Our last post described the prairie dogs that are abundant at Lake Arrowhead State Park, but we have been enjoying lots of other flora and fauna that calls this park home. We apologize now for way too many pictures of natural things that amaze us with their simple beauty.
It feels good to be back in a natural setting with trails to explore and wildlife to watch. This is one of our favorite things to do as we travel across this beautiful country. After being immersed in the tall tree forests in the east, it was interesting to be hiking again among the spindly mesquite of Texas.
Their two-inch thorns are as sharp as needles, and remind us that we don't want to get off the trail too far.
We are also in the land of prickly pear cactus, which grows into mounds that can be ten feet across.
We see a few of those mounds sporting curious white splotches. We recognize that as an indicator of a tiny organism called cochineal. There is a tiny worm responsible for the cottony white splotches that we are seeing.
We know from an earlier nature walk that the tiny worm inside the white web are white as well. But if the worm is squashed, the insides are a vibrant red that can be used for dying food and fabric (and your fingers) to that same shade of red. Who knew that bugs were used to make that favorite red lipstick or many of the red foods we eat? Look on the label for cochineal extract or carminic acid to confirm you are eating these bugs on a daily basis.
Those prickly pear cactus also make great homes for an army of kangaroo rats. We saw dozens of these long-tailed rodents while we were hiking, but could never get a good picture of one. Our best efforts caught a glimpse of one inside his cactus home. If you look carefully, you can see the kangaroo rats' fur and the beginning of his long tail in the center of the picture below.
The rangers told us they had never seen so many kangaroo rats as they have here this year. There is enough rat traffic to make "game trails" worn across the grass.
Mark took a picture down one of the rat trails. The trails would end in rat holes or prickly pear rat penthouses. Those kangaroo rats are everywhere!
The more we learn about the natural habits of flora and fauna, the more we are in awe of this world that God created. We saw wasp nests hanging from many of those spindly mesquite trees. This nest was deserted, but we still are fascinated by the perfectly spaced, perfectly shaped modules that the tiny wasp brain can design. Even though it is as light as paper, it is sturdy and weather proof. That is another wonder to us.
A similar configuration can be found in the seed pod of the lotus blooms found around the edge of the lake. The dried lotus pods are now home to spiders that spin webs where the seeds once were.
We are surprised to see a few of the tiny purple aster blooms still on the plants in December. These plants were three foot tall, and covered one of the meadows we hiked through. That must have been an awesome sight when they were in full bloom this fall.
Another blooming plant is the mistletoe hanging from the mesquite trees. Denisa is ready to be kissed under the mistletoe, but Mark is too busy taking her picture instead.
Besides the prairie dogs that seem to get the most attention, there are plenty of other animals to entertain us here at Lake Arrowhead. The lake is filled with all kinds of water fowl. But the Canadian geese are the biggest, and venture on land, where they are easier to photograph.
The white herons are more shy, as they keep their distance at the edge of the water. But Denisa loves the squiggly reflection that the white bird makes in the lake water.
It was sunny and warm when we took our 6-mile hike on the Onion Creek trail. The turtles were vying for spots on a log to soak up some of that sunshine.
We also took a bike ride on the park roads to get some exercise. We are trying to soak in as much sunshine as possible, before the rainy weekend.
From visiting with the park rangers, we found out that a Texas fishing license is not needed inside a state park when fishing from the shore. We've been carrying around rods and reels for two years, but the cost of buying a fishing license for each state we visit has kept them in storage. The state of Texas will even provide free fishing rods and tackle boxes of supplies. So we headed out on our first retirement fishing adventure.
It was a cloudy morning with no wind as we made ourselves comfortable on the fishing pier.
We saw evidence that Lake Arrowhead has some good-sized fish. The woman fishing from the next pier showed us a couple 15-inch bass in her bucket. Another group of fishermen was busy cleaning a dozen 3-pound catfish at the cleaning station. They were also full of stories of the 52-pound catfish they had the ranger weigh earlier today. Still 22 pounds below the lake's record, they returned him to the water to grow a little more.
