Horned Toad!

Yes! For what now has been probably 30-35yrs, I have lived in the absence of horned toads. There was a time when I was a kid that we found them on a regular basis. Then for years I have not seen one.

From a friend, who turns out to be a bit of horned toad aficionado, I learned that there are some in New Mexico but they are not the Texas brand of toads. Emily saw a toad last summer in the Jemez while camping with the Grahams. It was her first sighting.

Sunday while I was walking back from a target at the shooting range a horned toad ran out right in front of me. I was very excited. It was smaller than the Texas toads I remember and its head was a totally different shape than the Texas ones. Wish I had a camera.

Turns out that there are about eight different species of Horned Lizards in North America. Sorta interesting to learn about the different Horned Toads. There is a Horned Lizard Society too...so check it out.

Emily Goes 300 Yards !

Emily is pointing at the bullet hole she put in the target at 300 yards! Yea! (The other three in the black were Dad's but this one bullet hole is all hers.)



How did she do it you ask? Well....


with Dad's Tinker 22BR. Yep she used Dad's long range rifle.








Here with the 22BR from a different direction. Utopia shoot watch out.






When we arrived at the range she shot her Cricket 22LR then moved on to the Remington Model 25 pump that is chambered for the ole 25-20WCF. The exact same rifle that Aunt TK and Dad used to kill their first deer.

She enjoyed shooting this little rifle but soon decided she liked shooting Dad bigger rifle better. How quickly the graduate.

Elizabeth On Her Trike

Elizabeth, first time, on her trike. She is working hard to learn how to ride it by herself. What a joy....well maybe not her face at this moment. :)

Early Mornings: Angelo vs Los Alamos

Wow what a difference between the mornings of Angelo and Los Alamos. Angelo the sun is not up til about 6am...a tad after actually while here in Los Alamos it just keeps creaping closer to 5am.

The temperature is about 85 or more in Angelo with a good bit of humidity while here it must be
in the high 60s at least with no humidity. Los Alamos is just a cool place to be in the morning...no pun intended. Really enjoyable. And with daylight already upon me then no varmints to cross paths with. Maybe a skunk but so far no sightings yet since it is daylight.

On another note, I have had the makings of a BBQ review blog for several years now but I just have not bothered developing it. Emily discovered it the other day and wants to help me with it. So we should be unveiling it in the near future for the few visitors I have here at the Bubbalog.


I might be able to get a couple of reviews out this time since I ate BBQ four out of the five days I was in Texas. :)

Heading Home Today

Well I will be heading home today. Looking forward to seeing my family again.

God willing the creek don't rise.

I love and miss each of you very much. Love you Elizabeth, Emily, and Gwen.
Oh ok...Candycane, Rescue, and Blueberry too. ;)

See you soon. Love ya.

The 3rd Annual Utopia ShootOut & BBQ

I arrived at the ranch at about 8:15pm just in time for them to squeeze me for some sighters. I needed to be on at 400yards and was only on at 200 yards. I got it done just in time for them to start on time at 9am. I had to make one adjustment when doing official sighters right before starting our rounds. I drew 6A which is Lane 6 and circuit A. So I was first up in the relays. The start was a bit slow for me. Hitting only the biggy and one medium. Leaving a medium and all five small ones. Yikes. Looks like a long day.


This is a view from behind of the benches. There were six benches in all with 3 circuits or rounds.







Here is a look at boards with pigeon layout. The scoring was 10,20, and 30 for big, medium, and small in that order. There were two boards with 3 lanes each on them.







A view of what the shooter saw when looking downrange. You can see the boards at the end of the clear field.








Here is a look in the opposite direction from the benches. This is back the way we came in...and that is my rifle resting from its job.

At the start I thought I would be in the hunt for Dead Ass Last but each round I picked up steam a bit and by the last board I hit 1,2, 3 leaving two small ones. Not bad. That was as close as I came to sweeping my five boards. I finished 13 our of 17.



The Utopia Shoot-Out and BBQ

Court Houses: Hill Country Tour

Well after a hill country tour of about 430 miles in a circle I visited three court houses and several hill country towns and highways. Leaving Angelo Friday heading to Llano to visit Dan and Dianne. I went through Eden, Brady, Mason, and Llano.

Here is Brady Court House
They are in the process of renovating it.








I pulled into Mason (Home of Fred Gipson) and had a bit of a time getting a clear shot of the courthouse. This is about the best I could do.







A slightly different angle of the Mason Court House so the dome is exposed. While in Mason I noticed the Hemphill Insurance Agency so I stopped by to introduce myself and say hello to Kendal Hemphill. At first I did not find Kendal but got the chance to meet his wife Joceyln. She pointed me to Kendal who was working on a house out on Llano highway behind a cemetery. Kendal is an Outdoor's writer and humorist who used to have his column in the Angelo Standard Times but they punted on it a couple of years ago. It was nice to finally met Kendal.


