RAIN, RAIN GO AWAY!

Our planned trip to South Padre Island got dumped on ALL DAY.  That river is in front of the motor home.


The wind blew and blew. We braved the weather and took my bike to a bike shop. It needed a tire, the brakes adjusted and new derailleurs But, the derailleurs, he told me, will be just as bad in two months carrying it like we do without a cover. A problem to chew over.


The jack rabbits did their best to stay warm by curling up as tight as possible. This one took refuge away from the wind by backing up to a tree.
Another hunkered down in the grass and made himself as round and tucked in as possible.


It was a good day for reading and listening to the weather beat around the motor home giving us some unwanted rock n’ roll. The weather report is telling us we’ll be getting more of the same. With 100 percent humidity, it becomes hard to sleep at night as the temperature warms.
Even so, I don’t think it is a good idea to deal with climate change by salting clouds to reflect sunlight and heat away. It seems to me the more we mess with nature, without a clear idea of what can go wrong, things often get worse down the line. (Cloud salting is a new idea to help mitigate warming climate change.)

SOUTH RIM GIVEN OVER TO THE WIND.

Thank goodness I have a floppy hat with a chin strap, but the wind was even worse than the day before. At Tunnel Overlook,  above,  I managed to take one picture.  Neither of us would even try the chiseled steps down into the canyon to see the tunnel for fear of being blown off balance. When I opened the door to the Bronco, the wind pulled out of my hand so fiercely, I couldn’t get it closed. Then, when I returned to the Bronco, while closing the door, the wind wrenched it so hard the arm-rest handle broke.

Tsegi Overlook was close by.  The haze at the back of the canyon is dust raised by wind.  This time Jim backed the Bronco into a parking spot so the wind couldn’t slam the door open.

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Driving the short distance to our third stop,  Junction Overlook, the road in front of us was billowing with dust.  Grit scalded my bare legs where I stood on the rim.

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We were out for about 30 minutes. The overlooks were close to each other, but the next one was nine miles away. We decided to call it a day. And glad we were. We returned to spend the rest of the day, doing more tin can rock and roll. Winds blew a steady 60 miles per hour all day with gusts of 70 to 75. Green branches were blown off trees in the park,  one of them hit the motor home. Sand skittered in waves across the paved areas.  The extremely fine dust filtered in through every crack  putting a fine particulate on the fruit in the bowl, our computers, floors and every surface. It seemed unreal. We are told the weather for our jeep tour today will be better. The tour is called Shake And Bake because it is hot in the canyon and the roads are bumpy. We’ll try to finish the South Rim overlooks on Monday.