Day 14--Full day at Choke Canyon

After a nice breakfast of French Toast and maple syrup (with Bob Gibbs’ picture on the label) we repacked the back seat of the truck, which had gotten a bit junky in two weeks’ time. Then we set off on our bikes to explore the park. The reservoir appears to be about the size of Elk Lake in Michigan. The campground hugs the shore and there are also cabins to rent and a large recreational facility with a gym, nature center, swimming pool, and basketball and tennis courts, all of which are closed in the winter. There are many trails honeycombing the area, mostly for bird watchers. They were wide and pretty smooth, which meant that we could bike and look around as we rode. We passed many deer, which were clearly quite comfortable with people. We also saw a large flock of wild turkeys. Along one path we saw copious amounts of scat and well worn paths, which were riddled with rooting holes—a clear testament to the javelinas that live here. We rode to 75 Acre Lake and found 4 or 5 groups of people with high powered binoculars trained on one area of the shallows. When we asked, a woman told us it was a very rare Mexican bird called a Northern Jacana. (Interestingly, when back at the camper where I was reading Barbara Kingsolver’s La Lacuna, she mentions the same bird when the boy explores the sea cave’s hidden world!) Later we got some good pictures of a large bird roosting in a tree and figured that it was meant to inhabit the many large dome-shaped bird houses we saw along the trails. In all we rode over 6 miles within the park. We got out our chairs to do some reading after our ride. Cloudy skies, a breeze, some drizzle in the air and 64 degrees seemed much colder than yesterday’s sun and 70, but it was still nice to be outside. While we read two javelinas came through the campsite, about 20 feet from us. A little while later there was a deer munching the grass between us and the next site for about 30 minutes. Later in the afternoon we drove into Three Rivers, the town about 10 miles from the park. We parked next to their county administration building and found that we had a nice strong connection through the county’s access there to check email and update the blog. It was also near the grocery store we had been seeking. And it was across the street from The Rialto, the old, restored movie theater in town. They were projecting the Super Bowl beginning at 5:00 for free! We thought that sounded better than a smoky bar filled with drunken fans. We got a couple of chili dogs, drinks and a bucket of popcorn from their concession and watched the New Orleans Saints beat the Indianapolis Colts 31-17 with about 20 other fans. Most people were pretty quiet for the first half but there was a bit more cheering and partiality shown in the second half. It was a great way to see a Super Bowl.