Things I never expected from this adventure:
1. Meeting a Falconer in a winery parking lot.
I know I’ve said it a million times, but Havests Hosts keep giving us the most amazing experiences. This week, we took a night to stay at Reddy Vineyards (www.reddyvineyards.com) outside of Lubbock, TX. Harvest Hosts has exposed us to so many fun different winery regions – we had no idea there were wineries there! When Brian went to check in and make sure that we were parked in the right spot, one of the workers let it slip that that other RV in the parking lot happened to be home to a Falconer. Apparently, this guy had been flying his birds around the winery. Crazy.
If you know our family at all and you’ve been following along, you know that our kids are OBSESSED with birds…especially birds of prey. (i.e. We travel with life-like American Kestral and Peregrine Falcon puppets among others and those weren’t things we acquired along the way. We had them before we left and they were non-negotiables when packing.) After Brian picked his jaw up off the floor, being the outgoing person that he is, practically ran out of the winery and straight to the other RV and knocked on their door. He explained our kids’ obession to the very sweet couple and asked if by chance they were planning on flying the birds before they left and if we could watch.
Unfortunately, the birds had already been flown, but the Red Tailed Hawk still needed to be fed. This amazing, kind stranger told my husband that he’d be willing to bring the bird over to our rig if we wanted to watch. Um, seriously? Heck yeah! Brian and I practically bounced around the rig, giddy with excitement waiting for them to come over.
So, as one does in this life (apparently), we got to spend over an hour with PJ Simonis from Resource Raptors (Resource Raptors Facebook) in front of our rig, in a parking lot, at a winery, in Texas, getting up close and personal with a Red Tailed Hawk and a Merlin Falcon. Consider my mind blown. Consider all of our minds blown.
PJ, the owner, uses the birds to do contract abatement and a ton of educational work mostly out of New Jersey. Right now, they are traveling in the country in the off-season. These guys were so incredibly kind and patient. We got to watch him feed the Red Tailed Hawk (Hello? PJ, who carries around dead baby quails in their fanny pack, seriously?) We learned a ton and Owen got to show off some of his bird knowledge as well. (He even got out his bird-stuffies to join in the fun) Trust me when I say that our boy didn’t shut up for a second.
This random, amazing experience was just almost too much to process.
Is this even real life?
Also, although the wind here was pretty ferocious, the wine was quite nice. We got so carried away with the birds that we missed the opportunity to do a tasting before the winery closed for the night (rookie mistake), but we didn’t leave until late the day, so we didn’t make that mistake twice. We ended up walking away with a couple of different bottles. We were also happy to hear that, although they won’t know officially for a few months, it sounds like the grapes faired relatively well in the big freeze. There will definitely be an impact, but the crop wasn’t destroyed! We’re so thankful for these businesses that open up for crazy RVers like us. I just hate to think of what they go through when unexpected forces of nature come through.
Enjoy the barrage of pictures. I just couldn’t stop.
Ooh, tell us more about the bird with the helmet on. What is that for?
He has custom-made hoods for all his birds to keep them from getting spooked when he first brings them out. It felt like we were living in some sort of medieval time-warp!!
Oh my. My cousin has grown!❤️😍
Love Claudia