Review: What Sam Knew

What Sam Knew (Patricia Fisher Adventure Mysteries #1)

by Steve Higgs

I found this surprisingly entertaining. Highly improbable in plot and execution, but still entertaining. I'd liked Steve Higgs' British food caper series okay, and didn't realize this was the same author until near the end. And I like it much better than the other--will finish all these before I resume on them.

His characters are a blast--the detective herself, a fairly normal 40-something who finds herself in a position of having a place to live (rent-free), a household staff (paid for), and a garage full of expensive cars (also paid for). She's as gobsmacked by the good fortune as you or I would be. But she takes the free time and resources and opens a detective agency for herself.

Add on a butler who aspires to be John Steed and frequently dresses like him; a blonde bombshell fitness instructor and part-time assistant; and various other fun and unusual people. Great.

 

Magnus Goes Caving, Finally! Return

Sat March 22

This morning there were two Scissor-tailed flycatchers. Lovely. It was calmer, too, so they could hang out in the trees instead of lurking on the ground. I also saw (I think) the female Vermilion Flycatcher. It was on a rock near the water, and in shape and size looked exactly like the male. I couldn't see any red color--at first I thought it was an eastern Kingbird, but the shape was wrong. The male went over and buzzed her for a second, so I'm pretty sure that's what it was.

 Nothing else to write. Pretty uneventful trip home except for a stupid episode at the gas station. I won't dwell on it; it's over. Got home pretty late in the afternoon like about 3:30 maybe?  But then we didn't leave until 11 and we had a 3:40 drive, plus a short stop to check the tire pressure (the TPMS was malfunctioning) and a fairly long fuel stop, about 25 minutes.

Home. Stinking and with weird splotches of paint on the walls, but good to be in. Except for all the dry ground outside that badly needs watering.

 

 

Magnus Goes Caving, Finally! Day 10

Friday 21 March

 

 

Second day at Hord's Lake. Nothing much to report. 

 

I did a good bit of lonesome duck watching, seeing the Greater Yellowlegs and a bunch of Northern Shovelers.

 

 

And while I was sitting on a rock looking at the water, what did I see on a rock on the ground in front of me but a Scissor-tailed flycatcher!  First of the year.

 

 

 

 

But nothing else interesting comes to mind...Ed and I took a long walk along the roads but it was kind of boring and birdless. Oh, well...it's still camping which is better than working.

I amused myself by seeking out flowers in the grass. Not many of them, but lovely.

Good-night!

Magnus Goes Caving, Finally! Day 9

Thursday 20 March

Again a short drive, this one to Hords Creek Lake Campground.  It's a COE park I discovered when trying to find a route home that took us in from the west instead of on I-35. I-35 is an okay route these days, but the western route hits less traffic. Usually.

Anyway the day's drive was very ordinary and the park was very nice.  It was about an hour south of Abilene, I think.  The lake was very low--all the boat docks were dry--but it had enough water to support a lovely, small contingent of ducks, coots, cormorants and a few pelicans.

White Pelican

Ruddy Duck with his head turned back, grooming

Greater Yellowlegs

On the first day I identified Ruddy Duck and I think that was about it.

COE parks are often very nice, especially out of the summer season. This one was huge even though the lake it surrounded was very. very small--in about two hours I could have walked all the way around it.  But the park had at least six camping loops.  There were two entrances, too, but one was closed down. It's clear that a lot of money had been spent on this place some time back, but it seemed awfully wasted at the present.

Molly and I went for a long walk along the roads. One thing COE parks lack are trails, real trails--that's one point in favor of state parks. I only remember having ever hiked three trails in COE parks--the park at Canyon Lake we went to at the start of this trip; Cedar Ridge Turkey Roost Area; and Dana Peak park.  But most of them, like this one, the best we can do is take long walks along the road or along the lake edges.

Magnus Goes Caving, Finally! Day 8

Wednesday 19 March

Second day at Caverns of Sonora park, but we didn't go into the cave again. In the morning we took a day trip to Fort Lancaster and battlefield State Historic Site. It was about an hour west of where we were camped, and with such a strong wind out of the northwest that I had to clamp down on the steering wheel to keep the Jeep from getting blown to Mexico. Horrible windy day!

 

The fort was just a ruin and not a great one at that, although the exhibits in the visitor center were nicely set up. We gave Molly a walk in and around the ruins but with the 30-mph wind in our faces, we couldn't enjoy it in the slightest. Even the little sparrows, not all that shy of us, eluded me. I finally decided after much observation of he pictures that they must have been Vesper Sparrows, which was a new bird for me.

 

The camp (fort) seemed to be set in a huge bowl, where off in the distance in any direction all you could see was higher elevation desert ranges. And they were always too far away to present any sort of wind break at all. There weren't any significant trees for shade, either, although a river had once run through and it was very possible that a hundred years before there had been cottonwoods and other riparian plantlife.

