Rattlesnakes, Scorpions, Black Widows.....and Roadrunners October 28, 2007

It's interesting to me to be seeing so many unusual creatures here in the desert and in Colorado some harmless and some not so harmless! Since arriving here in La Quinta, we have found several Black Widow spiders right here in the house. We also have one back at our school house...talk about an unusual classroom pet! I also found a scorpion in my cabin but he was already dead. I'm told they are not really dangerous as their bite is not much more poisonous than that of a wasp. I did like examining it though, and added it to our class collection.

The most comical wildlife I have seen is the roadrunner and today had my camera along at just the right time. I had gone out for a morning walk and spotted this funky little bird. He didn't want to pose for me but I was able to get one quick picture. Isn't he cute?

Besides being cute, what an interesting bird.....no wonder one was chosen by Warner Brothers to star with Wile Coyote. Roadrunners are about 24" long and reach a height of 10-12 inches. I was surprised they are not longer for this large body. They can become airborne for a short flight but prefer to run. Members of the cuckoo family, they are carnivores and eat spiders, scorpions, and even rattlesnakes! So, I figure encouraging them to stick around here in the Southwest is a pretty good thing.

Jan got a call yesterday from Todd to tell her that they would be leaving the Baja and picking us up here today around noon. We packed our things last night and had the morning to swim, walk, etc. I stripped my bed and found out after that the maid would be coming to do the cleaning.(not used to the maid thing....) Todd called when they hit the mainland and headed for the plane. When they got to the plane, however, they discovered engine problems and called to say we would not be leaving today.

Todd, Jack, and their friends took a 6 hour taxi ride to reach another airport with commercial planes and will fly into Denver tonight. They will stay in a hotel and another of their pilots will fly up tomorrow to get them. Dennis, the pilot in Mexico, will spend the night in a small Mexican community and fly the plane to Oklahoma tomorrow for repairs if he can get it to go or a mechanic will fly to Mexico to fix it.

I remade my bed....as we are not going anywhere yet! We will wait to hear from Dennis tomorrow as to whether or not it will be a quick repair. They think it might be as simple as bad fuel in the fuel lines. Otherwise, Jan will book us commercial flights out for Tues. morning. The girls are anxious to be in Telluride for Halloween so I expect we will leave somehow. Jan suggested we sit tight, not fly commercial, and wait for the plane repair and asked the girls if they would like to do a Disneyland Halloween instead.... they still chose Telluride.

In the meantime, life is good in the desert!