Home again, Home again

Sorry our posting has been so sporatic. We were busy sightseeing. We travelled the Natchez Trace Parkway and were without internet connections for the entire trip. Seems Mississippi does not have Verizon coverage. The Trace was beautiful, an explosion of Spring. Then we visited relatives and had the unfortunate experience of visiting one critically ill relative and attending his funeral. Sad times! We are now home and very busy getting unpacked and resettled. No plans for another trip anytime soon but we will be 'on the road again" in the future.

MEAT EATING PLANTS!

The plants are a sundew and a pitcher plant. BC found them yesterday on a trail in the Big Thicket National Preserve here is East Texas. These guys use their flowers and scent to lure in insects and then when the bug gets stuck they digest it for the nutrients. Fortunately they don't eat people.

We are staying at Martin Dies Jr State Park near Jasper , TX and visiting the Big Thicket area. This is a lovely, peaceful spot. We are surrounded by hugh pine trees and magnolias. The lake in front of our campsite has herons, egrets, fishermen, etc. This area is very different from the other parts of Texas we have visited.

Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Preserve

Today we visited the Wildflower Preserve and saw the Texas Bluebonnets, Indian Paintbrush-separately and together. The Pipevine Swallowtail butterfly even got into the act. It was a day filled with many new and beautiful native Texas plants. Yep, seems everything is bigger in Texas.

We will remember the Alamo!

We visited the Alamo (above) several times and also the Riverwalk and the Missions in San Antonio. The city is really interesting. We spent some time watching a male pigeon ruffle his feathers and strut his stuff for all the ladies in Alamo Square. And as usual Bill took a few pictures.
Today we moved north to Austin. We are camped under an enormous live oak tree in McKinney Falls State Park. We plan to seek out some Texas Bluebonnets and anything else that catches our interest. Maybe we'll get a good photo-time will tell.

San Antonio Botanical Gardens

Yesterday we toured the San Antonio Botanical Gardens. The above photos show you some of the fun things we did there. Actually when we weren't taking funny photos BC was taking many many photos of all the beautiful flowers, trees, etc in the gardens. We walked miles! When we got back to the RV we were beat. Today we've done household chores and recouped from all that effort. We plan more sightseeing in San Antonio soon. Maybe we'll show a photo of the city instead of the visitors having fun.

Texas Hospitality

The Couch's Kingbird above was not too hospitable to this poor butterfly. In a very short time that butterfly was history and the bird had a smirk on his face. (He does have to eat to survive, I suppose)

While photographing in the area where this bird was, Bill met a man named Gene who lives nearby. Gene has a beautiful home on Lake Casa Blanca. We are staying at Lake Casa Blanca State Park here in Laredo. Gene was having a BBQ last night and invited us to join them. Ribs, chicken, sausages and all the trimmings. Even better than the food was the welcome and conversation with Gene and his friends. Gene's Texas hospitality is certainly the highlight of our time in Laredo.

Today we travel to San Antonio for a 10 day stay. we've been told that San Anton is about 10 degrees cooler than Laredo. That is fine with us-these temps near 90 are a bit warm.

As Bill walks down. . . . .

the streets of Laredo! Yep that is Bill on the street in the heart of Laredo, TX. Today we toured downtown Laredo. The street where he is standing and many streets in this part of town are of brick construction. The heart of Laredo is not like the center of most large cities. It is virbrant with lots of people, many stores and much activity. We did some shopping in the area and just walked around being a part of the activity.