Hot Half Marathon, Bob Suffers - Sun., Nov. 17

After our wonderful cool temperatures earlier in the week, today turned out to be quite warm...to the tune of 88 degrees and high humidity. This weather is not conducive to running marathons or half marathons.

One time when Bob ran a full marathon in Kona, Hawaii (very hot, no shade), he passed out at the side of the road and mobile medics rehydrated and cooled him. He could not finish that marathon.

I called Bob 4-1/2 hours after his approximate start time and there was no answer. He didn't call for quite a while. Because the full marathon passed very close by our RV park, I kept hearing ambulances. Even though the half marathon didn't pass by here, hearing the sirens made me wonder if Bob was okay. If you know me, you know I worry. 

He finally called while I was walking at the Mitchell Lake Audubon Wetlands. (He hadn't taken his phone with him.) Apparently toward the end of the race, Bob was really dragging. After crossing the finish line he had to go to the medical tent for very low blood pressure and dehydration. He was treated with IV fluids and ice packs to his head. They kept him for a while. He was told by medics that quite a few people needed medical care today because of the high temperature and high humidity. Scary stuff. Three years ago, someone died on this course. After relaxing all afternoon, he is fine now.

Around 12:30 p.m. I headed over to Mitchell Lake Audubon Wetlands for a 10K Volksmarch. When I started out, it was hot, but there was a little breeze blowing. However, by the time I walked down the hill and into the trees, no more breeze. It felt almost as hot as a summer day and it was miserable. Not to mention that  spiders must have hatched because I kept walking through single-strand webs. Ugh! I hate spiders.

Today, the ducks were out in force! It's the first time I've seen so many ducks in the polders.

Hundreds of ducks in East Polder.

Explanation of polders.

Northern shrike

American avocet and ducks

Northern shoveler

Blue-winged teal

Cinnamon teal

American avocets eating

Two turtles

Spider with butterfly (?)

Checkered white butterflies mating.

Checkered white butterflies

Checkered white butterflies

When I looked up the above butterflies online, the description said they can only be found in Raleigh, NC. I beg to differ because these two were at the Mitchell Lake Wetlands Audubon Center in San Antonio, TX!!

Turtles on the opposite shore.

Great egrets and American white pelicans.

Snowy egrets

Black-necked stilt and two American avocets

Just plain hot trail.

Weird-looking beetle

Northern shoveler - adult male

Northern shoveler - adult breeding female

Ducks and American avocets

Ducks with small shorebirds.

I was very happy to finish this walk and hop into my car and blast the air conditioner on my way home!

As promised here is a photo of my hair. It's very blonde and very short. She chopped off my sideburns which I wasn't happy about. (Are they called sideburns on a woman??)

Cheesy selfie, but you can see my hair.

Tonight Bob took me out for dessert at Olive Garden as a pre-birthday celebration. I had Black Tie Mousse Cake and he had Chocolate Mousse Seven-Layer Cake. Very decadent.

Tomorrow, I am going to see "12 Years A Slave" with Sharon from our RV park. She's as much a movie buff as I am, so we'll probably be seeing lots of movies together.

Enjoy your week before Thanksgiving. Safe travels everyone.

Back to Mitchell Lake Audubon - Sun., Oct. 6

One of my very favorite nature Volksmarches in San Antonio is the Mitchell Lake Audubon wetlands. I go frequently because it is very close to our RV park and I always see a variety of wildlife. Bob came with me today. We walked 10K (6.2 miles) in two hours ten minutes which included stopping to spot and watch birds and taking photos.

What was so nice today is that the temperature took a plunge overnight. During the night we had very loud thunder, loud rain, and lightning. I remember waking up at 2 a.m. and 4 a.m. to rain pounding on the roof. Because San Antonio has had quite a bit of rain in the past three weeks, things are greening up beautifully. Walking today was pleasant with cooler air and light breezes. That's good because there isn't much shade on the Mitchell Lake walk.

First up on the critter-spotting radar was a nice-sized lizard on the railing leading up to the Visitor Center.

Texas spiny lizard

The first third of our walk we only saw mockingbirds, but once we got to the poulders (ponds), bird sightings were more frequent. When we signed in at the Visitor Center, we noted that a number of people had signed in for a Bird Tour. We weren't sure if they would still be out on the trails. Sure enough, they were. One of these days, I am going on the Bird Tour. They have one on the second Tuesday of the month.

We spotted quite a few different birds today. I asked the lady in the Visitor Center if the fall migration had started yet and she said no. I'm definitely coming back to look for unusual birds in a few weeks!

Semipalmated sandpiper (Calidris pusilla)

Least sandpiper.

The Bird Tour group below. If you have seen the movie "The Big Year" with Steve Martin, Jack Black and Owen Wilson, you will know that this photo shows bird-watchers in their element. It's a funny movie. If you haven't seen it, give it a shot. These people were not posing for me, I caught them doing what bird-watchers do.

The Bird Tour group.

American pelicans in flight formation.

American pelicans.

In the following photo, you can see a portion of the hundreds of birds hanging out in this poulder.

Great egrets, tri-colored heron, American avocets, coot.

Tri-colored heron.

Roseate skimmer dragonfly.

Cool-looking pods.

American pelicans in flight.

Black-necked stilts.

Least sandpipers.

Cute coot retreating.

American avocet.

American avocet.

Good comparison in differences between the black-necked
stilt versus the American avocet.

Adult scissor-tailed flycatcher.

Ground cover with tiny magenta flowers.

The beetle in the following photo was running across the ground. I was having a hard time getting a photo until he got up next to the rock where he stopped and froze in place. This black beetle is about 2" long.

Big black beetle (Calosoma macrum)

Laredo striped whiptail lizard.

I always get my nature fix walking the trails at Mitchell Lake. I hope you enjoyed the show.

After our walk, we rested and had lunch. I did the laundry, though Bob offered, but I knew he wanted to go to work for a bit. 

And now for a couple of kitty photos...

We have totally conquered the mousy plaything.

So sweet. (Believe me, they weren't this quiet at 4:00 a.m.!)

The rest of this lovely Sunday Bob went to Random event center to see his son, Randall, and to talk to his boss. I stayed home and did chores: vacuumed, hand-washed delicate laundry, filled new hummingbird feeder, cleaned and filled the cardinal feeder with seed that is supposed to be bitter to squirrels (we'll see how that goes), and put some new Velcro in our laundry hamper to hold in the laundry bag.

In the evening, I watched "60 Minutes" and when Bob came home we watched "The Amazing Race" (with channel flipping for him to see bits of the Dodgers/Atlanta game).

I hope you had a good weekend too. Enjoy your week.

The end.

 Travel Bug out.