CHICOT PARK ARBORETUM

We read a forbidding weather report and the day dawned dark and cloudy. This squirrel outside our window didn’t seem to mind a bit.

We blogged, showered and breakfasted and got to the arboretum just as it opened. It is part of the park. The first raindrops had already started.

Inside, good displays, pictures of plants identified. Braille leaves like these and bird and animal sounds. Great stuff for kids and big kids. We took the trail maps and chose the shortest one.

I finely learned that this flower is a carolina jasmine. A woody, twisty vine.

The woods are gray and drab during the winter, but you get to see the “bones” of the forest.

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Bright, shiny leaves against the forest gray, draw the eye. A swamp magnolia.

White patches of christmas lichen. Named so because you can also find it in pink, turquoise, green and yellow. Sometimes on the same tree.

More of it  on this dead branch.

A toothache tree. So called because of the swelling bumps that develop on the bark. Double click to enlarge.

The swamp has  more mature cypress than Sam Houston Jones State Park, and less light on this moody day. The rain is stronger.

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The rain chased us home.

Shortly after we settled in, the skies dumped and obliterated the air, the ground, everything. It poured, hailed, and quickly flooded the area around us. We gave up on the idea of hauling our clothes to the laundry. We stayed in all day and read, edited pictures,  uploaded albums and took care of on-line chores. Not without jumping once in a while at a gunshot loud thunder-clap. It rained so hard,  several times I felt the ceiling inside the closets because I feared they must be leaking. Thankfully not.

RAIN, RAIN, GO AWAY!

Our planned trip to South Padre Island got dumped on ALL DAY.  That river is in front of the motor home.

The wind blew and blew. We braved the weather and took my bike to a bike shop. It needed a tire, the brakes adjusted and new derailleurs But, the derailleurs, he told me, will be just as bad in two months carrying it like we do without a cover. A problem to chew over.

The jack rabbits did their best to stay warm by curling up as tight as possible. This one took refuge away from the wind by backing up to a tree.

This one hunkered down in the grass and made himself as round and tucked in as possible.

It was a good day for reading and listening to the weather beat around the motor home giving us some unwanted rock n’ roll. The weather report is telling us we’ll be getting more of the same. With 100 percent humidity, it becomes hard to sleep at night as the temperature warms.

Even so, I don’t think it is a good idea to deal with climate change by salting clouds to reflect sunlight and heat away. It seems to me the more we mess with nature, without a clear idea of what can go wrong, things often get worse down the line. (Cloud salting is a new idea to help mitigate warming climate change.)

Harlingen, Texas – Day 1

Mary remains at home in California tending to medical and personal business issues. She has made her airline reservations to join me at Harlingen, Texas on January 3, 2013.

The motorhome is parked at American Legion Post #205 in Harlingen, Texas.

As always you may left click upon an image to see an enlarged view and then click once again to see an even larger view…

I always like to show the view from the dinette window…

I thought I would stay in Roma, Texas one more day, but I had finished with my business in the area, I had a poor and sporadic Internet signal and the temperature forecast was four degrees less in Harlingen than Roma, 84 instead of 88, those three factors made me move on down the road.

So I drove the motorhome the about 95 miles east-southeast to Harlingen, It was not a pleasant drive. During the entire trip I fought a 35 mile per hour with gusts to 50 miles per hour wind from out of the South which hit the motorhome broadside on the passenger side trying to push me into the next left lane. Since the wind was out of the South it was heavily laden with HUMIDITY! Consequently it proved to be a very tiring drive.

Today I’ll move into the Tropic Winds RV Resort about five miles away and expect to be there until January 10th. All part of my planned hibernation from the colder northern weather. We have a cold front coming into the area for a couple of days…high today is forecast at 67 degrees.

For today’s photos I’m going to show you the Old Roma area near the Roma Bluffs that overlook the Rio Grande River and Cuidad Miguel Aleman, Tamaulipas, Mexico on the other side of the river. You can read about Roma, Texas by clicking this Wikipedia informational link…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roma,_Texas

As always you may left click upon an image to see an enlarged view and then click once again to see an even larger view…

Enjoying old historic towns is another joy of the RVing lifestyle!

