San Angelo Observation

San Angelo, Texas

The second day here was interesting. A bit of a ride around the town showed San Angelo to be a nice place. Even the lower income houses were kept up nicely with clean yards. That speaks well for the folks of this town. On north a little was a decent looking golf course. My clubs were back at the Castle, but the wind was trying to uproot the grass anyway. Diesel has been $2.499 around the park, but out to the northwest it was $2.389 so the Truck got a belly full of it.

Back in the south unit of the state park, a ride up to the over look was taken. Yesterday it was full of an art class from one of the local schools. Today it was reserved for me only apparently. After over a half hour up there it was still only me. The Truck was enjoying the view and stayed in that one place the whole time.

The land has lots of small steep convolutions to it. It is definitely not flat, but not high mountains either. Maybe the correct description would be rugged. The bike trail mentioned yesterday was partially visible from the over look. It is nice to see it from the overlook. The hard bodies can have the “fun” of riding that devil. The road up to the overlook shows the larger dips and rises of the terrain.
On top of the summit was some pretty flowers. The purple spiked ones were all over the place.
Interspersed with them were some small yellow and some small blue flowers. It was hard getting pictures without the flowers being blurry with the strong winds up there.
From one spot on the camping loop where the Castle is residing, you can see another loop that is totally empty. Without the lake having useable water in it, this campground is nearly unused. That is a shame because there are lots of walking trails and biking trails that would be fun to travel.
Tomorrow is leaving day. It is a continual amazement that folks have trouble with my answer to the question “ Where are you going next?” or “ What is your itinerary?”. My answer is nearly always the same. I do not know. Where the sun shines will lead me there.

Most folks cannot understand that a destination is not required. Occasionally some one will get the big eyed stare as they realize that this lifestyle does not have those boundaries. Then the questions really come out. Once many folks realize this lifestyle really exists and functions well, they can get very excited about the possibility for themselves also.

That is when they start to understand the concept of trying to have tooooo much fun. TheOFM.

Mr. GUMO In Person

San Angelo, Texas

It was an easy drive today if you like driving in the rain. However it was well worth a lot more trouble than that to meet Mr. GUMO in person. Check out his blog from the lower left of this blog. He is a very fascinating fellow with lots of stories to elaborate on. Maybe my push to get him to write more of his adventures into his blog will be successful. One thing is guaranteed, if you get a chance to meet him in person, you will be very glad you did. Thank you Rick for the wonderful evening of visiting.

We went to a burger place that has ordinary and not the usual burgers. It was my and Rick’s first BISON BURGER. It was great meat. That meat will definitely be on my preferred list right along with elk. They are both tops in my choice of meats.

My arrival here in San Angelo produced a bit of surprise to me. The terrain is not very close to what was expected. It is rolling hills covered with mesquite and cactus. The air is soft and dry and feels really clean. It does show the appearances of someplace very hot in the summer. Maybe my exploring tomorrow will turn up some more good stuff.

The park was originally a COE park so the spaces are well separated. It is a wonderful park that is slowly going down hill. The lake has dried up until very little remains for water sports. The campsite the check in lady chose for me is really a good site with trees near all the way around.
Nearby is a GrannyJ moment. On a short walk to look about this cactus was spotted climbing a mesquite tree. It is not too often you see a mesquite letting a cactus climb around on it.
Over at the boat ramp the lack of water is very obvious. My path went all the way to the bottom and it was still several hundred meters to the water through some tough looking brush.
Nearby was another access point with an old floating pier laying in disrepair. As you can see it is a lot of rain away from being used again.
The latest rains have caused a lot of the vegetation to burst out in bloom. This beautiful flower seemed to glow in the sunlight. It is from what is normally considered a weed back down south. This is the first time my eyes have seen a flower on this species of plant.
Most of the roads in the park were driven today. They will make some long road riding going up and down the hills. Rick rides a bike out here at times. He mentioned that many off road bikers ride out here on the trails through the brush. They can have it with all the thorns around. There is a trail that goes eight miles from this unit of the park to another unit of the park. The trailhead is named in honor of this gentleman.

