Started Getting Ready To Roll

 

Adventure Location: Falcon Heights, Texas

Adventure Date: 3-18-2022

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Our morning walk was in the back-country unmaintained part of the county park. The last time we were back here was a few years ago and once every five years seems to be a good interval. Just thick Texas brush country.

Near a camper in the regular part of the park was some succulent getting some blooms ready to explode.

We do not recall ever seeing this species of succulent blooming before so it might be interesting to see what happens.

Just over by the water faucet, these two new flowers burst on in glory today. They are not quite the size of a dime but they showed a lot of “I'm beautiful” attitude so we had to grab a picture of them.

In another part of the brush this succulent seemed to be on its way to dying but you can never tell with these plants. They are a hardy bunch for sure.

Over in the tall large leafed prickly pear cactus was this old bird nest snuggled in amongst the thorny pads. We best that the bird that made it was a tough old bird. Any predator that tried to climb to get the nest would likely have leaked it drinking water/blood from many spots on its body afterward.

And most importantly here is the Castle and Sierra practicing getting hooked up for tomorrow's move to the state park.

We want to use the 120 volt air compressor to top off the tires and the vacuum cleaner to get a few cubic yards of blown sand out of the rig. Without all that sand inside the Castle we will likely get better fuel mileage.

After a bit more than a month here in this area we are heading north to a new area for trying to have tooooo much fun.

Lots of Stickers

 

Adventure Location: Falcon Heights, Texas

Adventure Date: 3-18-2022

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We had a much nicer day of warm instead of hot temperatures. The OFM did a bit of getting ready to roll on Sunday morning over to the state park site for one night.

If anyone can identify this plant please do. The stem and leaves are covered with stiff thorns like an ordinary thistle. However internet research did not show any of the thistles to have flowers like this. This flower is shaped more like a primrose bloom.

When we went to lunch the Whataburger manager had me sit at his table and we ended up spending a very long time discussing the RV style of travel for longer trips but not full time living. There is a major difference for some folks. He and his wife are wanting to see the country in chunks but still come home for special events. They have about two years to decide and act on the decision.

Helping folks with our experiences is a wonderful way of trying to have tooooo much fun.

HOT HOT HOT

 

Adventure Location: Falcon Heights, Texas

Adventure Date: 3-17-2022

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We had a nice cool two mile morning walk to start the day. Nothing much went on in the morning and the afternoon was even less productive due to the nearly 100f temperature. Sweating seemed to be the most productive thing that happened all day. I hope ya'll had a better day of trying to have tooooo much fun.

New Painting

 

Adventure Location: Falcon Heights, Texas

Adventure Date: 3-16-2022

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OK we (a friend and the OFM) have a bit of progress today. Decisions were made and rolling day is 3-21-2022. Destination is Amistad NRA and one of the five dry campgrounds in the NRA. Usually San Pedro but it will depend on the crowds. This is about a seven hour tow for the OFM Teams. The nearby town is Del Rio, TX.

Next is the latest painting done with colored pencil and watercolor pencil. It was a challenge full of new techniques.

Yep, it was a pretty good attempt at trying to have tooooo much fun.

HOT!

 

Adventure Location: Falcon Heights, Texas

Adventure Date: 3-15-2022

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Nothing much in the way of excitement today. Time was spent attempting to figure out some immediate future plans. Also it is summer hot today and definitely time to be moving to cooler locations. Just where is a good question. Probably north to Amistad Reservoir is as good a place as any for a one day move.

A short walk down by the water was too hot to be fun. Folks were playing in the water and keeping cool. But if you were not wet from the lake water, then you were wet from your sweat. Yesterday we had on layers for warmth but today is a different story. If the wind stops or slows down it will be time for air conditioning to kick in. Goofy weather this year our here. It does get in the way of trying to have tooooo much fun.

Crowded? Nope.

 

Adventure Location: Falcon Heights, Texas

Adventure Date: 3-14-2022

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A week ago most of the BIG rigs left on their way back north and we had lots of extra space here. In the last few days we have had a major influx of smaller self contained rigs, mainly vans, stop in for a bit generally waiting on the warmer weather that started today.

Even with that influx the park is no where crowded. Here is two pictures of the near to the Castle areas. Both areas can comfortably handle at least three times as many same size rigs as are here now.

A bunch of time was spent today with neighbor Rick discussing when to move on north to Del Rio to stay out of the heat. We chose to decide next week on a probable moving date. Today marks the one month here time for the OFM. Rick has been here since late December. Now we are thinking it is time to head somewhere else for trying to have tooooo much fun.

Speeding Tickets In Great Quantity

 

Adventure Location: Falcon Heights, Texas

Adventure Date: 3-13-2022

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A grocery trip to Walmart thirty miles away started the day. Gas was $3.92 a gallon. The folks in the store today were very nice and pleasant as we went about our spending.

