Return from West Texas

Does that sound like a good title for a movie? I was kind of thinking so.

We took a quick trip to San Angelo, TX to see Steve's brother this past weekend. He helps set up the wind turbines that generate electricity. He has been working near San Angelo for a while, but is about to move on to colder areas of the US. (We are a little jealous.) He invited us for a trip to see where he works. It was really interesting and we all learned a lot! Even Joel was asking questions - until he fell asleep.

We also got to spend some time just hanging out with Uncle Matt. We explored the San Angelo State Park and a couple of restaurants. We also hung out in his "bachelor pad" and played foosball and video games. It was nice to spend some time with him since he will be in the far northern parts of the US for the next few months.

I had never been this far west in Texas before, and I found myself getting confused by the terrain. If you are familiar with Texas, there are 5 (I believe) distinct ecological zones here. I usually know which zone I am in, but I was confused here. I took lots of pictures to try to capture the combinations. As I was reading some literature I figured out why. This is from the state parks website:

The park sits astride the junction of four ecological zones: the High Plains to the north, the Texas Hill Country to the south, the Rolling Plains to the east, and the arid Trans-Pecos to the west. Consequently, plant and animal life are highly diversified, including some 350 species of birds and about 50 species of mammals.The park is also home to Bison and the Official Texas State Longhorn Herd.

We did see lots of animals (mostly from our van) including what appeared to be a bobcat carrying a cottontail rabbit, a white-tailed deer, a prairie dog, a jackrabbit, and some bison. We did not see any of the longhorns, but that's okay since we would have had to SAW 'EM OFF if we did. (That's an Aggie reference for those non-Texans reading this.)