Here is a shot of the beginning of the trail and the ramped cattle guard starting gate. It looks like it might be a nice COOL weather ride.
My payment this afternoon covered tonight and tomorrow night, so we will see which way San Angelo is great for trying to have tooooo much fun. TheOFM

The Best Chicken Salad

Fredericksburg, Texas

Last night at Fredericksburg, Texas until the next time. Bob the Meanderthall and The OFM had a great outing at the golf course in Comfort, Texas. It took me twenty minutes to apply all the bandages needed after the butt kicking he gave me on the course. But WOW did we have a great time. Three and a half hours time for us to mutilate the course into submission.

After the golf we went to a nice place to eat in Comfort named Highs. Their chicken salad sandwich is wonderful, especially on their sourdough bread. Along with the iced tea and the great conversation it made for a nice morning and early afternoon.

This evening the extra things laying around outside were all cleaned up and put away. Sneaky the Yak was firmly attached to the roof of the Truck. Then the Truck was thirsty so it was taken to get a large drink of diesel fuel. We now should make the entire trip tomorrow very easily.

And just to round out a fancy evening, my supper was a Weight Watchers Tuna meal. Then to really spice up the evening, my potholders were given a much needed bath. They are now hanging in the tub area with a fan blowing on them to get them dry before tomorrow. Now how is that for a fantastic exciting finale of a day of trying to have tooooo much fun. TheOFM.

Later Than Needed To Be

Fredericksburg, Texas

This morning, while reading the blogs on Hitchitch.com , the question of why it took TheOFM so long to get busy traveling kept crossing my brain. The answer is actually simple. The folks in the group of my work in Washington were so great that they were hard to leave, but the management well above our group finally made it desirable to leave. Another point of worry was $$$$$$$. My planning had several spreadsheets in the attempt to decide when leaving was possible. The spread sheets told me that it could be done very comfortably about three years before the actual event happened.

Now two years later, it is certain that the beginning of being a retard person could easily have started in 2001 instead of 2007. However the time spent with the folks in Washington were some of the best years of my life. The collection of cultures on that large project made it wonderful to experience LOTS AND LOTS of new things in my life.

It was never ever any trouble to consider living in “a tiny little box”. There was never any worry about the troubles that can happen on the road. The wonderful statement of
F false
E evidence
A against
R reality
was easy for me to accept.

My front yard is North America, the back yard is the rest of the world. How is that for a homestead. It is very nice that most folks in the USA want to stay hooked to the dirt for their nest. That leaves those of us with rolling nests more room to play. Thank you.

The Castle is the smallest of the rv dwellings that have been my home. It has been funny to me the number of folks who, on the side, refer to us a trailer trash. However those same folks think living in a small under equipped sail boat to be really “cool”. It is much nicer to have my bathroom with me than to wander out to a public bathroom at a marina for all my necessities.

When in the RV lifestyle, there will be times when folks will attempt to stare down their nose at you. You get to grin and wonder what they think is so scenic about their nose hairs. Mostly folks say that they wish they could do this. Mostly they could if they wanted to do what it takes to live the rv lifestyle. Many on the road are working mostly full time as they wonder the world.

Speaking of working. There has not a week gone by since the beginning of my retardment that there has not been a job available. Yes they are only 8-10 dollar an hour jobs. A few weeks ago in another town there was a Help Wanted hand printed sign in the door of a small business. While checking out, the question was How many folks do you need? The answer was “four as a minimum“. Immediately followed with “Can you start now?” Quickly the owner, knowing my status as a retard, said that he could fit the schedule that what was needed for me. This happens very often. The most that has happened was twice in one day. One week last year out west, it happened seven times in four days. Time to roll them wheels was my thought that week.

