Fort Stockton, Texas: Wide Open Spaces & Roadrunners

Today MLA & I left Columbus, Texas and after driving a distance of ~425 miles we decided to stop in Fort Stockton, Texas. Fort Stockton is pretty much in the middle of West Texas and it's another 250 miles before we reach El Paso, Texas. We also thought this would be a good jumping off point to head north to Carlsbad Caverns.

A good friend, John G., suggested we take a slight detour to Carlsbad Caverns, which is just a few hours North. MLA & I were pretty excited about seeing Carlsbad Caverns since we have heard Carlsbad Caverns are the best caverns in the country, and John confirmed that fact.

MLA's enthusiasm disappeared once we checked out the weather forecast. Looks like we'll have to hit the caverns when it's a little warmer as the forecast for the Guadalupe Mountains is cold and colder. Wouldn't matter in the caverns underground where the temperature is a constant mid-50's however I don't want the RV's pipes to freeze. Or MLA's for that matter....

Guess what happened today?

MLA, my normally reliable and faithful co-pilot, the person I depend on to keep me in the know, the person who is never at a loss for words, the person who takes great delight in directing my activities, who never misses an opportunity to speak her mind, well, guess what she did? Or more correctly, what she didn't do.

At a rest stop somewhere in the hill country of Texas I jumped out of the RV to stretch my legs and do my usual walk-around to ensure everything is OK with the RV & Toad. At the last second I grabbed my camera just to shoot a few pictures. Not that this rest stop had much in the way of scenic beauty but what the heck, I can usually find something interesting to photograph.

So what happened, er, didn't happen? After my walk-around I stood next to the RV taking a few photo's and then hopped into the RV. As I am putting the RV into gear, my delightful wife says "What kind of bird was that?" to which I replied "What bird?".

Turns out there was a Roadrunner about 5 feet behind me and MLA just assumed I was taking pictures of the bird, the bird on the ground, behind me. She thought I was taking it's picture. I pointed out I had my camera pointed up at the horizon and in the opposite direction. No matter, MLA insists the missed photo was my fault. She says she would have told me but was sure I had seen the bird....

Look at the picture above and imagine, if you will, the highly elusive Roadruner, standing just 5 feet behind me... It's just not the same, is it?

I then proceeded to hop out and see if I could catch up to the Roadrunner however they have incredible speed. In fact, they are so fast they are the only animal (that I know of) that feeds on rattlesnakes. They pick them up by the tail and snap the snake like a whip, repeatedly striking the snake's head against the ground until the rattlesnake 'rattles no more'. Soooo, little wonder I was unable to catch up to the Roadrunner.

MLA thought the whole thing was hilarious, especially since I had a zoom lens that could see into the next county and I didn't get a picture of this large bird standing next to me. I however, fail to see the humor -- well, OK, maybe I see a little humor. I informed MLA this was a serious breach of her co-pilot responsibilities -- not that she'll lose any sleep over it...

Tomorrow we head off again on I-10 West.... Only 264 more miles to go before we are out of Texas. Yee Haw!

See Ya!