Best memoir of the year. And maybe best book.

Better Living Through Birding:

Notes from a Black Man in the Natural World

by Christian Cooper

Absolutely great.  Lot of birding stuff, but if you refuse to be interested in birds there's a whole lot more--

Memoir. Family. History. Travels. Current Events. and Marvel Comics back in the day when Marvel Comics was a thing--hurray!

Listen to the audiobook if you can, because he starts each chapter with a minute of bird
song appropriate to the text.  I recognized very few of them (sadly!)

One thing I found hilarious--toward the end he goes to Alabama and is hoping to see a scissortail and a painted bunting.  Both of which I've seen hundreds of, so much that I find them a little mundane and seldom go to the to trouble to pull up my binoculars for.  (Which is stupid--they're both gorgeous)  But, on the other hand, there are lots and lots of northeastern warblers that he knows intimately. And I'm still waiting for that first look at!

Mammoth Takes to the Bats, Day 8 and return day

Tue 18 July

Brantley Lake State park NM to Tin Cup RV Park,TX

Farewell, Brantley Lake

Beastly hot day. When I got up and went outside at about 6:45, it was 72--cool and pleasant. But not for long. By the time we left at 10:00 it was hot, and while driving it got worse. At the end, when we ended up at Tin Cup RV Park in Merkel Texas, it was this:

Before we left I took a few minutes to go in search of the quail that had been roaming up and down the campground. I found them--hope the picture turned out.
Scaled Quail (aka "Cottontop")

 

And I also got a bonus--Molly got to see a jackrabbit and I found a Horny Toad.
Texas Horned Lizard

The traffic was horrid, the road surface alternately nice and horrid but we were stuck behind Semi trucks for most of the day until we finally, finally hit I-20 at Sweetwater. But after that the traffic seemed to get worse. And, as I said, beastly hot. My seat was in the sun for a while and I got so hot I went and lounged on the sofa behind the driver's seat. And snoozed just a little.

Review
Tin Cup RV Park
A parking lot, but a very nice parking lot
Site surface: concrete slab and gravel

The owner (or was it manager?) was very nice and the whole stopover as pleasant as a body could make it. They'd cleared a little rectangle of land, graveled it over, and put in RV sites in three rows or maybe four. The first row had sites with covers and if I'd known it was going to be 110 degrees in July in Merkel Texas, I'd have gotten one.

But no matter. The power, water and sewer worked beautifully. We had a pull-thru site, so no reason to unhook. And there was a nice little dog park (no shade, though) and a little playground at the other end. No view or scenic walks, of course, and the highway noise from I-20 was audible but not overpowering. Perfect for a one-night stopover; more than adequate for a couple of nights if you are working from the road and need a stationary office. They have WIFI and it worked pretty well for an hour, then slowed down. Usable, though.

And next day to home. Great trip; bad time of year.

TRIP NOTES:
1. You can tell you're getting old when one marker of a good trip is that you accomplish regular bowel movements.

2. In hot weather, plan to pack enough teeshirts to change daily and enough bras to change every two days. Or oftener.

3. Seriously consider coming up with an excuse to come back to Brantley Lake in cooler weather. It's a lovely park and there are trails I didn't get to hike. Carlsbad Caverns area has some trails too, and likely some other stuff to see. Plus Sitting Bull Falls.

Miscellaneous pics

Mammoth Takes to the Bats, Day 7

Monday 17 July

Today it was activity 4 of 4 -- go to the cave. On the way we stopped to eat breakfast at Roque Burritos and Restaurant, and it turned out to be pretty good. Maybe not a 4.7 star, as it was rated, but at least a 4.3. The salsa was very spicy and my corn tortillas seemed fresh and lovely. Ed's flour tortilla (the menu said "tortillas") was not so good--a little dry and thin. But the Huevos with Nopal a la Mexicanos were quite good. I would have thought it should have been Nopales, sort of like how "eggs with tomato" would be written "eggs with tomatoes" on most menus--the use of the singular threw me. But not nopalitos, which I am familiar with, because Wikipedia says that the term "nopalitos" designates the canned variety of prickly pear cactus. So these should have been fresh.

I would have used more onion, and more nopales and less tomato in the dish, but it was still very good.

The line to get into the cave was pretty daunting, but it moved quite well. And my "Old Person's Card" got us both in for free. Three of the very few perks of getting old are free stuff, not having to worry about what you look like (sh*t, always), and permission to sit on the benches and rest whenever you want to.

We opted to take the shorter of the two self-guided tours they had available--The Big Room route. We could have gone on the Natural Entrance route and seen the bat cave, which would have been cool. But it was 2-1/2 miles instead of 1-1/4. By the time we'd meandered around and saw all the sights, that was enough. And my toes were getting numb--one of the not-so-perks of getting old.

