Jerry Jeff Walker, Here we Come!

Sunday December 7 2008

Uvalde, Texas--West Texas, USA

We rise from a night’s sleep in the Best Western in Uvalde, Texas and head to Big Bend National Park. Not much to report, but did you know that Uvalde’s claim to fame is that it is at the crossroads of America’s two longest non-Interstate Highways: 83 and 90. We’ve been on 90 since San Antonio and will be on it (except for our trip to Big Ben) until we get to the Guadalupe Mountains National Park. It was impossible to find a decent place to eat (many places were closed - Sunday); the topography changed incredibly; and we paid the most we’ve paid for gas on this trip (outside of NY) at $2.24 per gallon in Marathon, TX. Fortunately, we pay $1.40 when we leave in Alpine, Texas.

As we get on the road, we’ve driven 3590 miles and the temp is 51F. Beautiful sunny day to drive. Lovin’ the 75 mph speed limits.

Kudos to Steve Jobs: Somewhere after Uvalde, we pretty much lost radio reception. Except for one really cool west Texas country station, that is. But Debbie made me turn it off. Anyway, before we left New York I copied almost our entire CD collection onto my iPOD. If it had not been for the fact I only had 30 gigs of space, I would have put more. SO, we lose radio reception, big deal. In very populace places with lots of radio stations you can’t find a clear radio station to transmit to with the iPOD. No problem in west Texas, though. We had over 300 CDs (4500 songs) of our own choosing to listen to. Yee-haw! (Actually, thanks to Think Tank 3 for giving me the iPOD a few years ago—xox!) Debbie fell in love with the shuffle option – 4500 options – endless hours of rockin music - what’s not to love?

Kissin' Cousins and Texas BBQ

Saturday December 6 2008

The Woodlands Texas to Uvalde, Texas

We depart around noon after a wonderful visit with my brother, his wife Lien, and their kids Brooke and Sammy. Lien fixed a great breakfast of pancakes, we packed the car and away we went. First down I-45 to Houston, then I-10 west to San Antonio. Not too far from Eric’s, we had to hit a gas station for a pit stop. Everything goes smoothly, until…..Debbie locks Mathew in the car. In his car seat. You see, Mathew got back to the car leapt into the front seat instead of his car seat and locked the doors with the keys on the front dash. Debbie grabbed Mathew, put him in his seat, then proceeded to close the only open door (with the lock on) to go around to the driver side. She tried to compel Mathew to get OUT of his car seat to open the door (that’ll never happen twice), but alas he couldn’t undo the bottom buckle and so we flagged down a good Samaritan who got us in. Nothing else to report from this stretch (how much excitement do we need?), except that we detoured to Lockhart Texas to eat at Black’s BBQ…another Roadfood.com rec. In case you don’t know, Texas BBQ is all beef, whereas other, like Sweatman’s, is all pork. It is a long held debate of whose is better, not by me, but by others. Personally, I like both, but prefer pork BBQ by a pig’s tail. But Black’s was excellent. So juicy and slow cooked with intense BBQ flavors and great sauce. The chicken fell off the bone and was some of the best I’ve ever had. Unfortunately, the side dishes left a LOT to be desired, but that’s not what we came there for. So, we finish lunch. Hop back on the road, and head for Uvalde. We lumber into Uvalde around 730ish and look for a hotel. We’re not on an interstate and so discounts are not to be found. Debbie picks the Best Western. Except for the water being exceptional compared to the Days Inn, this is the worst hotel we stay in.

Biltonen Times 7

Wednesday-Friday December 3-5 2008

The Woodlands Texas

We spent an absolutely great time with my brother Eric, his wife Lien, and their kids Brooke and Sammy. We spent most of the time visiting, getting caught up, discussing various career decisions, and eating extraordinary home cooked Vietnamese food. Lien is amazing and she appears to cook effortlessly. The first night Lien fixed Debbie’s favorite—Pho. The second night—we had Thai green papaya salad with grilled chicken wings and ribs. The last night—another one of Debbie’s favorite is called Lo plus quail. Lo is a hot pot with broth, during the meal you cook all the vegetables and meats in it at the table, by the end of the meal the broth is so rich and delicious.

