Dreams

As a child I would have these indescribable nightmares where I was surrounded by this omnipotent force that I did not understand.  It was formless, yet its power was frightening to me.  Now, when I think about it, perhaps the power it had really was nothing to fear other than that it was something I could not fathom.

I am pretty sure we all dream, perhaps every night (and sometimes in the recliner) we all go there like its a distant place that we don't understand the rules of.  Some are memorable while others can be disturbing.  As I've gotten older, I don't really have disturbing dreams and some are downright pleasant and even humorous.

Some troublesome dreams would often involve being in a place that was disheveled and without order.  More than once I would dream that I was at an event and did not want to get up from the table because I was without shoes and sometimes without pants, just socks and underwear.  What an embarrassment.

Just last night I dreamed of meeting lots of pleasant people who I helped do some things and they were so nice and accommodating.  It seems I was lost and couldn't get back to the airport and received plenty of assistance from my new found dream friends.  When I woke this morning, I had the most incredible pleasant feeling all over and whether or not I really did, I thought I woke with a smile on my face.  As I rolled over, I looked at the clock and said, "Good morning, Lord!  Thank you for a great night's sleep."

Over the years the dreams had become more and more fun and entertaining.  Some of my favorites would involve flying at will.  No wings, just willing myself to fly over objects, trees and obstacles.  As it turned out, later in my life, I became a SCUBA diver and a few times I rode underwater scooters.  They were tube like devices with battery powered propellers at the rear that you could hold on to the rear of, press the button and glide underwater at a decent speed turning around and over coral.  Another way to use them was to put the nose of it between your legs, hook the side of your feet and fins to the bottom and blast off, using your outstretched arms to guide you.  That is known as "Superman."  So now looking back, the "Superman" trick was exactly what I had been dreaming of for years.  Night before last I dreamed that I could will myself into a "superman" mode and fly in the air.  I even stepped off the rear deck of my Mom's house and just simply landed on the lawn with no impact.  Lots of fun.

Now, the most memorable dream I had, and recall it often, was that I was off somewhere in a distant city driving around just looking at things to photograph.  I did that quite often in the 20 years of traveling by myself working for my company. *(Thanks, Mr. Jones.)* Each weekend found me in some often sketchy neighborhoods with my trusty Nikon on the front seat.

Anyway,  I had pulled up onto an abandoned service station at an intersection that had long been deserted.  You've seen them before; faded paint on the pumps, weeds growing up in the cracks of the concrete and dirty cracked windows on the building.  There was a sign post that once housed the oil company sign but now was nothing but a rusty rectangle holding nothing more than pigeons.  Most of the buildings around were abandoned as well.

I got out of my car, looked around and noticed the street had narrowed down to just to a little lane that gradually descended by a few feet.  Without hesitation, I followed the path where no more buildings nor man-made structures could be seen.  My walk was so pleasant with no clouds in the sky and on each side of the lane there was only one particular variety of plants dominating what looked like thousands of acres.  

They seemed to be chest high and as the slightest breeze blew, the stalks of the plants would wave the most beautiful and brilliant blue flowers that you can imagine swayed in the gentle wind. It is impossible to describe the beauty and intensity of the color.  Not only were the flowers absolutely breath taking, the little glimpses of emerald pedicels and sepals would flash beneath the blue flowers adding to the sight.  I can't stress how magnificent that field of flowers was.

Knowing no one could understand or imagine those colors, I knew they had to be photographed.  In normal times, that Nikon would have been slung over my shoulder but for some reason, I had left it in the car.   So I turned and headed back up the little hill to the car, unlocked it and grabbed my camera.  As I turned to go back and snap those pictures, I became confused and could no longer find the lane.  It just wasn't there any longer and grieved over it knowing I would never be able to prove how glorious that meadow of flowers were.

I am not a dream interpreter but I somehow like to think that this was a slight glimpse or faint snippet of heaven, that He had shown me just a bit of it and that it was not my time to see His glory.   Also, I had to return to where things of man were corrupt, disintegrating, and would eventually be overgrown by weeds and bushes.  The only way I could see that field (of dreams) again, would be when He calls me home to be with Him forever. 

