A Few Creatures Great and Small

Princeton, TX

Tomatoes are coming in nicely despite the crazy (aka normal) heat

Visiting family and their pets

This morning we drove out to Sharon's place near here to visit with her while she did some pet chores.  We got to visit her chickens and garden (a garden isn't really a pet, or is it?) and I got to see a new bird for Texas, The Eastern Bluebird.  Next we drove out to Princeton to visit the stable where she keeps Simon.  It's a huge property and there are a few lakes so we birded there too.  We went from 25 species in Texas yesterday to 37 today adding birds including Little Blue Heron, Green Heron, Great Blue Heron, Great Egret, Cattle Egret, and Killdeer.  

After birding for about a half and hour we accompanies Sharon while she visited Simon her horse and gave him some meds and cleaned his hoofs of mud and not mud.  I was taken back to the days of working on My Horse, not a horse that I owned but My Horse the iPhone and Android App.  After the horse chores were done it was time to head back to Sharon's and see her other pets. We got to meet Sharon's rabbit and all of her Guinea pigs that she and her daughter Erika breed and show.  This coming weekend we are going to a Guinea pig show with Sharon and Erika and will be able to experience and then report on the pageantry that takes place.

Oh the chickens!

We don't get to meet chickens very often

A free range horse on the farm we visited

Baby cow!

Donna and Sharon contributing to the wire waggon

This horse must be a super hero by night

Donna fed the stable kitty 

Even stables have legalese.

Don't touch my Red Bull

This saddle blanket gives you +5 energy I think

Sharon leading Simon out

Donna got to give Simon treats

Hoof cleaning

Donna was excited to hold a Guinea pig

Fun Fact! When Guinea pigs have babies they aren't called New Guinea pigs

Water water water water

Sharon took this one of us hamming it up in the field

After our farm and family visit we headed back to the Airbnb and I figured out some adventure days for us.  

If you didn't read about yesterday's adventure, you can get to it here.

Early Hike in Erwin Park to Beat the Heat

 McKinney, TX

The sunrise at Erwin Park

Hiking Erwin Park

We have been getting up early here in McKinney to beat the heat.  It has been near 100 degrees every day so far and there is no end in sight.  The temperature between 6am and 7am is the nicest so we are trying to get outside at that time.  This morning we took Francis around the block and then Donna and I went to Erwin Park.  It's about a 15 minute drive from our place.

The park has some open grassy areas but it also has some dense tree filled areas with mature oaks and other trees.  It is a mountain biking hot spot so we had to watch out for bikes flying by. We tried to choose the hiking (versus biking) trails but it wasn't always 100% clear and it was clear that some bikers liked to use the hiking trails.  We added a few Texas birds but no life birds on this walk.  We are up to 25 species and my goal is 100 before we leave Texas.  There are still more life birds to be had as well.  Potential for about 15 but probably 5 or 6 is realistic.

Miles and miles of trails

The birds were loud but well hidden.  We heard 2 life birds but didn't end up being able to see them.  I usually count birds when I hear them once I have already seen them.

This sign was very unclear to us so we picked the most apparent trail.

There was an actual bike pump track that only a few were using.

After our park visit we spent the rest of the day in the airconditioned Airbnb.  We watched The Tour de France and then watched some Turner Classic Movies.  Basic cable is included with our Airbnb and I have forgotten how hard it is to watch live TV with commercials and on the channels time.  I don't know how we survived all of those years scheduling our lives around things we wanted to watch and taking turns going to the bathroom and getting snacks so the rest of the family could fill us in on what happened while we were away.  Thank goodness for on demand entertainment.

It was my birthday yesterday.  If you didn't read about it you can see it here.

51 in McKinney

 McKinney, TX

Downtown McKinney, TX is a cute place

Getting Settled

This morning we got up early to enjoy the hour of good weather here in McKinney.  We grabbed our binoculars and took Francis for a walk around the block at 6am.  It was a nice walk that resulted in seeing a Mississippi Kite which is a first for us.  We also got good views of Northern Cardinals, Northern Mockingbirds, Blue Jays, White-Winged Doves, and heard a lot of Carolina Wrens but didn't see any yet.  

After our refreshing walk we went back to bed and proceeded to sleep until almost 10am which kind of threw off our whole day.  We are in a new zone so we will give ourselves a pass this once.  

We began unpacking and settling.  Every new Airbnb has its own issues.  This one gets really hot and bright in the afternoon where the couch and TV are so we pulled out our van window blinds made of reflectix and propped them up in the windows.  Hopefully that does the trick.  We also started unpacking our bins and finding a place for everything.  We are going to be here a month so we need to get settled.  

One of our two bathrooms is vintage and I like it

The main bedroom is very large and will work just fine.  There is a weird observation area for the bed.  We figured you wake up and sit there and reminisce about how great your sleep was whilst drinking coffee.

