Always Take a Camera Along in Texas

This last Saturday my uncle Bob and I made a trip up to Priddy, Texas to meet a fellow outdoorsman to purchase an older boat and motor that I plan to turn into my Colorado River adventure boat for the grand kids and just maybe to help take care of my second childhood urges, if they don’t kill me first. The seller got tied up behind a wreck on the trip down and was late to the meeting at a deer lease about 5 miles out of Priddy. Not wanting to pull into a hunting camp with strangers not knowing our reason to be there we decided to drive up a nearby hill on the farm to market road we were on and just observe the wildlife, sit back and tell life stories to each other until the seller arrived.

This is where I learned a life lesson that apparently has taken me fifty eight years to learn. While sitting on the side of the road we saw some vultures fly down at what we thought was a big vulture sitting in a dead tree maybe a half mile away. As we watched it looked like the vulture in the tree had light shining off of its head. I reached in the back seat and got a pair of 10 x 50 Cabela’s binoculars I carry in the truck for just such an occasion and focused them on the bird. To my surprise there sat a fully mature adult Bald Eagle, in the middle of no where far from rivers or lakes set an eagle just taking in the afternoon. I turned to the backseat again while remembering my camera was lying on the couch where I had laid the case when I came in from the ranch last weekend. I had no way to record what we were seeing and the rare sighting would go un-documented, perhaps it was just a moment for my uncle and I to share at that time. I know the saying that this posting is worthless without pictures, but I just wanted to remind all of you to always carry a camera in the outdoors or anytime you are on a trip around this great State. You never know what you might see, Wild Ed

PS:  It is not always easy to find a decent place to eat when your out on the road headed to an adventure so I encourage hunters, fisherman and other outdoorsmen to let people know where to stop when on the road.  We stopped at a small cafe on the south edge of Goldthwaite Texas on 183 that had a large number of vehicles in the parking lot.  I don't remember the name but they had a good cheeseburger with fries for a fair price.  The table next to us had mexican food that looked awful good so I will try it the next time I go through the area.  It is on the west side of 183 on the south outskirts before you get into town.