Once again, this is being dictated on my iPhone. You will see whatever Siri thought I said.

Choke Canyon State Park

—-I have been anticipating this camp out for so long. I originally made the reservation hoping that the Choke Canyon State Park Birding Festival would be taking place this weekend. It usually is held on the first weekend of February. Anyway, I did learn about two weeks ago that the festival is actually going to be next week. Rachel said it was fine with her if I extended my stay. But, I really didn’t want to camp for 11 days. Plus, there are issues with how much the holding tank will hold during that time. Anyway, I came down as planned and had my own little birding festival.

——When I went to the lot to get the camper, we were experiencing freezing conditions. The lock that I put on the chains was frozen, and I couldn’t get it off. I called Rachel and asked her if she knew whether or not we had bolt cutters, but I was pretty sure we didn’t. She didn’t know either. I called the Storage People and couldn’t get an answer to see if they had some. So, I followed Rachel‘s instructions, or I should say suggestion, and looked on the Internet to see how to get a frozen lock open. It all seemed to come down to providing heat of some kind. The best suggestion was to pour hot water on it. Well, the only hot water I had with me was pee. Let’s just say, that worked. I'll still need to buy a new lock because the key is all bent out of shape from trying to open the lock.

——The drive down was very pleasant. It was sunny and the wind was blowing north north west. Since I was going south south east, it was blowing from behind me. I don’t mind that so much.

——Once I got to Tilden, Texas, the wind was about 17 mph. Unfortunately, that’s where I turn and head due east. Fortunately it’s only about 13 miles, so I just took it really slow.

——When I got to the campsite, it was kind of chilly because of the wind. There I was in shorts and a T-shirt. The first thing I did was hook up the electricity and plug my heater in. Then I put some sweatpants and a jacket on. They helped me finish the set up process without freezing.

——I didn’t do much that first day. I kind of just hung around the trailer since it was going to get dark fairly soon. That night, I watched my Korean series on Netflix. I was happy to see that I could get it to show on the TV again. It takes a little work, but I can get it on there.

——The next two days, Saturday and Sunday, the weather was absolutely beautiful. Although it stayed in the 30s and low 40s, the wind speed was extremely low - between 3 to 5 mph. I got tons of pictures of beautiful birds.

——Today, Monday, it was a bit warmer. When I started my walk it was already 50°. I went ahead and skipped the jacket and sweatpants. I chose to wear a T-shirt and shorts, and I never really got too cold. There didn’t seem to be as many birds today though. I really can’t tell you why. However, I did stumble upon a beautiful great horned owl. It is the first owl I've ever seen in the wild. I got lots of great photos of it up close and personal.

——Today, I followed the same trails I have used pretty much the whole time I’ve been here. I walked from my camper on the Green Jay Trail to the shelter area. Then I took the Emperor Run Trail until it turned off to the left to go towards the dump station. When I got to the dump station, I crossed the road and hiked until I hit the Hawk Alley Trail. Then, I walked around the lake looking at the waterfowl. I followed the road from 75 acre lake back to the gymnasium area.

——When I was at the gym, the interpreter, Olivia, came out and talked to me for about 30 minutes. It was a wonderful conversation. She had put some food out for the green jays, but I still didn’t get a good picture of them.

——I walked around the area where the boat ramp is and then took the trails back to the trailer. Once there, I ate a nice hot lunch, processed my pictures, and took a nice long nap.

——When I woke up from my nap, I did some other chore kind of things in the trailer. I got some things ready to go tomorrow. For example, I went ahead and brewed my coffee and made iced coffee for tomorrow. Then I made a batch of wine coolers to drink tonight so that I could stow the wine. I did a bunch of little odd jobs that usually get done in the morning that I leave.

——I finally ate dinner. That was just Campbell’s vegetable beef soup and oatmeal on tortillas. It was very good.

——I spent the evening watching my latest Korean Netflix series, Signal. I’m going to watch one more episode and go to bed early.

NOTE: I did drive down the next weekend for the bird festival. It was totally different as far as birding goes. They were very few birds to be seen.

-----If you are interested in seeing photos for this trip, go to https://itsalive.postach.io/ . Most of the photos I take these days are of living things, but there are some shots of the park and campsite mixed in.