Speaking of rolling wheels, here is a teaser for one of the locations in the next couple of weeks. http://www.nps.gov/imr/customcf/apps/pgallery/display-slideshow.cfm?aid=523&gid=523&park=gumo&sort=title&aTitle=Through%20All%20Seasons%2E%2E%2E
It should be one of several wonderful locations out there for trying to have tooooo much fun. TheOFM

The Sucker Trap

Fredericksburg, Texas

Morning Edition

A pickle wart may be my lot in life, but even a pickle wart can be educated. This morning starts a vendor show down at the Markt Platz in town. It is supposed to be vendors selling “green living” types of things. Since another solar panel is a possibility for the Castle, it seemed a good time to check some out. When the entrance came into view, it was noticed that they were charging an entrance fee of $12 EACH to allow the vendors to attempt to sell stuff to you. HUH, WHAT. This pickle wart doesn’t pay Wal-Mart or any other store to see if their wares are needed or wanted.

So it was a nice walk around the place. Enough vendors were close to the fence to see what was available.

On Sale for only $12.99 were bean sprout plastic devices that Wal-Mart has at $4.99 in the garden section. Sucker/yuppie trap.

Small solar ovens on sale for only $89.99. You can get the plans on the internet and build one from cardboard and tin foil for about $3. Or go to thefieldlab.blogspot.com and find out how John Wells did it for free. Sucker/yuppie trap.

From my stand point, what was worse was the solar panel prices seen through the fence. Both places were selling old technology 36 cell panels for about a hundred dollars more than normal prices on the internet. Fool trap

That is enough examples of the ripoff mess. The good part is that the city has rose gardens all around the Markt Platz at the outer edge. The day was bright sunshine and 75 degrees. The roses were competing to see which one could put out the most fragrance. Walking in beautiful weather with fragrant roses for company, WOW what a nice morning. Pickle wart trap.

Evening Edition

The afternoon was spent on a cleaning spree. All the water mineral crud in the tub and sink was cleaned out. Some Arm and Hammer product does a good job. The main ingredient is Fumeric Acid (sp). Keep a fan blowing on you when you use it because it will definitely irritate a nose. However it works very well on what stuff it claims to work on.

After all that and a rest break, it was time to practice golf short game. Wow the cool weather ran off. At five pm it was still 90 degrees outside. Heavy sweating is still a trait of this fat man. The golf course keeps ice water at the practice range. It is extremely welcome on days like today. The good news is the things of my study that will help my game work really well. The bad news is that my game gets it right about one in twenty tries. But that one time sure feels great.

Bob Angel posted a comment on yesterdays blog entry. Most folks are much better in their mind than in reality, like me. His attitude about his writing is that he is only 10% as good as he is. Make sure you check his blog, on the left side Mobile Studio Travels, and see for your self what I mean. He doesn’t think he writes well. Put some comments on his blog of your thoughts. We need to convince him to write more especially since he covers the southeast USA. My area is the west and south west. Tamia covers the north east. But both of those folks are pro writers and me, my title is just OldFatMan.

A nice walk after supper and a pleasant visit with a neighbor makes for a fine finish on a day of trying to have tooooo much fun. TheOFM.

Leap Of Faith

Fredericksburg, Texas

A day hike at Enchanted Rock State Park turned out to be other than it was thought it would be. The plan was an exercise hike just for the exercise. Arrival was on time and the get ready went well. Of my feet went to the Loop Trail (LT) with me tagging along. The usual entry to the LT and onward we went. A few hundred feet into the LT and what do I see but a new trail to explore.

This neat little trail wanders through the meadows and on up the hill to a small stream crossing. The recent rains had many locations flowing that had not had water in years.
Soon the new trail started up into the boulders and the elevation climbed quickly. As it turned out this short cut was in reality a neat long cut.
At a spot on the trail you look out over one of the valleys. This one had a very vertical rock pinnacle sticking up. On that rock was the sentry squirrel playing King of the Mountain.
On up and around, over and duck under the trail goes forward. On occasion trails join this one or wander off into unknown to me territory.
Around one curve was this surprise waiting for me. The top of the rock is about nine feet above where my feet rested after taking this picture.
And the trail continued. Keep in mind that this trail is not on a map and where it comes out is not known at this time. Maybe it just goes in a spiral to a final location at a pile of lost hiker bones.
And still more trail.
After all this fun the new trail finally joins the LT near the overlook. It is definitely more fun than the portion of the LT that you miss. The LT is about 4.5 miles round trip. My hike made it around the whole distance. A couple of snacks made it easier for me.