Then in Llano, Dan gave me a tour of the Llano Court House.
Dan and Dianne were great hosts and I really enjoyed visiting with them and seeing them. I was a joy. They both were doing well considering all the heal issues over the last few years.





Here is a shot of the front of Dan and Dianne's house in Llano. The inside is very nice indeed. Lovely view of the river and very welcoming home. Thanks again Dan and Dianne!




The tour of the Hill Country continued the next morning (Saturday) starting down to Fredricksburg (Ancestor's Stomping Grounds), Kerriville, Bandera, Utopia (for the shoot), Vanderpol (I did not turn off to Leakey which is suppose to be a motorcyclists utopia of road scenery), Junction, Menard, and back into Eden.

One event was surprising. Early in the morning, but with plenty of daylight, as I crossed the Pedernales River outside of Fredricksburg I saw a long, skinny, low to the group animal cross the road. I was not close enough to verify it but I am very positive it was a ringtail cat (cacomistles) but it was very long from head to tail compared to the ringtails I have seen before this time. It was a treat to see this very unprobable event.

Of course I had BBQ twice and passed on several potential BBQ places all which I will report on later...maybe on the BubbaQ blog. :)

Rinsing Bird Pooh

When I got up this morning and got some exercixe. It is a bit over 80F and humid. Even though the lower attitude is suppose to make it easier to exercise my legs felt like lead. I dragged and dragged. Oh well.

I got home at about 6:15am and loaded up the truck with most of my gear so that I do not have to do it in the humidity of the morning. Then rinsed down the truck to get rid of most of the bird pooh since Mom feeds all the birds and squirrels here under her Live Oak thicket. Nice shade but nasty on the bird pooh. Then the truck got moved out in the street by the mailbox to keep it half clean until I do this blogging and get a shower and ready to go.

I need to stop by and get gas and grub on the way out of town. It is about a two hour drive to Llano which is right through the beautiful Hill Country. I look forward to it.


I hope my girls had a wonderful time at the hotel in ABQ and swam and swam. Maybe today they will get Emily a new camera. Her's was lost/stolen in ABQ at the Aquarium's resturant if I understand the story correctly. Very sad. Aunt TK gave her that camera and she was proud of it. But all things can be replaced. Thank goodness and the Lord that they are all well.

I Love You, Emily, Elizabeth, and Gwen! This Much!

Utopia: Loaded Up and Ready to Shoot

I got 61 rounds of ammo ready for the Utopia Shoot down at a ranch in Utopia, Texas (near Bandera or Hondo depending on which way you head out from there. For those unfamiliar then
west of San Antone. ;)

There was a small setback that luckily worked out. I was priming my cases when I hosed up one of the primers so bad (it did not detonate though) that it stuck in the case holder and I had no way to remove it with the risk of detonation. So I headed out to Academia Sporting Goods and Field & Stream to see if by chance they had the shell holder I needed. ASG did not carry handloading gear so I went to F&S next with only a lead to the Angelo Shooting Club's store if F&S did not work out. Luckily F&S has one left so I was golden as long as I did not hose this one up again.

I headed over to the Christian Store to browse and of course found a few books I liked. Only bought two though.

Well I ready to visit Dan and Dianne tomorrow in Llano. I look forward to it. I have missed visiting with them and I really want some BBQ goat which hopefully Cooper's BBQ will have on hand. I will get to see the Llano River much farther down stream where there is some water other than stream at the head of it.

As always I love my girls and miss them. God bless them and be with them until I return home.

Cement Pond and Possum Crossings

Well I arrived at Angelo at about 7pm Texas time. It was warm and I needed some relief. Turns out the swimming pool is a nice temperature for swimming. Emily sure is missing out.




I guess my "farmer's tan" is really showing. Though my arms are darker too far up to be a true farmer's tan. Only the hands should be darker.

Well this morning I got up at around 5:45am to head outside for some exercise. First thing I noticed it was still pretty much dark here. In Los Alamos it is daylight between 5 and 5:30am. I guess it has to do with the fact Angelo is in the western part of the Central time zone and LA is in the eastern part of the Mountain time zone.

Anyway, I was moving along at a pretty good pace just a block from the house down the left side of the street. I was moving under some live oak trees that were blocking any light making it darker. Now the paved streets here are black but just barely due to gray rocks and something that makes them whitish. Due to this background of light gray I barely noticed something crossing the road just off to the right in front of me..it was moving right to left at a good pace and it had was basically a long white streak. That is right the first thing I thought was "SKUNK!" Since I was right on top of the thing and I could not stop or get out of its way then I angled left and hoped to cross in FRONT of it and it be none the wiser. I was holding my breath as I went by ... then as I looked down I realized it was a "POSSUM" who saw me and turned and ran back the other way. I cursed "Dang Possum". It was the usual white and light gray and blended into the road very well in the darkish morning. I was a good bit relieved.

