Heading South

After camping for several days down by the Rio Grande in Big Bend, we moved up to Chisos Basin and stayed at the lodge there. Very different terrain again--several thousand feet higher, greener, and mountainous. We enjoyed hiking out to a point called the "Window" with a beautiful overlook out to the valley below--it actually did look like a window out to another world. Unfortunately we can't post any pictures right now because we're using a public computer at the library, but maybe we can find a spot to get access from our laptop. Big Bend is a huge park--800,000 acres--and we feel like we got just a taste of it. Definitely need to go back.

On Thursday we headed down to the lower Rio Grande Valley. We've been enjoying an audio-CD of Bill Bryson's book about his travels in Australia (thank you Mar). He has such a knack for finding the unusual and the humorous, and we had just been listening to the part about the Ned Kelly museum when we saw a sign for the Judge Roy Bean museum in Langtry TX. Normally when we're rolling along with a destination in mind we are reluctant to stop, but Bryson inspired us! So we got to see the actual saloon/courthouse where Bean dispensed his unusual form of frontier justice.

Friday and Saturday we did some birding in the Mission, TX area. It was cool and drizzly, so not great birding, but Len still managed about a dozen lifers, including the Audubon's and Altamira orioles.

This week we're staying on South Padre Island. It's off-season, so very quiet, but the weather forecast is for sunny and warm (low to mid-80's) all week. Water temperature is 80 degrees. Lots of relaxing on the beach is forecast for the Blauws.

We have seen Calvin's Emily Brink's name in the news twice in the past week. Once in the USA Today where she was pictured with a Chinese Christian in an article about the church in China. The 11-19/05 Wall Street Journal quotes her in an article about the Thanksgiving song "We Gather Together."

Well, time to pick up the RAV after its oil change and head for the beach. Happy Thanksgiving to all.