I will leave Big Bend in the morning, back at the campground it has filled up a bit there is now a small class A sitting between me and the truck camper, a few others have set up a tent or 2 here and there...still a small crowd. This campground has 2 pit toilets...the closest one is the worst example of a pit toilet, so I walk to the farthermost one. The difference is amazing...I think maintenance has recently been done in one unit.
g. roadrunner finds a meal
SO now I admit this little tidbit. On this trip TWICE I walked into male bathrooms. With the modern entrance there is no barrier. The door-less maze-walk-in does not stop someone who is not paying attention! (moi) Seriously???? Thank goodness no men were present..but when I look up and see a row of urinals and only 2 stalls with doors....that is my que to get the heck out!! About face immediately! If men had been present they would have been unhappy I imagine...Jeeze. Once in a Walmart, (they are NOT laid out the same) and once again in a roadside rest area...after the second time... "okay this is crazy, will you please stop and study the little "icon" at the entry point before proceeding"??
This whole thing brought back a memory of another trip where a woman did the same thing and I heard the men tell her "You're in the men's room" ...she yelled and laughed and announced her mistake once inside the ladies room. I took a stroll through the campground to the back end where the group camp is it was vacant and I saw bird movement back there...
g. roadrunner finds a meal
SO now I admit this little tidbit. On this trip TWICE I walked into male bathrooms. With the modern entrance there is no barrier. The door-less maze-walk-in does not stop someone who is not paying attention! (moi) Seriously???? Thank goodness no men were present..but when I look up and see a row of urinals and only 2 stalls with doors....that is my que to get the heck out!! About face immediately! If men had been present they would have been unhappy I imagine...Jeeze. Once in a Walmart, (they are NOT laid out the same) and once again in a roadside rest area...after the second time... "okay this is crazy, will you please stop and study the little "icon" at the entry point before proceeding"??
This whole thing brought back a memory of another trip where a woman did the same thing and I heard the men tell her "You're in the men's room" ...she yelled and laughed and announced her mistake once inside the ladies room. I took a stroll through the campground to the back end where the group camp is it was vacant and I saw bird movement back there...
It looks like a cicada, he hammers it a few times them...down it goes.
a little video..
and finally a still roadrunner.
Vermilion flycatchers were busy in this campground too.
along with Nashville Warblers, Yellow Warblers, Lark Sparrows, Western and Couch's Kingbird, Painted Buntings, Inca Doves, Brown headed Cowbirds, and one Grey Hawk!!
She had a nest up in this tree...I was not able to get a shot of her but she called many times and shuffled around the top of the tree a few times, that is her nest. Here is Scarlet Tanager I think. The wings and tail look very dark...
I found out about the nest from this lady she is the owner of the truck camper I mentioned. The tree is driectly over her campsite another reason I did not get a photo of the bird, I would be violating this lady's personal space in my opinion,...and disturbing her..and look she is a most talented lady!!
She is from Colorado and she was on her last day in Big Bend as well...I imagine that truck camper is full of paintings as she had been in the park a month. I hope you can see the details in her painting.
a Nashville Warbler peeking down out of the trees...
I stopped at one overlook area when I left Santa Elena Canyon the day before and spotted and took this photo of this bird...I studied and studied it and finally concluded it is a female Lark Bunting. Cant think of nothing else it could be! So here is My lark bunting sighting. I did show it in the last post but didn't mention it's a life bird...
In the morning I had one more walk about the campground then
I left the park I sure loved Big Bend and would come back for sure....it's such a gorgeous landscape full of wild life too. I left via the west entry and into the Ghost town of Terlingua.
The claim to fame then famine was Quicksilver!! Better known as Mercury!
Many of the past city's inhabitants now reside here in the old cemetery... died of an influenza Pandemic in 1918.
the sign says they celebrate every Nov 2 The Day of the Dead I saw many remnants of those past celebrations, they need to do a cemetery clean up day! Most of these fallen over crosses are illegible.
according to the last census 56 people still make this town home...I did see a few artsy type shops, I did not stop to check inside...just drove through and kept...going.
I hit the road heading north toward Guadalupe Mountain National Park. After gassing up in Study Butte.
PEACE
Eleanor Roosevelt: You must do the thing you think you can not.
Those vermilion flycatchers are striking. I've wandered into the wrong toilets on occasions, beats me why we dont have unisex toilets like those in many parts of France. They often have an old lady sitting outside who looks after the toilets but charges you a couple of cents. Well worth it as they're kept clean
ReplyDeleteWell I'm all for individual bathrooms...that are unisex, you go in you lock the door you use it then leave. Simple and easy.
DeleteNice last day at the Cottonwood Campground. I wonder if they roadrunners were bit mature or maybe just another species as I didn't see the coloring around the eyes, of course they could have been female. I never understood the draw some folks have to Terlingua.
ReplyDeleteI noticed the red is not always visible on the roadrunners, I can't tell male from female maybe if I was more used to seeing them...the only thing I saw of Interest in Terlingua was the cemetery. The old stone ruins were kind of nice, I didn't go into the church.
DeleteWe stayed in Terlingua one night -- it was pretty darn interesting. Loved the rest of Big Bend trip... I loved that whole trip so much. Thanks for the memories.
ReplyDeleteI did a quick drive through wondering why they call it a ghost town when they have built new around the old...def a quirky place!
ReplyDelete