Baruch's Lesson

While privately talking to the Lord this morning and making coffee, I lamented that my life was so insignificant and that I had wasted so many opportunities, both in worldly ventures and more importantly, Godly deeds.  I reminded myself that I had friends and relatives who had gone on mission trips, help build orphanages and preached all over the world.  Woe is me! It was a full blown pity party but the Lord wasn't going there with me.

As usual, I opened up my bible app to read some morning devotionals and continue on with my daily readings.  This morning, the book of Jeremiah was the subject.  As the scriptures unfolded, I found that Jeremiah the prophet had been somewhat of a thorn in the side of the king and his council resulting in him being beaten and put in stocks for a night by Pashur the priest.  Jeremiah was not shy about letting the king know how the Lord felt about the way the king of Judah was leading the people and prophesied against him often.  Judah and its kings had a long history of ignoring God and was often found burning incense in high places to other gods which greatly displeased the Lord.

After his release, Jeremiah went back to his place perhaps to sooth his wounds but more importantly, discuss the past event with God.

Jeremiah received a word from God and told his assistant (scribe), Baruch, to write down the words of the Lord and that they should be delivered to Jehoiakim, king of Judah. Jeremiah dictated to Baruch some disturbing news on a scroll which would be delivered to Jehoiakim's leaders.  As the leaders read the words, they asked, "where did you get this?"  Baruch told them, "these are the words from the Lord that were given to Jeremiah!"  Jeremiah 36:11-15  The leaders knew that the king should hear it and knew this would likely not be received well by the king and told Baruch, that he and Jeremiah should hide out for a while.  So, they gathered themselves up and headed straight to Jehoiakim, delivering the scroll.

After delivering the scroll, the leaders began reading the words and after a few columns, the king would angrily cut off a portion and throw it into the fire eventually burning the entire scroll.  When it became known that the original scroll was burned, Jeremiah dictated another with the same message with some other choice words added.  There was going to be a lot of destruction and lots of it.

Anyway, as the story goes, it seems that Baruch felt somewhat secondary to the whole event even though the Lord wasn't going to let Baruch be harmed in the upcoming mayhem.  So the Lord gave these words to Jeremiah, regarding Baruch.  Jeremiah 45:1) "Jeremiah said this to Baruch:  “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says to you, Baruch:  You said, ‘Woe to me! The Lord has added sorrow to my pain; I am worn out with groaning and find no rest.’  But the Lord has told me to say to you, ‘This is what the Lord says: I will overthrow what I have built and uproot what I have planted, throughout the earth.  Should you then seek great things for yourself? Do not seek them. For I will bring disaster on all people, declares the Lord, but wherever you go I will let you escape with your life.’”

Now, what does this have to do with me feeling sorry for myself?  It think it means that I should get over myself and that my self imposed judgement of myself is not His plan for me.  

Matthew 6:1 tells us, "Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them.  If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven."  We should be carful as not to let our service to the Lord turn into its own self righteous reward.

So, in retrospect, the Lord knew that I would be reading these very passages and that was His message to me.  There has always been those who have been designed for worldly greatness and those who have not.  These conditions do not negate the love of Him for us and that we are all vessels of His goodness.  Learn to hear and discern what the Lord is saying to us for we are all spokes in the wheel that carries His will and purpose.

Should I cease thinking of the possibilities of being an effective witness to the faith?  Of course not but if checking off boxes and accumulating photos of mission trips is my reward, then I have accumulated nothing. 

Huckleberries

Mama is from a different time and place.  Being 102 years old, she's seen depressions, wars, marriages, divorces, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, births, and deaths.  With that, she still enjoys simple things; humming birds, deer in the back yard, and has often told me that the two things she loves to see the most is the American flag waving in the breeze and a snowfall.  Being a Louisiana girl, snowfalls are few and short-lived.

Each morning she goes out and scatters a large cupful of bird seed on the old picknick table and some on the ground.  After she leaves, a host of squirrels, birds and rabbits will come to feed.  Young rabbits come so close to her that she could actually step on them. 

