Happy Birthday, Cate!

Today is Cate's 7th birthday, and she celebrated with a party at home: six little girls, lots of glitter, nail polish, presents, pinata full of candy, screaming, and fun.

We got up early this morning to get an early start in our trip from Georgetown to Lake Lewisville. We wanted to beat the afternoon rush hour in DFW. We're beginning to think that may not be entirely possible. Traffic was thoroughly congested by 1:00 p.m. when we hit the metro area. We arrived around 2:00 p.m. and set up in site #6, our favorite site.

Ken decided to stay home and rest his knee while I drove over to Ed and Julie's to help out with the party and have fun being a grandma.

Read more!

Sun City, Again

We spent some time this morning driving around Sun City looking at houses the realtor had printed up for us. One in particular really caught our eye. When we parked and got the information sheet from the box by the street, the owner came out and invited us in. She was very gracious. She and her husband had the house built and moved into it in February 1998. He passed away last year.

The house would be perfect for us: 1,085 sq. ft., 1 bedroom, 2 baths, study, open plan, green area, etc. We almost convinced ourselves that it would make sense to buy it and rent it out until we're ready to settle, but that surely wouldn't make sense financially. And one of the reasons we're on the road is that we don't want to foreclose on our options.

Read more!

Checking out Georgetown

We headed into Georgetown today to get more familiar with the town and check out the real estate market. A very nice realtor gave us a list of smaller single story houses and duplexes to check out. We drove around and looked at them and got out to walk around the neighborhoods. One especially caught our eye because it backed up onto a greenbelt. Another was in a neat newer neighborhood of duplexes. But none of them really looked like what we might want someday, because of course we're not planning to settle down any time soon!

Tomorrow we'll check out some places in Sun City, more for something to do than any serious interest.
Read more!

Goodwater Loop Trail

Today we drove over to Cedar Breaks Park on the south side of the lake to hike the first part of the Goodwater Loop Trail around Lake Georgetown. The first part of the hike winds through a cedar and oak woodlands. Much of the trail is very rocky or tangled with tree roots.

Trailhead at Cedar Breaks looks inviting.

After a while, we emerged from the woods and got a good view of Lake Georgetown.

The loop trail is marked, starting with the Cedar Breaks trailhead and going counterclockwise. We passed mile markers 1 and 2 on our way to the Crockett Garden Falls, at 2.5 miles in. At some points we had to look around to see where the trail went, until finally Ken pointed out that there are paint blazes on the trees. Going counterclockwise, you see white blazes on the right of the trail; going counterclockwise you see yellow blazes. Wish we had realized that sooner....

Vulture on the lookout on a limestone outcropping below us.

When we got to the ruins of corrals and a spring house, we started to look for the falls. A sign points down a hillside, but there is no trail. We started down and scouted around, almost giving up before we heard the falls. The spring fed falls are delicate streamers leaping down the limestone bluff.

Crockett Garden Falls seen from below.

Purple irises at Knight Spring are not native to the area but were planted by previous landowners. Lovely sight!

We sat down on a bench to eat our lunch in a shady spot looking out at the irises. A couple of backpackers had paused here also. They were on their way to Cedar Hollow Camp to spend the night.

These kayakers both have dogs in the bow. We saw and heard a couple of speedboats, but otherwise the water was calm and empty.

We did not see as much wildlife as we had hoped, though we did see lots of butterflies of various kinds and lovely wildflowers. The hike back to the trailhead was uneventful just until we were in sight of the parking lot. At that point, Ken tripped and fell, scaring heck out of both of us. He managed to scrape his hands and knees and bruise himself a bit, but no serious damage. It's so easy to lose concentration. We had been carefully picking our way through the rocks and roots, eyes open for snakes and critters. We've noticed before that there's a tendency to zone out a bit towards the end of a hike.

Here are some Murcott Mandarin oranges, very similar to Clementines. They are very sweet, seedless, and easy to eat.

Eat more Cuties! Party in your tummy! They are very sweet...
Read more!

Exploration

This morning we walked along part of the Good Water loop trail around Lake Georgetown, starting at the Jim Hogg trailhead. The first section was deceptive--wide, flat, and graveled. We saw a cautionary sign about hunting, but it's not hunting season and we have heard no shots, so we didn't worry.

Soon we found ourselves picking our way through rocky ground and limestone outcroppings, but were rewarded by a view of the lake. The lake is very low because of the lack of rain. We'll hike another longer section of the trail tomorrow.

On our way back through the campground, we stopped to check out a screen shelter. There are several scattered through the campground. Inside are 2 bunk beds and a counter, with a ceiling fan and an electrical outlet.

Our next foray, after lunch, was to check out Rio Bonito Cabin Rental and RV Park, on the San Gabriel River just west of the lake. We chatted with one of the owners, Deneen, who was very nice and showed us all around. She and her husband Ray have plans to expand and put in more RV sites. We were impressed by the friendliness, peace and quiet, and general good maintenance.

