October 2023

October 1 Sachse visit and tramp notes

I forgot how cold it gets in Dallas. Should have brought at least a long sleeve shirt.

Jill and I heard an entertaining sermon at her church this morning from a guest preacher named Tony Evans. He said he was the chaplain for the Cowboys before retiring. He gave a good Christian message delivered along with some interesting and sometimes humorous anecdotes.

Monday I visited John and Kathryn and they even put me up for the night. The next morning I drove home and glad to be there, though that’s no criticism of Wylie world or Throntyville. I enjoy my stays there, but there’s no place…

October 9 Of hawks

Last week while chatting with a fellow who volunteers regularly out at the Bluff, we saw a hawk examining a bush and wondered what had attracted its attention. The hawk finally flew into the bush and out flew a sparrow. I was surprised a hawk, a fairly large bird, would enter such tight quarters, but it did. Guess it was looking for breakfast but the sparrow wasn’t willing to be on the menu.

Saturday Kari and Rebecca brought home four pullets to augment their flock. You’ll recall several of the original bunch have met their end in various ways. Chris made a nifty chicken tractor out of PVC pipe we had around from other projects and they have been putting the tractor and chickens on the south side of the shop to get them and the other chickens acquainted. Sunday evening after dinner l was walking by and saw a hawk just sitting on top of the tractor like it was just what it was supposed to do. I doubt the new chickens agreed with that.

October 15 Palo Duro Canyon weekend

Thanks to Rebecca having saved the eclipse sunglasses she got in grade school, we were able to view the annular lunar eclipse from our accommodations near Palo Duro Canyon. We also got in the hot tub that evening and some of us stayed in the hot tub until after dark and the stars shone brightly. Some of us had had enough before then. I for one hadn’t been in a hot tub for, well, a long time. To me, hot tubbing is too much like bathing with strangers. Since I wasn’t with strangers and I felt the level of personal hygiene was sufficient I decided to chance it. I don’t take hot showers so it was a real shock to get in water that hot. I had to ease in slowly and was glad to get out when I did.

October 16 Black Mesa State Park

It took two hours to the minute to drive to Black Mesa State Park north of Dalhart in the Oklahoma panhandle. It is so named because of the black rocks in the escarpment around the park which is believed to be from a volcanic eruption during the deposition of the layers of sediment forming the rock layers. The park is nice, quiet and not crowded. The facilities are nice, also, and they have showers. After lunch I took moderate hike along a trail that wound up on top of the canyon rim and back down again. There may not be a lot to see but I’d recommend it as a getaway anyway.

Black Mesa SP is a recognized dark place and it lived up to that last night. The sky was clear and the stars were like something out of a movie and humbling too. Leaving BMSF this morning I drove through some pretty country of the rough canyony kind. I didn’t know Oklahoma had country like that, at least not in the panhandle but it does. The rock formations were fascinating. One might expect giants to occupy land like that.

October 17 Near miss

When I was last in Great Dunes NP, there weren’t a lot of visitors and I didn’t have a reservation but had no problem finding an empty camp site. Procedures have changed and one must make a reservation by calling or via the appropriate web site. I was aware of that but, like I did at BMSP I decided to take my chances. Shouldn’t be a problem this time of year, right? Well, it was. The attendant at the gate said I had to call and she didn’t know if they had any open spots. I spent ten minutes on the phone waiting to talk to a person. They really want you to use the website. I poured over my maps while waiting, in case I couldn’t get a spot and had to go somewhere else. Finally a human came on the line and got me fixed up. That’s why I’m sitting out underneath the stars writing this post instead of driving around looking for a place to spend the night.

It gets dark early in them thar hills and there isn’t much to do if you are alone. A little bit of wood was provided in the campsites but I was too lazy to build a fire. I had to get dinner and my car tent set up before it got dark. That left a lot of extra time before a respectable bed time. I mostly sat out and admired the night sky which was spectacular. The last morning in GSDNP I got up as soon as it was light enough for me to see what I was doing. Some little person in the next camp over cried and screamed most of the evening and night and she got cranked up bright and early the next morning so I wanted to get going as soon as I could. I had seen a sign for a nature trail and decided to stop and follow it on the way out of the park. I’m glad I did. Though short, about half a mile, it had some pretty scenery and was a nice little walk to start the day.

I stopped for coffee in San Luis and lunch at Orlando’s in Taos, then again at La Chiripada Winery on my way to Tres Ritos. I couldn’t find the area where we used to camp on many family trips there back in the day, but I did find the La Junta campgrounds and spent the night there.

From there it was on home, satisfied with my tramp and ready to get back to the comforts of civilization.

Politely worded comments are welcome.