The 2nd bedroom is also large and now has near empty bins in it.

Francis is finding the couch comfortable.  Eagled Eyed readers will see the beer on the table.  This photo was actually taken yesterday afternoon and not before our morning walk. :)

I took a selfie in the mirror

This Airbnb comes with basic cable so we will be watching The Weather Channel and Turner Classic Movies

Our reflectix solution is working well.  We made these from salvaged Hello Fresh insulation bags

The neighborhood we are in is great with old houses in a historic district.  We noticed Smiley Face signs in about 1/3rd of the yards so I Googled it and found this out.

There are houses for sale.  We might swing by this one to be a lookie-loo on Saturday.

El Rancho Supermercado

In the early afternoon we went to El Rancho Supermercado just a half a mile away.  We wanted to buy some food and get a birthday cake.  We ended up doing both.  They had a great selection of ingredients so we have a few meals to prep when we aren't out exploring.  Instead of buying 1 big cake we bought 3 small cakes so we could taste all of the flavors!

Birthday Celebration

At around 7 we got together with Sharon (Donna's Sister), Terry, and Erika and went to Downtown McKinney for dinner.  It was Sharon's Birthday the other day so we made it a combo celebration.  We found a burger place that had a nice beer selection and had a nice meal catching up and talking about our future adventures.  

Downtown McKinney is preparing for the 4th of July weekend celebration.  It's decked out in Red, White, and Blue

Square Burger had about 30 local taps.  

It was a nice mellow day after a few days of driving.  We are looking forward to our time in McKinney / Dallas.  We already have Tiki and pinball picked out.  I am sure to tell you all about it when the time comes.

If you haven't read about our yesterday and learned all about Texas U-Turns, you can catch up here.

Amarillo to McKinney Tx

 McKinney, TX

This road trip is fueled by doughnuts

Cutting through the north of Texas to our Airbnb

This morning we woke up when we woke up and got a bit of free breakfast at our Hampton Inn.  The breakfasts at Hampton Inns usually aren't that great but this one was noticeably worse than the others.  Usually there is a hot vat of cooked oatmeal but the Amarillo Hampton Inn has a hot vat of something that they think is biscuit gravy.  I took a little for science and was expecting it to be terrible and wasn't disappointed.  

After our morning snack and after the coffee water started kicking in, we packed up the room, packed up the van and said see ya later to Amarillo TX.  I mentioned that the next time we are in the area (because counties) we should check out downtown Amarillo.  We didn't really see Amarillo and the parts we did see consisted of mostly I-40 and their weird frontage road system that I really don't like.  

We used the "Texas U-Turn" portion and once you get to the other side of the U-Turn you never have the right of way and cars are making left turns into your lane from behind you.  You can read about it here if you want to nerd it up.  Also they already built the first one in California.

On the way out of town we stopped by Doughnut Stop for road snacks.  It seems Doughnut Stop has a stranglehold on Amarillo.  There aren't really any mom and pop doughnut shops that we could find so we went to Big Doughnut and they were just okay.

The drive was fine.  It was at least 4 lanes the whole way so no waiting behind trucks for very long.  We took a direct route and didn't do any county collecting diversions.  The counties here are relatively small and so close that there is always a new county for us within a short drive.  Texas is 268,597 square miles and those square miles are broken up into 254 counties.  We call it "A Dot Matrix of Counties".

I chose this map to show because of the pretty colors.  They don't mean anything.

Whenever we go to a new place I am only aware of the commonly quoted stereotypes of that place.  When you arrive in that place those stereotypes are usually drowned out by reality.  We stopped at a rest stop on US 287 and it was one of the nicest rest stops I have ever seen as far as amenities.  I mentioned to Donna that if we were in a contest to say something nice about Texas I would have a few new things to say and that is one of the great things about travel.  Mark Twain said, “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.”  

Doughnut Stop

They got a write up too!

Watch for snakes!

This rest stop had a Train Station vibe going on

I see The Lone Star

Inside the air-conditioning was pumping and there were kiosks

Each rest stop had info about the surrounding cities

The 2nd rest stop was as good as the first

Another Tornado shelter.  Our first was at Coors Field in Denver

One of the kiosks was supposed to be able to print directions kind of like Mapquest, remember them?

The picnic shelters were so appealing that we ate our lunch there

Leftover BBQ

We also got close to a Scissor-tailed Flycatcher.  This was a new life bird for us.

We rolled into McKinney TX at around 4pm.  We unloaded the van in 95 degree heat and then sat in the air-conditioning the rest of the evening.  Our Airbnb is large.  We have some arranging to do but I am sure it will be a comfortable place to spend a month when we are done arranging it to suit our needs.

Working our way across the US

An enlarged key.  2022 will end up being our biggest county collecting year by December.

We are 7.5% done with Texas!

If you didn't read about our trip from Denver to Oklahoma you can read about it here.