Miscellaneous thoughts
First, a word about the photos I posted a couple of weeks ago about some unknown trees I saw on our way over to Cedar Hill State Park. Anna and David tell me they think the trees are Bald Cypress.
I'm sure they're right, but it hadn't occurred to me they might be here in Texas. And I guess the only reason for that is that I don't remember coming across them when I was growing up.
But I've now learned that the state's largest tree is, in fact, a Bald Cypress, down on the Frio River (not far from San Antonio). And what may be the world's largest cypress forest is at Caddo Lake, which straddles the TX/LA border not far south of Arkansas and is the only natural lake in Texas. So yes, Bald Cypresses are definitely here in Texas.
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Then, I thought you might enjoy this photo of Dexter's feet. He's discovered he can get under the curtain over the windshield and keep an eye on what's happening in the neighborhood even during the night.
I was only vaguely interested in the reports of the annual BET awards until I saw Beyoncé's acceptance speech. She said, "We have to vote like our life depends on it. Because it does." I was very impressed.
Weekly cleanliness trip
As usual, on Tuesday I prepared to go find a place to dump my tanks, and this time I'd chosen a KOA in Canton, about an hour east of here.
I passed through Forney, which I remember as being a small Texas town, which it sort of still is. But they nearly tripled their population between 2000 and 2010, up to 14,000+, and as of a 2019 estimate they've nearly doubled it again. Forney also turns out to have a resident who's currently in the news - Stormy Daniels. Turns out she likes horses, so she bought herself a place where she can keep them. Who knew?
Forney calls itself "City Without Limits," presumably meant aspirationally, not geographically. The Texas Legislature has designated it "Antique Capital of Texas," which I'd expect a number of other towns to dispute, but there it is.
When I was driving through town (grocery shopping), I passed the Chase Bank which has a huge statue of a horse in front. I thought at the time I should double back to take a photo, and I was right because I can't find it online. I'm curious what it's about.
I'd noted 2 grocery stores in Forney, but when I went to the Kroger, I found the parking lot nearly full at 11:00 AM on a Tuesday. That seemed really odd to me because of it not being a usual lunch time for anybody, and because Forney's not exactly a metropolis despite its population growth. But the fact is that every Kroger I've gone to for the last several weeks has had packed parking lots at any time of the day, and I've decided not to go in. Even when people are wearing masks (which I figured they wouldn't be in Forney), they don't work too hard at social distancing. Which is anyway difficult in grocery store aisles, but impossible when other people are ignoring it. Given those facts, I think it's tempting fate to head into a crowded store. So it's a good thing I'd found a Brookshire's not too far away.
On the drive I passed a huge field of sunflowers. Very pretty.
Canton is famous for its First Monday Trade Days, which Anna reminded me of when I told her where I was going. But this trip, I'd looked at the weather forecast for the next few days and was worried.
The power cord David had ordered for me (after Amazon ate my first order) wasn't due to come in until Wednesday, and the forecast for both Tuesday and Wednesday was for temps in the mid- to upper 90s with a heat index expected of near 105°. That put this area into a Heat Advisory for those 2 days, where they caution against heat stroke. I think even Lily's been feeling the heat we've had so far, and with a temp like that I got really worried about my critters. The multitude of fans I've got make the heat we've had so far feel uncomfortable but possible, but we've never been that hot before.
I decided to stay at the KOA if it looked decent and if they had room. With today being a Tuesday which is usually one of the lightest camping days of the week (Wednesdays are the lightest), I figured we'd be okay, but when I got there, they made it clear that I could only stay a day or two: I'd forgotten that Saturday's the 4th of July, let alone Monday being a First Monday Trade Day day. And this is a new campground that they're still building; they've plowed down whatever trees were originally on the land and the crepe myrtles they've planted all over the place are still young and small (i.e. no shade). But they could give me a space where I could plug in for AC, which was what I cared about.
Canton KOA
Wednesday morning I got an email from David saying Amazon ate his order too. I was beginning to wonder if there was some Karma problem that was holding up this power cord. David said he'd had a "virtual chat" with someone at Amazon who gave him the bad news and helped him replace the order. Soonest delivery date: Friday.
The KOA agreed to let me stay until Thursday, but I knew I'd have trouble getting any more out of them than that. Not to mention the drawbacks of staying in a full campground while the Pandemic Denial was going on. So I told David the problem and said I'd hope the weather would break a bit by Thursday and that we'd just do what we (and multiple fans) could to deal with it.
The campground was not without interest, which was helpful. I saw at least one Bluebird because a very territorial Mockingbird was chasing it. When the Mockingbird turned around and dive-bombed Gracie, I figured it was high time for us to get out of there. Almost certainly a nest nearby.