Hwy 83 in this area is a main highway for Spring Break students headed for South Padre Island festivities and the traffic cops were doing a booming speeding ticket business from the looks of things.

Most of the day was bright, clear, chilly and very windy. The OFM got in a lot of hot air time visiting with lots of folks all the way until dark at the property fence to get this sunset pic as the only pic of the day.

The only other thing is Rick next door and the OFM spent a good bit of time talking of places to go next and when to go. That type of discussion can be a great way of trying to have tooooo much fun.

Rockhounding

 

Adventure Location: Falcon Heights, Texas

Adventure Date: 3-12-2022

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One of the really good things the Park Service did here at Falcon State Park is the docking solution at the long boat ramp. The boat ramp serves well from a full lake to about 35 feet low. The dock is slid up or down the dual launch ramp between the two ramps. So when you launch the dock will be at the proper elevation to fit most of the boats that come here. Here is a picture of the dock now. There is no water within a quarter mile of the ramps now.

Apparently they use a piece of the park equipment to push/drag the dock up and down the ramps between those curbs. We have watched it in action and also launched kayaks from that ramp. We think it was a great solution to the varying water level trouble here at this lake.

One family has this solution to the water level being so far down.

They leave their park campsite and drive the motor home down to the shore and spend the day in luxury fishing. At night they have to go back to the regular campsite but come back each morning. That is a lakefront area the OFM has walked many times taking pictures for this blog.

Years ago the OFM's dad used to mess around in this area of Texas as a rockhound. It is a fertile area for finding rocks to cut and polish.

The OFM has not gotten the itch for rockhounding in his life but definitely enjoys looking at the product of all the effort. Here is a picture of some of the rocks that turn into real beauties when “worked on”.

This particular rock had been driven over and broken open. The OFM guarantees that when it has been sliced thinly and lap polished it makes a spectacular decoration when back lighted for display, especially with colored lighting.

Rockhounding and all that goes with it can be a great way of trying to have tooooo much fun.

Shell Chimes

 

Adventure Location: Falcon Heights, Texas

Adventure Date: 3-11-2022

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These shell chimes are hanging in the gazebo near the restrooms. Some body put a good bit of work into them and they are nice for sure.

The gazebo is where the lending library, park microwave and give it away for free stuff is found. It also is a gathering spot to discuss really important stuff like do I want another cup of coffee or not.

Today we are have heavy wind with sand blowing with great vigor. Sand is even blowing in through the window drain vents into the Castle. Gonna be a mess of wiping required after the cold front rips on through tonight. Our low is supposed to be in the upper 30's.

Somewhere around the area in the last few days this picture of the golden halo prickly pear cactus was taken. We thought it special that the sun and thorns had given the plan the gold halos around the pads.

Supper last night came out well and it was not stoup for the doubters that the OFM cooks regular food on occasion. Check out the chicken breast, big salad and shredded potatoes with BBQ sauce topping. Yep it was first class.

And last but far from least, Falcon Lake is still giving up lots of fish for the boaters that can get up lake to the cliffs areas to fish. There were five limits of 25 large legal crappie on the cleaning table yesterday when we checked on the catching,

The wind should die down in a few hours and we will have a nice chilly night of quiet sleep. We need to be rested for running around in the cold in the morning trying to have tooooo much fun.

Worm Trails??

 

Adventure Location: Falcon Heights, Texas

Adventure Date: 3-10-2022

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The morning was nice so we hit the trail to the Rocky Point fishing hole we were wanting to try out. The trail was easy even carrying the seven foot rod through the high brush. As we approached the point the terrain got a bit difficult due to all the loose rocks of lots of sizes. Sure enough the OFM sprained and ankle a bit. So we calmed down some and were more careful getting to the water.

Using our tried and true bottom bumping lure we probed the area and found it to NOT be as we hoped. This was not a “cliff” as hoped but a long shallow slope towards another sand flat. Yep it was a bit deeper and did still cause the darker water but the relief was too shallow of a slope to be good underwater structure. We did not get any bites at all. However it could still be a good place to bait fish the bottom for big catfish known to live in the area.

As we carefully started back out we went near the waterline. In the sand were lots and lots of trails some small critter was making in their travels.

We have no idea what they are made by so if one of our wonderful readers knows, please comment.

Back at Sierra we were starting to move along the area in the picnic area when this crazy bird started posing for us,

It seemed to think we would be likely to toss it some food if it posed several different ways. That reminds the OFM of an event a few days ago when some birders we not happy since they had heard there were lots of roadrunners in this park and they were on their second day without finding one to photograph. When the OFM told them where to find the roadrunners the folks seemed offended and went on there way without saying anything else. All the OFM said is "you are looking in the wrong area out here in the brush. Look around the picnic tables over there. Roadrunners are great scavengers of table scraps.”