In any event, it must have been a dry-as-dust existence for the poor soldiers. And there were never very many, just a few hundred as best I could tell. They were there to protect stagecoach traffic on the southern trail...I guess to El Paso. Other than card playing, drinking, and sitting out under the nightly star display, I can't imagine what they did for enjoyment. 

 

 

From the overlook a couple of miles down the road from the fort:

 

 

The wind died down a little in the afternoon, giving Ed an easy chance to grill something. And I was able to give Molly a pretty long walk by going down the road that goes into the RV park.

 

Magnus Goes Caving, Finally! Day 7

 Tuesday 18 March

And we were off for our 1-1/2 hour drive to Caverns of Sonora RV Park.  It was hard to make ourselves delay so as not to get there too early, but it turned out to be a very low-key, easygoing place. The check-in process involved filling out information on a tiny form and running a credit card through for $25/night. Then they told us to go pick any site.

That proved to be slightly difficult, because the little gravel area they had cleared with water and electric hookups was mostly empty. I think there were only two or three other campers there while we were there, and there were about 25 or 30 sites available. But the best one--the one we chose--was just a little two short and "tight" for us to get into without a great deal of backing and fronting and just not worth the effort. Plus there was a tree branch over it.

So we chose one of the easier access, sunny spots and were soon done. There was any sewer hookup, probably because the whole thing was located right over the cave system. There were probably sewer hookups for the permanent residents and the little store, but I can't imagine them wanting to overload the groundwater and risk polluting the cave.

 Bought these at the store while waiting for the cave tour.

Quartz crystals

Bumpy things in the cave

Lots of hangy things in the cave

We were there for two nights, but we arrived in plenty of time to go ahead a do an afternoon cave tour. It took about 1-1/2 hours. Great cave. Just absolutely great. All full of quartz crystals and just tons of growing formations of soda straws and fins (forget the term) and columns and just about everything except the huge chunks of "flowstone" I've seen in other caves.  So cool.

The tour guide was great, too. He was a young guy and I don't think he'd been working there more than a year or two, but he'd taken ownership of "our cave" in a way that made him as happy to show it off as a father with a new-born baby.

That about it. Walking Molly was a little challenging because there was nowhere especial to go except round and round the camping area. But not bad.  Lot's of purple martins and swallows that were having to share their ceramic "gourd" housing unit with house sparrows and starlings. A shame.  A vermilion flycatcher lived in the campground and the eternal mockingbirds and Bewick's wrens.

 

Magnus Goes Caving, Finally! Day 6

Monday 17 March

Last day at S Llano River State Park

We took another walk through the turkey roost area in the morning, where we fulfilled a long-held desire of Ed's to see a porcupine alive in the wild. We saw the first one down on the river trail, high up in a tree crooked in an intersection of big branches. He was curled up in a ball and snoozing away, and all of our looking and walking about and wondering didn't budge him. But we got a good enough look at the ball of fur and the tail to know what it had to be. It seemed huge!

 

And then we went away from the river walking through a rather boring trail that started behind Lara's Blind, and back in there we saw another one. Wow.

After that I headed by myself to a couple of the blinds and spent a good bit of happy time there.  And that's about it for South Llano River State Park. Great place.

American Robin

Bewick's Wren

Black-throated Sparrow

Our resident camp Desert Towhee pair

Fox Sparrow

Hermit Thrush

Hummingbird but as usual, I can't tell if it's Ruby-throated or Black-throated

Inca dove

Ladder-backed Woodpecker

(another) Lesser Goldfinch

Vermilion Flycatcher picture taken with my phone

Western Scrub Jay

Magnus Goes Caving, Finally! Day 5

Sunday 16 March

Stay-at-home day. Campsite home, of course. Tomorrow will probably be the same. We went for a morning walk to the day use area and the interpretive trail, but saw no turkeys or other wildlife. But I did at least get a great look and listen to a yellow-throated warbler.

Then it was off to the bird blind for me. When I arrived a man and woman were doing a bird exercise with their two kids. But they soon left it to me. Nothing exciting but at least I got an exceptionally good study on Pine Siskins and Lesser Goldfinches, both birds I don't have at home. (Other people have siskins, but I never do. Dunno why).  Later I caught a sage thrasher and of course the Vermilion Flycatchers that seem to be pretty common here. And earlier, a ladder-backed woodpecker.  Lots of chipping sparrows in the campsite.

 Pine Siskin

Lesser Goldfinch

Chipping Sparrow

A man joined me and we spoke for a minute. He said he'd been hoping to see a canyon towhee, and I had to admit that there had been a pair of them at the campsite the previous day and they hung around so long I practically had to step on them to get in the door. Later, when I went back, there they were at the neighbor's camp. Too bad I didn't just take him back and show him them. They're hard to see, until you do--and then you see them constantly. Strange birds. Very "tame" in campgrounds.

He also mentioned that a birder in Lara's Blind (there are four bird blinds in this campground) had seen a Rufous-backed Robin. I consulted my book and decided that was very unlikely--it's an extremely rare visitor from Mexico to extreme South Texas.  So I didn't go look for it. My mistake--a few days after we returned from the trip I found out that it was real and that multiple people had seen it, at more than one location in the area. Stupid me!!!