Mathew had a blast with his cousins Brooke (5 yrs.) & Sammy (2 ½ yrs.). After being strapped in the back and interacting primarily with adults, he deserved a good stretch of days to be with kids his own age. He had his first sleepover with Brooke. They demanded it, so we relented. And yes, imagine this, they slept, do wonders never cease? The Woodlands has great playgrounds within walking distance and Mathew got to play Star Wars along with Mommy & Daddy; Sammy was the puppy. Prior to arrival we thought about all the things we could do in Houston but after arrival it was clear – we needed to relax and let Mathew just play with his cousins. It was a fabulous decision, great company, great fun, relaxation and delicious food, who needed to spend time anywhere else.

Biodiversity II-LISTS

These are the critters we have seen since entering Florida. We'll keep up he lists as best possible. (Personally I am shooting, figuratively speaking, for a jaguar in Big Bend National Park.)




Ahinga
Snowy Egret
Great Egret
Ibis
Osprey
Wood stork
Brown pelican
Kingfisher
Turkey vulture
Red tail hawk
Buteo (unidentified)
Roseate spoonbill
Lots of shore birds
Grebe
Great blue heron
Green heron
Bald eagle

Bottlenose dolphin
Alligator
Turtles
Nurse Sharks
Drum
Speckled Trout
Kestrel
Palmetto bug
gray speckled Crab
racoons

N'Orlins and beyond

Tuesday December 2, 2008--Mississippi. We couldn’t wait to get out of Pascagoula, MS—except Mathew. Not only was the Days Inn the most expensive and dirtiest of the motels we’ve stayed in, the coffee maker didn’t work and their continental breakfast coffee was putrid. The reason being that the water ran a light copper color—as in loaded with dirt. I had to pull out my PUR water filter I use for purifying water out of mountain streams to clean up the motel room water. I had always expected to use it one day in the mountains of Mexico, but never at a Days Inn in Mississippi. Thank goodness for bottled water. So, we shorted ourselves on coffee, packed the car, and then…..had to coax Mathew out of the motel room. From the outside. Yes, that’s right, as were packing the car Mathew shut, locked and dead-bolted the door so we couldn’t even get in with a key. What made it more difficult was that we looked at each other through the window as Mathew told us he needed “privacy.” Privacy is his secret word for “I need to find some trouble.” We eventually got him out (or us in) and left.


Finally! On the road to New Orleans. At about 11:00am we approached N’Orlins and headed for the French Quarter for a quick tour and bite to eat. We parked in the Vieux Carrè and walked around a bit as we headed for Mother’s Restaurant. Mother’s is another place we found on Roadfood.com—our new favorite food web site. Prices were reasonable, décor authentic (as in local), and there was a line out the door. Once we got in, we also found it was another buffet style restaurant (I am really starting the like this old concept), where we stood behind about 30 tourists, business-folk, locals and foodies. Debbie ordered seafood gumbo, Mike ordered crawfish etoufèe, and Mathew had some really yummy chicken sticks and fries. But the hit of the meal was the red beans and rice with large chunks of Mother’s renowned ham. After lunch we walked back to the car via Bourbon Street and some other small, less well known streets in the French Quarter to get back on the road.


And we sat in Baton Rouge, LA traffic, worse than any I’ve sat in in NYC, but we’re on our way to Mike’s brothers in Spring, TX (north of Houston) for a few days. See ya'll in a few days.

The Panhandle

Monday December 1 2008--Florida. We hit the road about 9am from Tallahassee, FL in order to find a bank and then a post office—the first being easier to find than the second. We wind our way out of Tallahassee and head toward the panhandle Gulf coast (Apalachicola, etc.) for what is going to be a long but more leisurely drive than taking interstates. Apalachicola is the “home port” to more than 90% of the oysters harvested from the Gulf and 10% of the US crop. We expected to find some good road food at a place called Killer Sea Food, only to find it closed on Mondays. So, we settled for a so-so lunch at another place. Needless to say, food was not the high point of the day. And that’s OK, because everything else was. After Apalachicola, we hit a long string of quaint little gulf coast towns that had only been lightly developed and still retained what I could guess of their local charm. By the time we got to Mexico Beach—where we expected to find Killer Sea Food—we had rounded the curve and were heading to our next stop: Grayton Beach State Park.