And zoom we were all alone again.

You never know what is going to happen while out trying to have tooooo much fun.

Wore Out

 

Adventure Location: Falcon Heights, Texas

Adventure Date: 3-9-2022

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Here it is very late and the OFM has not gotten started at organizing a blog for tonight and is dog tired. So we will show you tonight's sunset since it shows how the OFM is feeling about now.

It has been a crazy busy day of trying to have tooooo much fun

Bumping The Bottom

 

Adventure Location: Falcon Heights, Texas

Adventure Date: 3-8-2022

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Since it was the day to try out at least one of the new fishing holes, we made our way down the big hill in Sierra and found a parking spot out of the way of the fishermen's parking. Behind Sierra you can see part of the shoreline that is available. The shoreline to the far left is no entry government land dealing with care and safety of the dam. We are not allowed there on the land.

We put our old tried and true lure through the paces. The wind velocity and chill was not comfortable but we stuck with it for a good while. The lure we used, a Storm Wild Eye Shad, is a good one for bumping the bottom to see where the structures are. We well mapped the area for future use in warmer weather.

A very important thing to do when meandering around in this area is to be careful of the leg eaters. Anytime you stop to take a picture, cast a lure, get a drink of water or anything like that you must always check that you are not on a leg eaters home area. Our experience is they do not often sting but will walk up your leg to a juicy spot and try to chomp out a chunk the size of a BB. And take it home for supper.

Just move a few feet to a clear spot and enjoy the area.

Back at the Castle we were looking out the main window and saw this cluster of wind turbines from the end of a row of them. Then the sun illuminated them into something that looked like some of the thorn clusters in this area. But we thought it was a neat picture any way.

After we finished our chicken salad supper and got the dishes done, we glanced out the kitchen window and saw a nice sunset happening. The camera was grabbed, a light jacket and away we went. The OFM moved pretty well to our surprise and we got to the property fence in a couple of minutes and started composing different sunset scenes. Naturally everything to do with sunset photos has to happen very fast. We got in about five photos and chose this one to show tonight.

This area does get some pretty nice sunsets and sunrises like most deserts. All of our sunsets are over in Mexico across the lake so you have to speak Spanish when you talk to them to get them to pose correctly. Meanwhile we have big plans for tomorrow. A nice reader commented today that the OFM must never get bored with all the things we chase around trying to have tooooo much fun. Join us.

Old But New Trail

 

Adventure Location: Falcon Heights, Texas

Adventure Date: 3-7-2022

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The morning hard blowing cold north wind mixed with the rain was the OFM's alarm clock this morning. Therefore we did not go outside until it was lunch time. The latest painting got all the attention and was completed. Here it is for viewing.

After lunch the area had dried out and got up to the mid 50's so we went over to the State Park to get in some walking if possible. Once in the park the OFM decided we could go check a possible fishing place.

So Sierra got us to the parking spot to access the trail down to the lake. We stepped out and headed to the trail head with a ticklish feeling nose. About then we noticed all the huge volume of new blooms of the achoo plant (Huisache). Here is what the pretty yellow beasts look like.

At least the walk was nice in the still cool breeze. When we got to the rocky point the OFM meandered a bit then took this picture.

Immediately to our right is a deeper area with this rock slope leading down out of site. Then to the back is a land point that turned out to be a ridge of dirt leading to a shallow small flat. What we hope is that this means that there is a deeper pocket of water with a sand flat on one side and a small cliff of rock on the other side. That could be a great fishing location for the Teams. The far shoreline is Mexico.

The chill wind was giving us fits and chills so we made good time heading back to Sierra.

We made another stop at a spot that a couple of decades ago the OFM used to follow a narrow dirt patch to a slough that headed up to the old ranchers landing strip. Upon exploration we determined that the wild critters must still be using that path, so now we have another place to get in some wonderful meandering for trying to have tooooo much fun.

Lots of Food

 

Adventure Location: Falcon Heights, Texas

Adventure Date: 3-6-2022

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Apparently the rugged terrain yesterday got to the OFM's leg joints so today had to be a recovery day. That was OK since we needed to hit the Walmart down in Rio Grande City. It was a nice comfortable trip. The gas at the Murphy Station at Walmart was only $3.589 a gallon and the cheapest price we saw advertised in the thirty miles over to Walmart.

Inside the store we found that everything we needed was stocked well and they were having a sale on thin cut boneless pork chops so a package of them joined the OFM Team. They were very good looking chops and we look forward to fixing them in a few days. The vegetables in the store down here looked like they were very fresh.

