Bob
stopped
the jeep
and
reached
down and
turned
off the
motor.
We sat
there
engulfed
in a
cloud of
orange
and
black.
It was
so awe
inspiring
that
neither
one of
us
spoke.
We had
the top
off of
the jeep
and the
windshield
was
lying
down on
the
hood. We
sat
there
for ten
or
twelve
minutes
while
this
cloud
swirled
around
us and
finally
disappeared
behind
us.
Bob and
I had
gone to
our deer
lease in
the hill
country
of
central
Texas
for the
spring
turkey
season.
It was
the
first
week of
April
and the
wild
flowers
were in
bloom.
The deer
lease
was
covered
with all
kinds of
wild
flowers
and
vines in
full
bloom
and we
were
riding
around
looking
at them.
We had
just
forded
the
little
creek
that we
called
Crabapple
Creek on
a jeep
road
when we
saw this
cloud of
monarch
butterflies
coming
down the
road
toward
us. The
road cut
through
some
trees at
this
point
and the
road way
was only
about
ten
yards
wide.
The
butterflies
reached
from
close to
the
ground
to about
ten feet
in the
air and
from one
side of
the
roadway
to the
other.
There
must
have
been
thousands
of them.
As we
sat
there,
they
flew all
around
and over
us. At
times
they
were so
thick
that we
couldn’
t
see the
road in
front of
the
jeep. To
me it
was a
very
spiritual
moment
that I
will
never
forget.
After
the
monarch
butterflies
disappeared
behind
us, Bob
started
the jeep
and we
drove
back to
the
cabin.
Nether
one of
us said
a word
on the
ride
back. We
were
both
lost in
our own
thoughts
about
the
experience.
When we
got to
the
cabin, I
sat down
in the
porch
swing
and Bob
went
inside.
In a few
minutes
he came
back
outside.
He had a
cup of
coffee
in his
hand and
he sat
down on
the
swing
next to
me to
drink
his
coffee.
"Can you
believe
what we
just
saw?"
He
wanted
to know.
"Bob, I
was
there so
I can
believe
it, but
anyone
that
didn’t
see it
won’t
believe
it"
I
answered.
"I’m
driving
up to
the
ranch
house
and
calling
Pat,"
his
wife,
"and
tell her
about
the
butterflies.
You want
to come
with
me?"
Bob
said.
"Sure"
,
I said
and got
into the
jeep.
When we
got to
the old
ranch
house,
Bob
parked
in front
by the
six-foot
high
wire
fence.
He went
into the
house
where
Finn
Aggard,
the care
taker,
had his
office,
to use
the
phone.
Finn and
his wife
lived in
the back
of the
old
house,
but the
office
was
always
open so
we could
go in
and use
the
phone
anytime
we
wanted
to.
I sat in
the jeep
and
waited
for Bob.
As I sat
there I
was
watching
all the
humming
birds
buzzing
around
the
honeysuckle
vines
growing
on the
wire
fence.
There
must be
hundreds
of them.
I was
wearing
my red
hunting
cap and
one of
the
humming
birds
buzzed
around
my head.
I pulled
off my
cap and
laid it
in my
lap. I
didn’
t
want one
of those
humming
birds
sticking
his tiny
bill
into my
ear
looking
for
nectar.
The next
thing I
knew,
this
little
humming
bird lit
on my
red cap
that was
in my
lap. He
sat
there
and we
looked
at each
other,
eye ball
to eye
ball for
an
instant.
Then he
was off
to the
honeysuckle
vines
again.
When Bob
came
back to
the
jeep, I
told him
about
the
humming
bird
landing
on my
red cap
as it
lay in
my lap.
He said,
"We’ve
got to
get some
humming
bird
feeders
and hang
them on
the
porch at
the
cabin so
we can
watch
them."
So the
next
time we
went
into
town, we
bought
two
feeders
and hung
them on
the
corners
of the
roof
over the
porch.
It only
took one
day
before
the
humming
birds
found
our
feeders
and we
could
sit in
the
porch
swing
and
watch
them. We
kept the
humming
bird
feeders
full of
sugar
water
all week
and we
had
humming
birds
around
them all
day,
every
day.
The next
time we
went to
the deer
lease we
found
that
something
else had
been
feeding
on the
sugar
water.
But
that’
s
a whole
'nother
story
for a
different
time.
By
Loren
Moore
2003
