CONCHO RIVER

 ~ 15 October 2005

We are discovering that TX and AK are reverse images of each other. In AK it is winter 9 months of the year; in TX it is summer 9 months of the year. What a relief that “cold weather” is finally starting to slowly descend on Western TX. It’s now in the 80*s. I believe our highs are supposed to begin dipping into the high 70*’s next week….and the lows in the 40*s. All that to say this: in AK we didn’t see our neighbors during the winter and they’d all reappear in the summer. HERE we are noting that we see more and more people every week while we are out and about in the parks, on our walks, at the lake and river…



The younger five and I had so much fun on the Concho River last Friday that we INSISTED on taking the older two boys and Mike back for a peek. We left the house loaded with two bags of mostly stale buns for the ducks…and the C*A*M*E*R*A. We were barely at the bank when the ducks began to drift our way. There is *something* about tossing bread to ducks that is very appealing to all ages.

The younger set and I were hoping that the stray muskrat, which had drifted into our duck feeding escapade on our prior adventure, would make reappearance. We hoped our friendly muskrat wasn’t camera shy. In less than 2 minutes of feeding ducks our muskrat showed up ~ with family and friends in tow. We think we found a nest/den/whatever you call muskrat homes….they were swimming under the bank where we were standing. There was even a very tiny baby muskrat brave enough to dart in and out for bread. They certainly could care less about the camera…as long as bread was somewhere in the vicinity of the camera.

Eventually, we had our fill of feeding ducks and muskrats and began a leisurely walk along the river….as leisurely as any walk can be with an energetic Zander in tow. Unlike the San Antonio River Walk, this River Walk is not commercialized. There are no restaurants and shops along the river….just wildlife, nature, fishermen, and skaters across the street. They’ve also built a wonderful park for children, Kids Kingdom, along the river. We’ll have to get pictures of it one of these weeks.

It was fun to see various fishermen and the bait they were using. We have decided that we will not eat anything that we know is caught in this river. It is the slowest moving river any of us have ever seen…more like a lake. We can’t help but wonder what is under the surface besides muskrat and water moccasins (which we also spotted).

We ended the night by snapping the obligatory family picture (seen above) and skipping over a few blocks to Scholtskys for a “serious sandwich with a funny name”.