The red dot on the below map shows my approximate location in the State of Texas. You may double left-click the map to make it larger…

Enjoying 65-75 degree temperatures most of the year is a primary joy in the RVing lifestyle!

“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving”…Albert Einstein

If you have not checked out my Ramblin Man’s Photos Blog, you can do so by clicking this link…
http://ramblinmanphotos.wordpress.com/

All original material Copyright – Jim Jaillet 2012
For more information about my three books, click this link:
http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/panamaorbust

POSTING GLITCH

Yesterday, when I wanted to post pictures from Portland, the post managers changed the way pictures load. They never tell you about changes.  They just arbitrarily let you figure it out for yourself. Jim admitted having difficulty as well. He figured it out and helped me out. The new process created an extra step to load pictures, and your pictures no longer load in sequence, they always move to the top position.  Rather than improving the process they made it more difficult. We figure these guys want to impress the boss, or need to validate their presence as an employee so they suggest “improvements”. Hah! It would improve things if they’d get input from users first.

I have a hoard of bridge pictures. One of my brothers worked retrofitting and building new bridges for many years. He decided to move about the country and take pictures of bridges because many of them are replaced as roads expand and population increases. Now, wherever I go, I take pictures of bridges. This one brings you into Portland from the Southeast if I remember correctly.

And this picture tells a story. Makes you wonder if the quest was successful.

Pioneer Square in Portland is loaded with water fountains, water animal sculptures and fun. If you visit, don’t miss Pioneer Square.

It is raining outside. Supposedly we will get flood stage rains of 12 inches. Time to get out the rowboat or I’ll be stranded.  My car is in the Toyota Dealership 60 miles away getting a new battery pack. Supposed to be windy, too. Time to make flight arrangements back to the Motor Home.

CASTING OUR FATE TO THE SUN AND WIND.

This year, the Obama administration moved to streamline the development of large-scale solar projects on public lands by approving vast tracts across the West  identified as the highest generating potential with the fewest environmental impacts. These sites were identified after the results of an environmental impact report.  An area of 285,000 acres, with sites in Nevada, Colorado, Utah, California, Arizona and New Mexico are in the works.  Jim and I saw one of those massive solar plants  being built in New Mexico earlier in the year.  We wondered why it was out in the middle of no-where. We didn’t know about the way the sites were chosen. Anyway, net result is clean power and jobs, jobs, jobs.

When I had my solar installed, there was a handful of people installing under rigid inspections and rules to make sure there was no space for failure during the process. Now I could choose from 600 different solar producers and as many installers. The rigid inspection process is still that way. I’m investigating solar for a rental because costs have come down so far.

And, we get enough electricity from wind power for 13 million homes. The energy department predicts  that by 2030, we could get 20 percent of our energy from the wind, about as much as we now get from nuclear power plants.

But progress on wind power is in jeopardy because Congress  has yet to renew an important incentive set to expire at the end of this year. It is called the production tax credit, or PTC,  Without it orders for wind turbines are likely to stall, impeding our transition away from coal. The wind industry employs over 37,000 Americans, and we need to keep those jobs, jobs, jobs.

The PTC was instituted by the George H.W. Bush administration, a sensible policy where anyone who operates a wind turbine or solar biomass, or other type of renewable power plant that produces a significant level of electricity to the commercial grid, receives a federal tax credit of 2.2 cents for every kilowatt-hour of power it produces for the first ten years of its life. It got renewed by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act stimulus package of 2009.

Two Republicans, Representative David Reichert, and Senator Chuck Grassley have sponsored versions to renew it through 2016 in the house, and 2014 in the senate. Neither measure  has come up for a vote but it is already being heavily lobbied against by the fossil fuel industries.

As a political pessimist, I fear the worst, and hope I’m wrong.  Wind generation is actually competitive in price with the energy produced by NEW coal plants and in my opinion no NEW coal plants should  be issued permits until they can reduce industrial pollution to an acceptable level. Coal plants actually cause deaths from their mercury, soot and carbon emissions, not to mention death to fish in streams.  Wind and solar save our planet from tons and tons of carbon emissions, a clean air benefit for everybody.

