Wonderful Wildflowers

Good morning, my friends. What an absolutely delightful day of driving we had yesterday. I only hoped to see the Texas Bluebonnets, and boy, oh boy. Did we ever see Bluebonnets. I have lots of pictures of every blooming thing to show you today, so let's get started.

We left Fort Stockton under the watchful snoopervision of this woofie in the RV parked across from us. He looks as if he means business.

About 30 miles down the road, we left I-10 for the first time since Arizona. It was nice to get off the interstate. We took US 190 East.

At the beginning, our view looked mostly like this:

Eventually, we came to this steep hill. It was surprisingly steep for this kind of roadway. Mike, at first, thought it was a different road, but it soon became clear we would be going up over that hill.

Reaching the top, it flattened out, and we were traveling at a higher elevation. It was then we started seeing wildflowers lining both sides of the road. Lots of wind turbines too.

We passed by a few barns...

And plenty of aging structures...

And places it seemed time had forgotten.

There were precious few places to pull off the road safely. Eventually we reached a spot where I could get out and take some pictures. We were still looking for the bluebonnets. This is Prairie Verbena. 

It was growing virtually everywhere.

I'll probably get some of these wrong, but I believe this next one is known as Moonflower.

This next one is probably Pink Evening Primrose.

I think this is our old friend the Chocolate Flower.

This is Milkweed.

And then...HOLY SH*T! THERE THEY ARE!!! Well, don't you know I nearly jumped out of the moving truck, but I held back until we found a good place to stop.

We'd seen little patches of them here and there, but the image above was from the first large field we saw. I could not stop taking pictures.

Yellow was the color of the day. We saw field after field of yellow. This one below is probably a crop...maybe mustard or rapeseed (used in canola oil).

And these Texas Paintbrush.

This was another one that filled whole fields as the bluebonnets did.

It looks just slightly different from the Indian Paintbrush we see in the Northwest. The image below was taken when we hiked in the Mt. St. Helens area.

And our drive was one of the prettiest I've ever seen. Flowers, flowers, flowers, everywhere we looked, and on both sides of the road.

Mike turned on the dash cam so you can see what we saw as we rode along. If you can't see the video, then click right here.

After many enjoyable miles, we reached our final destination of Lake Georgetown, a Corps of Engineers Campground in Georgetown, Texas.

And what a lovely place this is! We have such a nice spot for the next three days.

Smitty was pretty excited to get outside. He luxuriated in an excellent dust bath. Every time I thought he was finished rolling, he'd roll a little more. Yesterday Mike gave both kitties a good brushing. The weather is warming, and they're going to be shedding.

Also, we finally found some decent grass suitable for Smitty's discriminating palate. Grass is illegal in Texas, though, so let's keep this on the down low, okay?

He got in about a 30-minute walk, and then they got a healthy portion of Treats of Valor. (Sadie gets Treats of Appeasement.)

We had a little snafu bringing out one of our slides yesterday, and so Mike had to drive into town for a broken part. (The part isn't broken, but the one we have is.) No big deal. He'll work on that today. I'll probably have to help. In any case, while he was gone, I walked down to the lake. The path here is just across from our site.

I could walk right to the water's edge. Looking to the left, it looks like this.

And this being a Corps of Engineers campground, we were pretty sure we'd see a dam nearby. Sure enough. Looking to the right, it looks like this.

Looking even farther to the right from where I was standing, there was a boat launch.

Walking back to the RV, I noticed this little purple job. It has a tiny flower. Not sure what it is.

It was lovely sleeping far away from railroad tracks and freeways last night. The silence made for a good night's rest. This morning, the sun rose over the lake. This was the view from the kitty hammocks.

So we have a couple of things on our agenda for this morning. First, we're going to visit a nearby quilt shop. I'd already scoped out a quilt shop in Georgetown. And then my friend, "allier4," encouraged me with her recommendation to see Poppy Quilt 'n Sew. It opens at 10:00 a.m. Generally, I spend about half an hour in a quilt shop. After that, Mike noticed a big field of wildflowers on his trek into town yesterday. We'll go see that. The part he needs for the slide repair will arrive around noon, and then we can pick that up and come back to finish the job. And that sounds like a good way to spend our day. 

Mike isn't sure how long the repair will take. We'd intended to see the Inner Space Cavern while we're here. If he can finish the job today, we'll visit the cave tomorrow. And, if not...then, another time. We have caves at stops yet to come, and so it's no biggy if we don't get there.

Okay, my friends. As you can probably tell, it's an action-packed day ahead. We've had our breakfast. I need to get something started in the slow-cooker. After that, we'll be on our way.