Bugs. Lots and Lots of Bugs.

Road Notes, July 06 -

Midland residents may have noticed the swarms of small butterflies.  It looks like a lot of bugs, but they seem to be confined to a few small swarms.  I just returned from a road trip -- Midland to Austin to Uvalde and back to Midland.  And the bugs in and around Uvalde were REALLY swarming.

They were everywhere.  Take a glance at the photo of the front bumper.  They are probably quite pretty when they are in a small group, but in huge masses they seem to dominate the atmosphere.  Don't breathe through your mouth or you might get an early lunch.  Gulp!

[Info Insert:  Eric points out that the butterflies are called Snout Butterflies and that an article about them in the local envirnment can be found at Sibley Nature Center.]

Uvalde, Texas, is probably not on a lot of tourist destination maps, but it has a history.  There were some famous people who originated in Uvalde, former governor Dolph Briscoe, for example, and the vice president during FDR's first two terms, John Nance “Cactus Jack” Garner, for another.

And let's not forget  Matthew McConaughey who, according to local lore, showed up at his old childhood home in Uvalde with Sandra Bullock on his arm, rang the door bell, and asked the residents if he could show his girlfriend the house where he grew up.  Uh, sure thing, just give me a few hours to tidy up a bit.

Someone should put together a Texas version of the Hollywood-Map-of-the-Stars.

Driving a Hyundai -

I rented a “full size” car from Enterprise, and this time it was a 2005 Hyundai Sonata with a peppy V6 engine.  It seemed to get decent gas mileage, and that six cylinder engine was quite responsive.

Car sales brochures often tell the time it took the car to accelerate from 0 to 60 mph under ideal test conditions with an admonition not to try it at home.  I don't know what the advertised time is for this version of the Sonata, but my own unofficial test resulted in a 0 - 60 mph time of 10.44 seconds.  But the real test is when you have to pass some slowpoke on a two lane grey top with oncoming traffic.  So acceleration time from 60 mph to 70 mph can be crucial, and my unofficial test yielded a time of 4.41 seconds with the AC off.

My only complaint about the Sonata was the radio.  It didn't do as good a job at pulling in far-away AM stations as other car radios seem to do.  It did okay on the FM stations, though.  Probably not a bad car for the price.  But the beauty of a rented car is the ability to turn it in at trip's end.

Comments

[Eric]

Burr's got a new essay up about the snout butterflies, in which you'll learn that you were in the very heart of explosion.

Here's the URL (since TypePad wouldn't let me make a link of it):

http://sibleynaturecenter.org/essays/wildontheprairie/invertebrates/060802_butterflies.html

[Geo]

Thank, Eric.