Power! -- Tues., May 8

Cotulla, Texas:We have power! Doesn't that sound political or something?

Before Bob went to bed last night, he said, "Why don't you try to get some sleep in the recliner?"

Are you kidding me? We had no power, the lightning and thunder were putting on an awesome display, my eyes were bugged out worrying about if our trailer would get hit with lightning, would the lightning strikes cause a fire, etc., etc., and he thinks I can sleep?? NOT.

Last night the thunder and lightning was pretty intense. One blast of lightning and crack of thunder sounded like it hit right next to the trailer...woke Bob up from a sound sleep. Freaked him out. That was with a 50% chance of T-storms as predicted by NOAA. Tonight and Thursday night are supposed to have a 70% chance of severe thunderstorms. We have lots of windows in our 5th wheel and we can see lightning 360 degrees around us which worries me because that usually indicates tornadoes are a possibility.

Black water tank was emptied and hooked up to our rig this morning. Water is coming tomorrow. Thank you to our company (LOMA) for taking care of us.

Crews were sent home this morning because of lightning. Today has been off and on rain, wind and cooler temperatures (in the 70s).

One of the workers this morning told us that some oil field crews were evacuated into a community center last night about 35 miles west of us in Carrizo Springs because of funnel cloud sightings. A little too close for comfort as tornadoes can go quite a way!

Around 2:00 p.m. we got a different generator, newer and more powerful than our last one. This one could power four 5th wheels and has taller, brighter lights so I can see at night and the trucks can find the gate! Woo hoo.

I forgot to mention wildlife sightings for the past couple of days: When Bob was walking Sunday he saw a hen turkey, a rabbit, four deer and three javelinas.

I got upset when I heard he saw javelina (considering advice from Texans--if you see a javelina shoot it, because they're vicious). Bob said the javelinas were "scaredy cats" and ran away from him. One of the workers yesterday said they must have been females with no young because mothers or males would have come after him. Worrisome!

Yesterday Bob went into Cotulla for groceries. On his way home, he saw five wild turkeys crossing the road.

Every day I see the Gila woodpecker. I found her nest in a hole in a mesquite tree. I don't know how many nestlings she has.

Today is very slow at the gate. My read of "Mockingjay" is almost complete, just a few more pages. Bob is plowing through Lee Child novels, close to finishing his second in three days.

Bob's been teasing me that he's going for a bike ride. Keep in mind we have wet, sloppy, gooey, 1" to 2" deep mud. Don't think he'd get too far. Even if he did, he'd be completely covered in red goo. Maybe that's his idea of fun.

Sun is trying to come out, but we're surrounded by clouds. Tonight should be interesting. But now that we've got "power," I think we'll be okay.

Travel Bug out.

Catered lunches -- Fri., May 4

Cotulla, Texas: 

Bob read my blog from yesterday. I asked if I forgot anything. He said, "Yes, you forgot to mention the catered lunch."

How could I forget? Party Express caterer came to Pad A at our gate to cook lunch for the crew on site. On the way out she stopped and handed Bob two plates loaded with food: marinated flank steak, mac and cheese, pork sausages, rolls, beans, and chocolate cake--Texas-size helpings! Bob thanked her and brought the plates in. 

Bowie (our Siamese cat) and I went nuts over the flank steak. Bowie helped me out by eating a good portion of it. That cat loves steak. Sunnie, on the other hand, could take it or leave it. I didn't particularly care for the food on the rest of the plate, so Bob ate my roll, beans and mac & cheese. I got his serving of steak which I will eat another day (and share with the fur-kids).

I went to bed around 5:30 a.m. and got up at 9:30 a.m. I couldn't go back to sleep. Bob was super busy from 4:30 a.m. until almost the end of his shift. 

Again, we got catered lunches: pork chops with gravy, rice, roll and mixed peas and carrots. The pork chop was very good--she gave us five pork chops for the two of us. Bob doesn't eat red meat so four of the pork chops went in the freezer. If this keeps up, we'll run out of freezer space fast.

While Bob worked his shift, I went into town to do errands:

1. Set us up with General Delivery at the post office
2. Bought a 39-gallon trash can and plastic liner bags at Ace Hardware (no dumpster provided for our garbage). Also talked to Ace about receiving FedEx or UPS deliveries for us (no problem).
3. Went grocery shopping at Super S Foods.

Here's a picture of what we're paid to do: check in all visitors to the site.

You got a problem with that?

After Bob finished his shift, he made a salad to go with our catered food and we had dinner. Bob walked when dinner was over, said he saw the three Springbok antelope farther down the ranch property this evening.

While Bob was gone I had some time to bird watch. The woodpecker was out in its usual tree tonight. I studied it for a long time and I'm 99.9% sure it's a Gila woodpecker. The reddish color on top of its head isn't as bright as a Golden-fronted woodpecker and it doesn't have yellow above its beak.

I've been relatively busy checking trucks in and out this evening. Seems like I've been hopping up and down way more than last night. One trucker who was camping overnight at Pad A had to go to the gate to show his friend how to get in. (Remember it's pitch black out here except for our little lights which don't do much.)  

Then another trucker's trucker friend got stuck and this guy went to pull him out. Apparently he borrowed a heavy-duty chain from another one of the trucker's here and told him he'd be back with it in ten minutes. Well, he wasn't back and the lendee trucker had to leave. Long story short, the trucker who loaned the chain wants me to collect it from the borrower as soon as he returns and save it for the him to pick up tomorrow. Alrighty then.

I finished reading "Catching Fire," the second book in "The Hunger Games" trilogy. What an ending! Luckily I have "Mockingjay" here and I've started reading it. The books are an excellent read.

