by Penny Brown

Let me start by saying I have an active imagination. According to my adult children, I exaggerate, a lot. Having said that, the tale I’m about to share with you is shooting about as straight as a pig’s tail! 

As you may have heard in August of 2020, the City of Rio Hondo received a $650,000 grant from the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department for improvements to “Boat Ramp Park.” The planned improvements include a pier, dock, kayak launch, nature trails, a pavilion, bird blinds and restrooms. 

Currently the park is a ramp with two boat launch slots. The rest of the park consists of a parking lot and undeveloped lover’s lanes – well, that part is the active imagination I was talking about. Anyway, I hadn’t seen any progress occurring at the park so I approached both the naturalists and the city about combining forces for blazing the trails and improving the park. On February 8, 2022 I was curious if any stakes had been laid for trails or roads and I decided to grab a trash bag and head over to the park.

As I passed the Rio Hondo Fire Department, I noticed a big wrench truck coming out of the station in front of me. It turned down Harris Drive and into the park in front of me and that’s when I noticed two or three police cars parked in the ramp as well. I slowed before pulling into the parking lot to get in all the “rubber necking” I could get.  Activity at Rio Hondo boat ramp

I grabbed my big trash bag, and gloves and got out of my vehicle. I proceed to pick up trash around the parking lot, but slowly began to nonchalantly meander toward the action. I just happened to glance over a few times hoping they wouldn’t run me off before I could fulfill my curiosity. I saw the fire truck backed up and a truck and boat trailer backed up into the water.  There was also a boat in the river which seemed to be blocking one of the docks. My imagination begins chattering “There must be a body and the boat has it trapped in the dock area but it’s too heavy so they are pulling it out with the wrench truck!” 

I pick up my phone to snap a few pictures, but I really can’t see anything. Surely there must be trash closer to the action! I inch a little closer, but I hear one policeman advising another of my appearance and I hear him respond “I saw that!” So at that point, I proceed to continue to fill my trash bag and ignore the boat ramp shenanigans.

When my bag feels like it contains about 50 pounds of trash, I notice that the ramp activities have ceased. One of the police cars drove up into the parking lot near where I was picking trash. He calls out to me “Ma’am, we have city workers who get paid to do that. You don’t have to do that! I already called and got after them!” I explained to him that I wanted to pick up trash; I was a Texas Master Naturalist and we got volunteer hours for picking up trash. We spoke for a bit and of course, being my nosy self, I asked what was happening at the boat ramp. He explained that it was low tide and the truck/trailer had pulled too far into the water. The end of the ramp drops off into the river and the truck/trailer was not able to get out of the river. No dead body, which is a good thing of course, but not as exciting for storytelling purposes.

Thereafter, I continue to drag my 100-pound sack (remember the exaggeration part) of trash around the park and noticed a Rio Hondo Public Works truck appear and proceed to empty the trash barrel. I approach the truck and ask the occupant, who turns out to be named Juan, if I got him into any trouble. He shrugs which means “probably” in valley talk. I tell him I meant no harm, that I was a naturalist and this was just volunteer work. Juan then takes my huge bag of trash from me and places it in the back of his truck and hands me a new trash bag. OK! My plan was to pick one bag but I understand the assignment! I continue on my merry way collecting another fresh bag of trash. 

About 30 minutes later, I notice Juan returning the emptied trash barrel and see there is a second Public Works truck. The two men speak for awhile and I see them looking my way. My second bag is pretty full of trash so I approach the trucks with the intention of leaving the filled bag with Juan. At that point the second man begins conversing with me. His name is Murl. ”Like Merle Haggard,” I ask? “Yes” he explains, “but I’m not an Okie from Muskogee!” (reference to a Haggard song for the non-country fans). 

Turns out Murl is the Public Works Director and the one the police chief called about the crazy lady picking up trash. (Has no one else ever picked up trash before in this city?) He asked what crime I had committed that I was ordered to pick up trash for my community service. Ha ha! A million crimes flash through my mind – the most predominant one is that I had murdered the previous city employee who continued to ask why I was picking up trash! We laughed about that and I explained that all Texas Master Naturalist’s backgrounds were investigated and cleared prior to becoming a volunteer with the group. 

I further explained that we are nature nerds and that we volunteer our time doing all things nature connected including picking up trash. He told me about the proposed trails and I explained that I had spoken to the City Administrator about assisting with the park. We talked for awhile all the time I’m picking up trash. Oh, have I forgotten to mention that somewhere along the way my second trash bag had been replaced by a third new one? Yes, needless to say I had an interesting day and I picked near an 18-wheeler load of trash! Who ever thought a day of picking trash for Texas Master Naturalists could be so fun!