Warning: Long post since we have been off grid for a few weeks!

The last two weeks have been about bird viewing, RV fixing and lack of connection to the world. Texas and Verizon don't appear to like each other, so we have been without internet, TV and cell service for a while. In these days of always being connected, it has been strange but peaceful. But I long for news and texting. Denny longs for TV. One of the parks we visited was Garner State Park. We have been here before, and it is considered one of the most popular parks in Texas. It is in a valley surrounded by mountains and tons of trails. One of the trails we did last time, Old Baldy, we decided to forego this time, but we did end up on the bottom half of it on the way down from another trail. I remember the descent as scary last time. Lots of loose 3-inch rocks on a steep hill. They roll under your feet taking you down too fast or making you fall. Denny is much more sure footed than I am. I was calling him a mountain goat. He chose to interpret it as the Greatest of All Time😂. We made it down unscathed. I don't know if the trail deteriorated in the last few years (or we did) but this time it was terrifying for me. I think at our ages maybe we should stick to the moderate and easy trails and leave the challenging trails for those younger than us!

One of many rocky, hilly trails.

I don't know who thought that 18-inch steps were reasonable! I needed Denny's help!

The bottom half of this rocky trail was very scary!

Steep rocky trail

The last three parks have been heavy birding parks, and we have added about eight new birds to our list, five of which are exclusive to Texas! The most beautiful of those is the green jay, with the Audubon oriole coming in second.

A pair of Green jays, I think they look like giant bug-eyed parakeets! Zoom in!

 

Audubon's Oriole

    Western Scrub Jay

Two Great Egrets in breeding plumage just hanging around the parking lot on a windy day.

The great-tailed grackle is nothing much to look at but his vocal repertoire is amazing. He whistles, clacks, makes a sound like a siren, and another like an old fashioned camera film advance. Loud and entertaining. Also spotted: black crested titmouse, spotted towhee, and golden fronted woodpecker. We also saw a nesting great horned owl, not exclusive to Texas but a first for us!

                                                              Great Horned Owl

When getting ready to leave the best birding park, Choke Canyon SP, we found that we could not retract the levelers. I called our RV roadside assistance plan and was told that they couldn't find a mobile RV service near us. With the help of the park host, I found one nearby and called. The answering service said he was on a call and would call back, Meanwhile, we had been searching manuals to see if they could be manually retracted. After much work, me reading directions, Denny doing the actual work, they were retracted and we were on our way. Good thing we figured it out as they never called back. When I get good internet service, I will leave a review! And not a good one! At the next park, the levelers worked going down but again wouldn't retract. Luckily we now knew what to do and it only took about a half hour. For now we will try to get level without them and try to only use them when absolutely necessary. They appear to work on and off, so fingers crossed and we will do it manually if needed. Denny has figured out a new plan using a drill which will hopefully take less time. What a PITA! Guess what's going in for service as soon as we get home!

Other than that, we have been doing daily hiking, weather permitting, and geocaching. At the start of this trip due to low back pain and knee problems we were doing very slow short hikes. After two months of hiking and 3x a week yoga, we are hiking longer faster and farther. Yesterday was over eight miles. The knees are doing pretty well. The low back still hurts but much less.

A larger burl that woodworkers would love!

 

 I had thought I would publish the above as soon as we got internet, but here we are two parks later and still no internet or cell service! So, I will continue writing offline and publish if and when we get service. But lots of nice trails, excellent weather, armadillos (who knew they were hairy?), and even a monkey.

Look at his hairy legs and tummy!

Monkey Rock

Desert camping means warmth during the day, lots of wind and cold at night. Luckily, the cacti are starting to bloom, and small plants take advantage of water wherever they can get it. 

 

These holes were 1-2 inches across in a pock marked rock, everything else was very dry

At Seminole Canyon there are 4000-year-old pictographs that were pristine until they dammed a nearby river to make a reservoir. The increased humidity is unfortunately fading them. Since we were here seven years ago, we skipped the guided tour but did hike nine miles on the canyon rim trail to see the panther cave. The nine-foot-long red panther can only be viewed from across the canyon with binoculars or by private boat. The river is so far down since we were last here that private boat is no longer an option.

The red panther on the back wall of the cave is nine feet long.

This dock used to be in the water for boaters to enter the Panther cave.

When we here seven years ago, the water reached the canyon walls! Now there are small trees.

 

Since we haven't been very level, we have now broken our door lock by yanking on it. So for now we have to lock the deadbolt when it is shut or just shut the screen door. One more thing to be fixed! Our next park will be Big Bend National Park, a big dead zone for service. We are hoping that our RV park right at the national park entrance has WiFi. Fingers crossed! Our last night at Seminole Canyon was on top of a hill with 30-40 mile per hour winds and 70 MPH gusts. We rocked all night like we were on a boat. And with the wind howling, we didn't get much sleep! 

We are now at our desert RV park in Big Bend and have no WiFi, but I can use my hot-spot since I have cell phone service. Denny always asks at each campsite how my service is. If any, it's usually 4G, 2 bars. Here it's H+ and R for roaming. I got a text from Verizon saying welcome to Mexico (we are on the border) and that because of my unlimited plan we won't be charged for roaming. I hope they aren't lying to me or we could be in for a huge bill when we get home! Up next Big Bend!