THIS HEADLINE WAS IN THE WASHINGTON POST YESTERDAY MORNING:

Security lapses at nuclear site found before break-in
Security problems at Y-12 nuclear complex were identified in classified reports nearly two years before three activists broke into the facility where weapons-grade uranium is stored.
( by Dana Priest , The Washington Post)

After the Japanese disaster, and the huge up front government subsidies to build nuclear power plants (way over the small PTC tax credits), and proven vulnerability of nuclear power plants,  why would we as a responsible nation even consider building more nuclear power plants? The cost to run them  per watt exceeds that of wind and solar. The volatile nature of Uranium, its storage and no ability to render it harmless, are an ever-present danger. In a nuclear plant disaster, the cost to bring it back on-line, if it could be repaired at all, is billions.

If you add into the equation the affects of climate change on hydro power,  wind and solar seem like an even better bet. Check the link below.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/climate-change-challenges-power-plant-operations/2012/09/09/42b26b8e-f6a5-11e1-8b93-c4f4ab1c8d13_story.html

And, don’t get me started on fracking. What a dismal proposal that is. I hope you are listening Obama and Canada.

 

SOUTH RIM GIVEN TO THE WIND

Thank goodness I have a floppy hat with a chin strap, but the wind was even worse than the day before. At Tunnel overlook,  above,  I managed to take one picture.  Neither of us would even try the chiseled steps down into the canyon to see the tunnel for fear of being blown off balance. When I opened the door to the Bronco, the wind pulled out of my hand so fiercely, I couldn’t get it closed. Then, when I returned to the Bronco, while closing the door, the wind wrenched it so hard the arm-rest handle broke.

Tsegi Overlook was close by.  The haze at the back of the canyon is dust raised by wind.  This time Jim backed the Bronco into a parking spot so the wind couldn’t slam the door open.

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Driving the short distance to our third stop,  Junction Overlook, the road in front of us was billowing with dust.  Grit scalded my bare legs where I stood on the rim.

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We were out for about 30 minutes. The overlooks were close to each other, but the next one was nine miles away. We decided to call it a day. And glad we were. We returned to spend the rest of the day, doing more tin can rock and roll. Winds blew a steady 60 miles per hour all day with gusts of 70 to 75. Green branches were blown off trees in the park,  one of them hit the motor home. Sand skittered in waves across the paved areas.  The extremely fine dust filtered in through every crack  putting a fine particulate on the fruit in the bowl, our computers, floors and every surface. It seemed unreal. We are told the weather for our jeep tour today will be better. The tour is called Shake And Bake because it is hot in the canyon and the roads are bumpy. We’ll try to finish the South Rim overlooks on Monday.

A Final Look At Rockhound State Park, Deming, New Mexico

I’ve been here for ten nights and the high winds and colder temperatures are finally gone and it’s time for me to roll along. I thought I’d share with you a final look of this nice state park…

As always you may left click upon an image to see an enlarged view and then click once again to see an even larger view...

Approaching the park from about two miles away…

A closer view where the abundant pansy flowers cover the mountain side…

Through the magic of Google Earth a beautiful view of the Little Florida Mountains. X marks my campsite location…

Last Sunday we had sustained 45-50 mile per hour winds…with frequent gusts to 70+ miles per hour. To show the effects of that wind…compare the next two photos which are or less the same photos. This first on was taken on March 12th…with no wind…

And next on Sunday March 18th with winds gusting to 70+ miles per hour.  On the valley floor its blowing sand…up higher the resulting dust obscures the background mountains so that they are barely seen…

And how about just one more spectacular desert sunset photo…

Finally a Deming, New Mexico sunrise (about ten miles distant) as seen through the windshield of the motorhome…

The desert is such an awesome place. It’s been a very enjoyable stay at this scenic New Mexico State Park.

Today’s destination is City of Rocks State Park.

All original material Copyright – Jim Jaillet 2012
For more information about my three books, click this link:
http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/panamaorbust

By The Hands Of Others…

I’ve long envied people who can create beauty with their hands. A skill I do not possess. I’m the only guy I know that cannot cut a straight line with a Skil Saw. Heck, I can’t even pick my nose good. It’s a good thing I never had to use my hands in a creative manner to earn a living.

Last Wednesday, before Mary boarded the Amtrak train in Deming, New Mexico, we found that we had a little extra time to kill before it arrived. So we dropped into the local Deming Luna Mimbres Museum. It’s quite large, very clean and interesting. Since we only had about 45 minutes before they closed, we headed off in different directions. I ended up in the Western historical section.

