We are visiting John in Del Rio. On the drive down, I truly understood what I've heard people say - Dallas is not Texas. The vegetation is different, there are long stretches of harsh nothingness, many ranches, cactus, and even deer (although they are the size of big goats LOL).
We were driving along between Junction and the turn off to Del Rio and I was looking at two horses at their trough in the field beside the road and then realized there about 20 deer there, too! I whipped the rental car into a u-ey and went back to take a photo. Although most of the deer scattered, I got some individual shots and I got a picture of a representation of Texas - the two horses at their trough surrounded by cactus and the tumbleweed.
Yesterday we went to Seminole Canyon and took the guided hike to see the Pecos River Style cave paintings. Again, the starkness of the landscape was beautiful in its own way, but it was hard to imagine this early man eeking a life out of the harsh terrain. The people who created these cave drawings were nomads and no tribe has claimed them so there is not much known about them or their lifestyle. Assumptions can be made but there is no certainty since there are no decendents to share their stories and lifestyles. The tour guide was happy to share with us some 3000 year old poop - although only one kid was interested in holding it (and it wasn't Jacob). She said that from this they could reconstitute it and could tell what the diet of these people were - mostly vegetation and they were protein deprived, but there were sometimes grasshoppers or other small bugs and animals. Guess you get it where you can!
In the evening, we went to Dottie's house. Dottie and her husband who is a deputy sherriff, have meals for the group and it just happened to fall on this weekend. I got to meet almost everyone that John works with and we got to watch Dottie feed the deer. It was amazing to see these deer trained to come at nearly dark when they hear the corn hit the metal bowl. They would come right up close to Dottie. Looking at her feeding the deer, seeing her 4 dogs and the many cats, you can tell the she has a very giving heart. One of her cats was proportioned to what I would expect Garfield to look like in real life!
