A fine start:
Thursday morning, Mike met me in the parking lot of my cheap hotel (located conveniently
behind a Hooters restaurant). Mike lived nearby (also, interestingly, conveniently close
to Hooters). He knows the area very well, and ultimately turned out to be an excellent guide.
First meetings are always somewhat strange. Mike looked safe enough--no obvious danger signs like liquor on his breath,
needle tracks on his arms,
or detached human body parts in the back seat of the car. So, having exchanged pleasantries and hellos, I loaded my
gear into his car. Then we drove northeast out of the Houston area towards our first site, pausing only to fill our bellies
with fast food.
Even though the roads were fast, we had a few hours before we would arrive in carnivorous plant land.
On the way we chattered about my goals for the trip, people we knew, conservation issues,
the North American Sarracenia Conservancy, the difficulties in trying to work in the low-paying worlds of
conservation and education, and so on. Eventually we arrived at the
"Turkey Creek Unit" of the Big Thicket and as we passed through
an unremarkable stretch of pineland habitat, Mike carefully pulled the car over to the side of the road.
"Let's get your pumila out of the way first thing," Mike said.
We got out of the car and started walking along the road with our eyes to the ground. Very
quickly, Mike spotted a few little white flowers--Pinguicula pumila!
(Don't get distracted by the little pink flower--we'll get to that soon enough).