 

What a cave! More stalagtites that you can shake a stick at; flowstone, soda straws and cave popcorn and sometimes soda straws with cave popcorn attached to them. The coolest thing were these thin shelves where the water level had once been higher and minerals floated on the surface until they attached at the edges. 

And this--best bathroom ever!

Going up

 

But then we had to go back to camp, and it was beastly hot. About 104 according to the indoor-outdoor thermometer. Our air conditioning was holding up pretty well, but we expected the next day (traveling day) to be horrid. We can only run one of the two air conditioning units while we're driving. Ed thinks it's a faulty switch that trips and shuts off the generator; he has a new switch on order for when we return. We used to be able to run them both from the generator.

I decided that if the clouds came up again, I'd take Molly for a long late afternoon walk. If not, she may have to wait until evening. And then a shower in the lovely bathhouse, just because I like it. And the trip will be ending--only one more day and that's a short stopover in a commercial RV park. Good enough, I hope.

LATER
Did the long, late walk but it wasn't all that enjoyable. A cloud eventually came up and blocked the worst of the intense summer sunshine, but it was still hot and unpleasant. The lake was circled around with huge rocks and I really wanted to climb up on to and see over (to the water) but it just wasn't feasible. At one point I left the trail, carefully making note of how to get back to it, and walked up to the foot of the rock pile.  I could climb it--with great difficulty and loss of sweat--but not with a dog tied to my wrist. My only choice would be to let her loose so she could climb on her own or tie her up at the bottom.

I chose to do neither one. We walked further on the trail in hopes we'd get to the place where it looked like a dirt road went over to the lake and up, but I hadn't brought drinking water (inexcusable!) and Molly was getting awfully thirsty by then. So we turned around and went back. We probably walked about three miles total.

Pleasant evening. Nothing especially exciting; a few more tiny scorpions showed up in the black light flashlights. We spent a good bit of our time speculating on why one of the three flaring pipes in the distance had stopped flaring, and where exactly it had been in relation to the nearest one. Exciting camping conversation--what you do when you don't have a campfire, I guess.

Mammoth Takes to the Bats, Day 6

Sunday 16 July

Today's agenda was a scenic drive to Guadalupe Mountains National Monument. Pretty awesome views from the highway rest areas--

 

Molly came with us, so we didn't go in the visitor center. Turns out we might as well have taken turns and went in--the only other thing I'd hoped to do in the park were to drive the roads back to the campgrounds and the few historical sites.  But no--they were closed due to fire danger.  Most of the hiking trails were, too. We did at least check out the Pine Springs Campground--no hookups and sites too short for us. I'd thought that before, from the reservations web page, but we confirmed it by driving through. 

But it sure was cool to see!

Not much else to say for the day, so I'll sneak in my camping review. 

Review Brantley Lake State Park site 14

An almost perfect state park.
This park has almost everything one might want in a state park, and then some. It's in the desert, though--remember that when planning a trip. Mid-July, when we came, was probably not the best time.

There is a loop of reservable sites (you can sign up for them at the entrance) and one of first-come sites. Neither was even half full, but note that it was an awfully undesirable time of year for camping (July). There were no park staff at the gate and I didn't see any the whole time we were there; the campground host site was occupied, but the host kept inside (or busy) the whole time. But we had no need for staff--everything was perfect.

Our electricity, 50-amp, worked fine and so did our water hookup. No sewer, although there were about three sites with sewer near the front of the camping area. The dump station was easy to access and convenient on the way out. The camp surfaces were pea gravel and everything was perfectly clean; dumpsters and trash cans all over; only a little litter scattered here and around.

But the bath house! I've never see such a gorgeous bath house! Our RV has a shower  but it was nowhere near as nice as the bath house showers. Nozzles with hoses--unlimited water, hot or cold--no "button" to push, just a normal circular knob. And very, very clean! If I were finding fault all I could say is that my shower curtain was torn a little bit at the edge. (big deal, right?)  I'd camp here in summer again just for the showers.

For the nature lover, there are birds (quail, black-throated sparrow, nighthawk, mockingbirds, doves...) and lots of lizards (tiny, big, and pretty). Snakes and scorpions too, plus jack rabbits and rock squirrels and no doubt all those others that hunt those things.

things to do: go to the Living Desert Zoo--it's a lovely little zoo and botanical garden, with a pleasant guy who walked around to answer all our questions.
Roque Burritos and Restaurant had a decent breakfast: good spicy salsa, good scrambled eggs with nopales, potatoes and refried beans. The single flour tortilla they brought with the Huevos a la Mexicanos was a little dry, not soft and fluffy like you expect in New Mexico. Plus there was only one. Decent coffee; they didn't offer to refill it but then it was a slow morning and I could easily have asked if I'd needed more. Would definitely try again for breakfast or lunch; it's not open for dinner.

