Texas Rainbow Cactus

Easter has come and gone already and we're only 1 more week from leaving! I can't wait to be on the road again!

I looked at the temperature in Sturgis for today and to me 55F sounds soooo much better than the 92-95 we had here yesterday!

I'm very much a 'cool' gal!

Like I said last time, the cacti have exploded so this is going to be a very flowery post ....

 

The enormous flowers of the Texas rainbow Cactus are just unbelievable! I have to take pictures whenever I see one! 

Despite thorns that are finding their way right through the soles of my shoes or even some that got stuck on the hem of my skirt and than proceeded to set my calves on fire when they brushed against them. Ouch, ouch, ouch ......

But the Prickly Pears steal the show just by being so abundant and because of their wide spreading growth and massive amount of flowers on one single plant:

The incredible Bluebonnets are still flowering too ....

This plant was extraordinary vibrant, I didn't enhance it at all, isn't it amazing?

And still more Rainbow Cacti, I just can't help myself .....

These pink Engelmann's Hedgehog's are only just starting, they're usually a little later, but this year they seem to want to join the party!

Phew!!! What a spectacle! I can't wait to go on my walks in the morning, can you believe it? Also, I don't want to miss any of it, because it might be a while before we're in the desert again!

Like I said, Easter has come and gone, here in Lajitas even the Mayor got into the spirit:

He's such a good egg ....

There was the annual egg-hunt on the lawns between the sidewalks:

 

And the pictures with the Easter Bunny:

Although not everybody thought that was a whole lot of fun ....

Our resident dog, Wile-E, didn't want anything to do with him ...

The weather was gorgeous and we had lunch outside. I brought out the tripod to make this Easter portrait. 

Better than a 'selfie', although, just when I started to think I didn't set the timer correctly, it all of a sudden made the picture.

I might look a little concerned, but believe me, we're OK!

Prickly Poppy

Temperatures are on the rise and with the rains of lately the wildflowers are out of this world! 

Normally, the bluebonnets are long gone by now, before the cacti are starting to bloom, but the valleys around here are still full of them, cheerfully mingling with various yellow and white blossoms and yes, .... the cacti are starting!

    

The huge flowers above are from the Texas Rainbow Cacti and the bottom one is a large Prickly Pear:

Since I walk in the early morning the flowers have not unfolded yet in these pictures, so one of these days I'll go back in the afternoon, despite the heat (F92!), and get some better shots.

Birds are singing at the top of their voice, gathering and building ....

                            

....and newly weds seem to have  their first tiffs!                   

 

James is finishing some last projects at work and is teaching his successor the management-ropes.

Although he was promised not to, he'll have to do 2 more MOD (Manager on duty) shifts next week, so we're going to make the two reciprocated meals at the restaurant count! 

Mmmm, I'm thinking Filet Mignon ....!

Easter is coming up (wow, that's early) and the Mimosa is flowering. Somehow that always looks so 'easterly' to me? Thinking of that, I'll see if I can dig up some of my Easter decorations ... eh,  .. do I still have them ...?

Other than that there's not much going on, I'm doing some extra laundry (I guess it's spring-cleaning time) and am still working on our route up North to South Dakota.

Two more weeks and we're leaving! Yeah!

Our first 'final' destination will be the Days End campground in Sturgis, where we're going to stay for the first month only, since our campground of choice in Lead won't open until the end of May.

James will be working for a carpenter/builder in Lead to do finished carpentry and I'll be doing a few hours at the campground in return for reduced rate.

When we move to our final final destination I was thinking I might venture into some dog-walking/sitting services, but I'm looking at liability issues and insurence right now, and it might be more than I want to get myself into.

I think there would be a market though, with people wanting to sight-see and leaving their pets in the rig all day?

These Chocolate chip meringue cookies are supposed to make it until Easter . Made with walnuts and Splenda. (healthy, no ....?)

Just one, for the picture and to see if they're OK .... ;-)

  

This pretty 'RAIN'bow appeared after some very heavy thunderstorms came through the area, as if nature wanted to 'make up' for it's violent weather.
There were flash-flood warnings everywhere and I seriously started to doubt our choice to buy an RV instead of a boat!


                          Boy, did it rain!



Of course the plants are not complaining and flowers keep popping up everywhere, like these Prickly Poppies:

And the first cacti!

Echinocereus chloranthus or brown/red flowered cactus

Desert stars

A little while ago I had started the application for my Green Card renewal and received a letter that I needed to have my 'biometrics' taken. Since my last renewal, 10 years ago, the USCIS has set different requirements, so now everybody needs to be (electronically) fingerprinted.
Not such a big deal, but since we have our (mail) 'address' in Livingston, they had set up an appointment at a Houston field office. Yikes!
It took a lot of explaining and e-mailing (you know, government ....) but finally I managed to have it moved to the office closest to us, in .... El Paso. That's still 5,5 hours!

