The wooded spaces here are a bit too wooded and filled with fire-ants for my taste, so I moved to the water side. The high tides have receded, so I won't be flooded, but the number of storm cells in the forecast means it will be wet while I'm parked here. Nonetheless, it's a great spot to sit on the shore when it's not raining and read a book with the binocs handy while shore birds walk by. I'm signed up for four nights, then I'll go back to...

I'll be monitoring the various marijuana issues on the state ballots more than any of the human races. Here's my opinion on those: Montana. Medical initiative. Montana has had a medical program for several years, but the legislature slashed it off at the knees. By the time it went to court, and a countering initiative was prepared, there was no time to campaign. Quick to pounce was a fervent opponent, a Mormon car dealer, with the only source of...

Another favorite place. Usually I'm up against the water here, but since the high tides will continue, I'm in the wooded portion for a few days. Then I'll move to the bay side. This is next to the Aransas wildlife refuge, winter home of the whooping cranes. Top-notch birding everywhere here, but first I have to go into Corpus to get a refrigerator door.

Ever since the very first sale in WA in 2014, pot sales have increased steadily and predictably every month. September sales and October sales were 140 million, the first leveling since inception. I suspect that this might be the "base" number to use as a comparison. That means 1.7 billion dollars a year in sales, which includes taxes. About 500 million goes to the State in taxes in a year. I suspect the current harvest will be completely over...

The beaches have been closed for several days now, which really screws up the lives of folk around there. The tides are better now, so people can go retrieve their trailers; I might be able to drive on the sand tomorrow morning. Weather is dicey, though. A day might include sun, rain, hail, thunder, maybe repeated several times. One thing that stays the same is heat and humidity. My refrigerator door broke last week. I knew I'd be able to...

The rule here is two weeks camping at Bird Island basin, then you must camp elsewhere for two days before returning for another two weeks. For the windsurfers, "My two days out" means they're temporarily gone for two days before returning. They'll spend months here doing the two days out thing. It was not my intention when I came in, but I'm thinking seriously about the two weeks thing and maybe taking my two days out. And coming back. I like...

One of my all-time favorite places to park. I'm in the North Padre National Seashore unit at a dry-camp only spot on the Waterway side of the island. It's a famous sail boarding place, though there are only 5 boarders here now. Very, very few travelers around. Weather is warm (85/70), very humid, breezy, and sunny. Some disturbances will be here for the weekend, but nothing worth worrying about. The beaches are dry and have fluffy spots, not...

This has become one of my favorite stopping places, halfway between San Antonio and Corpus Christi. An excellent birding and wildlife place, and in the off-season a wonderful, quiet place. It's always a surprise to me see it was developed by the Bureau of Reclamation, not the Army Corps of Engineers. The facilities are equal to COE standards. The drawback is that it is now completely surrounded by oil facilities, which wasn't the case eight...

Every year the warnings go out alerting parents to be on the watch for marijuana-laden treats that look like candies or cookies. And every year (for decades) no such case has been found. It (and the razor blade in the apple meme) were debunked a long time ago. But rather than ignore this silliness completely, make a note of where the warning you heard came from, it's (human) source. Otherwise, parents, throw out anything from your kid's bag that...

It was a relief when I went into Hill Country this morning. Much easier on the eyes. It's still hot and humid, but a disturbance going through tomorrow should fix that for a while. I'm at the Escapee park here for about a week. Partly to take a break from driving, and then to fetch my mail. And BBQ can't be far away around here. I've no plans to go into San Antonio, I'll have plenty of cities ahead of me.

There's plenty of spaces in the RV parks around here, not too many tourists show up. The advantages are the limitless views of the largest mesquite forest I've seen. Interesting roadkill seen are armadillo (lots), anteater, javelina, racoon, wild hog, snakes and deer and furry cute animals. I've been going through the Panhandle but I'm picking up on the feel that I'm approaching Hill Country. Panhandle seems to be aspiring to be West Texas. I...

My fridge showed a fault code this morning: the flame detector had failed. I figured out what part I needed and looked at my plans. I was going to dry-camp as long as possible, but now I needed electricity to run the fridge. RV parks are not plentiful around here; quite scarce, actually. So I remapped my route and hope to find the parts in Abilene. When I got to a state park with electrical, the fridge was working fine. Hmmm. I'll be in reach of...