Now that I'm retired, I spend a few days with her each month, coming up every other week to do a few chores, give her some company, and take her grocery shopping.

For the past few days, she's concentrated on 10 or 12 wild huckleberry bushes around her country home, so we went out and picked a few.  She says my brother will enjoy making some huckleberry jelly.  She's collected and frozen a couple of pints of them.

Picking berries fits more into a rural lifestyle and wouldn't fit into the plans of a much younger generation whose life experiences are shaped by electronics and social media posts.

So, what are huckleberries?  Huckleberry plants are perennial shrubs that grow from 2 to 10 feet tall, depending on full sun, and produce tiny blueish black berries about ¼ to ½ inch in diameter that has a sweet tart flavor. On my Mom's place, there are probably a couple of dozen nearby if you go down into the woods.  

Picking them is time consuming so the harvest is more of a pleasure than an economic solution and I would venture to say the same about making one's own jelly.  

ETA:  Jelly is made.

Rick helped pick more berries so they went to work making jelly.

Huckleberry Jellies!

Bulls, Baal and the Children of God

Moses ascended Mt. Sinai where God gave him the ten commandments, but while he was gone, derision grew in the camps of the children of Israel, so they collected all the gold from everyone and fashioned themselves a golden bull calf.

Without the presence of Moses, the children of Israel quickly forgot about God and returned to the worship of Baal.  Baal, or "Lord", whose symbol was that of a bull, and the Israelites had become very familiar with the worship of it as a deity. Baal represented prosperity, therefore the calf was made of gold.

After receiving the law, Moses descended from the mountain and his anger was aroused.  In Exodus 32:19, it is recorded that "When Moses approached the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, his anger burned, and he threw the tablets out of his hands, breaking them to pieces at the foot of the mountain."

Some see that there is a template set by God where the United States is like that of ancient Israel.  The United States has deep roots in the God of the Bible and in its infancy, George Washington, after being sworn in as the first president, effectively said that if America ever turned away from God and His eternal laws, its blessings would be removed.

In the late 20th century, we began to see the laws of God being systematically removed.  No longer were the Ten Commandment allowed on government property, and slowly became less important in our private lives and business.  The very mention of it or Jesus Christ brings hatred, anger, and vitriol, stirring up those who think that we ourselves are the creators and not the creation.

After the stock market crash of 1987, an Italian sculptor, Arturo Modica illegally placed a 7,100 pound symbol of prosperity and financial optimism, the charging bull, outside the New York Stock Exchange which was removed to a small park on Bowling Green later that day.

Today, Charging Bull figurines are seen on the desks or walls of virtually every financial office in the United States.  Our financial system now is worshiping Baal and awaits another Moses to descend to New York and the financial district to smash our ten commandments or the constitution.  

It will not be pretty.  Who or what will be the instrument of our destruction?

Job, God and me

For the past few years, I have awakened and spoke with God virtually every day, just a brief, "Mornin', Lord. Thanks for seeing me through the night."  I am not sure if it can be called praying, worshiping, or praising but either way the communication is there.  No, He's not spoken to me in a thunderous voice and there have been no flashes of lightening but just the same, sometimes I feel as if He is everywhere in the room.

My next step is brewing up a cup of coffee, sitting in my chair and spending a few minutes reading in His word and contemplating what I've just read.

Sounds pretty holy, doesn't it?  Well, if that's what I wanted, then that's my reward. That would be fine as long as the winds and turbulence of the world isn't distracting me.  Will my little daily devotions walk me through the gauntlet of challenges ahead?

I recall the story of Job.  God said there was none like him but Satan argued that it Job's faith and love for Him was because he'd been blessed with wealth, family and friends and that if those things were gone,  Job wouldn't be so lovey-dovey with the Lord then.  What would happen if all those things were suddenly removed?

The challenge was on so the Lord gave Satan permission to afflict Job with all sorts of problems but under the condition that he could not take his life.  As the story heats up, messengers come with the news that a great storm came, blew down the dwelling with all his children in it and no one survived.  Also, there as a fireball that came down and consumed all his livestock and all was gone.  Job, ripped his garments, pile ashes on his head and cried out, "Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return there; the Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord."