While we were out, we decided to stop at Sun City Texas, a Del Webb community nearby. The sales person was very nice and not pushy, but we were not too impressed with the floor plans. We especially wanted to see their smallest floor plan, but it has no model. The community activities and amenities sounded very positive (hiking club, RVing club, fitness center, indoor lap pool, etc.). I guess we'll keep looking. We aren't in any hurry to settle down--just doing some advance research.
Read more!

Very Hot, Very Quiet Day

The high was in the 90's again, so we took our morning walk earlier, while it was still bearable outside. We talked with the folks at the gate kiosk about hiking and got a map of the hiking trails around Lake Georgetown, but we decided to wait until tomorrow when it will be cooler to hike. Today we just stayed inside. Ken watched the Masters Tournament, and from the exclamations found it exciting. We watched part of a Ken Burns Civil War documentary.

The highlight was the first episode of the new Upstairs Downstairs on Masterpiece Classic. I love Jean Marsh, who played Rose the parlor maid in the first series. She returns to 165 Eaton Street with a new family and new adventures in 1936. We're looking forward to the rest of the episodes.
Read more!

Jim Hogg Campground

We moved to our new home for the week, Jim Hogg Campground on Lake Georgetown. It's a Corps of Engineers park, so we had just about given up hope of being able to stay here. If the government had shut down, so would all the parks and campgrounds and historic sites .... including this one. We're glad it didn't happen. This is a first come, first served park, so we were very glad to find a nice spot that would hold us. We actually have a bit of a water view out the back, though only of a narrow finger of the lake.

We're really enjoying our shelter. It was as hot as forecast today, over 90 degrees, but still pleasant in the breeze in the shade. I even managed to nod off for a few.
Read more!

Lower Falls Hike

Today we mostly stayed close to home. For our morning walk, we hiked to the Lower Falls and to some ruins in the park. The limestone all around the falls is cratered and shaped, clearly by running water, but it’s hard to imagine the creek rising that high. Right now the falls are just a few streams finding their way through and over the rocks. The pool at the bottom of the falls attracts anglers and swimmers. Today we saw one guy with a line in the water while a woman and little girl played on the shore.

To continue the hike to the ruins requires crossing the creek, which was a bit tricky since the surface of the limestone is so irregular, but we made it. The first ruins we saw were of the old homestead, where the original McKinney hoped to retreat from the world. All that’s left is the stone and masonry structure of half the house, which burned and was abandoned some time ago.

The second ruins were of the old grist mill—at least that’s what the sign said. It was hard to tell. By the time we returned home, we were ready for a shower. The high today was in the 90s, with high humidity too.

We were planning on moving tomorrow to camp on Lake Georgetown at a Corps of Engineers campground. The impending government shutdown means that we'll be going to a commercial park instead. We called Berry Springs and made reservations for two nights, hoping that the gov will get its act in order shortly!
Read more!

Bats!

We started the day with a hike to the Upper Falls, which turned out to be a narrow stream rushing its way over a limestone precipice.

Next we hiked a trail to the Rock Shelter, a natural limestone overhang that has been used by people for thousands of years.

The tree I'm passing here is called "Old Baldy"

View from inside the Rock Shelter looking down on Onion Creek

This beautiful butterfly appeared to be having a hard time. It fluttered on the path and then lay still.

This evening we went downtown to walk around Lady Bird Lake and see the great bat flight from under the Congress Avenue Bridge. The hike and bike trail around the lake, actually a wide part of the Colorado River, is very popular with runners, cyclists, and dog walkers. One section is an off-leash area where many dogs were splashing out into the water to retrieve tossed toys. We also saw lots of boaters in the water, including one crewing team accompanied by a coach in a motorboat.

As sunset neared, we made our way back to the bat viewing area provided by the Austin American Statesman. It's a grassy knoll where people gather to watch the bats emerge for their nightly feeding flight. Other folks waited on the bridge. We could hear lots of squeaking, and we could certainly smell the bats. Around 8:20 we started to see a few flying overhead. Unfortunately, by the time the large flock was flying out, it was too dark to see them. The camera view screen showed clouds of bats streaming up into the air, but the unaided eye failed to see any. August is the best viewing time, when the pups are ready to fly. Maybe we'll come back to Austin some August to see them.

Read more!

Austin Wednesday Farmers Market

We didn't have much on the agenda today. We drove to Emma Long Metropolitan Park to check out the camping possibilities there. The drive was excellent, especially the views of mansions along the City Park Drive outside the park. We saw two with their own rooftop observatories within a few blocks.

We walked around the Triangle, a group of stores and lofts by the market site while waiting for it to open. As described online, it's a small market, but we did find some things to buy, including a dozen eggs, a loaf of whole wheat bread, and some veggies. We ate fresh picked romaine in our salad for dinner, along with fresh steamed broccoli and some bread to go along with leftover meatloaf and baked potato.

Smart Car2Go! near the market

Artsy chairs at a Triangle restaurant, the Galaxy Cafe, caught Ken's eye
Read more!

Enchanted!

Today we got up early and drove west to Fredericksburg, in the Texas Hill Country, and then north to Enchanted Rock State Natural Area.