After close to two hours of wetting a variety of lures, we have good news and bad news. The bad news is we didn't get any good bites. The good news is we didn't even smell fishy after our fishing adventure.
When Denisa got bored with casting and reeling in her lure, she watched the coots eating sea weed at the edge of the lake.
Next on the list of fun things to do at Lake Arrowhead is the disc golf course. The park office has discs to check-out for free, but we used our own set. We have heard of fancy golf courses with beautiful water features. But we think the water views from this disc golf course would rival those Arnold Palmer courses.
We were greeted to the course by this young white tail buck, who was wandering around the equestrian campground section of the park.
There is a 10-20 foot wide mowed fairway that connects the tee boxes to the disc golf baskets at the end of each hole.
But we spent a lot of time retrieving our miss-thrown discs from the tall grass and mesquite trees that lined the fairway. Considering the thorns on the mesquite and the needles on the cactus, making an errant throw can be a painful experience.
But who doesn't love a game where the rules on the information panel states, "Remember the most important rule: The one who has the most fun wins!" We enjoyed it so much we played again. We have really enjoyed our time at Lake Arrowhead. With upcoming rainy weather in the forecast, we have decided to stick around a couple more days to see what other things this north Texas region known as "Texoma" has to offer.
We were lucky to have a beautiful stretch of weather in Oklahoma for Thanksgiving. We remember last year's holiday with an ice storm that shut down western Oklahoma for days, so we know what a blessing it was. We had planned to winterize the motor home while it sat empty, but the ten-day forecast showed low temperatures above freezing. So we didn't have to use that anti-freeze after all! Instead of icy roads, this year we had blue skies and warm temperatures as we left Beaver. We are noticing more and more windmill farms in western Oklahoma. We don't miss the constant wind that drives them, but we like the clean energy that they produce.
We headed back to Edmond, Oklahoma, in the car to pick up our motor home. We stayed an extra day there to do some holiday baking. Mark is getting a good arm work-out mixing up our batch of goodies.
Every year between Thanksgiving and Christmas, Denisa's grandparents baked a huge batch of little German cookies called peppernuts. This day we made a half batch of these German treats made from molasses and spices like ginger, cinnamon, all-spice, and of course--pepper. After mixing up the thick batter, the stiff dough is rolled into snakes and cut into dime-sized pieces before it is baked. Over the years we have determined that using plastic knives and parchment paper sure makes the process easier. It took the four of us two hours to bake up a half-batch, but we felt we had done our part to keep another family tradition alive. We'll share them with our aunts and children that appreciate a spicy cookie with pepper in them.
We were humming the song, "On the Road Again" as we rolled out of Edmond to points south. Oklahoma has freezing temperatures coming, and we were glad to get the motor home out of there before it had to be winterized. That process isn't too hard for the majority of the water lines. But dealing with the refrigerator's ice maker and the water lines into our washing machine make it more difficult. Likewise, getting that pink anti-freeze rinsed properly out of those two appliances is also no fun. The threat of eating pink ice cubes, or washing clothes in pink anti-freeze is one of those things we don't mind missing out on this winter.
Our first destination south of the Oklahoma border is a Texas state park near Wichita Falls. Lake Arrowhead State Park is on a sizable lake, with nice water and electric camping sites. Where else but Texas would one expect to find an oil well in the middle of a state park? In the center of the campground is a working pump jack. The reviews we read said that the constant pumping noise was less than peaceful at the closest campsites. So we are camped a bit removed from the oil well.
The information board explains that this pump jack is pumping oil from the depth of 4,865 feet--almost a mile down. It also included a picture from 1919 of the nearby town of Burkburnett, Texas with a forest of oil wells visible from Main Street. It's interesting to us that this is where Mark's grandparents were living at about this time
An oil well is an interesting camping neighbor, but these cute little prairie dogs are more popular in this park.
They were busy eating the grass while it was still green around the park.
There are hundreds of prairie dogs in the park, and their behavior around people with cameras leads us to believe they have gotten used to being fed by visitors. There is a section of the state park with a sign that indicates this is the "prairie dog town." But many of them have moved out to the suburbs as well. We had a large group of them in our camping circle, with two mounds just a few feet from our motor home.