It's one thing to lose possessions.  You can deal with that by adjusting yourself to a new normal but when he became afflicted with sores on his body, things now had gone from economics to a very personal physical way.  His own wife just even said to him, "Job, just curse God and die!", yet he did not sin against God.  Now, the last of his family had now turned on him.  What about his friends?

Along came three of his friends and a younger guy who sat with him a while.  Each of them reviled him and strongly hinted that he was not the man of God he pretended to be. Job refuted each of them, sending them into a tizzy,  and still proclaimed the holiness and his everlasting faith him Him.  Job still had not sinned.

Eventually, God restored Job's wealth and family and Job lived a ripe old age.

In a way, if we isolate ourselves from the world, perhaps we can wrap up in a spiritual cocoon and ignore those things of the world and be oblivious to it all, but that's not how most of us are built.  We have to continually deal with both physical happenings as well as emotional challenges such the afflictions of those near to us as well as our own.  How then do we continually overcome and still hold fast to Him who made us?

There are some things to avoid in wrapping ourselves in that spiritual cocoon. Both in Christianity and religions of the world, some would cloister themselves as monks high on a mountain or lock themselves in a man-made retreat of brick and mortar devoting themselves to becoming deeper with God.  But, that's not how He created us.  He designed us to procreate, to live and to worship with one another and to enjoy the life he gave us.  Sure, He called special people out to be His voice on earth for the purpose of vocalizing his will but they too, ate, drank and breathed the air which he created for us.

I've had a few trials but none like that of Job.  Right now, there is a calmness to my sea of life but storms will come and I pray that my faith will not sink in the high waves.   He put me here for a purpose as he did for all.  Our job is to walk in his ways, love one another, forgive one another, and have compassion.  Compassion on those near and dear to you, compassion on the stranger, and yes, compassion on those who seemingly despise you.

All these things I can do while enjoying that second cup of coffee, watching my children and grandchildren accomplish things with the talents he gave them, while knowing that it was God, who gave us all these things.

Lying on the rear window back ledge

Lying there against the rear window on the back ledge of the car, objects moved from large to small to infinity and were constantly replenished as breeze whipped around from the downed windows while the car sped along at 60 mph. To an eight-year-old kid back in the 50s, it was almost a universally accepted thing to do. It was not illegal, and it was done often. Of course there were no seat belts or any constraints and a padded dash was sometimes added as a safety measure for the ones in the front seats.

The diminishing signs, poles and trees was like watching creation in reverse, I could not see what was coming from the front and every few seconds, something new would become the past then be replaced by future past objects. Having ultimate trust in my Dad to take care of what was coming up on the road, I never had a worry for what was out front. The occasional bump in the road or the tight curve did not unnerve me, and all I had to do was enjoy the ride. Whoa!...there goes a cow on the side of the road!

Sometimes I let the events of my life load up on me, and now I try to see the future, only to realize my hindsight is much better than my foresight and that only God knows the future and not me.

Recently, my wife and I were handling an intense life event and I spent a lot of time mapping out in my mind how things should or would play out. As was pointed out, I was often in a twitch when it looked like things were not becoming a reality in the fashion I had envisioned. I began to understand my limitations, so with my wife's advice, I began to talk with God (at length) and confess that I had no power and that He was the one driving the process and I should be that eight-year-old kid again and place that ultimate trust in God to map, guide and walk me through the process.

Wanting to display strength, leadership and confidence, we often hide our fears and dwell on worst case scenarios. I should have been taking Psalm 56:3-4 to heart. "When I am afraid, I put my trust in you. In God, whose word I praise, in God I trust; I shall not be afraid. What can flesh do to me?"

Psalm 37:5 tells us, "Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him, and he will act." I've seen that work recently and if only I could put myself in that position for the rest of my life, and be totally dependent on God to handle the bumps, drive me around the curves and steer me around the random heifer on the side of the road. He also says in Jeremiah 29:11, "For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope."

That's where I want to be, for it is written (Mark 11:24), "Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours."

My job is to learn to trust in Him. He already knows His job.

