Thursday, June 25, 2015
I got up and flipped a coin. Heads I’d go back out, tails, I’d wait a few days.
Heads.
I got a late start. I left by around 7 in the morning. Luckily, most of my bags were still packed. With returning so quickly, then leaving to my parents for my grandmother’s funeral, I didn’t have a lot of time to unload and reload.
This day was supposed to be one long day of driving. The goal was to have one birding stop, and then drive straight to Arizona. In total, 13 hours of straight driving if I had no stops. Luckily, there would be two time zone changes, so my arrival time would be two hours before I was supposed to get there. This will suck on the way back.
First stop was gas (I needed to tank up 3 times that day).
I then drove straight to Odessa and the UT Permian Basin campus, where I’d had a report that Burrowing Owls would be easy to find. They were, and a few minutes later, I was back on the road.
#382 – Burrowing Owl
Rest of the day was driving, and stopping to eat, pee, and gas up. Oh, and Border Patrol checks. Oh, and I got pulled over by a nice New Mexico State Trooper who saw I was a birder and let me go.
My destination tonight was Ramsey Canyon. Well, it turned out to be Carr Canyon next door to Ramsey. Ramsey has no campgrounds, so Carr would do.
The campground was about 8,000 feet in elevation, so it was a good schlep up there. It was all but empty when I got there around 9:00. I set up quickly and went to sleep.
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