Well I have to get busy. I have handloads to get ready. Visit my Mom's store rooms to see what we want to keep or get rid of. No telling what else to do today.

Oh they finished the watertower. It is a shiny ugly color.

Courteous West Texas Drivers

The rest of the trip to Angelo from Lubbock was uneventful. I started listening to the Color Purple video back at Cline's Corner and it lasted me to Lubbock. The movie is a good bit easier to deal with than the book. Issues are inferred in the movie instead of detailed like the book.

When I left Lubbock I ran into more "West Texas rainstorms". There were a bunch of dust devils and the wind was killer. I had to stop and get gas in Post, TX. By the the temperatures seemed over 100F and the wind was no stop. While pumping the gas it felt like when you stand in a small kitchen next to the oven but with a fan blowing the heat over you. The wind in this case did not give any relief and maybe made the problem worse. It was stifling and hard to breath. And at times like these I wonder why I miss Texas so much. :)

One thing I noticed on this trip is that there is a trailer campground behind the Gas'N Grub at Colorado City. I had never noticed it before but I think it has been there a long time.

Now I know many say Texas driver's are terrible but I am never so sure of this belief. As always I found the roads with generous shoulders that West Texas drivers still use to help you pass on the highway. Often drivers still pull over on the shoulder, when it is safe of course, to encourage you to pass and so you can do so with a good view and safety. And when you have passed then just a quick wave in the rearview mirror is all it takes to say "Thanks!" and they wave back.

As Emily and Elizabeth learned back in April on Spring Break that in rual Texas places the drivers will give a quick wave to oncoming cars just out of habit. And if you give them a quick wrist wave from the stearing wheel they will wave back.

It may all be habit and no one cares about anyone else but I do not like to think like that. It just seems friendly to me and it puts a smile on my face.

The Book Inn

Well after being swept into Lubbock by a "West Texas rainstorm" (aka dust storm) and finally getting out of the A/C'd truck to feel the heat I stopped at where else but Rudy's. The food was better than normal I think.

After a quick bite I decided to head over to one of my favorite used books stores called The Book Inn. I have been going to the Book Inn since I moved to Lubbock in 1988. I was a bit nervous with anticipation because I was not sure it was still open or if it had been sold since the owner should be getting close to retirement.

When I got there sure enough it was still there and the sign said OPEN. As I walked through the door there was Kyle the owner looking the same but maybe with a tad less hair and a good bit more gray than last time I was in the place. But the store was pretty much the same with a good bit more books in certain places than I last remembered.

I spent 1.5 hrs there looking and visiting with Kyle. Turns out there one of the other used book stores in town had been sold and The Book Inn picked up a good number of books from that store. The store was owned by a retired TTU math professor named Dr. Ford. When Dr. Ford passed away Kyle picked up some of Dr. Ford's personal library of math books. And guess what I found? Another hard copy of Abramowitz and Stegan. This would be the fourth copy I have picked up in this store in the last twenty years. Still priced at $20 which is just about the Dover price in the large paper back. It is a great deal. This book makes a great gift for the nerdy science types. Well at least to those who appreciate the book.

Also I picked up a copy of an ASU professor's book called "They Called Them GREASERS". I had always wondered about this book and its follow-on. When I was in my first year (1982) at ASU I met a fellow student, Bill Lane, who would go to the ASU library to do research for Dr. De Leon. It was a small paying job and he would go through the microfiche of newspapers and US census records looking for stories on Hispanics and blacks over a given time period. (Bill taught me how to use the libraries resources of microfiche and I searched my family tree and looked at old newspaper clippings.) Anyway Bill's research was included in De Leon's books one of which was "They Called Them GREASERS" and maybe one more that I never heard of after.

Last I talked to Bill was in around 1994 in Lubbock where he is a practicing lawyer. At that time I had not seen him since 1984 when they moved to Lubbock. And I have not talked to him since our visit in 1994.

Also at The Book Inn, I picked up a copy of "Gustav Dresel's Houston Journal". It is a translation of Dresel's journal from his travels of Texas and North America between 1837 to 1841. This predates the actual arrival of the settlers from German through the Society of German Emigrants by about 7 to 8 years. But at this time they were looking in Texas for the settlement grants.

Too be honest I could imagine going into that used book store and coming out with about 100 books on history and so forth that you just cannot get in modern bookstores and only found in libraries.

We will need to return often since Kyle said he was thinking of retirement in a couple of years. He only opens the store in the afternoons most of the time now since he has trouble getting around and he spends mornings doing e-trading of books.

So if you are in Lubbock and want to drop by then it is:

The Book Inn
2241 34th Street
Lubbock, Texas
806.763.6682
Owners: Kyle and Maxine Hollingshead

The store is just east off of University on the south side of 34th.