Gate Guarding -- Wed. & Thurs., May 2-3

Ingram, Texas to Cotulla, Texas:

Wednesday morning we got up, prepped the 5er for the road, then took the Escape along the North Fork of the Guadalupe River. The morning was cool and overcast. Here is a pictorial of our drive:

We saw a herd of either axis or fallow deer with fawns. They took off when I tried to get a picture, but I sort of captured one under a tree...

Axis deer just to right of tree

North Fork Guadalupe River downstream from picnic area.

North Fork Guadalupe River upstream from picnic area.

North Fork Guadalupe River upstream from picnic area.

We then drove out past Armadillo Junction RV Park (where we were staying) to a church youth camp because Bob wanted to show me this cool swimming hole he found while out for a walk.

Swimmin' hole at a church camp.

Swimmin' hole at a church camp--other side of river.

After our exploration of the Ingram/Hunt areas in the Hill Country of Texas, we took off for Cotulla, Texas, where we are assigned to a gate starting Thursday (not Friday as originally planned). Our route took us from Kerrville south on SR 173 through Bandera ("Cowboy Capital of the World") to I-35; then south to Cotulla.

We didn't know where we were going to stay for the night. We got in touch with the company we're working for. They told us they were using an RV park about 20 miles out of town and said we could spend the night there and they'd hook us up to a generator. So that's what we did. The site was about 1/4 mile off the highway and protected by a gate. It was very quiet back there. 

When we first arrived and parked the 5er, Bob opened the door of the 5th wheel, then went to talk to one of the guys we'll be working for. Next thing we know, Bowie darted out the door and under the 5er. Oh, cr@p! He's an indoor only cat. I should mention that the field we parked in was full of weeds with thousands of burs. Bowie did not want to move because he realized burs are very painful. Hero Bob got down on his hands and knees and pulled Bowie out by the scruff of his neck. Bob came out with burs in his palm. Ouch! 

The escape artist safely secured, I set about removing burs from said cat. I used Kleenex to protect myself from the sharp barbs. Some of the burs had worked their way into Bowie's skin. He was good about letting me remove them.

I also used tweezers to remove pieces of burs from Bob's hand.

We saw our first roadrunner as it was getting toward evening. 


After our 5er was settled into the grassy field, we went to meet the people whose place we would be taking at the gate. They are going to their granddaughter's high school graduation. They told us about the job and showed us what they do. I asked Sharon what kind of animals they saw across the street on the ranch. She said when they first arrived, they saw big exotic animals which she thought were wildebeest. They seem to have moved away from the gate when all the big rigs started arriving.


On the drive toward our gate we saw a Caracara (in the falcon family). The Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Birds: Western Edition describes the Caracara as follows: "An omnivorous raptor, it feeds on small vertebrates as well as carrion. This bird, magnificent in flight, is the 'Mexican eagle' of the flag of Mexico. The Mexican peso coin shows the Caracara hacking a wriggling rattlesnake to death with its beak."


We told the people we're replacing we would be back in the morning around 10:00 a.m. to take over the gate. 

The time was going on 8:45 p.m. and I told Bob we needed to get into town if we wanted to get dinner. We ended up having a very good dinner at Dairy Queen. In the dark, we drove around town to locate the post office, Ace Hardware, grocery store and restaurants. We never did find the laundromat. I will refer to the map our friends Dave & Doris gave us. (They gate guarded in Cotulla in the winter.)

Both of us slept well last night. This morning, we pulled the 5er over to our gate and saw Barry and Sharon off. They gave us some more instructions and were gone.

Bob took the day shift from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Night owl (me) will work 4:00 p.m. to 4:00 a.m. We are 10 miles out of Cotulla. Our site has four oil pads (most have one). The oil company is almost finished at the first pad. I think this is considered a busy gate.

The temperature today must have been close to 100 with a hot breeze and blowing dust. During the day we saw some summer tanagers. Late afternoon, just before it started getting dark, I looked across the road and saw three Springbok antelope. I got photos from a distance. 

I also took some photos of our rig at the gate.

At dusk, I examined a woodpecker-type bird in a mesquite tree. It looked exactly like the Gila Woodpecker, but the Audubon book says they don't nest this far east. The closest second choice I could find is the Golden-fronted woodpecker which is common in this area, but the bird I saw just didn't quite match.

When it got dark, fireflies came out! I haven't seen a firefly since we were on St. Lucia.

Around 8:30 p.m., lightning lit up the sky to the north. It looked like lightning that started on the ground and went up into the sky. Truckers checking in here were commenting about it. They were afraid we were going to get rain. Rain would turn all the dirt and sand roads into a big, messy mudhole. They don't want to drive in it.

Bob is sleeping and I'm guarding the gate. We have three motion sensors (two in front for incoming vehicles and one inside for outgoing vehicles) that let us know when a truck is coming in. Sometimes I think I hear a truck coming, but I've had a lot of false alarms. I have to wait until the alarm sounds before I head outside. 

However, on one of my false alarm trips outside at 12:15 a.m., I saw an armadillo! 

It's been an exciting first day for us and the cats too. Bowie adapted to the alarms pretty quickly but Sunnie is a little freaked out by them. I have a feeling he'll get used to them soon enough. Right now Sunnie is hunting bugs; he especially likes flies, but moths will do.

It's 1:15 a.m. now and you can tell I haven't been super busy by how long this blog is! I will write again as I have time and internet connection. 

The internet and cell phone coverage here is not great. We get kicked off the internet frequently and it is very slow...it was almost impossible to connect and stay on during the day. (Tonight it got faster.)

That's all I've got. 

Travel Bug out.