But I am getting a bit too far ahead. Personally, I (Mike) did not know what to expect in this part of Florida. What we found was not only true local charm, but also some incredible natural beauty. For one, the Gulf and beaches are totally different than in Sanibel. The beaches are bizarrely void of seashells and incredibly white and soft. There was quarter size chunks of asphalt dispersed on the beach, perhaps from the recent hurricanes tearing up the roads, who knows. Being further north, it is quite a bit colder (and windier when we were there)—and more desolate. Very relaxing and calming in a different way than Sanibel. We saw a Bald eagle early in the ride—around Panacea, FL, I believe—that prompted a game of naming every bird we saw that had a little black and white a Bald Eagle. The high point of the day was out visit to Grayton Beach. It had been advertised as Middle Earth-like (where the hobbits live), and it didn’t fail. I had never had a real desire to explore beach dunes, presuming them to be devoid of life and any real excitement. But Grayton Beach changed my perception. Not only was the little area near the Gulf very hilly with rolling dunes, but there was an incredible diversity of life growing on what appeared to be nothing more than white sand. One part of the park was a small “forest” on the leeward side of a large dune. There were twisted trees and shrubs of all types, yucca, grasses, and mushrooms all mixed with a fauna from the sea—crabs, birds, etc. The most impressive birds we saw were ospreys, brown pelicans, and a very photogenic blue heron (remember the bald eagle was much earlier in the day).


After Grayton Beach, we continued west, but hit mostly developed and over developed stretches of tourist hell. And finally, finally, finally after what seemed an eternity we were out of Florida and into Alabama. For a while at least.We were going to try and stay in Mobile, AL, but in the search for our hotel we found our way back onto I-10 and headed for Mississippi. Oh well. Luckily I picked up picked up some ‘bama pinecones as a reminder of our 15 minutes in the state.

Biodiversity

December 1 2008--It all started with listening to an airing of an NPR interview with famed biologist EO Wilson (Harvard University). Then we heard the Spring peepers in Florida's late fall (are they called Autumnal peepers down here?).

Among other things, EO Wilson has been tagged (by famed, late environmentalist David Brower, no less) with having stated that the carrying capacity of the planet (Earth, that is) is about 6 million people. Dr. Wilson never verified making that statement, but never denied it either. Right now, the Earth's human population is estimated to be 6,740,545,621 (see World Population Clock), and growing. That is over 1000 times greater than what some believe the carrying capacity of the world may be. And the impact on the world's biodiversity has been devastating.

As we travel through the southeastern US states (some of the most diverse in the country), we're going to share with you our observations of what we've seen and also some of our crazy theories on why we're seeing what we've seen (and not seen).

The basis of this blog came from two recent experiences: the first being Debbie's thought that the diversity of seashells on Sanibel is limited to clams and scallops (largely) because of global warming. The second was caused by Mike flipping through a book at the Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge Gift Shop on the Ivory Billed Woodpecker. I (mb) can't comment intelligently on the presence or absence of shells of certain sea creatures. However, I do know that the Ivory Billed Woodpecker is considered by many ornithologists as the Holy Grail of birding. Problem is that for nearly a century it was thought to be extinct. Then a few individuals were thought to be living in Cuba. THEN, an actual siting was claimed to have been made in the Big Woods of Arkansas in 2004.

To put this in perspective, the IVW is in the same category as the Passenger Pigeon, California Condor, and Bald Eagle. Majestic almost mythical birds that have gone or almost gone extinct. Our ability as humans to secure a future for the planet goes way beyond increasing fuel consumption a measly few gallons a mile, or only washing hotel sheets once during a stay, or recycling. It goes deeply into exploring our connection to the Earth and recognizing that while the Earth's creatures are severely impacted by our presence, were we to disappear, they simply wouldn't care and could perhaps once again thrive.

OK, enough soapbox. We're going to document and report on the biodiversity we see from here on out, as we pass through perhaps the last remaining lands of the Ivory Billed Woodpecker into the possible new home of the Mexican jaguar. Edward O. Wilson, referring to ants, once said that "Karl Marx was right, socialism works, it is just that he had the wrong species." Hallelujah!

For the Wild!

Mike