We listened to them bark their different warning calls as we approached, and watched them scurry into their nearby holes. The prairie dogs are not dogs at all, but rodents that dig a massive underground cave system.
As cute as they are, Mark just can't embrace them. He was raised on a ranch where they were viewed as the pests they are. Not only do the prairie dog towns rob the grass from the cattle, but their underground cavern is also a perfect lair for rattlesnakes. The holes they dig are notorious for causing a horse to stumble and fall when running across a pasture with a rider. So Mark will never be a fan of these cuddly prairie dogs.
We'll be here at Lake Arrowhead State Park for several days, until the cold weather drives us further south!
We love to explore the small towns of the United States. Many times we find that the locals don't appreciate the wonders they have in their own back yards. When we ask for recommendations of things to do near their little cities, we often get a perplexed look as they can't think of anything worthwhile to do. We might be guilty of the same attitude, as we take our home town of Beaver, Oklahoma for granted. This is where we both graduated from high school, and where our families have lived for several generations. We haven't lived here for over 35 years, but this no-stop-light town still feels like our home town.
Our daughter-in-law has visited here before for a family gathering, but she never got off the ranch. So it was time for her to see a little more of Beaver, Oklahoma. We started at the sand hills just north of town. It's a good place for digging holes in the sand on a beautiful blue sky day.
We all distinctly remember the path leading from the parking area to the first dune as being wider and taller. But the native bushes have taken over all but a narrow path of sand on the first set of sand dunes.
Once to the crest, there is a wider sand bowl that leads to the next group of dunes.
From here we could tramp through the brush to get to other sand basins scattered around the park. We could see many of the off-road-vehicle trails that make this park popular with people that would rather ride over the dunes instead of struggling up them. This was once a state park, but now has been turned over to the city to run.
Our group was interested in leaping off the edges into the soft sand far below. The boys might be growing up, as they first had to weigh the effects of broken bones or sprained joints if their leaps were less than successful.
We had to do some classic jump pictures from the top of the hill, where everyone managed to get some good sky beneath their feet.
Denisa tried to be in the jump shot, but her leaps were either too early . . .
or too late.
The boys wanted to give her a boost to help her get more air time. But again, she was old enough to realize this might not end well, and smart enough to decline their offer.
The other claim to fame to Beaver is that it is the Cow Chip Capital of the World. Honest! We don't make this stuff up! It is proclaimed on the banners that line the main drag through town.
Every April people gather from afar to see who can fling a cow chip the furthest. Of course, there is the obligatory parade, carnival, and other festivities to go with a world championship event.
Downtown on Main Street is a two-story statue of a beaver holding a cow chip. We always chuckle at the story of a new-comer who asked "What's with the statue of the squirrel holding a cookie?"
Cap-o-Ranch, where Mark was raised, is a proud producer of many of those cow chips. We have to say that the ranch is one of our favorite non-tourist destinations when we visit the panhandle of Oklahoma. We love the horses that graze in the pastures surrounding the house. One afternoon we watched as some of the horses came into the corrals for water. Our nephew Ben is a professional saddle bronc rider, and with our urging he jumped on one of the horses. Even though he didn't have a "steering wheel," he rode the horses around the pen for this picture.
If you read the blog in August, you might remember the kittens that Denisa played with every day.
They have grown into cats now that will probably be having another generation of kittens soon.
Even though we could hear the coyotes howling every evening, and we heard of successful deer hunts all around us, our best wildlife picture of the week is this ferocious feline perched in the red oak tree beside the house.
After a week of family time in the cow chip capitol of the world, it was time to head down the road for more adventures. For the last six months, we have traveled in the eastern part of the United States with tall trees that hide sunsets from our view. So we love being back in big sky country, where the sunsets stretch for miles.
When you add a couple horses, and two of Denisa's favorite guys, the picture is even better.
It was a beautiful send off, as we say good-bye to people we love in the panhandle of Oklahoma!
