Rivera is having a little joke today. Unique Texas critter? No, she doesn’t mean Mark’s rental car parked on the grass (looks like a late-model Prius, sure to impress Texans) . She doesn’t mean the armadillo, though that is what we are supposed to assume. It’s not unique to Texas, either. HahHahHah! The correct answer is the land bridge, though I’ve never heard of a bridge referred to as a critter. And again, the only thing unique is that it is named “The Robert L.B. Tobin Land Bridge.” I’m sure we’ll learn more about it.

Looks like Rivera is, indeed, letting Mark have his tourist side trip before reporting for work later this week.

Art Dept. The juxtaposition of armadillo, Mark, and his car appear out of whack, due to the vague perspective that makes the armadillo look like it’s just five feet away from Mark. And it certainly is not the South American giant armadillo (Priodontes maximus), which averages around 3 feet, excluding a 20 inch tail.

The other artistic nit I’m picking is that the land bridge is not over a body of water, as Panel 1 suggests, but over the popular Wurzbach Parkway, which is why it’s a land bridge, of course! Now, even if we omit the blue coloring, we are left with an open area that looks nothing like a highway and more like a body of water.