Wildflower Wonderland

Good morning, my friends. The day went differently than expected yesterday. We ended up doing more fun stuff than expected. Also, the visit to the Inner Space Cavern is back on for today, and so the whole itinerary has been set right.

As it turns out, we weren't able to obtain the part we needed for our ailing slide topper. We'll catch up with it down the road in a couple of days. I didn't explain this when I mentioned it yesterday. Honestly, sometimes I get tired of talking about these little inconveniences. But this is what happened: When I brought the driver-side slide out upon our arrival here, somehow it hung up on the slide topper (we have a better understanding of it now) and broke the brackets that hold it in place. (The slide topper is a sheet of canvas that unrolls as the slide opens. It prevents rain, leaves, and other stuff from settling on the top of the slide, and then littering (or wetting down) the inside of the RV when it's brought in. And that's probably all you need or want to know about it.

So we ended up making a visit to the field of flowers Mike had seen the day before. When I opened the truck door on this scene, we were immediately overwhelmed with the sweet fragrance of the bluebonnets.

This is just the scene I was hoping for when I said I wanted to see the bluebonnets. While in Fort Stockton, I worried about seeing any at all. Now...I'm realizing you'd have to keep your eyes closed to avoid seeing them pretty much anywhere you look.

And it isn't just the bluebonnets. There are wildflowers of all kinds blooming virtually everywhere. This next one is musk mallow.

When I take a picture with my camera, I don't have Google's eye for identifying it. Yesterday, I figured out I can use my phone to take a picture of my computer screen, and then let the phone go to work identifying them. This next one was identified as a cutleaf daisy.

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This next one is "Blue-eyed grass."

These are the morning primrose.

This one is known as Indian Blanket.

This next one is Texas Filaree.

And this one is Golden Tickseed.

Also, I was able to identify this one from a few days ago. This one is Golden Yarrow.

Also seen flitting about the wildflowers were these little Sulfur-type butterflies. Their technical name is Eurema Lisa. It's tricky getting photos of butterflies. They rarely light anywhere and chasing them down is an exercise in futility. The butterfly really needs to come to the photographer, and I didn't get any opportunities yesterday. I found this next image of one of the butterflies in the public domain.

(image credit: "sulfur type butterfly" by GregGilbert1 is licensed under CC BY 2.0.)

After checking the wildflowers, we visited Poppy's Quilt 'n Sew. I'll tell you about that in a separate post. And then we visited the RV supply place and were disappointed when we couldn't get the part. Oh well. It's a minor inconvenience, and we'll get it taken care of down the road.

From there, we headed back to the RV. Smitty was itching to get out for a walk. He went immediately to the dust and took a luxurious dust bath. Can you see how dirty he is? When you're a cat, this is apparently better than a getting a facial.

And then we spent a good long time playing tiger-in-the-weeds and grazing on the grass. Ahhhhh...this is the life.

And that was all utterly exhausting. He spent the rest of the afternoon snoozing in the catio.

For dinner last night, I tried something new. It's not new exactly, but it was made in a different way. These are Sheet Pan Quesadillas, and they were pretty darned good. You oil the sheet pan well, and then lay out the tortillas in a single layer. Mine were topped with two kinds of cheese, corn, and chicken, then roasted for about five minutes. Then, when the cheese was melted, I folded them into half-moon shapes, and roasted them for another three minutes. (The melted cheese does a pretty good job of sticking the two sides together.) When they were finished roasting, we added guacamole, salsa, and sour cream. We ate them as finger food, and they were very tasty. You could use any combination of filling and do them the same way.

I took a screen shot of the recipe to share with you. If you have trouble reading this, email me, and I can send it to you in a different format.

After dinner, we went out for a walk. These campers are in the site across from us.

I'm afraid the "or bust" part of that statement is going to be cloudy weather. The forecast isn't looking good, but we're keeping our fingers crossed.

Walking on, we crossed through these trees to get out to the lake.

We realized if we waited a few minutes, we would see a pretty sunset.

And there you go...day is done.

So the only thing on today's agenda will be to visit the Inner Space Cavern. We're going to try to get there early. This being a Saturday, I'm hopeful it won't be too crowded. The website is reassuring. It says this: "You can purchase tickets for the Adventure Tour upon arrival at the cave. The Adventure Tour goes in the cave about every 15 to 25 minutes throughout the day. We never sell out of the Adventure Tour.  If you arrive during business hours, you will be able to take a tour." Okay. So, we'll see.

Also, I charged the battery for my Olympus DSLR yesterday. I want to get some macro shots of the wildflowers. And the rest of the day will be for relaxation. We head out again tomorrow. We'll be in Whitney, Texas, for two days and we're hoping the weather will cooperate for our eclipse viewing. It was very expensive finding a place to stay, and so I hope we didn't shell out that moolah just to witness cloudy skies. We can only hope for the best. Also, my friend Judy should be meeting us there. She hasn't communicated with me, but I'm assuming she's on her way.

All right. I'll have to owe you a quilt shop post. I found fabric for the backing on the Whimsical Quilt Garden quilt. I'll show you when I get the pictures up, probably later on this afternoon.