FREDRICKSBURG

Someone recently said that life is a series of U-Turns!  Having "done" Fredericksburg a few years ago, I almost drove through it without stopping today.  Then I saw it.  DOOLEY'S!  The magical pull of DOOLEY'S hooked me into one of those U-Turns!  Fredericksburg does not need Dollar Stores or a WalMart.  It has DOOLEY'S!

Girls just wanna have fun.  And these girls shared my love of silly hats.  Yes, we had fun! Complete strangers; instant bond!

Alma Mae (yes, that's really her name) stocks, restocks, works the cash register and always wears a smile.

And the truly remarkable thing about Dooley's?  Its employees.  This trio's combined years of employment at Dooleys is over 100 years.  So, OK, that says something about Dooley's management as well.  Awesome!

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Hair nets, silk flowers, gingham nightgowns, yarn, John Deer scooters and wagons, ribbons, bows, buttons, stoneware, cast iron cookware, spinning eyeballs that light up, hats for "regular" people, Aquanet, oil cloth by the yard.  If Dooley's doesn't have it, you don't neeed it!

JUNCTION...

...a sweet little town on the South Llano River.  Although the trees were still bare here in West Texas, Spring Breakers filled the state parks to capacity.  No worries; my trusty digest of Texas county and municipal parks guided me to a free spot in Junction's Municipal Park, right on the river -- doesn't get much better!  The tree?  I haven't a clue what it is.  I call it the carmel popcorn tree!  Click on the picture to see the detail of those ... Pods?  Buds?  Fruit?

BALMORHEA STATE PARK

It was too early (not enough insects yet) for Balmorhea's normal bat population, usually in the thousands. Still, watching just a few hundred take to the skies at dusk was breath taking.  This is one of the two daytime bat hangouts.

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At the refreshing San Solomon Springs pools, tetra, ducks and Boy Scouts all get along! These springs have provided water for travelers and agriculture for thousands of years.  Twenty-something million gallons of water a day is pumped through these pools.

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Balmorhea not only has a  full service campground, its quaint motor court is usually fully occupied.  All the buildings, canals and pools were built in the 1930's by the CCC.

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This is one of those "find-the-..." pictures!  There really is a Pied-billed Grebe in there.  Honest!  The park has painstakingly recreated the San Solomon Cienega, a desert wetland that is now habitat for several endangered fish and other aquatic life.

TEXAS!

This is what a border town looks like.  Except that what you're looking at is Cuidad Juarez, Mexico from an El Paso, Texas window.

TUCSON

I enjoyed a delightful catchup reunion with Heidi, one of the notorious Baja Babes, and we then spent a day at the Tucson Festival of Books, at the University of Arizona. Some of my favorite mystery writers (Jance, Leonard, McGarrity) and dozens of other authors appeared during the two-day event to sign their books, chat and give interviews and encouragement to budding writers.  We made sure to listen to Roy Peter Clark cram an incredible number of writing strategies into an hour-long presentation, admired the whiz-bang gadgetry of the on-the-road C-SPAN production bus, people watched, and bought books from the profusion of participating independent sellers.

Graffiti in Tucson seems almost non-existent. Could creative highway walls be the deterrent?

ALMOST ARIZONA~~~~ARIZONA!

Holtville Hot Springs, a BLM Long Term Visitors Area, right next to a freeway, not exactly nirvana, but definitely an unexpected oasis where you'll find winter crops and roosting snowbirds planted side by side. One can warm up in the pools or cool down in the pond.  Or both.  A cadre of volunteers, mostly Canadian, pump out and scrub down the pools weekly.

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I love "roadside geology," and, as you'll discover later, I'm fascinated with road cuts!  This distinctive formation (part of the Basin and Range Province, I THINK) is a common sight all along Southern California's Highway 8...

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and then it reappears along Highway 10 in SE Arizona.  The formation in Arizona is locally known as the Little Dragoon Mountains, and that's the "Cochise Stronghold" in the background.

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And nestled in the Little Dragoons is the Amerind Foundation, a working research facility and museum for Native American studies -- anthropology, archeology, art.  Following the lecture on the day I attended, visitors were treated to a goosebump-rising Apache song/chant/blessing of love, compassion and celebration by an Apache docent. Interior photographs are not allowed.  If you have any interest at all in Native American culture, you owe it to yourself to visit this unique museum if you're in the area.