Busy, Busy June to Texas and Colorado

In the middle of June we made a camping trip to the northeast corner of Arizona and Cortez, Colorado. Larry sat his butt on the Four Corners Monument.

I spotted a new bird for my classification file. It's a Green-tailed Towhee, a long bird generally 7.25 inches long who frequents dense brush, chaparral, and high plateaus.

We visited the Mesa Verde National Park with the Texas Bauers. Larry's brother Bob, wife Penni, son Brandon and daughters, along with Uncle Paul toured the area by car and train. We drove up close to classic textbook geology. The higher altitude bothered me but by the 3rd day I was better and then it was time to go home. That country is very beautiful.

The next trip was back to Texas. My mother Eunice and I accompanied Jennifer, 3 grandchildren and the newest Yorkie of the family, Lola, who is being adopted by Jen's mother in Texas. We dropped them off and then Eunice and I toured SW Louisiana before visiting our family in Deer Park, Texas. They had a birthday celebration for Larry's 94 year old Uncle Paul with a crowd of 18 or so at a local restaurant. We took Jen and the kids to catch the ferry at Galveston and feed the birds that follow the ferry. They had great fun leaping in the air to throw the bread and watching the swooping bird show. After a stop at the beach we viewed the devastation caused by the hurricane. It's still a mess there. In Louisiana I drove to a remote wildlife refuge and scarred my mother (she likes the cities) and saw only dragonflies so numerous and huge that I thought I was in a prehistoric movie. I panicked and ran to the car waving my arms about to distract them... after I took their picture of course. There are some old beautiful buildings in Lake Charles but the tour of their old cemetery was a disappointment as I could only find 1 angel to photograph. The weather down there is as hot as Phoenix but soooooo humid. What a relief to be back home and dry out my skin again! When you come to visit me bring lots of lotion!