Panoramic view of the area from a UT website

I was excited to be returning to hike the rock and eager to introduce Ken to it. My earlier visit was 17 or 18 years ago on a camping trip with Chris, who had been impressed with it on a Boy Scout camping trip a few years before. We arrived just before 11:00 a.m. and found the parking lots nearly empty. On the weekends in season, we'd seen warnings that the line of cars waiting to get in can extend out to the main road, and sometimes the gates are just closed until 5:00 p.m. because there are too many visitors.

We hiked the Summit Trail first, about 1.5 miles round trip with nearly 800 feet of elevation gain. The trail wasn't crowded, but we did see other folks along the route and walking around the top of the rock. The view from the top made the steep ascent well worthwhile! It's a 360 degree panorama of the surrounding countryside. "Enchanted" seems an apropos word to describe the experience, expansive and even exalting.

Along the way you see lots of boulders and rock sheets that have "exfoliated" from the granite batholith. At the top, depressions created by weathering shelter small plant communities that have gained a toehold on the solid rock. The depressions are called vernal pools, but they held no water this season. The park, like McKinney Falls, has a burn ban in effect because of the lack of rain. Sometimes it's excessively windy or hot at the top, but we were lucky to find it warm and just breezy for the most part.

When we returned to the base, we ate our picnic lunch and prepared to take the Loop Hike, a 4.5 mile trail that encircles not just Enchanted Rock, but also its smaller neighbors, Little Rock, Turkey Peak, and Freshman Mountain. For the most part it's a level, easy trail. We saw buzzards circling lazily overhead, especially near the hill called Buzzards Roost. We enjoyed the view of the west side of the Rock and saw some climbers near the top. We passed the three primitive camping areas used by backpackers.

On our next visit, we'll take the Echo Canyon and Turkey Peak trails to get a closer view of the base of the Rock.

Getting ready for the Summit Trail

Art in the interplay of light and shadow, returning to the parking lot after the Summit Trail.

After our visit to Enchanted Rock, we drove back to Fredericksburg for a stroll around the old German town and dinner at Kelly's Cafe. We had delicious blue corn chicken enchiladas, a bottle of local chardonnay from Becker Vineyards, and blueberry sorbet for dessert.

Whimsical carrot at the next-door Juicerie

Kelly's Cafe, where we had dinner
Read more!

Uneventful Day

We had a quiet day today. This morning it rained briefly and intermittently, but certainly not enough to lift the burn ban here. The area has had almost no rain for some time now. It cleared up pretty quickly, but we still carried umbrellas on our walk.

We explored the park a bit and discovered that the Smith Visitor Center is open only Friday-Sunday afternoons (it's staffed by volunteers). We went to a laundromat, The Wash Tub, to do our weekly laundry and read through some Austin visitor info.

We decided to go to Enchanted Rock tomorrow and downtown another day to see the bats and hike the lake and see what's up in Austin.
Read more!

McKinney Falls State Park

This morning we headed out to McKinney Falls State Park, only a 28 mile trip. On the way we stopped at Walmart for a few things and at a U-Haul for propane. We wanted to time our arrival at the park just before the 2:00 p.m. check-in time. We got there at 1:40 p.m., just right so we had time to look around at the sites to pick out one that would work for us (long enough and view of the southern sky).

It took us longer than usual to back in to our site and get set up, no surprise since we haven't done this for many months now. We're in site 23, a very nice site except that like many of the back-ins here, the picnic table and patio are on the street side of the rig, so our door faces out towards some bushes and the road.

We're looking forward to a few days of exploring the area and taking it easy.
Read more!

San Marcos

It turned out that McKinney Falls had nothing open today at all, so we ended up staying at San Marcos Springs RV Park. It's a small park, very close to I-35, but not too noisy. We found it listed in our Escapees discount parks book, but the lady who took our money didn't seem to know anything about an Escapees discount.

It appears that we may be the only travelers in the park. The other sites all appear to be occupied by long term residents. But it's a nice little park, with lots of shade trees and flowers.

On the way here we stopped at the San Marcos Tanger Outlet Center. We checked out the Eddie Bauer store, the Skechers store, Timberland, and Rockport. We tried on Crocs at the Croc store, but none fit. My only triumphant purchase was a jar of Robert Rothschild Farm Ginger Wasabi Sauce for $1.50, 75% off, at Le Gourmet Chef.

Read more!

Moving Day Again

We hitched up and hit the road again this morning, headed toward Austin. Our first night's stop, as always, is Tips Park in the little town of Three Rivers, about 150 miles north. For us, with stops to walk around and have lunch, that takes four hours, just about right.

We know we're headed north when the mesquite starts to appear along the roadside.

Falfurrias Checkpoint screens for drugs and illegal immigrants

Look closely and you'll see the canine at work.

The campground is always pretty full, but tonight it's even more so, because the town has a Salsa Festival tomorrow. We ended up in a pull-through with only 20 amp electric for $5, which suits us just fine. The park host was telling us how much demand there is for spaces, almost entirely from oilfield workers. The campground is in the shadow of a huge Valero refinery. They've added several new sites, and they were all full within two days, so we're lucky they found a spot for us.

Read more!