January 6, 2018
We chose an outing to Brownsville because there’s a Dunkin Donuts there and Jane had a free beverage coupon that would expire the next day. In case you’re wondering, it wasn’t a waste of gas and time, even though the decaf espresso machine was broken. We had a delicious lunch at a nearby Mexican seafood restaurant and then headed south to Sabal Palm Sanctuary.
“The Fence” referred to above is the border fence. It looks like this:
Sabal Palm Sanctuary was once a 20,000 acre sugar cane plantation. Its owners built a Queen Anne style ranch house in 1892. The property’s 557 acres are now owned by the Audubon Society and operated by the Gorgas Science Foundation.
Once the Rio Grande Valley was home to 60,000 acres of Sabal Palm (Sabal mexicana) forest. Only about 100 acres remain, 30 of them in this Sanctuary.
The Rio Grande has been tamed by dams and irrigation systems. Steamboats once ran on this section of the river.
We saw many ebony trees on our walk on the Sanctuary’s trails. Ebony is valued for its denseness, shade and fruit. Its beans can be used as a substitute for coffee, can be eaten like green beans, or can be roasted like peanuts.
We love mushrooms and toadstools when they’re as pretty as this one.
Wetlands along our walk
Well, not really blind. Politically incorrect, maybe.
We don’t know who the Dave was for whom the blind and overlook were named. This Dave will claim them, though, for the Sanctuary was lovely.
Before we headed home, we thought we’d see if we could find the Southmost geocache in Texas a few miles away. 45 minutes of searching brought us five border patrol officers (three of whom helped search) but no geocache.
The cache should be near the fencing.
Which, for some reason, has lots of locks but no continuity.
Three officers were present at the time this photo was taken. Only this officer was willing to be included. She was also the only one of the five who knew what geocaching was.
4 Comments
Jay Waters · January 28, 2018 at 7:27 am
Looks like a fun little side trip to start the New Year.
Laura · January 28, 2018 at 5:27 pm
This was a very fun read. Thanks for sharing!
Rosie Higdon · January 28, 2018 at 9:02 pm
Loving your commentary and pictures. What fun discoveries.
Susa · January 29, 2018 at 9:49 am
Cute post. I like the Dave’s blind ad overlook. When Dave comes for the wedding he needs to explain geocaching to me. The border patrol maybe thought you were trying to escape to Mexico. Good thing you were not arrested!