Reel vs Real

i had seen the jailbreak headlines on MSN but did not bother to read it. it was only when i was reading The New Paper last night, that i learned that the prison escapee was from a Houston cell. Errmm. It scared me a little, cos this guy is no regular petty theft criminal. He's a death-row inmate. Oh My God !! Houston is only like 5 hours away from where i am. I straightaway imagined that he might be in a car, heading this direction, after all, there is not much place he can go from Houston. I called Yifan and made him take a good look at the man's face, just in case he sees someone " familiar" in dallas the next few days. (I hope the escapee gets caught soon, cos we are going down south in a couple of weeks.)

*****
I found Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge yesterday while i was surfing the net to see where else we can go around here. It's a huge huge piece of land some 40 minutes away. this place is supposedly aimed at preserving wildlife and maintaining/improving their habitat. Crops are planted for " geese on the refuge reduce damage to crops on nearby private lands".

At the same time, there is also oil and gas production in the refuge !!! hmm, looks like preserving nature is important, but so is money-making.



this is the road leading to the refuge. see how the leaves on the trees are changing red. Ahh, fall foliage finally !!











the pump you see on the top left is an oil- drill.


a grasshopper on my car windshield.


the oil-drill up close against the setting sun.



just look at the expanse of the land -- 3,000 acres of marsh and water and 8,000 acres of upland and farmland.



another pic to prove the point.














nature is just stunning. too bad we didn't get a chance to explore the place on foot cos we were both in shorts and slippers, and so had to just go on the Auto-tour.

Prior to going to the refuge, we were careful not to get our hopes up so we wouldnt be disappointed. After all, no one's ever mentioned the refuge before, and we didn't think it's going to be much. ( so now you understand why we were in slippers and not shoes) But we'll be back again. This time with jeans and shoes and a spirit for adventure.