Hot Tamale

Today I am in Lubbock Texas, home of Texas Tech... and not much else unless you are interested in agriculture or energy.  Though I am sure Texas Tech is probably a great school, this drought stricken town looks like the surface of mars: desolate and hot. 

Colorado Bend State Park was a good time. I was able to see some interesting things while I was there such as a the roadrunner and painted bunting (look it up, it looks like a parakeet finch) birds, caught some fish on the fly rod (including a Gigantic Guadalupe Bass), went for a long bike ride, and visited a spring fed creek that comes out of a huge ravine/rock-walled gully/what would be a canyon in Georgia.

I was in Colorado Bend State Park for Thursday and Friday nights, and then went to Lake Brownwood State Park where I proceeded to do nothing but catch up on my eating, sleeping, reading, writing and Gatorade drinking.    

Hmm... No coffee filters

Homemade Coffee filters. (Paper towels cut with leatherman) 

A fun-sized Guatalupe Bass caught on the fly rod from the Colorado River

Some sort of bream/sunfish that would have been delicious 

Fellow swimmers Matt and Rachel helped me with the picture taking, since it is quite hard to do solo

Spice Wood Springs Creek Pool, and yours truly 

Nappin' by the creek 

Camp Spot in Colorado Bend State Park* (*heard of noisy nocturnal deer that seemed to like my camper not depicted). Also to any fellow Arborists, that is a very stumpy pecan tree, which (with my hypothesis) because of a arid climate, seems to look more like a Laurel Oak.

I must have passed well over 1000 wind turbines as I was coming across the plains of Texas. The interesting thing was, that there were lots of oil pumps in this area also, often times interspersed with the wind turbines. Lots of energy here. 

Picture of wind turbines and petroleum wells in the same frame. (I'm not going to lie, I'm pretty proud of my balancing act/photography skills to drive the truck with a camper and come out with this shot) 

No, you aren't reading the engine temperature or my Philly cheese-steak sandwich temperature, that's how hot it was in the shade today on the way from Abilene to Lubbock Texas. Puuuurdy hot I might say. (It isn't humid though, 110F with 10% Humidity in Texas doesn't have anything on 100F in GA with 100% Humidity)

And as the odyssey continues, I will be meeting with some of my uncle's (Tom) former colleagues and customers as I travel from Lubbock to Palo Duro Canyon State Park tomorrow. On the 28th I will travel from the canyon through Amarillo, to Spearman Texas where I will visit a cotton farmer, and then to Pueblo Colorado that evening.