Along the LT was one of those very large ferocious looking ants wandering the trail. The devil kept moving so fast it was hard to get a picture. It is about ¾ inch long.
As you go around the back side of Enchanted Rock, there are lots of little creeks to cross and one larger creek to cross. It required the throwing of my pack and some other gear across to the other side. Then a MIGHTY leap from a rock over the creek to a gravel bed. My thought while in the air was hope that the gravel bed was not really a lightly covered mud hole suckering me. It wasn’t. It was a soft gravel bed that worked out well.

After that acrobatic event, the gear was gathered and onward to more surprises. One of which was this small but very vocal waterfall of about one foot in height. It was making music way out of proportion to its size. One of the snacks was eaten while here enjoying the natural music.
My feet were really happy to see the Truck. On the way back to the Castle, it seemed like this adventure was an extremely good effort at trying to have tooooo much fun. TheOFM

Blog Addition

Fredericksburg, Texas

Morning Edition

The search gadget, as Google calls it, has been added to the OFM blog. Bob Angel clued me in on it a few days ago. He added it to his wonderful blog, http://mobilestudiotravels.blogspot.com/, to assist folks in looking up the important and entertaining information he puts in his blog.

GrannyJ of http://walkingprescott.blogspot.com/ was a teacher at a class on blogging in Arizona. She is definitely a special person in the world of blogging. Here is a shamelessly pirated portion of her blog today. Please go and read her entire blog.

“The course was part of the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, an unusual participant-directed program at the college. As the OLLI website explains, our "learning groups" are discussion groups conceived, created and facilitated by our own members, who volunteer their time. There are no tests, grades, or college credits associated with our groups. Topics have included regional and international history, current social and political issues, the worlds' religions, fairy tales and writing your life story. Want to talk about dreams, or study the opera, movies, art or ballet? This is your chance. If American Indian art and culture interest you, stop by. And don't forget current economic issues, astronomy, our founding fathers, the Middle Ages, and Prescott's beginnings.”

There needs to be more of these public attend able classes in the world. Getting a degree is not part of my world any longer. Education is. This allows one to get education in whatever they want. This type of class was popular in Houston, TX and Richland, Wa when my jobs had me in those cities.

In fact there was a community college that fundamentally made its living presenting classes like these. You could stop by and sign up for a mailing list of classes, and later an email list. Whenever you thought of something you could mail or email them a subject of interest. Then a few times a year they would publish a list of possible classes for you to vote on being presented. Then a little while later the classes chosen would be emailed out to you and also published on flyers posted around town. Every time the classes were excellent. You cannot beat an enthusiastic teacher teaching a subject they love. The cost was usually around $15 per class. Some subjects went on for several classes, but you could attend only one or any class of the series if that was your choice.

GrannyJ was the lady who got me to looking for special details in my looking around. It certainly enhanced my appreciation of things around me. During my hikes, looking smaller has found me multitudes of interesting items to present in my blogs and stories. Thank you again GrannyJ.

Very Late Evening Edition

It is now after ten pm and my body is tired from all the hiking at Enchanted Rock State Park this afternoon. There are many pictures to sort an prepare before the tale of the hike can proceed. It definitely was a great day of trying to have tooooo much fun

Excess Paper

Fredericksburg, Texas

It is just after lunch and the rain is gentle and the temperature according to the Truck is 59 outside. The electric heater is coming on about every fifteen minutes for a minute or so. The bathroom window is opened slightly for fresh air. And being lazy is feeling very good.
Isn’t it odd some of the things we can think about in our life. Prior to quitting work some of my lunch times were spent cutting up scrap paper to use as note paper. After the paper was cut to a handy size, a binder clip served as the binding. It was a great way to cut down on the immediate trash and sort of recycle or conserve.

What would be done for scratch paper once the RV lifestyle started???? A couple of “pads” worth of cut paper was stockpiled. Now next Tuesday will be two years since income producing work stopped and the stockpile has not been touched yet. Even though more note paper is used now than ever before to take notes on internet searches, the incoming extra paper way more than compensates for the amount used. This was a major surprise to me.