Mammoth Takes to the Bats, Day 5

Sat 15 July

Went to Living Desert Zoo and Botanical Garden. It was great! Their animals were all rescues of some sort or another, which makes it really worthwhile. And all from the area, of course.There were a couple of animals we didn't see, but the Mexican wolf pack--two adults and two or three cubs--and the mountain lions (mating) made it all worth while. (We didn't watch them mating--they went off in a private spot for that. But the zoo attendant said they were going to.)

 Scott's Oriole in the garden outside the zoo

Female hummingbirds are unidentifiable

Javelina

It was pretty much empty of people, too. We met a few families here and there, walking the 1-1/4 mile circuit, but mostly no one. I only wish I'd paid more attention to the plant labels. The only one I learned for certain sure was the Desert Willow, which isn't a true Willow at all. The leaves look like willow tree leaves, but it has long pods and flowers that look like big mint flowers (tubular and lipped). There were several hummingbirds around the zoo too, and I've seen one at the park.

 
We've hit it lucky with the weather so far. Every afternoon thunderheads build up and block the sun from our heat-absorbing Mammoth. The air conditioner runs continuously from about noon until near sundown, and although it never gets down to our preferred temperature (75), it stays below 85. Or at the least, only jumps above 85 for an hour or so before evening. And of course, after sundown it gets cool enough for the air conditioner to work correctly.

We left camp again at six o'clock to see the bat flight out of Carlsbad Caverns. For such a deserted area, the number of people who turned out to sit on rock seats in an rock amphitheater facing a hole in the ground....

Surprising. Several hundred at the least. And they all stayed very quiet when the ranger started talking, and remained that way when bats started a maelstrom exodus and madhouse circle in front of the cave and off down the valley. It went on for a long, long time--according to the ranger, all night--but we only stayed for a half-hour or so. It was getting close to dark when we left, and after the one-hour drive back to camp, it was near bedtime when we returned. About 9:30, I believe. But of course the dogs needed to be walked and I wanted a bit of snack because I'd been showering at the lovely, lovely bathhouse instead of eating supper.

Just a note on that bathhouse, "Wow!" It must have been brand new. The showers had actual hot-and-cold levers instead of a single wheel, and there was a removable shower head. The water was nicely hot and you could use all you want to! Gorgeous.

Back to the bats...you may think that's a long way to drive just to sit on a rock and look at bats, and maybe it is. But the bats were there and I wanted to see them--just the know they were there, and just in case they all go away. I don't think scientists have a treatment for white-nose syndrome yet and I don't think they have any real clue on how to stop it from spreading, short of the impossible. The ranger said that estimates of the population back in the (1920s) were several million, and now it is just two-hundred thousand. That's still a lot of bats. I hope it's enough.

Mammoth Takes to the Bats, Day 4

Oasis State park to Brantley Lake State Park
Fri 14 July 2023

Horrid drive...or not. The roads--mostly New Mexico State Highways--were a little rough and almost completely deserted. Only one person passed us, and we only passed one other person.

After driving south for over an hour in flatness so flat as to boggle the imagination--not hardly a tree, or a swell or even a bit of road construction to modify the sameness of the scenery--the ground got bumpy all around. And then we turned to the west and started through a low valley with potash drying grounds and oil pumps and trucks all over the place. And, after another long hour, the ground started to rise in front and we could finally see big old hills in front. Mountains, most likely, but so hazy and far in the distance that we couldn't be sure.

I'd chosen to stop for gas at a Pilot in Carlsbad, and that was a big trafficky, junky mess. Stoplights and traffic and all that assorted junk. Yuck!

After that, google showed a 20-mile drive that was going to take 40 minutes. We knew what that meant...traffic lights. And more yuck.

We arrived to an almost empty park--only the campground host and maybe one other camper was in evidence. And guess where the other camper was parked? No, not IN our site, but right next to it. What are the odds?

I only hope he's not annoyed and thinks I chose the site on purpose. It's funny, though--when I reserved this campsite, I didn't notice that almost all the other sites were unoccupied.  But no matter--what kind of idiots would go camping in the desert in 104-degree weather?

The lake is really low, of course. But there's enough water in it to launch a boat. I guess--I saw boats out there. Not very many, though, not for a Friday night.

Flaring pipes lit up our night, but far enough away not to be a bother.

Trails for Molly:

And, good night!

