adventures at Coyote Lake campground in Gilroy, California: sweet pigs, beautiful bats, gorgeous oak trees, too many questions

Gmorning.  We went camping.  I didn't understand our air mattress was in the back when our minivan's back window was smashed by a thief in San Francisco--glass, glass bits, and glass dust got all over it.

Ming gave me four foam camping pads to sleep on in our tent, but it wasn't enough.  I slept an hour and a half, and that's all I could do.  So we slept some after that in the minivan.  It wasn't easy.

I saw bats before sunrise.  Bats are special to me.  I loved the wild turkeys in their flock.  The deer were lovely.  Black-necked stilts are a favorite bird of mine, exciting with their pink legs and backwards knees.  I saw a few crows and two distant cows on the lake shore.  A flock of Stellar's jays visited our campsite.  I think of them as loud, but these ones were quiet.

Ming laughed when I wrote "humans" on the list in chalk, but humans are valid animals.

After he took this picture, I wrote moon also.  It's full.

"Full of jelly beans?" Ming asked.

"Full of moon," I said.

But I wanted to talk about the pigs.  They were so cute, much better than I imagined.  The first two pigs I saw, one was a warm brown with darker stripes--one had long hair in different colored tufty patches.  They were medium sized and walked through the campground, one following the other, heads down, not making eye contact.  They seemed shy and like they were doing their pig thing and kind of emotional and sweet.

Later I saw a troupe of pigs, and there were so many babies, at least six.  I thought about the humans, "You guys are in for it," thinking there will be way more big pigs soon.  Those ones I think were all dark, almost black or black.  They also were walking through the campground, noses to the ground, rooting around a bit as they traveled, the babies being quicker and a little comical.

Why is the lake named Coyote Lake?  How did the pigs get there?  What's the difference between a pig and a boar?  Why are boats not allowed on the water, right now?  Are there always more park employees than camping visitors, this time of year?  Are the bugs that look like large albino mosquitos really large albino mosquitos?  Who planted the olive trees?  Why does it cost $34 to camp one night?  Why can't people swim or wade in the lake?  Is the lake water a water supply for any humans?

And my biggest question--why do you say we should care for nature and be kind of animals, then have a bunch of dead animals in your visitor's center?  I'm thinking someone killed them...  I was disturbed by the pelts especially.  The shrunken weird little face of a fox on a pelt--yuck!  Other animals too.  It was the first thing I saw when I went in.

And why are there no postcards.  In a way, it's good not to sell anything.  But I love postcards.

Lots of mysteries there.  I wanted to ask questions, but the worker when we left was busy talking with another worker about serious park stuff.  I wonder if they would have liked my questions.

As we headed south to the undisclosed location, we stopped at my favorite cafe.  I had trouble ordering something, wanted a drink but wanted both no caffeine and no sugar--I wanted it to be cold, also.

I almost asked the worker what she recommended.  I think if I worked at a cafe, I would make a game of guessing the orders of everyone who came in the door.  Not sure how well that would work.

"You look like a large, whole milk decaf mocha, extra chocolate, whipped cream on the side kinda gal," she tells me, in my imagination.  Hmm, that sounds kinds of good, but doesn't meet the sugar specification.  Maybe another time.  Maybe I should have asked my inner barista.

I had a zine once someone mailed to me--I think it was called Barista Bingo, or that was the idea, anyway.  I remember one of the squares was "customer orders using starbux sizes."  I think I gave it to a random barista.  I don't think "receive random zine from customer" was on a square, but that would be cool.

Here's a pic Ming took of the lake--way prettier in real life.

Laura-Marie doing what Laura-Maries do best.  Can you zoom up on the letter and read it?  Hope not.  It was to a favorite political prisoner penpal--I was telling him mostly about the animals, but in a different way.  Oh, some mental health stuff too.