Making the best of Alaska

In preparation for the predicted rain on Sunday, I thought I would get out and find some more wildlife, hike a few trails and photograph some running water.

My first good fortune came when I pulled into the Thunderbird Falls trailhead parking lot and found that the fee station pay machine had been vandalized rendering everyone with free parking.  There's a $5 fee every time you pull into a state facility.

Arming myself with a hiking stick, backpack full of lenses and a tripod, I set off (uphill) toward Thunderbird Falls.  I'm pretty much out of shape so the higher altitude and the incline caused me to stop and "admire" a tree when I met or was being overtaken by other hikers while wheezing and being short of breath.  I didn't want them asking the all too familiar question, "Are you alright?"

Along the way, I me three Asian ladies who were picking little red berries.  I asked them what they were.  Popping a couple of them in her mouth, one answered, "Alaskan High Bush Cranberries" and asked if I wanted to try one.  They seemed to know they weren't poisonous so I picked a couple of them and ate them as well.  Pretty tart and tangy but tasty none the less.  

I had no ill effects.

Three quarters of a mile was a viewing station for the falls so I snapped a couple of shots.

 It wasn't a great view at all so after talking to a pretty young lady at the overlook, with the largest Great Dane I'd ever seen, I discussed with her about getting to the bottom.  I think she was kindly trying to discourage me from going, pointing out that my shoes (a pair of Merrell waterproof hikers) may not be the best for the trip.  I'm pretty sure she was wrong.

Asking about the wildlife, she said she found a dead moose down by the river probably killed by a bear and if I went, I should have some kind of protection.  I pulled my shirt tail aside revealing a large can of Bear Spray on my belt.  "That'll do", she said.

Before I could start the trek down, I met a man and woman with a couple of kids.  The guy was wearing a holster strapped across his chest with what appeared to be a .44 or .454 Casull revolver.  Maybe the lady at the top was serious about being protected.

Anyway it was very easy going down and she was right in respect to being rocky and muddy slippery.
So here's a couple of pictures of the Ekletna River at the base of the falls. 

The whole round trip was probably a couple of miles half of which was very uphill but once I got back to my car, drank a bottle of water and rested a minute, I set my course toward Hatcher Pass near Willow.  I avoided the GPS and took the back roads hoping to spot wild life but none appeared.  It is moose season here so they are laying low.

From Wikipedia: Hatcher Pass (3,886 ft or 1,148 m), also known as Hatcher's Pass by locals, is a mountain pass through the southwest part of the Talkeetna Mountains, Alaska. It is named after Robert Hatcher, a prospector and miner. The nearest cities are Palmer and Wasilla approximately 12 miles (19 km) to the south, and Willow approximately 26 mi (42 km) to the west. The communities are at an elevation of approximately 250 ft (76 m) in the Mat-Su valley. 

From the direction I traveled, it was mostly a dirt road with hunters camping along the rivers and trafficked heavily with various ATVs and off road jalopies.

As I drove along, I saw several places that were being mined for what I guessed would be gold.

Once at the top of the pass there is a small lake that has no obvious source for the water unless it's just the holdover from last year's snows.

Confession time here.  I figured since it had taken me 4 hours to get here, It was going to take the same to get back to Anchorage.  As I went on a little further from the lake the altitude began to drop significantly and I could see what appeared in the distance to be...a hard packed road!?! 

Sure enough, on the other side of the pass was a state park including a lodge.

















Plugging in my GPS, I was pleasantly surprised to find out that I was only 2 hours from my hotel, all on improved roads that took me down by Wasilla River.

It was quite a nice day but I was tired.

My phone app registered over 10,000 steps but it felt more like twice that and I did not see any wildlife.  Not even a bird.

"Not all those who wander are lost."-J.R.R. Tolkien 

Alaska 2018

As fate would have it, I'm back in Alaska, this time in Anchorage.  Hopefully, I will stay long enough to collect a gigabyte or so of picture.

Without a lot of description, here's a few photos.

The wildlife
Alaska Brown Bear

A moose at a preserve

Mother Moose with Calf.  Notice her ears folded back.

