A few days ago I stumbled upon a comment by a birder in an unrelated ebird checklist that he had a flat tire visiting CMO. I dread hearing things like that! I worried that I may not have raked up enough sharp rocks after the recent roadwork. So I contacted the birder to get the details. Thought I'd post it here in case it might help some future visitor.
The birder came in a rental car. Unbeknownst to him, rental cars don't come with spares anymore. Here's his description of the event. I added some clarification in brackets [ ].
"My problems began when I unwisely elected to use navigation to get to your place, went up about 1.5 miles after the Terlingua Ranch Rd. pavement ends and later realized it was fruitless.
I then followed your directions & map, but evidently ended up passing your house [my earth-sheltered cabin] (just as you warn against up top of p. 2) and then climbed a hill, I ended up reaching the end of the road at the CMO [house I gave my son]. I backtracked and reached the absolute end of the road on your map at the boarded-up house [my late sister's house way down a washed out, never used, lane. Can't hardly make it in my pickup. Don't know how a rental car could].
Instead of coming straight back downhill on return, I got lost; for some odd reason I kept wanting to turn left (west) prior to your house, ending up descending quickly, passing an arroyo, and then coming immediately to a gate. Just beyond this gate, and very slightly uphill of it, is Andy's place [my neighbour just outside my east gate]. I nearly got stuck on the now-flat tire in this little arroyo [Almost impossible to turn around in that arroyo without getting stuck. You may recall a UPS truck getting stuck there a few years ago.]
The car, astonishingly, had no spare. It had a pump-up kit (you can add air on the spot), but it was useless because the tire was very quickly destroyed (shredded). Andy managed to get the vehicle's tire off, while I hunted in vain for the spare (in the place in the back where one would expect the spare, there was instead a hybrid propulsion system!). So we put the tire back on and I limped (now riding on the wheel) down to the paved road [Terlingua Ranch Road blacktop]."
There's more, but you get the idea. All the wrong turns originated within easy sight of the oasis. I'm sorry that happened. It's rare something like that happens, but I'd like to prevent it from ever happening. Also take note, he said the tires were "nearly bald" on the rental car.
On a brighter note, fall migrants are starting to trickle in. I had this Dickcissel today.
My favorite find of the day was this Zebra Heliconian butterfly. Had only seen that species at the oasis once before (July 2018).
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