A Friday Drive

We woke up to another overcast day...  in fact, I heard rain on our roof a couple of times during the night.  Not hard rain... just a scattering of raindrops not lasting any time at all.  But it was cold and looking pretty dreary.

I guess the deer found the feeder very inviting this morning.  I believe there are 10 or more in this picture...  all having breakfast.

Bill was ready to take a break from working outside.  One thing we've both been interested in doing is working as a "guard".  Here in the west (probably elsewhere as well), you'll see RVs parked at the entrance to drilling sites, construction jobs and such places that vandalism or unauthorized folks might like to check out.  When we were in Cleburne a few weeks ago we saw a sign advertising a company that provides this service.

The only "paying" job we've had since we've been on the road was in 2003 and we worked at the Indianapolis Speedway.  While it may not have been the "job from hell", we must surely have been in purgatory that whole month. 

While we love volunteering at National Wildlife Refuges, we are ready for a different kind of adventure and wanted to check this out.

The office was closed but we have a phone number and will contact them later.  Have any of my fellow bloggers done this kind of work?  Let me know....

After stopping at the gate service place it was still early.  We weren't in any hurry to get home so decided to take a "scenic route" back.  A scenic route to us means anything from getting lost and going miles out of our way to...  well...  a real scenic route.

This road would take us to Cleburne State Park...

Now, remember we're in Texas...  scenic here doesn't mean mountains and bubbling brooks.  But, my! you can just about see forever!  There is some farmland, but most of what you see is range...  cattle grazing on practically nothing.  I don't know how many cows an acre of land can support, but I have a feeling that (especially during drought) it just ain't many!

I did manage to get a shot of this roadrunner.  Usually these wily critters (and you thought the coyote was the ony wily one, didn't you?) are too fast for me to get their picture.  AHA! Got this one!

We stopped at the Cleburne State Park...  thought we'd check out their campgrounds.  There was an entry fee of $5 a person... 

I asked the attendant if we could just go for a look...  he was kind enough to give us a half hour permit for free.

Obviously we didn't have time to take a lot of pictures, but what we saw was very attractive.  There were several campgrounds - mostly close to the water, but still somewhat remote.  As we turned in our permit when we leaving, Bill overheard the attendant, who was on the phone, say that there was an opening for tonight, but the rest of the weekend was totally booked.  Since we have a perfect spot at Celeste's, it isn't likely we'd stay, but ...  one never knows....

After leaving the State Park, we happened upon this....

HUGE operation.....

And This...

All those trees and the ground are coated with white dust!!!

What's going on here?

It's the Texas Lime Company.  I'll have to Google this because we don't know a thing about it.  I can only say that the operation is humongus...  and that we see many, many trucks on the road that are probably carrying this product.  After looking at those trees covered in that white dust I couldn't help but think of emphysema, white lung, and various other respiratory ailments.

Moving right along....

We came across this plaque...

"This cluster of oaks has weathered hundreds of years of lightning strikes... strong winds...  dry spells, followed by wet spells and cattle rustlers once hanging on a rope from its limbs and yet still stands like a silent sentinel to the early pioneers who blazed this historic trail."

And behind the plaque...

Are what remains of those mighty oaks.  I should have asked Bill to stand beside them as they are MUCH larger than they appear.  Unfortunately, they got some kind of disease a couple of years ago that has all but destroyed them.  Soon they will be no more than a heap of rotted wood.

But one can see how magnificent they must have been...

The morning was nearly past...  the sky had cleared up...  the sun was even shining.  We hadn't packed a lunch so headed on home.

There is just SO much to see...  even in a few hour's drive into the countryside.

Oh yes...  that motion sensor camera...  It doesn't just pick up deer and rabbits and the such...  it picks up whatever moves...

Just in case you're interested, Victor and Bill were setting the pole for the purple martin house at 3:41pm yesterday afternoon.  The temperature was 56 degrees...  and the moon phase looks about half....  

One has to be careful about what one does when they think they're alone in the great outdoors.

:-)

That's All for Today...