Here are some of the things I saw…

As always you may left click upon an image to see an enlarged view and then click once again to see an even larger view...

This first image was in a New Mexico Centennial quilt…

But, here’s what really caught my attention since I still draw/paint like a fifth-grader. I hope you appreciate these beautiful Southwest paintings as much as I did…

Absolutely great paintings! My 45 minutes were well spent.

In other news…

I’m entering my second day of a four-day forecast of high velocity winds. According to my Accuweather.com forecast, winds gusts will exceed 50 miles per hour. Since the motorhome is broadside to the oncoming winds, I’m really rocking and rolling. It made for a difficult night’s sleep. Kind of like trying to sleep on the bottom of a rowboat in the middle of a tumultuous ocean storm. Unlike last week’s 75 mile per hour wind gusts in Columbus, New Mexico, because of my higher location, there’s no sand or dust  reaching the motorhome. It’s all suppose to end by Tuesday and I’m expecting to hit the road once again on Wednesday.

All original material Copyright – Jim Jaillet 2012
For more information about my three books, click this link:
http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/panamaorbust

A Visit With Aaron And CeeCee…

Yesterday we drove the about 100 mile from Florence to Sixes, Oregon to visit my friends Aaron and CeeCee. We are parked in their yard. They are a fun couple. Mary had previously met Aaron but not CeeCee. We sent an enjoyable day together filled with lots of laughter and a great meal.

You may click on the photos to see enlarged views…

Aaron and CeeCee have three cats. Their newest and youngest…Charlie…provided me with some photo ops…

Shortly after our arrival it started to RAIN and the WIND BLEW VIGOROUSLY! It rained all night and is still raining hard this morning. Looking at the weather forecast it appears we are caught in the first major storm of the oncoming Winter season. Aaron and CeeCee live not far from Cape Blanco State Park where Winter winds have reached 100 miles per hour in the past. The forecast for the next three days along the southern Oregon and northern California coasts is for lots of rain and winds gusting to 60 miles per hour. So our plan is to continue working our way in a southerly direction exercising lots of careful driving and slower than usual speeds. Temperatures are forecast to be 10-15 degrees below normal.

All original material Copyright – Jim Jaillet 2011
For more information about my three books, click this link:
http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/panamaorbust

OREGON DUNES AND WATERFRONT DEPOT

Where we are parked is near the north end of the Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area. Its interesting topography, with sand and wind formed plants. Low bushes looked carved; tough grasses sway with the wind and hold the soil. Swampy salt marshes mingle with dunes. Much of the area is over burdened with the invasive Scotch Broom again. Here it is absolutely monstrous in spots, showing the effect it has on crowding  native plants. It doesn’t detract from its beauty, though.

We hiked up to the top of one dune. It’s still cold enough to discourage swimmers.

We drove to the South Jetty area and hiked out to watch a guy wind surfing.

By the time we got close enough to take a picture, he was out of the water with his loyal dog nearby.

Various views reminded me of picture post cards.

Then we went to town for an early dinner at the Waterfront Depot and the “promised” good food. Not disappointed. The crab encrusted halibut in a cream sauce with a caesar salad was every bit has wonderful as promised. The sauce wasn’t overly rich and dependent on gobs of butter. It had a slight tang and sweetness that was new to me. For appetizers Jim and I shared steamer clams and mussels in a garlic butter broth with bits of fresh tomato and parsley. Again, the butter was reserved rather than overpowering. They have an extensive wine list, and good beers as well. Desert lovers praised deserts here and our waiter tempted us with a thin slice of a Mexican chocolate cake, but we managed to resist.

The menu changes depending on what fish is in season, but I saw an order of ossa busso come out of the kitchen and regretted that we would not be spending another night here. The entire menu, by the way, is on the chalk board. You can click on it to enlarge it.

From our window seat in the restaurant, we could see these kids playing in the sand and water. The cold never daunts kids. They just go for it. In a sense, that is what I’m doing with my life right now. Seeking nature, and changing places. I’m  glad I’m not sitting in front of a television in my warm comfortable house cursing the news.
I took 35 pictures that can be seen at:https://picasaweb.google.com/106530979158681190260/201159DunesWaterfrontDepot#