Creosote bush is one of my favorites!

Never gets really big. Smells great when it rains. Wood is so dense it will not float. Wood quickly burns down to long-lasting cooking coals. Wood is incredibly hard to carve, but polishes to a wonderful golden color. One of the oldest living organisms on Earth... Older than giant trees.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larrea_tridentata

That sign gets posted here pretty often... Lots more often than snake photos!

If this programming gig doesn't work out for you, I think you have a career in Matchmaking. :-)

I should have read more closely - it was Bakersfield, not Girvin.

"Mary has a Chihuahua"

You should have given her Cecil's contact info... Maybe she could have escaped Girvin and moved in with another Chihuahua fan.

I've had a day or 2 like this, but I wasn't brave enough to write about it - or I was too embarrassed to tell the tale! You described what it's really like! I always carry chewable pepto-bismol tablets in my med-kit when I tour now, and they seem to do the trick.

Stick insect. Nice shot! Possibly a giant walkingstick.

https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/52766-Megaphasma-denticrus/browse_photos?place_id=18

Thanks Scott, I appreciate the comment and the time you spent reading it.

What an amazing encounter. Thanks for describing it so well. Worth the whole blog.

Loved the story about Cecil!

I've been seeing patients at the VA for 15 years now, and about half of them are Viet Nam veterans. It doesn't happen often, but sometimes they'll open up and share some stories. It takes a lot of trust on their part, because unless you've been "in the bush" you can't relate. One story in particular will stick with me forever, from one of my favorite vets who died last year.

Bob's platoon was being overrun, and they were down to 6-7 men with ammunition running low. They all knew they were going to die that night, so he looked at each one of them, individually. To a man, wordlessly, they just nodded back to him, and he got on the radio to call down artillery on his position. Then they climbed into their foxholes and waited. The bombing went on for a couple of hours, until dawn, and when it was over he climbed out of his hole, blood coming out of his ears. Miraculously, none of them were killed and they were able to sneak out past the dozens of bodies killed in the bombing.

I can't even imagine, and Cecil's experiences remind me of some of the tales I hear at work.

When the good cook was on duty it was called "Bob's Good Burgers." The day we were there the better cook was on duty, thus the "Bob's Better Burgers." ;-)

Wow - that's a great story!

Yup... Stop and ask for a spot to pitch the tent! I still keep in contact with folks who put me up back in 2008! Some will panic and say "No way!," some will say "Well come on in!," and some will say "Let me see what my wife says. She is sometimes a bit afraid of strangers." or something like that. More often they are really fun and you not only leave with a full stomach and no cost sleeping, but also with new lifelong friends, not to mention maybe a bag of fresh picked berries or peaches or such.

The best!

Better when the good cook is on duty?