Mammoth Takes to the Bats, Day 3

 Thu 13 July

On to Oasis State Park near Portales, New Mexico. The drive west took us through the broken country just south of Caprock Canyons. It wasn't a bad road but the terrain was challenging.

 

Eventually we climbed up out of it and ended up on the Llano Estacado, the big flat plain of the Texas Panhandle. We continued west and crossed I-27 somewhere between Lubbock and Amarillo.  Actually, it was just north of Plainview where Ed and his family lived for a number of years.

 

Then we got stuck in a small town somewhere in New Mexico. We needed to take a southerly "jog" to get on the road, so I had a choice of going due south and crossing the train tracks at the Pilot Travel Center, or going west on the "truck route." I chose unwisely--after a couple of miles going west, we had to turn south and cross the tracks there and, there, was the train. It came to a complete stop in front of us and then proceeded to back up for a short forever.  (Probably less than five minutes, but it seems longer when you're waiting.)

But the park wasn't far away. It had been cloudy for most of the drive and still cloudy when we arrived, so I hopefully assumed Mammoth Motorhome would cool down quickly. Alas, not to be. Molly and I went for a walk around the campground, and at some point I was feeling pleasantly "not hot" so I checked the temperature--

Ninety nine. Plus the clouds were rapidly disappearing and the full sun was beating down on poor Mammoth. Even later, at 5:22pm, it was still 89 degrees inside.

But the dogs were doing okay with that temperature, so we just had to be patient until sundown.

Oasis State Park appears to be brand-new and cute as a button. There is a rather large pond in the middle with a gravel walkway all around; picnic benches and shelters scattered here and there. The lake is stocked for catfishing and there were signs saying "no swimming", so I didn't let Molly go in. There was one duck and a whole lot of little fishes at the edges.

I thought the park would be a delight for bird and lizard watching because I saw a lizard first thing and Molly scared up a quail at the edge of our campsite. But it appears that's all there was, other than House Sparrows (hate them!), Western Kingbirds, Mourning Doves, and the eternal Mockingbird. Maybe we'll see something different in the morning.

 

We ate supper at this little steak place in town:

nice salad bar.

LATER: we did. I saw a horny toad during my next morning dog walk. Nice!

One other memorable thing was the smell--when a lightning show started and the wind came out of a certain direction, the manure smell was so prominent that I wondered if there were horse campers nearby. And the flies--oh, the flies! Probably the reason for the ridiculous profusion of western Kingbird was the abundance of flies.  The source of the smell, and flies, was revealed when we pulled out next morning. There was a stinking feedlot just south of us.

 

Oftentimes I really hate people who eat feedlot cattle. Don't they know?

Mammoth Takes to the Bats, Day 2

Wed 12 July

Horny Toad!  Or, to be precise, Texas Horned Lizard. Just outside our door, in between campsites 8 and 9.  He was very active for a while but I couldn't figure out what he was hunting for. There weren't any big red ants for him, at least not in the grassy area.

Hopefully he found enough. We went for a drive and he was not in evidence when we returned. His camouflage is so good I could have walked right over him and never noticed him. But the spot was in full sun when we returned and the temperature was rapidly approaching 100, so I wouldn't blame him if he retired to the shade.

We drove over to the "swimming area" and then the lake, and took a little trail up to the overlook. I don't think we went the whole way, but by that time it was after 10:00 and not a pleasant place to be. Other than the silence, the solitude, and the utter lack of things that annoy. That part was exceedingly pleasant.

 

 

 

 

On the previous night the stars weren't as brilliant as I'd hoped for--possibly it was a little hazy? but I could see all the stars in the little dipper, which you can't do at home.  Also, of course, all of Scorpio's tail.

We're at about the same latitude as our house but the trees block Scorpio back home--it's to the south. Maybe if I walked all the way down the driveway and looked out across our front field, I could see it all.

It started to cloud up in the afternoon, so the motorhome was a pleasant temperature when it came time for supper. A welcome change. I took Molly for her long walk after supper, from about 7:45 to sundown at 8:45-ish. First we took the little trail at the edge of the campground. It went down the hill a little ways and then ended at an "amphitheater" (chunks of logs in a semicircle) overlooking the lake below.

When I tried to keep on going, the trail dissolved into a bunch of game tracks that didn't seem to lead anywhere. I couldn't have gotten lost, with the road on one side and the lake on the other, but I could definitely have ended up wandering around in thorny underbrush that I didn't care to go in.  So I turned back.

                Lake from the amphitheater:

After that we just took the same walk as the day before, down to the defunct swimming area and the remainder of the lake. Molly took a short dip, and we returned to a very pretty sunset.

Last night for here.