Quiet Week

It has been a relatively quiet week out here. I worked Monday through Wednesday and now have 3 days off. My friend Joan is going to ride along with me Sunday and Terry and I hiked a little bit yesterday. Today I should be baking a pie for tomorrow night's potluck Christmas gathering at Jeff and Binky's house. Jeff is our maintenance supervisor on this side of the park and Binky is his wife. The Christmas gathering is a real tradition here and they are having a gift exchange which I understand can include white elephant gifts! Good - because I think that is all I have in the house! Everyone is looking forward to this event.

I also did some hiking this week. My foot felt well enough to hike the Marufo Vega and the first 10 miles went by pain-free. Not so much the lat 4 miles, but I took it easy, iced it after the hike, took lots of Ibuprofen and all is well!

Karen (left, instructor) and Julie (from Elgin!) practicing AED skills.

Marufo Vega wild burros spying on me! Actually the black one was snorting! Was he warning me, telling the others to watch out for me, or as Daisy suggested he was reading my mind? I was hoping the burros would come over and give me a ride home the last 4 miles! She thinks he had read my mind and was telling me "No Way!!!!"

Merry Christmas from neighbors Robert, Glenda and their doggie, Buddy. They found this Christmas blow-up dachshund at a Walmart and since it was the only one in stock the store sold Robert their display model. Most of us do not haul around lots of extras like holiday decorations. Robert and Glenda live in Del Rio, only 4 hours away, so they have lots of cool stuff!

RGV Nature pond birdie. Looks like a duck but definitely not a duckie bill, huh.

I've never heard of Williams Crossing but found this sign on the Nature Overlook trail. More history to learn!

Oh! Oh! Trespass horse seeking asylum in US. He refused all efforts to chase him peacefully back to Mexico.

One of the beautiful wash areas up on Old Ore Road.

Terry and I were doing some bushwhacking with her GPS and found this horse shoe and a great campfire ring which we imagined was from the era of caballeros and early settlers.

Dinosaur vertebra.

Lastly, I want to share a greeting made by former camphosts, Royce and Royann. They said "the hard part was getting the bird to sit still enough by the ornament to get a good picture" So clever!!