April 23, 2008

April 23, 2008

South Llano River State Park in Texas turned out to be a gem of a park. We picked it purely by accident. Once we arrived, the ranger greeted us and told us about bird blinds scattered around the pretty park. Aimee loves birds! After dinner we checked out two of the blinds. They are pretty elaborate setups, with stadium seating, identification charts, and numbered feeding stations. By far the most striking bird we spotted was a Painted Bunting, a bird that resembled a small version of a multicolored parrot.

On the walk back we saw a couple armadillos. Being Midwesterners we had never seen one before (at least alive and not dead on the road). They are very unusual creatures looking like a possum in armor. The next morning we went back to the blinds, passing by a couple Rio Grande Turkey toms gobbling away, and found the blinds to be crowded with avid birders. One had a camera with a lens twice as wide as my old telescope. It was comical listening to them talk about the yellow bellied this versus the red-headed that. On the way back to the RV we noticed that every campsite even had hangers for bringing personal feeders along. I guess a true-birders paradise.

I like to look at birds too, but an hour tops. So it was back in the RV heading east. We traveled thru Texas Hill Country arriving in its capital, Fredericksburg. Hill Country is picturesque rolling hills of very rocky terrain filled with stunted growth trees. Although the land looks agriculturally pretty worthless, very fancy ranch gates line the roads. I guess Aimee and I are not the only ones who would love to have nice ranch by a stream in this area. If it only wasn’t so far from civilization!

We spend the rest of the afternoon shopping in Fredericksburg and spend the night in the local Lady Bird Johnson municipal park.