Back at the Castle the food was put into the proper storage places. The freezer is now full of potatoes, pork chops, chicken breasts and pancakes. Yep we are set for a few days of good eating here in the Texas desert.

Since it was declared a recovery day, the OFM spent a nice bit of time working on the current art project. It is a drawing from an adult coloring book named “DESERT BLOOMS” by Ruth Soffer. This issue is an especially fun one in that the drawing offered on the page is left with opportunities to work your own ideas into the sketch provided. The artist has places to add background, foreground and in between details to the future finished art work as wanted. None of the basic forms are detailed out so we guess that at least 50% of the sketching has to be added by the artist as the artist's part of the painting.

We have reached the point that all of the added features and under painting is finally done. Then a water brush is used to dissolve the dry paint and blend it in like regular watercolor but without all the mess and stuff around.

Our next step now that the under painting is dry (thank you Sir Desert) is to add the colored pencil work which normally takes four coats of colored pencil in the OFM's efforts.

We are definitely looking forward to the next steps as a great way of trying to have tooooo much fun in the cool weather of the next few days.

Lake Bottom Walking

 

Adventure Location: Falcon Heights, Texas

Adventure Date: 3-5-2022

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The OFM decided to take a lake bed walk around just to see what he had been missing during the drive a rounds. Something important we found out had been missed. We rolled Sierra over to the old lakefront picnic area to head down there. One look at the road down and the OFM decided to make it a walking path.

This picture was taken at the full lake water edge in the past. We decided to head to the boat launching area and check it in particular. That turned out to be a good decision since the launch area dropped off quickly. It looked like an area we need to try our luck at fishing.

Here are the trailers lined up nicely waiting for their boat and folks to return from on the lake.

This is the actual launching section of the small area where the boats can be launched and retrieved.

Tomorrow we hope to get some lure chunking done in this area. The drop off under water was visible today in the clear calm water.

Next we headed on along the water's edge just meandering along like a good meanderthal should. Not too far down the beach we found this footprint of another meanderthal and followed it for quite a ways.

After a good bit of walking we stopped to take this picture of all the beach left to explore. A full lake would have been about 45 feet deep at this spot.

We made it to the dark car on the far left and then turned back to head for Sierra WAY back up that hill we came down a long time ago.

The sum of it all is that we came across three spots that looked fishy enough to comeback and try our luck at catching a fish. That would be a good way of trying to have tooooo much fun.

Higher Than Superman

 

Adventure Location: Falcon Heights, Texas

Adventure Date: 3-4-2022

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The first productive thing the OFM did this morning was to take a nice walk through the park and out through the fence to the State Park road.

Then we headed up hill to the entrance to the state park and turned back and retraced our steps. The walk was surprisingly pleasant in spite of the 20 mph winds. When we got back to the Castle the OFM legs needed some rest. That hill makes a lot of difference to the OFM leg joints.

In general there is not a lot of excitement around here except to play in Falcon Lake. We decided to check out the little grocery in Roma Texas. It helps if you read Spanish when you shop there but the folks are really helpful if you ask something. They had a pretty good selection of foods and the prices were a good bit higher than Walmart another twenty miles away. We plan to do our bulk shopping at Walmart still. But the Roma store was definitely clean and decent for shopping there.

Please note we have been here 17 days without even a hint of border trouble at all. It has been a very nice area.

The OFM Teams have known Rick for about 5 years. He is camped here since late November and also has had zero troubles. But as he said while we were talking this afternoon, not much excitement around here anyway. About the biggest excitement is watching Shawnee his dog jump way up in the air to grab objects thrown for her. She jumps higher than Superman.

So there it is another easy day of trying to have tooooo much fun.

Worn Old Body

 

Adventure Location: Falcon Heights, Texas

Adventure Date: 3-3-2022

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Moving day arrived right on schedule but sore old body symptoms were waiting to create difficulties. The difficulties turned out to all be just wait a minute rest stops during all the activity.

When it was all said and done we were moved and set up in the county park by 0930. So we did OK in-spite of the old body complaining.

However the OFM did pay attention and the rest of the day was aimed a flexibility exercising and nothing strenuous. Two nice thirty minute naps after lunch sure were nice.

Here are three pics of the county park. The first was taken from the Castle's front door looking eastward at the NW part of the park.

Then we took one from the north back to the Castle.

The OFM later decided to take a gentle meander around the outer dirt road that loops the place. This picture is of the South East part of the park looking back into the central area. There are about four units in the area and it could nicely hold fifty more without any crowding.

We finished up the walk and did some more computer work and a little rest time on the bed but no nap this time.

As you can see this place has already cleared out a lot of folks since we left last week to go into the State Park next door and have electricity to heat the Castle during the night. We hope you enjoyed the tour. We are hoping the OFM body will be back in shape to do some vigorous trying to have tooooo much fun tomorrow.