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.

Magnus Goes Caving, Finally! Day 2

 Thursday 13 March

Very short drive from Cedar Ridge to Horseshoe Ridge RV Resort. We were worried about getting there too early, so we dawdled around before leaving. But we arrived at exactly 12:58. Right at check-in time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Review: Horseshoe Ridge RV Resort

A very nice RV park if you can afford it

 Way more expensive than we can usually afford, but if we'd taken advantage of the pool and the various get-togethers, we'd have come close to getting our money's worth. Great dog park, too! 

It was very quiet and seemed mostly adult oriented; I didn't see any kids around and didn't see a playground either, but I might have missed that. But the people were very nice and in the evening (Friday) when they had some sort of party, it was full of soft talking and laughing and just general good fun. No loud voices or roaring engines; just people hanging out and chatting, here and there in the lounge area and at various motorhomes. Nice.

A surprising amount of green grass for the hill country--don't know how they afford the water. And a number of oak trees that they've preserved from the clearing. It's not exactly a bird watching destination but there were a few around in the little oaks.  The lighting was modest and well-placed, adding to the calm and pleasant atmosphere.

Concrete pad; we chose one of the cheaper back-ins on the outer rim but the pull-thrus were somewhat spacious (for an RV park) and some of them had picnic tables.

No problem with water, electricity or sewer.  Very pleasant check-in experience.

In the afternoon we went on a drive to see the Jacob's Well Natural Area, which was only a 5-minute drive away. But the signage said "no dogs". So bah. Instead I decided to have Ed drive down to Canyon Lake to check out a COE park I'd never heard of there. I suspect it was either closed for a while or else just didn't have RV camping. In any event, all the facilities were closed but we were still able to hike the trail for a little ways. No birds, though. But at least we got a chance to look for them.

 

Magnus Goes Caving, Finally!

Wednesday 12 March

This trip, long planned and oft canceled, is intended to get us to a slightly warmer clime in March and also to go see the Caverns of Sonora. If we were to happen to see a Golden-Cheeked Warbler on the journey, so be it. I wouldn't complain.

Day 1 was simply a stop on the way toward the hill country, intended to break up a long-ish drive into two very short drives. So I chose Cedar Ridge/Turkey Roost campground on Belton Lake, the same place we used to stay at when Edward was stationed at Fort Cavasos. The Fort has prime Golden-Cheeked Warbler habitat on their gunnery test range, but they won't let civilians in without special arrangements. Not fair!

We had a hard time making ourselves leave late enough so that we wouldn't get to Cedar Ridge too early, before check-in time at 3pm.  We'd might as well not have bothered--there was no one at the gate to deny us entry. In fact, we wouldn't have seem or met a single person if we hadn't decided to drive over to find the campground host and ask about the burn ban. He said it was in effect but we could get away with a small charcoal fire, just for cooking.

Park of the delay was that we stopped at the Love's at Troy for the last time ever in all the rest of our lives!!! One single re-fuel stop took us thirty minutes!  And that was all waiting time--the actual refueling time was only about five minutes.  It's a shame, because the stop is conveniently located right where it needs to be on the route from up north (home) to down south (San Antonio), but we've had issues there every single time we've tried it. But it had been a couple of years so I thought....

Yeah, well. As I said, never again.

 

Cedar Ridge campground was remarkably crowded. The water in Belton Lake was lower than ever. But the grounds were very clean and the canyon wrens still sang. We didn't see any deer or turkey, unusual, but it was a pleasant and predictable place to spend the night.

Review: Dead Man's Trail

 by Donna Ball

I hate to say this, but I'm getting really bored with her Raine and Cisco mysteries.  It's sad--I love her writing and I've loved Raine and Cisco from the first book. But she seems to have fallen into a predictable rut of pointless violence and mass murder with almost a third of the book spent inside the killer's head. There is no cool and unusual trailing work that Cisco has to do; there is no complicated puzzle solving that Raine and her colleagues have to perform. It's just all action and adventure and not very adventurous at that.

Strange...I just read a description of the difference between a mystery and thriller. And by those criteria, this book is a thriller. Maybe I'm just into the wrong genre!

Spoiler alert follows

In this book she introduces an interesting character who has a serious issue with Raine and her dog. He seems to hate them both for no reason; he is clearly not stupid or simply prejudiced--there must be some deep and peculiar problem he has that Raine must understand and overcome....

And bang!  He's dead.

And so are a bunch of other people.  It's all just blood and gore, and since I skipped the parts inside the killer's head, I don't even know why he was doing it all. I expected to find out where Raine did, but I didn't. So, blah.

Very disappointing for such a great author and characters.

 

Review: Walking with Rocks

 Walking with Rocks: An English Woman Loose in the Woods

by Esther Parry

I enjoyed this...until I didn't. She's a fun, lively writer and a pretty interesting person. Her travel on the AT seemed to suffer from lack of advance planning, but then, doesn't every ones?  The only way to find out if you're up for long distance hiking is to do long distance hiking. And I must say, she makes a valiant effort at it.

