Spring 2016 Mini-Tour (1 of 6)

This is part of a six-part series documenting my spring 2016 mini-tour from my house outside of Sanger, Texas to Wichita Falls, Texas. My route consisted mainly of gravel and dirt roads, and I covered about 130 miles over 2.5 days. Although this was a “credit card tour” which included meals and lodging purchased along the way, I did bring my coffee gear and had a roadside lunch on the second day. There were two reasons for this. Firstly, there were no towns or services along my route on the second day, and secondly, I’m a coffee snob. Documentation will be mainly in the form of photographs with a few captions or comments to relay something that might have caught my interest.

The series will be presented in six themes; (1) Flora and Fauna, (2) Roads and Rambles, (3) Little Texas Towns, (4) Classic Cars, (5) Lunch Outside, and (6) A Dog Agility Trial.

PART ONE OF SIX – FLORA AND FAUNA

Here are a only a few snapshots of some of the critters and vegetation that caught my attention. I suppose there could have been many more photos here, but taking photos of every interesting cow, cactus, wildflower, or blowing prairie grass wave out in this part of Texas would have slowed me down to the point of the ridiculous. To see all that, you’ll need to ride (slowly) with me next time.

The photo above shows the rain showers on the western horizon. It had been raining during the prior few days. It was a muddy start that had me wondering if I had made a poor choice. But the horses were lively, attentive, and eager to pose for a portrait.

Miles later, the roads improved and the sun came out. There were more horses willing to stand close to the fence, even I as stopped to frame the shot.

The donkeys were nibbling the grass at the base of this tree until I took one step too close. Then they retreated and left me with this as my best image of them.

There were wildflowers speckled all along my route. I could have stopped often to capture images, but selfishly just kept on pedaling and soaking in the color contrasted against the greens and browns of the countryside. When I stopped at the spot above, there were a bunch of shiny black cows along the fence. By the time I made my self presentable, set the timer, and framed the shot, they had decided that putting a little distance between themselves and the bike freak would be wise. So here’s me and my bicycle blocking your view of a nice patch of Bluebonnets. Shiny, black cows (and mooing noises) just outside the frame.

Maybe you had to be there. It doesn’t look as dramatic as when I rode by. There was a vast open space of grassland…and then this stark island in its midst. The healthy grove of trees just stood out so starkly on the horizon, so I snapped it.

Finally, for Mrs. Pondero, the beekeeper…

I had stopped at a high spot in the road to have a look around. When I laid my bike down, I noticed that honeybees were working over these tiny purple flowers. The photo is horrible, but the bee is just above and left of center. I’m going to have to hope that “it is the thought that counts” here, because my other attempts at bee images were even worse.

Next post…”Roads and Rambles”…