This family of 4 ducks is probably a year-round fixture. It consists of a male and a female Mallard and 2 white ducks. It's clear visually that they aren't related, but this is definitely a family. Another example of today's blended families, I guess. You can see that Dexter was quite interested.A family in a 5th wheel that parked near us has kids, a large dog and 2 baby goats (also called kids). No surprise that they spend a lot of time outdoors, with the goats in one of those pens I've seen people put up in campgrounds for their small dogs. Dexter was more interested in the dog than the goats. Gracie didn't seem to care about either of them.
The Canton KOA is part of the Silver Spur Resort, which has what seem to be very nice little cabins for rent, and facilities for weddings - indoors and out - and other events. There's a decent-sized catch-and-release fishing lake, a BBQ-and-beer restaurant - you get the idea. And now it also has a KOA that's about 2/3 built.
One thing they had I haven't seen before are rental places in the shape of covered wagons. There's a whole section of the campground/resort dedicated to these, complete with front steps and a functioning door (the pioneers would have been amazed). |
| this photo shows 3 wagons and a bit of the fish pond |
On the drives
On the way to Canton, we stopped for a break at Mesquite's Poteet High School, which is clearly very proud of its band.
That's a monster 5th wheel (aka trailer) behind the ordinary band transport trailer. It must be a big band. To the right is the tower you can see behind the trailers. This end of the school's parking lot is lined off like a football field so the band can practice its routines. The scorecard posted on the tower shows they've got some reason for all this pride.
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| partial view of the school, which looks big enough to deserve a big band |
On the way back to Richardson, we stopped at another school, that seemed to be taking advantage of the school closure to get some face-lifting done. What surprised me was that this construction firm was clearly taking the virus seriously, unlike so many of our elected leaders. Here are some signs of our times:
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| I saw this sign and thought, yeah sure, where are these workers going to wash their hands. |
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| And here's the answer - a hand-washing station. |
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| A "daily self reporting survey"? They must be serious. |
Back at David and Anna's house
I learned that they had decided to have Anna park across the street in the spot I usually take and put me in their driveway in her spot instead. That got me close enough to the house that I could use my own power cord to plug in to the new 30 amp plug David had installed, thus getting me access to AC. And I can't tell you how grateful I am because the heat didn't let up one bit. We'd learned at the KOA that coming back from a walk in all that heat and humidity and finding AC in the RV is an incredible relief. I really think we could deal with the heat if it were a dry, west Texas kind of heat. But combined with such high humidity and a high dew point makes for a crusher combo.
The power cord did come this time, late Friday afternoon, so I stayed in the driveway until Saturday morning when David came out and helped me get re-situated and plugged in.
As I said last week, the crepe myrtles are in full bloom and I've been noticing that now the purple sage is starting to bloom. That's one of my favorite plants. On the drive back I also noticed a large pond with lots of water lilies blooming - wild ones, given the location of this pond. Very pretty.
Our first morning back Gracie and I saw an armadillo that hustled itself over to someone's backyard fence and crawled underneath. They must be a lot more flexible than they look. Gracie got excited and Dexter missed it entirely.
Thank goodness for at least a little bit of peace of mind for me, neither of the dogs noticed the coyote that's started roaming the neighborhood. Yesterday, David brought over a couple of photos that Anna had taken from her sighting of one on the next street over. She said he'd just been trotting down the sidewalk when she spotted him and stopped to take the photos, and he stopped to look at her. Then this morning on our 2nd walk, a stranger in a BMW stopped to tell me he'd seen a coyote down about a half mile away. Actually, he said it was a wolf, but I knew this was what he was talking about.
So with those 2 warnings, I was definitely a little nervous taking the dogs out but hopeful we wouldn't see it. Well, "we" didn't but I did. For that walk we always walk down to a short street 3 blocks from here that makes a left turn into another short street that makes another left turn into a 3rd street, which was the one where Anna had seen the coyote yesterday. When we'd gotten to where we'd pick up the 1st of those streets I saw the coyote a block away, standing at the next corner. And he saw us. What was unnerving to me is that he started walking toward us in a way that almost seemed like a stalking posture. I can't imagine that he really would try to stalk 2 dogs his size plus a human, but still, that's what it looked like.
I real quick hustled the dogs down that 1st street and kept on hustling them until we were quite a way along the street before I had the nerve to slow down and look back. No coyote. I didn't see him again, though I expended enough nervousness as if I had seen him. But thank goodness the dogs missed that. Actually, I would too if Anna hadn't warned me. His coloring is amazing for its ability to blend in, even in a suburban residential neighborhood.
Anna told me she thought he'd looked scrawny, and there are certainly plenty of squirrels and rabbits in the neighborhood. But if he's really hungry he wouldn't be able to hunt as well. Funny thing about hunger. Lots of poor schoolkids know how it saps both physical and mental energy. Anna said she thought the time had come to notify authorities.
And all this excitement in a quiet little neighborhood.
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