Where does it all come from??? This mornings grocery trip to Wal-Mart yielded a checkout tape long enough to cut into five sheets notepaper size and that is if you only use the back. One tip of living lightly is on the front of a paper with writing or whatever on it, use a different color pencil or pen to write the notes. As it has worked out, it has never been needed to use that technique.

When mail was received in the first few months, envelopes and other pieces of trash paper were cut up to use. It was not needed. There is so much paper coming through the Castle that only about ten sheets of note size paper is even kept around. The next shopping trip or mail package will give me a more than adequate re-supply of note paper. Small minds notice small things, huh.

Later this evening it was lightly raining and overcast with cool temperatures. Perfect for some golf practice. For nearly two hours the practice green was terrorized by my practice efforts. It did make a great way to end a day of trying to have tooooo much fun. TheOFM
　

Truck Success

Fredericksburg, Texas

It is four in the am and the rain is pounding the roof of the Castle hard enough to wake me. After verifying everything is ok it was back to dream land. About seven am the rain wakes me again. A glance outside shows full to overflowing ditches. About twenty minutes later the rain lets up some. Up and at it seemed the thing to do. Too much water everywhere to get out and walk around. Finally an hour or so after the rain slacked off this picture was taken

This ditch is directly behind the Castle and the water was at the posts earlier.
When the city vehicles showed on the park road, it was time to see how bad it was. It turns out that things are slightly overfull but no serious damage in sight. The run off was rushing about five inches deep across the main road.
A little past that there was room to get a picture of the pretty trickle over the dam. Only thing is the water is now shooting out about two feet from the bottom of the dam.
This evening the upstream runoff has increased the dam flow substantially and the water is now a very dirty brown. The creek is totally full or slightly over full.

The road to the golf course is the dam for the upstream pond. It running over the road with great enthusiasm.

This evening late the runoff is down to a thin flow across this dam above.
Mosquitoes were already getting bad from the rains of two weeks ago. It will be a good thing to be back to the more arid land on Tuesday of next week near San Angelo, TX.

The Truck made it to the repair shop on time and the mechanic, John, took the Truck back for surgery. The great news was that the cost was about fifty dollars less than estimated. The bad news is that it is obvious how badly the passenger window is working now that there is a good window to compare it to. OH Well it is still cheaper than a new truck by thousands.

It has been near blizzard conditions today. A cool damp breeze and 63 degrees made me put on a wind breaker and long pants. Brrrrr. It does beat 104 degrees though.

Now the Truck and the Castle have all the needed repairs done. Mail is due in next Monday. Golf with OF Bob next Monday then it is time to scratch the itch. After a few emails to other folks, it sounds like some other cube dwellers may be ready to get out and try to have tooooo much fun. TheOFM

Fire One, Fire Two

Fredericksburg, Texas

My goodness what a surprise this morning!!!! The pair of low quarter hiking shoes that have been in use for five years were needing new insoles. While taking out the old ones, the original inside first layer came out also. These shoes have been ok but not really right during all that time. The label on the tongue said 9.5 EEEE, which was the correct size at that time. Stamped on the inner lining under the finish lining was 9 EE. That is more what they have felt like all along, too small. My guess has been that my feet were just failing in my older age. They are now in the garbage can over by the tree.

Just before Washington was in my rearview mirror, a new pair of 10 EEEE mid top boots were purchased because my feet seem to have widened and lengthened a little more. This morning they were worn on a walk without any extra insert padding. After a couple of miles here in the park, my feet were not hurting at all. By the end of the day, my feet were still not hurting. So it looks like for the last five years have been stupidity on my part causing my feet to hurt. The old boots felt fine when put on, so there was no suspicion they were sized wrong. That little size difference really made a lot of misery for my feet.

A call to Old Friend Bob resulted in meeting him for lunch at a little town on I-10 named Comfort. Good was the thought, a good time for pictures. When the Truck pulled in to park in Comfort, there was not camera on board. Upon returning to the Castle, there was the camera waiting for me on the couch. RATZZ Now a trip back to Comfort someday is needed for covering the town. A walk around town showed that it will make a few good blog entries.