One of the things that put me off was her tendency to take a good bit of time away from trail. She goes to New York City--a fun adventure and I heartily agree with it--but right in the middle of the hike of a lifetime?  I think she did herself a disservice there. And she does a lot of Ubering to motels.  That interruption throws a wrench into the whole routine of a walk, it seems to me--rather than a thru-hike, it seemed more like a series of day hikes.

 But that's my own quibble. When she was on trail, she put forth a valiant effort and seemed to enjoy the journey.  Though she's not quite as "deep" on paper as I would prefer in a travel writer, she's interested in the world around her and interesting to read.

 So I'll give this journey a big "maybe."

Review: Arbroath Smokie Slaying

Steve Higgs

 The dog + stray cats + gulls part of the adventure was a lot of fun and well "worth the price of the book."  The mystery was only so-so, and the author persisted in telling a whole bunch of the story from the perspectives of the evil-doers, which trashed all of the mystery in the mystery--what fun is it watching the detective figure out things that you already know, because you just spent the last two chapters with the bad guys. It's stupid and not at all enjoyable.

 With that in mind, I might read the next one but only if I can get a copy for free at the library or on KindleUnlimited.  I'm certainly not paying for a book when I have to skip half of it.

Review: The Frozen River

 by Ariel Lawhon

Can I first say that this story is great?  Absolutely engrossingly great--especially if you have an interest in midwifery, early American history, or women's experiences in the olden days.  And just plain old good storytelling. This has it all.

 It's inspired by the life of Martha Ballard, a midwife in Maine in the years shortly after the revolutionary war and the establishment of American government. Neither of which is anything to do with the story, but it places it in time for me.  Martha gads about doing good--and losing her temper at times--whilst birthing babies and caring for mothers--and gets dragged into a nasty murder when the hanged body of a man is dragged from the river and she's asked to perform a postmortem on it.

 I loved her. And I loved the story. But I am so very angry at the author of it. I read her afterword, in hopes she'd apologize for making up a fictional story about a real human being. But she didn't--although she did freely admit her crime. She outlines the known facts of Martha Ballard's life story and she explains a few of her speculations about what might have happened behind the lines of Martha's diary and why she thought them plausible enough to include in the story.

Why, oh why, couldn't she have written a historical fiction "inspired by the life of Martha Ballard" and named her heroine "Jane Fremont", set the story in SomewheresMill, Maine, and came up with unique names for all her people and places?  Wouldn't it have been just as good a story?  And that would have left the real Martha Ballard's story unsmeared by imagination. Good, loving imagination, to be true. But not the stuff of storybook dreams. 

 I'd already read the biography of the real Martha Ballard, and this is not her. It feels so wrong to make up stuff about real people.

 By the way--Live Oak trees do NOT grow in Maine.

Review: The Marlowe Murder Club

 by Robert Thorogood

Three, or really four, very interesting, different and well-drawn women characters collude to solve a very complex series of murders. I kept reading because I really wanted to see how it ended and how the characters developed and whether or not their budding friendship would survive the stresses of trying to work together despite their differences. And their oddities, too. One has a secret past; one a severe case in inadequacy and OCD; the third is scarily strong-willed and outspoken.

So as I say, I kept reading and enjoyed the way they all came out. But the murder mystery itself was just kind of stupid, IMHO. Complicated (overly so), and stupid.

I don't think I'll read another but that doesn't mean I don't recommend this book if it seems to be your cup-of-tea. It's fast-moving and has a pretty intense ending.

 

Review: A Walk in the Park

The True Story of a Spectacular Misadventure in the Grand Canyon

by Kevin Fedarko

I was expecting a fun hiking adventure and I got it--and a lot more. Although I confess to a near-fatal disbelief in the beginning--how could two guys be so naive and clueless as to set out on a trip so stunningly unprepared?  I wanted to quit reading but only slightly less than I wanted to see how he could have gotten such a long book out of such a fatal disaster.

I was glad that I persisted, and them too. Because the adventure turned out better than it started--with a lot of near-disaster along the way--and the book ended up being about much ore than just a hiking adventure. It was the story of the canyon from many perspectives--the hikers and boaters who explored it early on; the native tribes that lost it and recovered it and are in the process (possibly) of losing it again; and the companions and helpers of the author and his colleague who live to explore it nowadays.

There's a lot in this book and it's still a greatly enjoyable adventure. Highly recommended.

 

Review: Iron Lake

Cork O'Connor, #1

by William Kent Krueger

I listened to this audiobook because I'd just finished This Tender Land and I didn't want to let the author (and the time and the place) go so soon. But my reaction is very, very mixed.  This book exhibits the same complex character development and the same sense of place, mysterious and awesome, as the other book. But this was clearly written by a much younger man.

Why do I think that? Because...it seems immature, somehow. More violent (is that possible?) A frequent reliance on coincidences in the plot--not once but twice does a photo negative manage to fall out of the bag and stick in a dark corner to provide a clue to continue the action. And so many people are so obsessed with sex and call it love. I was especially irritated at the woman "Jo", his ex-wife, who is made out to be so stinking irritating and immature that I don't see how she was ever expected to get a law degree. She's alternately sharp, spineless, whiny, and stupid.

But I see this book was written in 1998 and he's written quite a few others since then, possibly as many as 19. So I will try another one soon and see if I like it better.