Shot of this moose with my cell phone

Traveling about:  Alaska Railroad

 Denali (aka Mt McKinley) a few miles south of Talkeetna

Kenai Lake

Turnagain

Lake Hood Seaplane airport

 

Anchorage skyline at night 

 Aurora Borealis / The Northern Lights with the Big Dipper in the top left

Traveling Alone: Let them know where you are

I am nearing 16 years as a traveling guy for a Fortune 500 and the side benefits are out of this world.  I personally have managed to visit all 50 states as probably many of of you all have.

Most of us have a little spot in us that gives that drive to do that special interest that appeals to you deeply.   I believe there's one TFA whose soul purpose is to visit a Starbucks in every state and there's one I know that can't pass up a chicken and waffle restaurant.  One of us out there collects Harley Davidson pins and visits a US National Park every chance he gets.  All these penchants are fun and usually do not expose you to any inherent dangers.

For me, it's photography and when I get that call for a new assignment, I start hitting google maps trying to figure out where and what I want to shoot.  However, I seem to sometimes get in a jam with my avocation.  You just need to think about your surroundings and be careful.  Things and situations can change quickly.

Case(s) in point:
Years ago, the HQ Team Leader called and sent me to Oregon.  Being from Louisiana, I was just mesmerized at the mountains as I drove south to Roseburg stopping often to snap a picture thinking I'd eventually run out of mountains.  Once there, I began to hear about Crater Lake so that was all I could think of until the weekend came.
 

When Saturday arrived, I pulled out my maps (no GPS for me then) and struck out on my quest.  Riding along, I noticed a waterfall coming off the side of a steep hill so I pulled over, grabbed my camera and began climbing a pile of rocks to get that perfect and up close shot of the cascade but as I began to make my way down,  my foot slipped on a mossy rock and found myself bouncing off a half dozen boulders before I came to a rest in a heap 15 feet below.

My camera was OK but I managed to break an elbow.   In pain, I continued on to Crater lake and took a couple of pics before getting back to the room and dosing up on ibuprofen until I could see a doctor the next day.


Then there was the time at an annual conference in Saint Louis that I got the brilliant idea to go downtown and take a picture of the Gateway Arch at night.  It was a full moon.  I parked my car and made my way to the plaza, wandered around a while to choose how I was going to do my shot.  Not having a tripod, I had to lay down on the concrete,  propped the front of my lens on a book and sited through the viewfinder and squeezing off a dozen or so different shots with various exposures. 

As I fidgeted with my settings, I caught the glimpse of a very large foot next to my head.  Now, if you're lying prostrate on the ground in an unusual place, there are just not many options for a quick escape if there's trouble.  While there were people off at a distance, I was pretty much alone.

Not wanting to make any sudden moves, I slowly turned my head to the direction of the pair of well worn boots and traced the image with my eyes upward to reveal the face of a guy bigger than me with lots of hair and big nasty beard.

"Something I can help you with?", I asked.  It sounded pretty dumb but I was at a loss for words and I was making a vain attempt at appearing cool and not appearing as a victim here.

"Got a buck?", he grunted.

Without a word, I slowly reached into my left jeans pocket, felt a bill and slowly pulled it out and handed to him.  I have no idea how much I gave him.  It could have been a buck or it could have been a twenty.  I didn't know or care at that point and was hoping he wouldn't produce a knife, hammer or screwdriver.

"Thanks!", he said and wandered off into the dark as I pondered if I needed that one more shot of the fountain and arch.   Things could have gone so wrong.


Once while in New Mexico, I thought stopping off at a turn out near Cloudcroft and climbing down into a canyon in search of a small waterfall might be a grand idea.  There was one other car so it had to be safe, right?  Anyway, I took a cell phone pic of the license plate of my car along with the GPS tagging and emailed it to my brother letting him know where I was in case I really didn't come back.

