We left Jim Hogg Park today. So did a number of other people, and even more left yesterday at the end of the weekend. We saw lots of empty campsites this morning.
We hiked another section of the Good Water Loop Trail today. The total trail is about 27 miles, but we hiked only a short stretch from Jim Hogg Park west towards Russell Park. We turned around at the second water crossing, not wanting to take our chances crossing the stream.
The trail was very rocky, so we had to watch where we were putting our feet. We were glad we had our hiking sticks.
This morning we got up early and prepared to move. But at that point, we did not hitch up as usual. Instead, we drove to the UT Austin Thompson Conference Center. Our friends Arnie and Sue who live in Austin had invited us to join them at LAMP, a program that is presented by the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute or OLLI at UT Austin. On Thursday mornings, there are two lectures, one at 9:30 a.m. and one at 11:00 a.m.
This morning the first lecture was presented by a UT Austin Music faculty member, Dan Welcher. He talked about how composers compose, giving examples from his own experience as a composer. He is an entertaining speaker and despite being musically illiterate, I found his talk quite interesting. One of the examples he gave was of basing a composition on six Shaker songs. Another was about a string quartet he composed for the Mary Cassatt String Quartet. Aptly, it is based on one of Cassat's paintings.
The second speaker was a faculty member on the English faculty who is also affiliated with the Department of Mexican American and Latina/o Studies and the Department of American Studies. His talk was titled "Life and Death on the Border: 1910 - 1920." This era was a time of violence in the Nueces Strip, a disputed area between the Nueces River and the Rio Grande. The Texas Rangers and even the US Army were involved in brutal suppression of the Texas Mexicans who were land grant holders in this area. The killing of innocents was the norm of life on the border, and this shameful period has not been officially acknowledged. Gonzalez and collaborators from universities around the country mounted an exhibit at the Bullock Museum of Texas History this spring (also called "Life and Death on the Border: 1910 - 1920") which was attended by over 50,000 people.
After the program we thanked our friends and headed back to McKinney Falls to check out. Wee moved to Georgetown, which is north of Austin by about 25 miles. We are in a lovely lakefront site at Jim Hogg Park on Lake Georgetown.
We left Paris yesterday and arrived today at a state park we have visited before and really like. Our last visit was memorable because the campground was closed due to flooding. Onion Creek is usually rather sedate, but it turned into a raging torrent carrying snapped off trees downstream. Now the park has returned to normal, and we are glad to be back in Austin. We are in site #15, which was easy to back into (always a plus).
We arrived in Paris, TX, for the annual TEXPACC square dance weekend yesterday. We are camped at the Red River Valley Fair Grounds, which is where the dance is held. This evening we joined some friends at Ta Molly's Mexican Kitchen for dinner before the dance.
Dick and Carol have a neighbor named Walter. He's an older gentleman with a passion for decorating for the holidays, and Halloween is one of his favorites. He told us today that he has several pieces he hasn't put out yet.
My goddaughter Debbie and her husband Robert both have birthdays in November. Dick and Carol decided to take advantage of our visit to take them out for a birthday dinner and give us a chance to visit with them. They are both very busy with work and family, so it was good to find a rare moment when they were available and the kids were all in school.
This evening Dick and Carol and Ken and I went to the Eat Healthy Tyler monthly vegan potluck. It's held at the Natural Grocers, which has a demo kitchen, and everyone brings a plant based dish to share. There's a monthly theme (but it's optional). This month it's Soups and Stews and Witches' Brews.
Carol took me to the Tyler Civic Theater for a performance of the Great Gatsby today. We went first to the Rose Garden Center to see the display of thousands of pink roses imported from Ecuador for the Rose Festival. Then we went next door to the theater.
We are back in Tyler, at a very nice park we have stayed at before. The sites are spacious because it's out in the country and used to be a mobile home park before being converted to an RV park.
Cate was one of a team who represented her school, Wester Middle School, in a 1.5 mile race today. She had to qualify on Monday to be on the team. Go, Cate! Here she is with her teammates in a huddle before the race.
When we woke up this morning, the kids and Ed were up and about. Ed was very glad to have coffee. Evidently the tent, especially with its downhill slant, was not the best place to sleep. He said that they had slid down in their sleeping bags and then hitched themselves back up several times. Jesse ended up sleeping in a ball in a corner. We had pancakes, scrambled eggs, and bacon for breakfast (sorry about burning the bacon....).
This afternoon Ed took us to the Perot. It's a great museum, and we were fascinated. We all stayed together in the Expanding Universe Hall to start. It's Jesse's favorite. Then we split up. Ken and I went to the second floor. Ed and the boys went to the play space, and Cate wandered somewhere on her own. We didn't see everything even in the spaces we visited, and there are lots more halls we didn't even go in. Wonderful museum.
Molly picked us up to go to the Spiral Diner in Oak Cliff for lunch with Kelley and Will. We had a great visit and some delicious vegan food. It was all good, but the best part was the Turtle Brownie Sundae with the diner's feature I-Scream and spicy pecans.
Kelley is waiting to hear from the Physican Assistant programs she has applied to, but meanwhile is going to school and has almost completed two years working for a lawyer. Molly is about to start a new job at Whole Foods and has been in training for the last week. Will is enjoying being out in the field as a probation officer. We talked about the upcoming election. Fortunately we all agree "Never Trump!"
