Birding, Biking and Boating

That was the easy part. We have done a fair amount of birding and we are seeing many birds that have ranges that include this sliver of land north of the Rio Grande River and don’t extend more than a few miles into the USA. The most prominent are the Great Kiskidee, the Brown Jay and the Green Jay. There is a couple that has a motorhome on a piece of land next to Salineno National Wildlife Refuge (NWR). They have been feeding birds and welcoming visitors there for 22 years. We have been there twice and have added several birds to our life list of birds we have never seen before. We have also seen many beautiful birds that we know quite well. I actually thought about biking over there today, but with the temperature in the high 80’s an eight mile one way trip did not seen prudent.

As I write I am waiting for a tire road service truck to arrive. This morning as I was working around the camp site I happened to see something like a stone on the outside passenger side dual tire. I went to pick it off and noticed that is the hex head of a bolt with the thread extended directly into the tread. Not pretty! The tire is holding its normal pressure so it may not have pierced the belts. I am unwilling to attempt to extract it myself as the tore is carrying 88 psi at the moment (pushed up 3 psi or so by solar heating. Since we have been sitting still for a week and plan to sit here for another week I am not feeling urgent about the repair, but hope to have it resolved before I finish writing this.

Yesterday, Wednesday February 1, we took a rather long bike ride in the afternoon. There is a small town just across the reservoir from us, Guerro (well the name is longer than that, but it will suffice), and we wanted to see what it had to offer. We could not take a vehicle across as we have no Mexican insurance and there is no public transportation over this bridge so we road across, five miles to the dam (the same ride we took several days ago), two miles across the dam (at least) and then 2 kilometers to the edge of town (I know I changed measurement, that happens when you leave this quaint country of ours). The town has some lovely homes and public buildings. It does not have any people at 4 in the afternoon. There was no traffic and the only people we saw were a couple of construction workers and a pharmacist in her store.Bike in Gerro We biked on back and collapsed I was dehydrated and short on energy even though I have drunk a quart of water on the ride. The air is dry here.

Have I mentioned poverty yet? Much of this part of Texas would consider poverty an improvement on their lot. The housing is ramshackle, the roads verge on impassable and many times we have thought we had driven across the border by mistake. It feels like the worst of any Mexican border area we have visited. The only thing lacking is the broken bottle wall tops we have seen further south in Latin America around the houses of the well off.

Ah boating! As you faithful readers know we bought an inflatable kayak last summer. It has been riding around in the belly of Gee 2 until our arrival here. It is now in the back of the car and we have had it out on Falcon Reservoir a couple of days ago. As usual it was ten minutes from the car to the water. Then we paddled out into the reservoir and saw the many water birds and even more motor boats dotting the surface of the lake. This is an active fishing area and many people put out in every kind of imaginable small boat to catch fish. I cannot imagine backing a trailer down the very long boat launch ramp. The water is at the middle of its range which makes it 16 feet or so below its high. On our first visit here the water was below the end of the ramp.

Our entertainment has included Pickin’ and Grinnin’ at the recreation lodge, Carol sat in with her new mandolin with a group of mixed musicians playing country and folk. CarolPickin We have also had happy hour of one sort or another each evening and have gotten o meet several new people. I will especially note Daniel Markham who is on his own with a dog in a Ford Econoline and just headed out for San Miguel . . . about six hundred miles south of the border to see if he wants to settle there. We wish him a satisfactory and safe trip. Kay and Doug are just down the line from us in their Super Sport four wheel drive conversion van and many more to numerous to mention. Kay and Doug sold a large sailboat they had lived on in Florida and decided to try dry land for the time being. All in all we are having our usual fine time collecting sights, experiences and people. Speaking of collecting people, we just heard from the Hoggs and have may arrangements to meet them again at Gilbert Ray Park in Tucson mid February.

We have CNN on the satellite dish, wish we didn’t. We don’t have NPR down here, not sure whether I am happy or not, miss it, but what we see/hear on CNN is so disturbing that decent analysis might make me even more depressed about this great country I love so much. I am able to see more than I want about the uncertainty in the Middle East. The internet is available and I want to spend less time being absorbed, but I find it hard to let go. I will go to the JDC meetings in NYC in March and maybe I will come away with a better understanding, somehow I doubt it. The materiel everyone is sending is wonderful, but there are no tolerable answers in the offing, just more trouble. I shall turn my thoughts to the birds, the javalina and howling coyotes and try to let the greater world take care of itself since nothing I can do is likely to change anything anyhow.