Bluebonnets lining the roads on the way to El Paso

We decided to make a little trip out of it and stay overnight in El Paso. I had an 8 o'clock appointment so I booked a hotel less than 5 minutes away. 

One thing about El Paso, it's not much of a city, but the hotels are very cheap. I got one for $50 which included Texas shaped waffles for breakfast!

While in 'civilization' we went on a shopping spree. 

We'd recently weeded out all of our too old/ill fitted/never-worn/wrong-color/wrong size and 'what-was-I-thinking' clothes and had made a list of things to replace or add to what was left.

It was fun, but after a couple of hours we were exhausted! Nothing like that slow going shopping pace to wear you out, and kill your back in the meantime!

                     

We'd promised ourselves some Sushi, our favorite choice for dinner, very hard to get in the middle of the (Texan) dessert, but fortunately readily available here.

We always share a sample platter, with a large Sapporo to wash it all down. As they say in Holland; 'fish need to swim!' Yum!

       

The next morning everything went surprisingly smooth at the immigration office, we were in and out in about 45 minutes! In addition to the fingerprints, I had my mug-shot taken and had to sign my life away on one of those electronic screens that never come out looking like anything.

I sure wish they would open a few more of these offices, I mean, 5,5 hours for a 30 minute procedure!

Since we drove through Presidio on the way up, we decided to return via Fort Davis and Alpine and pick up our monthly groceries. The last ones before we leave!Yahoo!

I had hoped for some signs (and pictures) of wildlife but we didn't see anything until just south of Alpine when I noticed 'something' moving in the distance:

It turned out to be a small herd of Barbary Sheep or Aoudad.

These sheep are not native to Texas but were introduced in Texas in the late 1940s after World War II, when soldiers who had been stationed on the Barbary Coast of northern Africa recognized their potential as a game species and had some shipped to ranches in Texas.

Like the Oryx, Nilgai antelope, and Axis and Fallow deer they're collectively known as 'exotics', and very popular amongst hunters.

They're found in arid mountainous areas and are able to obtain all their moisture from food, but if liquid water is available, they drink  and wallow in it.

Notoriously skittish and elusive they surprised me by being comfortable enough to allow us to watch them for a while and take some pictures (from a fair distance of course).

He doesn't know how lucky he is that I'm not a hunter!

Cool beans, as Judy would say!

Other than getting hit by a serious downpour driving through the Davis Mountains the ride was otherwise uneventful and we were home in time for happy hour! Happy but tired ....

OK, no blog without a bird of course, so here's a shot of a very vociferous Gambel's Quail, we encountered during one of our coffee breaks.

It must be mating time, because he was answered by a rival somewhere in the distance, and got quite riled and puffed up by it!

Gambel's Quail

Last, but not least, a picture of the delicious butterscotch-oatmeal cookies I had baked to take with us on the trip.
Right, ..... the ones that I forgot to pack! :-(

...... sigh...

The Hills are alive ♫  ... with the sound of music ♪ ...!

Spring music, that is. Which in a way is nice, as you can see, all those spring flowers, just happily flowering away ...

But unfortunately there's other music too, 'spring-break' music to be precise! 

The Park is quite full and we have neighbors with kids (eeks) on both sides but all in all it's not too bad I must say. We're not having any rowdy teenagers (so far, let's quickly knock on wood) and most families are actually of the nice and nature loving kind.

Talking about nature, as I said, there's lots of pretty wildflowers:

Texas Bluebonnets everywhere (or Lupines if you will), I even spotted some rare white and pink ones.

The pond still has ducks coming through, amongst which again some 'firsts' for me in the form of a small flock of Green-winged Teals:

 

'Common', but quite elegant in their pearly grey and that raquish green eye stripe ...

They're dabblers, which means they feed by tipping down in search for their food sifting through surface water.  

Always a rather comical sight when they're all 'dabbling' away ...

This a Northern Shoveler, with his distinct, odd looking, spatulate bill, also a dabbler:

I know, this blog is going to the birds, but I really haven't much else to talk about these days so I'm also going to throw in this Northern Flicker I saw around the pro-shop:



This is the male, showing off his yellow underside which defines him as a Yellow-shafted or eastern/boreal bird in difference to the 'Red-shafted' western or Mexican birds.

Other than taking pictures of my feathered friends I keep myself busy planning our trip North to the Black Hills of South Dakota. 

We're thinking of leaving somewhere around the 15th of April so I'm checking out places to stay and I'm waiting for some maps and info from the tourist boards of Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska for the sightseeing part of the trip.

James is working on getting both the RV and truck in perfect traveling condition by making some repairs and replacing worn out parts.

I think this water heater heating-element was on it's last legs!

He's trying to get in as much golf as he can because our free golf situation will end soon and this summer we'll end up paying for it again!

And although the cacti are still not flowering the flowering stems of the Yuccas are popping up everywhere:

Internet has been very, very ... very ... very ... slooow sice the park filled up so I don't know when I'll be able to get this uploaded.
It might be quite old news before it does ....