Late this evening, a walkabout in the old section of Fredericksburg resulted in some teaser pictures for my readers. The Nimitz museum was closed. In 2001 a visit to me museum proved very worthwhile. There is a huge expansion going on now. When that is finished it will be time for another visit to the museum.

Outside are some exhibits behind a fence. What you are about to see was taken through the fence. Form the looks of the base, this was a deck gun from a naval vessel.

Next to it was this contraption that looks like it is for launching torpedoes. That is just my guess from the looks of the doors on the back of the tubes.

Then nearby was this tower from a ship. It was very tall with a sign telling you to Do Not Climb. It is too skinny for an old fat man anyway. My fat body would register as an earthquake if it fell from this tower.

A very promising exhibit is one to look like a submarine surfacing. The conning tower is back left in this picture. The bow of the sub is coming out of the dirt. Look at the retaining wall shaped like ocean waves. This should be very nice when it is finished.

At the other end is the memorial to some of the USA presidents. It was there before in 2001, but certainly looks different now.

And make it a nice finish to the day, we have a picture of a rose taken at the Visitors Center while walking to the Nimitz museum.

A fine picture of a rose is a great way to finish a day of trying to have tooooo much fun. TheOFM.
　

Passion

Fredericksburg, Texas

Wandering has been a constant in my life. Never being quite content with where ever my location is, is my lot in life. What is around the bend? Over the next hill? In the next cove? Behind the tree line? Maybe that is why Visitor Centers and my mind get along really well.

A while back out in the middle of somewhere, a conversation with another wanderer led to me giving them all my central Texas maps. Therefore this morning it was important to go to the Visitors Center here in Fredericksburg. They usually have too much information and the hitch itch gets awfully bad later in the day. The outside view is very inviting.

BUT when you step inside it is EXTREMELY inviting. It seems they have every brochure of every town or attraction in Texas. There was about eight county detail maps picked up as well as the brochure on San Angelo, my next stop on the road.
They had free coffee and two computers for internet access. This is a very nice organization. The diesel fuel sellers probably love them too.

A couple of times a year it is fun to go out of town to this next place.
They change inventory very often and each time they seem to lighten my bank account. Today they got to me for a trilogy of Marshall Styler Cds and a Christmas present for my sister. Mr. Styler has a piano style that is very nice to me.

As you wander around Wildseed, many wondrous opportunities to leave them money jumps up to temp you, if you have a stix and brix. Rvers have less temptations and the Castle is so small that nothing can temp me decorating wise. But WOW is it fun to shop and remember the fixed location days, especially my wind chime collection. A previous life now gone but with some fond memories.

A neat new item they are carrying are rain chains. My son in Alabama has one outside his house that is cute. It had been many years since one had come to my notice until his. Today there were lots of them to choose from. This exhibit probably took me fifteen minutes to fondle each and every one of them.
Over by a demonstration garden water fall was a passion flower vine doing very well. The water fall was more of a tumble down rocks that was attractive, but located where getting a decent picture was impossible. The passion flowers were doing well. This one was photographed with one of my legs over the top rail of a fence and my toe under the middle rail as my shoulder was leaned WAY over to lean against a post while trying to not fall into the water fall pool below me. That was probably a humorous sight to see.

The temperature was low eighties with bright sunshine. A marvelous day for trying to have tooooo much fun. TheOFM

Fried Catfish Again

Fredericksburg, Texas

You can tell the weekend is here. The traffic is serious in downtown tourist trap town, Texas. The weekend here is Friday noon to Sunday noon. Usually by two pm Sunday at the latest the traffic is almost nonexistent.

For me, it was interesting doing plumbing. My neighbor was working on replacing his black water valve. The idiots who assembled it at the factory put a bolt in the wrong direction and it now is blocked by a pipe that was installed after the valve. We ended up taking a good bit of the sewer apart to be able to get the valve in place. After about an hour and a half it was all together again. Time to clean up.

After washing down, it was lunch time. The Lakehouse in Kerrville was calling. Yes fried catfish was very good. Since there was investigations needed in Kerrville it was a double duty trip. Some more time was spent rechecking the rv parks in Kerrville for longer term stays. No thanks. The city streets are not capable of handling the amount of traffic that is in the town during the week, much less on the weekend. That makes a double whammy of no thanks in my mind.

