The Crazy Red Cardinal

At one of the Texas State Parks where I camped I had a problem with a red cardinal. I chose a campsite not knowing that it was within the territory of a completely crazy red cardinal.and you have to admit that it is an easy mistake to make :-)
First he attacked the rear view mirror on the driver side which was on the side of the bush where he seemed to hanging out.
In this photo he is just sitting on it but he was attacking it.

So I covered the rear view mirror and he was ok with that.

Next he went to the passenger side rear view mirror. So I covered that one too.

Next he proceeded to attack the little bit of chrome on the front bumper. And it is not as if I keep my truck all nice and shiny! He was hitting it so hard that I was worried that he would hurt himself. So I sat there and each time he attacked the truck I set the alarm on (I was the only one in the campsite). He would fly away and come back less than 10 seconds later.

Since I space was not the issue I drove to the park warden and changed site. I took my camera with me so I could show her the photos because I knew it sounded like a completely crazy story....mind you, even with the photos it sounds like a crazy story.

Small town Mardi Gras, the photos

I realize that you don't really care about how many beads I caught (was thrown to...some even hit me on the head).
Here are the photos of the actual parade. Nothing like the great big New Orleans Mardi Gras but a nice small town parade.

It started with the sheriff's car, police, fire engine, ambulance with all sirens blaring. That totally reminded me of the Canada Day parade in Dawson, Yukon.

Here are some random pictures of some of the floats. It was actually a fairly big parade.

People picking up goodies after the last float went by and before the next one.

Political correctness has reached this part of the world yet.

Of course Elvis was there.

A little girl on one of the float as she gets ready to throw more beads to the crowd.

and it ended with a brassband.

It was very much a small town thing. I am sure that in New Orleans and Baton Rouge and all those big towns the parades are quite different but I didn't want the super polished big town thing, I just wanted to see what the regular people of Louisiana and Mississippi do. i say "Louisiana and Mississippi" because I had to cross the river to Mississippi State to go to the parade, this is where it was tonight.

You see the colours of the last float, just above the brassband, and the first float after the police cars. Green, purple and gold are the traditional colours of the Mardi Gras festivities. Apparently purple is for Justice, green for Faith and gold for Power. the kings cake (which is only eaten on January 6th in France, but from January 6th to Mardi Gras here) is also traditionally decorated with sugar in these three colours.

Big Bend National Park, Texas

After Alpine I went to Big Bend National Park. I only stayed at one campground, Cottonwood, in the South West part of the park, so I mostly saw the south west corner of the park with the Rio Grande River (which is the border with Mexico), the San Elena Canyon and the Mule's ear mountains being the principles features in that area.
In Big Bend you can hike off trails if you want and I did a couple of long hikes randomly in the desert, it was fabulous. I am  not going to say much about Big Bend. I am just going to say that I had a good time and really enjoyed it. I found it beautiful.

Here are the photos to show what I mean:

A view with San Elena Canyon's mouth just visible in the cliff in the background.

a view with Mule's ears.

 Again, Mule's ears

Just the beautiful desert

Lupins blooming in the desert on the side of the hill on the foreground

 One more Mule's ear's view

Ocotillo cactus in bloom

the bloom

the Rio Grande...amazingly small actually for a "grande" river which is the an international border.

San Elena Canyon in the background again.

the compulsory fuzzy bird picture, here a vermillion flycatcher. They were plentiful in cottonwood campground  but camera shy.

Also seen in the Cottonwood campground was javelina's

When they are scared they raise the hair on their back so much that they reminded me of porcupines.
 Here is just the end of the process as it calms down and goes back to eat...it goes very fast.

Here with its hair mostly up and walking away.

Small town Mardi Gras

Since my last post I have been to quite a few places but I was mostly staying in campgrounds without internet so I couldn't posts. I am right now somewhere with internet and the forecast is for rain in the next few days (I forget which days) so I am planning to catch up

Right now I am in a campground in Louisiana on the shore of the Mississippi River!!! A big one on my "bucket list". I am staying in a campground where I can see the Mississippi River from the camper. This morning I could watch the river as I was making my coffee. That was nice.
In an effort of being where I am and not just camping alone in the camper (which ultimately I can do anywhere) this evening I went to the local small town Mardi Gras Parade.

Mardi Gras is really a religious holidays which happens on ONE particular Tuesday ("Mardi" in French) the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday, the start of Lent. I have no idea what the name of this Tuesday is in English. Here it is celebrated from January 6th (the day the Kings reached the Nativity) and ends the last day before Lent (March 4th this year)....anyway, I went and I enjoyed it.

It was a small town celebration, family oriented and fun. As the floats drive by they throw stuff to the crowd, mostly bead necklaces. In fact most people showed up with bags to carry all the stuff they caught. I didn't have a bag. At first I didn't even know why people had bags. But I got into the spirit of things thanks to the woman next to me on the side of the road who was right into it, and I caught MANY beads and put them around my neck. I know I normally never put photos of myself on the blog but here is one anyway, at the same time you can see how my hair is doing (yes, it is curly, and no it isn't a perm, and no it doesn't quite stand that way usually, it was windy. This is a year and 5 months of growth...a year and five months...time flies... It seems like yesterday...It seems like a life time ago)

You can see I had A LOT of beads. In fact as I was walking back to the truck one kid commented and said "Now, this is beads".
And here is a random kid also with beads...he was having trouble moving around, it was quite fun to watch... I did ask his parents before taking the photo.

Ice on Cacti

Just like most of the States Alpine is getting pounded by cold weather coming in waves after waves.
Because Alpine is quite far south what are winter storms further north reach us here as cold fronts so it isn't so terrible. Most of the moisture here is in the form of fog. So far we have had no snow, or just a few flakes falling but not enough to make a layer on the ground.

Today at noon it is -7C (20F), and tonight is predicted to go to -10C (17F). I honestly would never have guessed that this part of Texas was getting this cold in winter. Alpine is after all at 30 degree North.
To put things in perspective Calgary is at 51 degree North, New York is at 40 degree North and Los Angeles is at 34 degree North. Though to be fair I should add that Alpine is at 1,364m elevation (4,475ft) so quite high.
What makes it weird for me is that the weather oscillate between low 20s C (high 70s F) and just above the minus teens C (high 10s F). It makes it a bit harder to deal with the cold I find.

On the plus side today we have freezing fog (a plus side only if you are not driving) and the all the trees and plants, including the cacti, are getting nice ice on them.