New Year's Eve

We had a full van load for the bird tour this morning that started out with dense fog. Viewing birds is difficult when you can only see ten feet in front of you. We had a good group on the tour with folks from Wisconsin, the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, and Dallas, TX. The fog lifted for the second half of the tour and we hit the back roads of the refuge. I tried to show the visitors the barn owls in the duck box that I posted pictures of a few days ago, but they didn't cooperate and apparently were not in the box this morning. We did see a nice variety of birds, though and everyone appeared satisfied with the experience.

After lunch, I drove Diana into Harlingen so I could pick up my new car and she could drive the old one back to the refuge. I ended up buying a new 2009 Ford Focus. This time, I got a four door sedan that gives me a little more room to transport my DISH network equipment in with room to spare for the new vacuum I've purchased here. My son and his significant other want my old Focus and Crystal will fly down from Denver to pick it up later this month. Between now and then, I will have time to get a new base plate for towing the car and have the braking system changed over.

The ride back to the refuge was considerably more comfortable on the miserable roads than was the ride in. There have been a lot of pleasant changes in six years to the Focus. In order for me to tow it behind the motorhome, I again purchased a manual transmission. This new car has more upgrades than my basic '03 model and I think I'll enjoy the electric windows, remote lock/unlock, cruise control, and Sirius radio that came with it. I can even load six CDs at a time. That should come in handy this summer when I'll make a few trips from Missouri to Chicago and Rochester, MN, on my days off from Swan Lake National Wildlife Refuge.

One of the dilemmas upon returning to the refuge was what to do about lighting both engines for the next couple of weeks. It's really a no brainer, in that the light I have will go under the hood of the new car to keep the rats at bay. I have parked the old car close and raised the hood.

Tonight, most of the volunteers will be gathering in the Outpost building to enjoy games, snacks, and welcoming in the new year...that's if we can manage to stay up that late. ;)

Thanks for stopping by....talk to you later, Judy