Vroom, Vroom!

Yesterday it almost reached 80°! Not at the refuge, but inland a bit, at least as registered by the thermometer on my motorcycle.

Yes, we finally got out the motorcycles. After our morning walk (ellen) and bicycle ride (steve), I pulled the covers off the bikes, topped off the tires and liberated our riding gear from the trailer. We headed off to Rockport for our first shopping by motorcycle attempt. It was pretty windy on the way in.

Have we mentioned that it is very flat around here? Not far beyond the refuge it becomes open plowed fields as far as the eye can see, without a windbreak in sight. It was blowing about 20-25 out of the south-southwest. The farm roads leading out to TX 35 (the main road) are in a north-south/east-west grid and the route zig-zags to 35. It was alternating crosswind/close reach headwind until we got to the highway. Ellen was riding with distinct lean, not an easy first ride for the year.

The main road is southwest to Rockport, mostly straight...and the speed limit is 75 until it reaches the outskirts of the towns. We weren't going anywhere near 75, so it was a procession of pickup trucks passing us.

By the time we got to Rockport, it was lunch time. As we waited at a light discussing lunch, we noticed Jalisco's Mexican restaurant right next to us. We'd been to a Jalisco's in Silver City, NM. This was obviously a much different place, but what the heck; we turned in. It was a pretty good choice, definitely cheap eats and quite busy with lunching workers, many Hispanic. They had a sizable menu, but we settled for a familiar choice, burittos, pulled chicken for Ellen, barbacoa for steve. The chicken was pretty spicy and the barbacoa, barbecued shredded beef, was not. A good homemade hot sauce was provided. It was a good inexpensive lunch. It wasn't anywhere near Jalisco's in Silver City (the gold standard for us), but we'll probably be back.

After lunch it was off to H-E-B. We worked hard to do a full week of shopping (most unusual for Ellen), but we pulled it off and it all fit into the bike bags with plenty of room to spare. We have a couple of square insulated bags that would have been perfect for my big tail box, but we forgot them. We bought one from H-E-B to hold the fresh meats and dairy. It doesn't quite fit but did the job. We'll find a fitting one.

The ride back was much easier. The wind had let up and was at our back, but the passing traffic was just as nerve-racking, with a couple of cars pulling in right in front of Ellen, who was leading, to avoid head-on collisions with oncoming traffic. It think the problem is that passing both of us is like passing a very long truck and no one tries to pass us one at a time.

The 79.8° temperature was seen on the way back, about 5 miles from the refuge, but it dropped as we got closer to the coast. It turned out to be a pleasant late afternoon and warm enough to have dinner outside.

Today started out cool, but warmed up, not as much as yesterday but it was comfortable. We were going to go off for a morning bird walk. As we were getting ready, a large group of people arrived at the volunteer building. They weren't refuge staff, but a group of Texas Master Naturalists. This is a volunteer organization of mostly amateur naturalists that give tours, school presentations and do community service in support of nature (they provide a volunteer here at the visitor center on Sundays).

They were using the building to give a class to new members. The speaker was Wayne McCalister, a retired professor of biology who has written four books on Aranas and Matagorda. He and his wife, Martha, lived on Matagorda for several years as Fish and Wildlife Service employees doing research and educational activities. I asked and took advantage of an offer to sit-in. Ellen decided to go birding. We both had a great time. Ellen spent several hours at Heron Flats without crowds and I learned a lot about the refuge. I'd read most of it, as it was the subject of McCalister's "A Naturalist's Guide to Aransas", but having it presented with commentary and photos made it clearer.

In the afternoon, we got the motorcycles out and did a ride of the refuge auto tour loop. It was ostensibly to bring the spotting scopes to a lake on the inland side of the loop where I'd seen several large flocks on a bicycle ride last week, but only a single duck was visible, not even enough to warrant unpacking the scopes. It was a good ride though.

Grilled pork loin for dinner, but a little too cool for outside dining. It was another good day.