I came down here with an intense fear that I would be bombarded with a ton of over sized bugs, you know the kind with wings, lots of legs, and fangs dripping with venom. To my surprise I really haven't encountered any bugs that I was convinced could possibly eat me or drop me with one bite. However, in place of insects, we have been caught off guard a few times by random animals. Beginning with our skunk encounter, my husband and I have been taking long walks at night because by about 9:30 or 10 it is cool enough to have a nice walk. The base as a really nice paved walkway that winds around the base and is really well lit. One of the first nights I was here, we went for a walk along this path. Although there is a sometimes deafening insect orchestra playing outside at night (of which I actually really like the sound) they stay hidden in the trees and grass. I am okay with this. Well, rounding a corner along our path we come across a skunk, a real one! I swear the only skunks I have ever seen have been dead on the side of the road in Oregon or animated in Disney's Bambi. We stop instantly, trying to register what this little creature was. I know we need to book it before the skunk turns around and opens fire, so we turn around and bolt it across the grass. Looking back behind us, the skunk is also booking it the opposite direction. Is the skunk afraid of us too? But he has so much more ammunition than us! After we were finished running and calmed down, we laughed about it the rest of the walk. A skunk? Really?! But I am pretty sure we both saw our clean-smelling lives flash before our eyes in our frantic run to safety.
Our next near death experience with nature came the following day when we went out to a shooting range in town. The range was down a long road heading away from town (oh yeah, and we passed by the prison) into what seemed like pure desert. There were cacti, wire fences, and lots of dirt/sand. On our way out there sitting atop these wire fences we discovered two vultures. Yes, that's right vultures. I really don't think I had ever seen a vulture other than in a zoo or again in animated Disney movies like Robin Hood, The Jungle Book, and Snow White. Apparently I have obtained a lot of knowledge about animals through the wonderful world of Disney. Well, according to "Disney Wiki" online, vultures usually show up in a Disney film to "foreshadow something bad will happen." Oh great, what did this mean for our journey? There they were, a pair of them sitting on that wire fence, huge bodies like turkeys, dark black feathers, and bright red, bald, disgusting heads. As we passed them, they just sat there, in hindsight definitely foreshadowing their attack later on. After finishing up at the shooting range, which I should point out is owned by a 79 year old man, still kicking and possibly the epitome of an NRA member, we left for home; Mr. NRA kindly escorted us through his two locked gates to his property. Driving down that same very country road, there sat those two vultures again, with their hairless, red heads waiting to dive into some kind of animal carcass. I was commenting to my husband of how baffled I was that there were real vultures out here, and just as we passed them, as if they heard me calling them ugly names, they both swooped down off of their fence perches in front of our windshield, completely blinding the one side with their fat black feathered bodies. My husband slammed on the brakes with the surprise, startling us both, and we are pretty sure the vultures grazed our windshields in their air strike only to just fly off to the side again and resume their perches. Again, really?! Whether the vultures heard what I was saying about them, confused our black car for a buffalo, or hoped to cause us to crash, have our bodies flung from the car and eat us, I know those vultures are devious, evil creatures. My mind is still completely blown from seeing vultures in the wild. We did make it home safely, and I will forever take Texan wildlife seriously. I am sure there will be more nature encounters to come, but these two are for the books.
**"Neature" refers to the youtube series created by Lenny Pepperbottom, which I hope one day will be viral so everyone can experience how funny and ridiculous "Neature Walk" is...here's a video to get you started:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hm3JodBR-vs&feature=relmfu
A huge thank you to my Best Friend who first exposed me to Mr. Pepperbottom.
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