The Posse /  by Dave Hileman

Dispatch from Marshal Moose

Sometimes my plans are so brilliant I don’t even have to implement them. We are moving west today. Not as far as three hours but we are headed to the real Texas. I am sure I can get us to move the rest of the way. 

There will be outlaws to catch and you need a posse for some of those. A good Marshal needs planning. So, I will begin to name deputies for when the call goes out we will be ready. Now who do I know? Well, Tom used to shoot cannons, so of course he will be a deputy. Dennis and George were policemen, that is like a trainee deputy so they can be in the posse. I’ll let them ride in the middle till they get the hang of it. Gary is broken right now, I’ll let him pass. Steve is required to be in the posse cause he plays the harmonica and that’s what they do. Who else? Oh, I know, Rusty. He used to wrestle a porpoise or something like that but that is OK cause he has a great nickname, Rusty. A great deputy has to have a nickname. I bet when Rusty finds out he has been deputized he will rush out to West Texas. I’ll put him in charge of campfires, he should be good with that. What if he brings Janet? I don’t think a girl can be a deputy. (MRS ED NOTE - redacted for our sensitive readers) OUCH, that hurt. I guess I was wrong. The formerly Kind and Pretty one has an edge. So we can have a girl woman deputy. I guess that is good because someone has to scoop the ice cream. (MRS ED NOTE - redacted for scenes of gratuitous violence and antler twisting) That REALLY hurt. I think I need to go and lie down, no more fabulous ideas today. 

We visited the Mammoth National Monument in Waco Texas, park number 307 as the count goes on. As usual the parks are more interesting than we expect. This one was very low on my list - but it was Okay and unique. We spent about an hour. There are some 23 animals and they have evidence of more but the dig is suspended right now. These are Columbia Mammoth and not Wolly Mammoth. The Columbia is bigger, nearly 20 feet high at the shoulder. Certainly taller than Cindy:)

The dig is enclosed in a light and humidity controlled environment. Those are the real bones that are exposed where they have been found. They believe the herd was caught in a flash flood and drowned together.

We are camping nearby at a very nice place on Lake Waco. I’ll get a photo tomorrow. We have extended a day here because a winter storm is due tomorrow night with cold temps and freezing rain or snow.

East v West /  by Dave Hileman

Dispatch from Marshal Moose

There is hope. After a whole day of plodding along trails in The Big Thicket and not seeing a single horse or long horn steer anywhere I was back at the campsite feeling sad. But you can’t really keep a Moose down even if I was not going to get a hat so I walked around the camping area. Don’t think big rocks and a bed roll with someone playing the harmonica while the fire dies down, no this is fancy camping in land yachts and a few pill boxes like ours. Anyway I was being my normal friendly helpful self bringing cheer to all (ED NOTE: Sheesh, enough already) and then I spotted him. He was sitting by the campfire fire (we never have a campfire) with his fancy boots (we have no fancy boots) and cowboy hat. A really neat hat! Just like I need, except I need a white one cause I am The Marshal. Jimmy was not from here but he was from Texas - I knew it, there had to be the real Texas somewhere. He has a huge ranch and ranch hands and hay and stuff. Wow. He said he was three hours away. I am only three hours from the real Texas. Now what can I do to convince the Driver to go three hours away. I need to work on that, so no more scribing tonight, must plan for the Great Texas Get-a-Way. 

A somewhat rare Pitcher Plant along one of the trails we hiked in the Big Thicket. Most of them are about gone at this point in the year, this one had a tiny bit of color left. The insects are attracted by color and odor and then get trapped inside and dissolve in the plants fluids.

Typical Big Thicket area. Good hiking trails at this time of year, few insects.

Texas? /  by Dave Hileman

Dispatch from Marshal Moose

This can’t be Texas. We got here - according to the Driver and we know how reliable he is, but this is not Texas. There are CARS, and I saw a Starbucks. Good grief, no, please not in Texas. There are supposed to be mesas, and cottonwood trees, campfires and horses, saloons with swinging doors. I want to walk through a door that swings! I have not seen a horse. I have not seen a fort or a stage coach or an old guy named Cookie. The guy at the fake Texas visitor center told us there was an alligator along the board walk. That is Florida. The scenery is not like Texas, it looked like the area north of Raleigh. I think I have been tricked and I am not happy. We are in a place called The Big Thicket. Never one time did I hear a cowboy say “Let’s put our bed rolls over there on The Big Thicket.“

I did hear someone say that this is East Texas so maybe we are close to Actual Texas but I doubt the Driver will ever find it if he thinks we are already here. Gloom and despair fill the air and my hat is fading away. 