Finally, after crawling down lots of boulders and not encountering rattlesnakes, I reached the bottom of the arroyo and began get my photo groove on.  Somewhere in the distance, I heard thunder.  How nice, it might rain and be cool.  Then I notice a log lodged in the middle of a tree limb about 8 feet above my head.  Yikes, his could become a flash flood in minutes!   I quickly gathered up my camera bag and began crawling back up the boulders not so careful this time.  As an old guy 20 years away from being in shape, I began to wheeze and pant for breath.   I could hear someone coming up the canyon behind me and they were moving fast.  Not to appear in trouble I quickly sat under a mesquite bush and played like I was taking pictures of the surroundings, just as this 30 something local and a couple of teenage kids scurried by me.


The older asked, "You OK, Sir?  You need help?"  I'm certain he noticed the bright red complexion of my face and felt sorry for me.  I tried to appear non-nonchalant and said, "Oh no, I'm fine. Thanks for asking."  I was such a liar.

After they left I took another 20 minutes to get a few more feet to my car.  I called my brother to let him know I was back to my rental.  He said he would have been calling the cops in another 30 minutes if I hadn't called.  As it turned out, I'd injured my knee and developed an infection with a lot of pain that took weeks of meds to cure.

I've got a ton of similar tales but the important thing to remember (particularly for me) is to be aware of your limitations, let someone else know where you are and if possible, don't travel alone in unknown places.   Nowadays, I have an app on my phone that my wife can tap into that will reveal my whereabouts within 100 feet.  I'm long past caring about that kind of privacy and still email my family the license plates of my rental cars.

Texas

After coming home from California, I spent a couple of weeks getting both eyes worked on by removing cataracts.  It makes me feel old to think about it but it certainly had to be done.

When it was over, I was amazed to see how bright and clear things were.  My doctor said it was entirely necessary because I'd probably not be able to pass the drivers license vision test my next time up.

After all that was handled, I had a couple of Texas assignments.  The first was in the small town of Bastrop, just east of Austin.  I'd hoped to see the burst of bluebonnets but unfortunately, the assignment ended before they came to full bloom. 

I did spend a bit of time on weekends walking along the boardwalk in Austin and hiking the state parks nearby.

I had hoped to be there when the bats return to the Congress Street bridge.  Each afternoon just after sundown, bats pour out of the crevices of the bridge and fill the skies attracting hundreds of people just to watch the site.  Again, I had to leave a couple weeks early and missed it.

There was this quick 2 day trip to Oklahoma which yielded nothing but an extra plane ride. After that, I found myself in Weslaco. Texas.  It's a little town in the Rio Grande Valley between McAllen and Brownsville.  (Trivia fact: Weslaco got it's name from the W. E. Steward Land Company)

Fortunately, I was located near another co-worker, Jim Larson with whom I spent a lot of time with exploring the RGV and much of what it had to offer. That included a lot of Mexican and seafood.

Besides the tourist attractions, I managed to become friends with some locals and for a while considered myself as either a Winter Texan.  Since it wasn't winter any longer and the temps were now reaching 100°, I'll refer to myself as an Undocumented Texan.  Either way, I think Texas and I fit.

Included in our explorations were the butterfly sanctuaries.  I found out more facts about the Monarch Butterfly than I could possibly explain in this blog.  Just look it up, it's astounding.

In every location, certain birds were everywhere.  Some of the more common birds were loud and noisy Chachalacas.  These birds were sometimes called Mexican Pheasants.  I asked a naturalist if they were edible and he said yes but they were a protected species in Texas so they weren't to be hunted.  Another was the big black Crackles.  They too were loud but not nearly as large as the Chachalacas.

On this picture, you'll have to look closely between the two Crackles to see the well camouflaged Chachalaca.

We did see a pair of Orioles nesting.  The nests were fascinating in the way they hung like a big bag from the tree limbs.  I've never seen an Oriole.  This species doesn't get too far north in the USA but is home in the Rio Grande Valley (RGV).

When I first arrived it was spring break time so it took a month or so to conjure a trip to South Padre Island.  I was disappointed there were no naturally growing trees there but the beach people didn't seem to mind.

One weekend, Jim and I rode over to Corpus Christi and took a tour of the USS Lexington Aircraft Carrier, now a museum with several airplanes on display on the deck.  Jim, being a former Navy pilot was all over the place.

Good times.

Texas has come and gone for now but I still miss it.