Kerrville in on of itself is a nice town in general for folks to live there. It is just not quite my style whatever that is. At one time in my life it was my dream to retire to Kerrville in a nice house just outside of town. For folks who want a house it still is good.

After the return to the Castle, there were some emails to respond to and a small house keeping chore to finish. So late in the afternoon, it was over to the golf course next to the campground to attempt to re-educate myself how to swing a golf club.

It was a good practice session with fairway type practice from the tees, sand bunker practice and side hill shots practice. Whew it was sweat city out there today. On the way to the Truck, a stop was made at the pitching green and serious progress was made on my pitching game. With a little luck breaking a hundred is possible it seems to me.

And there it is readers, a simple day of trying to have tooooo much fun. TheOFM.

Vigilante Committee Action

Fredericksburg, Texas

WOW two hours to get the new computer protection up and running. That gets in the way of having too much fun.

On a walk around the park, there were peanuts in my pocket and peanut hulls marking my path. As the walk approached the boat launch area, the peanut hulls were held in my hand like there was something good for the stupid ducks and geese. When my approach was fairly close they came running as the hulls were scattered in the grass for them. After a few of the feather legs tried out the hulls they were not happy with me. So they formed a vigilante group and sent them after me to teach me a lesson.

But my feet were faster and they gave up soon.

Since the posse gave up, there was time to photograph a beautiful white flower growing all by itself on the creek bank. It was only natural for me to share it with everyone in a picture.
According to some locals the drought had gotten so bad around here that the fish in the creek were getting ticks. However last week the drought was broken and the water is once again going over the spillway of the dam. It looks rather nice to me.
The area out behind the Castle is looking very green. It is hard to believe that three weeks ago it was only dirt and gravel on most of this area.
Over at the nature trail, the volunteers have been very busy improving the path down to the creek crossing bridge. There are nice steps down. No longer is it necessary to balance precariously on loose boulders to get down to the bridge. The nature trail on the far side has always been a nice walk.
The Truck made it in for the dianogistics today. The result is ordering of a new window motor and regulator. They are due in Monday and the Truck is due for surgery on Tuesday. It looks like the TEAM will be heading for San Angelo to meet GUMO (see the left side bar) right on time. The planned departure date is Sep 29.

One of the nice folks at the check in house is Alice. She is always fun to visit. Tonight was a wonderful visit with some good laughs. She is doing well.

Even the misery of installing AVG protection did not prevent me from trying to have tooooo much fun today. TheOFM

Burro Springs Overlook

Fredericksburg, Texas

The adventure for tonight is the report on the
BURRO SPRINGS TRAIL At Bibe

This trail is not for wheel chair or crutches or smaller children. The trail itself is not difficult but there is many opportunities to get hurt if you are not paying attention. Additionally small children will get bored well before you get to the cliff at the end.

The trail starts off pleasantly and actually is very pleasant all the way in. There was no description sign at the beginning. My error was not checking Laurence Parent’s book ahead of time or paying attention to the NPS signage saying Burro Springs Overlook. You will see in a few minutes what a difference it makes.

From the parking lot the view is nice and inviting. The trail goes into the saddle and around the mountain on the left.
The trail winds nicely through the desert brush without any trouble following it. Soon it crosses a wash from Burro Mesa Pouroff. As you look left Santa Elena Canyon it visible and dramatic.
The trail continues on around the mountain and into a pretty valley as long as it is green. You walk along enjoying the valley as the trail winds around the mountain.
When you have gone a good ways the trail takes you near some cliffs on your left as you enter a canyon. The dry creek bed is to your right. At the time of my hike the cliffs gave shade which was very welcome. If you look carefull the trail is visible as it nears the cliffs.
The trail suddenly gets a lot rougher for walking and loose treacherous debris abounds. It is time to get very careful since you are in an area conducive to serious falls. As you wander carefully onward the trail very suddenly arrives at a cliff above the spring.
Down below you can hear the tinkle of water. Off to your left is what appears to be a sucker trail to the bottom. Off to your right is a way to go down to the notch where the previous picture was taken. When the picture taking was finished, a glance back left toward the trail revealed a cave very close by. The spring is not visible. The view is still worth the hike to me.