Thought you might like to see the sunrise since I showed the sunset from the evening before.

We arrived in east Texas and headed to the Big Thicket National Preserve. We took a short hike to a cypress swamp before heading to our campsite at the Martin Dies State Park. We have a nice site here.

Not Texas....Yet (four photos) /  by Dave Hileman

 Dispatch From Marshall Moose

I am worried. Nay, more than worried. Do you know where we ended the day yesterday? FLORIDA. Florida is where we have been before and there was no sight of Texas. In fact, Florida is a skinny, sandy, alligatory stick of land that goes out into the water and you can’t go anywhere near Texas from there. The technical term for that kind of land is semi-island. Not near Texas. But we set off in the early morning dew anyway and four hours later we were in …FLORIDA. I despair of seeing Texas and getting my hat. I long for the wide open plains, the buffalo majestically roaming over purple hills. I long for my first gunfight. That brings up another problem. The Driver said no guns. He knows nothing about Texas. You have to shoot someone every day or two. 

(ED NOTE: the obsession Cadillac has was formed early in his life. As you recall from previous flashbacks, he was born in the Maine woods near a rusty 59 Cadillac, hence the name. But he was fed as a pet -he never would have survived otherwise, by a kindly Maine hermit who had a VCR and two hundred old westerns on tape. So, C. Moose would watch through the window and How the West Was Won, True Grit, Stagecoach, Rio Bravo et al are all he knows about the west. And, no, it will not be necessary to shoot someone every couple of days. Sheesh.)

Late today I did have a glimmer of hope as we crossed a puny state, Alababba, I think, and got into yet another at this rate the Driver is bound to blunder into Texas some time. Maybe we will make it. Then I plan to drive a stagecoach - cause I cannot fit my magnificent seven tiered antlers into that thing so of course I will pilot the stage. I think you can shoot even more outlaws from there. 

Across the street from our camp for the night. Sunset on the Gulf

Here we are at Buc-ee”s a 200 gas pump mecca for travelers. Think WaWa that got bit by a radioactive spider and grew 20 fold. We also passed a sign for the Florida Panhandle Technical College. I never knew that all those people I see at intersections actually majored in the art at the FPTC.

This is an 1839 example of a Louisiana raised cottage. It is on the gulf in southern Mississippi and was the last home of Jefferson Davis. They are part of the Harvest Host program and we stayed on property with the gulf at our door (across the fence). We toured the house which is very nice and had a quiet night.

Almost hidden in the trees but the Gulf of Mexico was 100 feet behind our trailer.

On the Road /  by Dave Hileman

Dispatch From Marshall Moose
Yeehaw, finally we are going to someplace exotic. We are off to Texas, the most gigantic of the real states of America. I am so excited. This is the land of Wyatt Moose, Hop-a-Long Moose, the Lone Moose and One Antler Jack. I cannot wait. The Driver ought to be able to find this place it is so big that you cannot drive through too many of these puny states until you bump into Texas. The only reason we have not found it before is that the Driver is not really qualified to go to Texas. Can you imagine him in a cowboy hat! Ha. But I on the other hand was born for thie wide open range. I am getting a full 20 gallon size white Stetson with a fancy rattlesnake band. Oh, and a vest. OOH, with FRINGE. I will need some great boots that have lots of stuff on them and a bandana. To top off the whole outfit, two pearl handled Colt six-shooters. Marshal Moose will roll into town and everyone will notice me. (ED NOTE there will be no pearl handled Colt six-shooters or anything else that might shoot including rubber bands.) I don’t guess we will get there today, but I am the very paradigm of patience (ED NOTE HA!) so I am ok and by lunch tomorrow we ought to be going through the swinging doors of the saloon and into fame and fortune. With my acting experience I can see a whole new show staring Marshal Moose the Conscience of the West.

On the road before seven! We stopped in Dunn, NC for a planned repair but that took only about 90 minutes. We had an uneventful trip to north Florida and stayed the night at a private home with a Boondockers Welcome program. Perfect place, nice folks and great rest. We covered 560 miles day one and now have 90,000 on the trailer! Yikes.