Merlin kept hearing an Inca Dove but I never got it.

Molly and I took a jog--painful--and later, Ed joined us and we walked up to the scenic overlook. .9 miles--was that one way?  Possibly...let me see....yes. So 1.8 both ways.  Very steep, too.  Not the greatest of overlooks but at least we had the exercise.

 

 

 

Magnus Goes Caving, Finally! Day 4

Sat 15 March

Arrived at South Llano River State Park with a water leak. Ed had to spend hours working on it but he thinks it may be fixed or at least bearable until we get home.  That part was awful. The drive kind of sucked too, but it was only about two and a half hours on Google. We routed through Dripping Springs and then Fredericksburg, both of which were extremely crowded and trafficky (Saturday!!!). I chose that route over a smaller road that would have gotten us to interstate 10 faster, but that road was narrow and windy and probably two-laned. It turned out that highway 290 was two-laned in a few places, but mostly four.

The drive was exceptionally windy, too. Gusts about blew us off the road many times. Next day I found out that there was a huge grass fire near Fredericksburg--lucky we missed it.

While Ed worked on the leak, I paced around and talked to Edward on the phone for a really long time. I didn't feel comfortable going off and leaving Ed working alone, but I was really of no use to him and only served to get on his nerves. So I stayed outside.

South Llano River State Park is a lovely place but very, very crowded. The signage said the campground was full, but I didn't see that. If I were counting sites full/not full, I'd have put it at 75%. But it still seemed very crowded, and for reasons unremembered, I'd chosen one of the absolute worst sites in the campground.  Most of the really good ones were occupied, but there were at least two better ones than the one I chose.

But knowing what I know about myself, I know I would have reserved one of the better ones if they had been available, so I expect they were no-shows.  Or people who made a multiple day reservation and left early or will arrive late. I've done that myself, especially at campsites that require a 2-day reservation on weekends. But I don't think that's a rule at Texas State Parks. I could check but I probably won't.

Very, very windy.  Only at sundown did it die down.  Molly and I took a short walk down the Agarita Trail before supper, then a another short walk on the Turkey Rooast trail by the road at sundown. We went around the newly renovated welcome center and would have went on to the bird blind but there were two cars parked there and I saw no point in joining them.

Yesterday's birds:  Lark Sparrow, Lesser Goldfinch, and...Golden-Cheeked Warbler!!!!

Today's: Canyon Towhee, Vermilion Flycatcher at the camp site.  Merlin heard an Inca dove.

 Also two stinking armadillos, an axis deer, four whitetail or mule deer.

 

Magnus Goes Caving, Finally! Day 3

Friday 14 March

In the morning we went to Pedernales Falls State Park. I'd been there before, many years ago on a camping trip with Greg and Anne, Bob and T. But that was long ago and I had little memory of it.

Since this was spring break week for some of the colleges, it turned out to be very crowded--we had to wait in a six car line to get in. Then Ed waited in line for the bathroom while I stayed with Molly and looked at the map. The line--for a single stall bathroom outside the visitor center--took forever. I decided to hold my business until we got to another restroom in the camping area.

We probably weren't supposed to be in the camping area--signage suggested "registered campers only". But we're old!  Who's going to turn out an decrepit, aged old woman at the restroom?  There was no one around to object, anyway.

There we found a parking spot and took a walk to an overlook. The walk was gorgeous and we only met a few people here and there, but there were no birds. So we went on to the Falls Overlook trail, which was so crowded with people it might have been utterly miserable...but...

there was a...

 Golden

Cheeked

Warbler
!!!!!!!

He was in trees right beside the trail, doing the warbler thing while singing over and over his wheezhy call!  I recognized it as something interesting, and maybe warbler, then Merlin IDed it right off.  It took a good bit of binocular work to get him in sight but finally, finally I got him!  Lovely!  New bird for me! 

 I didn't get a picture, though. Shortly after I got the good look at him, he gave up showing off for the crowd and disappeared somewhere. But I couldn't be disappointed, because as warblers typically do, I got an exceptionally good opportunity with this one, It's almost as if mother nature decided to give me a special break and once she was sure I got it, enough.

That was pretty much the highlight for Pedernales Falls. The water level is low, but the view--with people climbing all over it--is great.

 

In the afternoon Bob and T came to our campground and hung out for a short while, then took us to eat at a new steak house near Wimberly. I thought the food was okay, but the water they provided to drink was not cold. I guess I could have asked for ice.  I had a salad which turned out to be cold noodles with a little lettuce and some other toppings. Tasty, but not exactly what I has in the mood for. And I shared appetizers--yummy stuff but I don't remember what, exactly--and a bowl of charro beans.  They were really good.

Sadly, after eating I came down with the worst case of indigestion I've ever suffered.  Tried to go walk around Wimberly a little, but all I could do was lie on a bench and suffer. Went home and took a one-hour nap before Molly's bedtime walk. That fixed me.