Exploring caves alone out in nowhere and no human has any idea you are there is suicide in my book. So what is in the cave will remain a mystery. My feet did their job well in the scramble from the tinaja back up wall shown on the lower left to the main trail. This is not an area for small children to run around loose.

Later that night Laurence Parent’s book describes how to go down the left side of the cliff to get to the spring. Even in my younger more able days, that route looks like an invitation to recuperation physical theraphy time. However he describe a way to approach the springs from below. You can start where the picture of Santa Elena Canyon was taken and wind your way around the opposite side of the mountain. He also mentions that you might look for tracks around the springs like mountain lions. A fact of the desert is that any place there is water there is animals of all sorts.

When this springs goal is attempted again it will be the low route. Excellent preparation will be required for a solo hiker to go that direction. This was a two liter of water and one good snack hike for me. Being in good shape is not required but being able to walk three miles and having decent balance is. There was a lot of loose trail surfaces along the route.

In this next picture is the scratch that proves EVERYTHING in Bibe stings, bites or scratches. The touching of the plant that did this was not even felt. The next thing to catch my attention was a drop of blood running off my arm and dripping where my sight was focused on the loose gravel of the trail. Yes it was hot and sweaty so the scratch was not much. The important thing is to realize you have to be very careful of what you brush against.
Near the end of the return this grasshopper hopped up to check me out as a rest moment was taken. It is a style new to me and caught my interest. It is cute.
It even stayed right there when my body was forced off the comfortable rock to head back to the Truck. On arrival back at the Truck, it was still the only vehicle in sight. During the whole four days in the park, other than at the Chisos Basin, there were not more than thirty vehicles seen. It was a very empty park to say the least. However that also made it pretty wonderful for trying to have tooooo much fun. TheOFM.

Repair Reports

Fredericksburg, Texas

The good news is the GMC dealer can get the Truck in for repairs diagnostics on Friday afternoon. Then they order parts and hopefully get the Truck repaired that week. The way GM is behaving now days is that once a dealer orders a part they are stuck with it forever. This has made dealers run their inventory down and order a part on an as needed basis.

The other good news was that the last and only tire for the Castle that Wal-Mart had was purchased and mounted this morning. The bad news was the $130 it cost. That is an expensive little tire. While at Wal-Mart some groceries were purchased. So all that is needed tomorrow is to do laundry and visit with Patti at the laundry.

The trail report for tonight is
BURRO MESA POUROFF TRAIL

The parking lot is very well set up at the trail head. My equipment was grabbed and off to the adventure. The trail sign explains all about the upcoming adventure. This is not a trail for wheel chairs. It is a good safe trail for kids of all ages. It is not long and changes constantly so young ones will have new things to see every couple of minutes going in and coming out.
The start of the trail is very ordinary and stays that way for a few hundred feet.
In short order it passes near some interesting piles of rocks and a formation with odd features. A little farther down it passes down into the stream bed with lots of rocks to chunk.
It quickly approaches some high cliffs and more odd formations. There are plenty of targets for kids to chunk the stream bed rocks toward. Even in the stream bed are plenty of places to safely run amuck and have fun.
As the stream bed turns to the right, the canyon narrows and it gets more exciting entering the canyon. The high canyon walls start to make you feel their presence.
The stream bed winds around a little and then there it is. The pouroff is right in front of you in the narrowed canyon.
It is great fun for kids to get into the shallow bowl at the bottom and look up the cylinder that carries water down from the mesa above. The rock is worn very slick from the water polishing it for years.

After a satisfactory time at the pouroff, the way out is back along the same path in. However the views seem a lot different on the way out. Be sure and notice the odd shaped holes in the cliffs all around you. Some of the holes in the walls looked like foot prints to me.

The sun has set and several reports have been added to the blogs from 9-12-09 until today. There will be a couple of more trail entries tomorrow to finish out the Bibe trip reports.

The last thing this evening was some putting at the golf course practice green to help in trying to have tooooo much fun. TheOFM