Desert Rain

Today dawned cold and blustery. We got some rain during the night and we’re wondering what changes that might bring to the desert. We’re all hoping for some flowers on the cacti, but being the desert neophytes that we are, we’re not sure if that’s a reasonable hope.

Yesterday was our day off from hiking and exploring. Everyone took showers, Elise and I went for a bike ride, there was a little school and chocolate chip oatmeal cookies were made. The highlight of the day came, though, when we took an unexpected walk. Our friends Harry and Molly stopped by and we took them on the nature trail we had walked on the first morning we were here. We saw some interesting fish in the wetland this time along with a few turtles. Elise was the first to spot the water snake but he moved away before we could get a picture. We’re hoping to be able to give the ranger at the visitor center enough of a description that he or she can tell us what kind it was. The snake was not the highlight, however. Our new neighbors (and I’ll tell you that sad story soon enough) had seen a bobcat at the picnic area near the campground and had taken some remarkable pictures of it. As we were walking back from our walk with Harry and Molly, the bobcat crossed the road in front of us and then reappeared shortly with what we think was a rabbit in his mouth. We lost sight of him after that as he went into the brush to eat his lunch but he (she?) was really cool to see! Luckily bobcats are small so Elise wasn’t freaked out by it. Just disappointed she didn’t get a picture.


Elise makes her own fun.

It turns out that wasn’t a problem. When we got back to our trailer, our neighbor handed Elise three 5×7 pictures of the bobcat that he had printed for her. Apparently, he does this a lot for people they meet traveling and it’s not like he had anything else to do. When they came into the campground two nights ago, the steering pump on his Dodge truck blew. There is steering fluid all over the ground here. His truck is still under warranty so he called Dodge. The person on the other end of the line (in Rhode Island) had no idea where Big Bend was and the nearest Dodge dealership is 200 miles away. Very long story short, they have been waiting since 8:00 a.m. yesterday for a tow truck to show up. It finally came. At 1:00 a.m. this morning. They have no idea where this tow truck came from or where it is taking them, but they gamely got in and left their trailer here. Here’s hoping they return.

We will be stopping by the visitor’s center on our way out today to turn in Elise’s Junior Ranger packet. She finished it all and now all she has to do is decide if she wants the badge or the patch. We’ll let you know what she chooses!

We will be exploring the west side of the park today, mostly from the truck with short sojourns to overlooks and maybe an old ranch or two.

Happy Birthday to my cousin Jayme today. Slainte!