Great stop for our first night. Even had electric hookups.





Two Lane Touring: Great Southwestern Adventure /  by Dave Hileman

So, here is the plan. We are off to spend time in Texas, New Mexico and Arizona with a brief excursion into Southwestern Colorado. And who knows what else might open up? Our original plan called for us to go via Atlanta, Birmingham and Jackson into Texas but weather concerns emerged and we are doing the I-95 to I-10 route. We have a general itinerary to visit 13 Texas parks, 12 New Mexico and six Arizona parks, all new for us and, possibly two in Colorado. On the way back we will pick up the last one in OK and the last one in Arkansas. We have postponed the two remaining in Georgia and one in MS that were planned at first. There are three or five more that we could do with cooperative weather and time and energy. We’ll see. We will also revisit several of the parks that we have been to and enjoyed. Chief among them is White Sands in New Mexico. Our goal for 2022 is to get to at least 350 parks. So adding 45 for this year makes this trip the biggest part of that effort with 35 possible on this journey.

Daily posting for this trip will begin on Monday. Again the delay is to compensate for the times we are without service. This trip three days may not be enough! Once in Texas we will be joined somewhere by the Harmans for a part of the trip and that will be added fun. Besides the National Park units, we have some other historic sites, a few state parks, some interesting towns and ghost towns to explore. And the trip always unfolds more opportunities than expected. Our camping will be Harvest Hosts, Boondockers Welcome, state parks, National Parks, some BLM and a few commercial campgrounds. Maybe a rest stop or two. Ice cream will be sought out, and we have a couple of restaurants to look forward to as well.

I am excited to explore some of the old west places etched in my mind by countless cowboy movies and scores of books. The history of this area is fascinating. Hope you can ride with us across the Western Range.

Two Lane Touring- winding through the trees of Vermont, sort of not the way to Texas!

Maybe Today /  by Dave Hileman

We are supposed to leave today for a trip West - hopefully we are well and not dealing with terrible weather or Covid or flu or... The photo is of an Oystercatcher along the Outer Banks on the Atlantic Ocean. I share that because we will be at several places on this trip that have unique birding environments where certain birds can be found only in those areas and I intend to climb past the 399 species on my life list. Or at least that is a plan. More information on the trip tomorrow and new daily travel posts begin on Monday. Unless we are still here:)

Fungi /  by Dave Hileman

I got very interested in photographing mushrooms this past fall. No, I don’t know why either. But this one turned out kinda cool. I won’t promise not to show another one or two but I won’t start on the 60 or so I took. Nuts.

January Bonus or Maybe Penalty Photo! /  by Dave Hileman

A friend kindly asked about what I was carving. Just finished this trio. Bert the General Manager of a Rambler dealership, a bear of no known distinction and Hiking Moose. I think I have a long way to go! going to be working on figures for the spring. This guy is number 4. I also did a penguin with a fedora and bow tie but I gave him away before I took a shot.

B&W /  by Dave Hileman

Nope, not the photo, but the bird. This is a tiny Black and White Warbler in Minnesota near Lake Superior. The song birds, like this one, are enjoying life in Southern Florida or the Caribbean or even South America. They will return late spring.

Windswept the Definition /  by Dave Hileman

Along the cold and rainy boardwalk in Ocean City, Maryland in early December was this pile of leaves. A few more were swirling along the wet boards and collecting in some of the shuttered doorways. This group was the largest. Makes you wonder where they came from along the treeless stretch of beach and boardwalk.

Icarus /  by Dave Hileman

In Greek mythology Icarus tries to escape from Crete with wings crafted by his father Daedalus. His father warns him not to fly too close to the sun but the warnings go unheeded. He is overly proud of himself and as he climbs higher the wax melts and he falls into the sea and drowns. Fortunately this Ford Tri-motor from 1938 does not suffer a similar fate flying high over the Perry Monument in Lake Erie.

Indeed More... /  by Dave Hileman

This is another of the beautiful waterfalls you will find on the hike at Ricketts Glen State Park in Pennsylvania near Scranton. I enjoyed this hike enough to plan a return trip this summer, or at least I intend to do so. It is a remote location but nice campground on site makes it easy to access the hikes anytime. Though the sun does not get into the glen early in the day, that might make interesting photos. Not sure of which named falls this one is, I lost my list. Oops. I have two or three more yet to post but no names. Sorry.