Sure Signs of Spring

 

This week in Southeast Texas, the Bluebonnets bloomed, migrating Hummingbirds are feasting at the feeders in the park and I am making reservations and planning our trip home.  Spring has officially arrived. Both, on the calendar and in our routine! Another winter has flown by and we are feeling the usual mixed feelings of the goodbyes to friends in our winter location and excitement of getting back to our home base.

The famous Texas Bluebonnets blooming in the park

Purple Martins have arrived to evict the House Sparrows

We are happy with our decision to come back to Wilderness Lakes.  We continued on with friends we made here three years ago. We even got to spend a day with a Ranger we worked for at Goliad, and her family one special day. The weather has been nice except for the horrible cold that nobody escaped one week in February. We don’t know what we missed by not going to Arizona but we both agree this was where we were meant to be this season.

Last spring’s intrusion of COVID-19 nixed everyone’s travel plans including our plans return to Iowa via West Texas and New Mexico.  This year we are looking forward to seeing another new corner of this great nation. They say things happen for a reason. I am a big believer in that, and this year is proof. If we had taken the trip last year, we would have done it with no motorcycles. Since the trip was postponed last year, I bought another motorcycle, and we traded the SUV for a pickup to haul them both south with us. So, this year not only will we see these two beautiful areas, but we will also be able to ride the motorcycles through some breathtaking countryside and experience Texas Hill Country, The Big Bend area and southern New Mexico desert and mountains as motorcyclists. Not, simply car rubberneckers. I have longed to see the desert in all it’s spring glory for most of my adult life. Now I get to do it from the perch of my two wheeled companions listening to my music as I take in the scenery.  Yes, I have some lofty expectations for our trip home. The weather can always put a kink in the chain, but we are looking forward to our excursion with great excitement.

We are 8 days from lift off. All the yard decorations and pots that grow my lettuce and greens that have fed me through the winter got washed and packed away today. The shopping list of provisions for the trip home is starting to populate and we are making last time plans with winter friends.

Excitement is building for the return home and excitement grows for our commitment with Fish and Wildlife Services on Key Largo next winter. A bonus is we got word that our good friends John and Cathy, who we met on our very first volunteer gig are going to be visiting the Keys for a month next winter. I was over the moon when they told me they were planning time in Florida nearby. We can all experience the beauty of the Keys and I get to go birding with The Great John Harrington as he is known to some, including me.

The countdown has begun.

Until Next Time…