Once again, as we are driving down a road in a National Park, I spot something large in the road. So large that we both can see it when we are 20 yards away. Fortunately, I am drive slow so we have plenty of time to avoid the creature, stop and take photographs. The Tarantula pays no heed to us and continues on his/her merry way across the road and into the desert.

At another point in the Big Bend National Park we find people herding horses across the Rio Grande River from the USA side to the Mexico side. We wondered, "Who's horses are these and why are they going from one side to another?".

There are lots of animals in the park but you have to look for them. Well, most of the time. The coyote was near our campground, lurking around for what we were not sure. Then we talked to the campground person and found out that the coyotes had learned that if they stick around in the evening, campers tend to tie up pets outside their campers and this made a wonderful, easy meal for the coyotes. We made sure that Sam was never outside without being on his lease and one of us holding it and Sam within 10 feet.

Jack Rabbits were around but this was one of the few we were able to get close enough to capture with a photograph.

One other animal we saw was the mule deer. And when we got back to the campground and were walking that evening we again say the coyote looking for a snack.

After leaving Big Bend we went to Brownsville, the southern most point in Texas. The drive there was somewhat boring as the landscape is brownish desert and such. The drive down route 90 is easy and we stop for the night at the Aimsted Park, which is on a reservoir created by a dam constructed by the USA and Mexico. We find a free campsite near the lake. During the night the wind picks up and we are rocking & rolling all night. When we get up in the morning we find the wind has pushed the lake within 5 yards of us!

The only animal we see near our campground is a lone jack rabbit. There is a Coast-To-Coast campground in Brownsville where we stay for a few days. It has a small golf course and we are near the 2nd tee. As the length of the course is small (executive) we can carry a few clubs and play.

From Browsville we drive north to Corpus Chrisi and then a bit south from there to the Pardre Island. Padre Island is another fantastic place to be in a camper. You can drive out on the beach as the sand is quite hard and this beach is miles long! You can park overnight with no fear of the tide coming in. And you can listen to the waves all the time. It is here that I take one of my best photographs of the trip - the Blue Heron wading in the ocean looking for food early in the morning.

Fortunately, Jeanne has two telephoto lenses and the easily get this great close up of the heron. As we leave Pardre Island we stop at the Bird River Basin to see if we can find and sand hill cranes, a very endangered species. Again, we are fortunately to find a large flock of them feeding.