our rockers = out of our spot in San Antonio and on the road!