Jill and Bud

Kickapoo Cavern State Park, so Far so Very Good

We only drove 120 miles today, but it brought us to an area we haven’t been before.

I’m not used to these kinds of rolling hills in Texas.

We are the blue dot on the map, and we’re in the Western Hill Country, well west of Austin and San Antonio, but not into the flatter land near the Rio Grande.

It was an interesting drive with many, many places with flood warning signs and high water indicators in the low spots.

On the 30 or so miles coming south on Ranch Road 674 we also crossed several cattle guards, “bridges” of round bars the cattle can’t cross, and entered areas of “Loose Livestock”, although we saw none.

There are only 15 campsites in this state park, but 5 of them, including ours, have 50 Amp service and water and sewer.

There is plenty of space around each site. This is looking up the main road of the campground, and you can’t really see where the other sites are.

After we got set up Matey and I took a short walk on the Seargeant Memorial Trail. This land was the Seargeant Ranch until 1986, until Tommy Seargeant was able to donate it and have it made a state park.

The windmill is the one that was used on the ranch…

and some of the miles of galvanized pipes that took water to the pastures are visible along the trail.

There is scrub oak and juniper here, but also prickly pear cactus and honey mesquite. We are on the edge of the desert.

The trail was short but had a couple of fairly steep places. Matey is happily going back down part of the trail where I carried him up.

I wanted to make it up here, to the overlook…

and the Tommy Seargeant Memorial.

There is a cavern here that you can only go through on a guided tour. When I booked the site I thought I could easily book a tour later. But when I tried I found that not only is the park only open Friday through Monday, there is only one tour each week (Saturday at 1:00) and they only take 10 people. So we are on “standby”, but the nice man at the office told us to come down tomorrow at 12:30 and they would see what they could do.

If we miss the cave tour I won’t mind coming back here another year to enjoy the beauty, the solitude and the silence. And I will book the tour when I book the site!

I Miss the Walking

It’s still cold, but sunny, so Matey and I have done some walking. Twice Bud has dropped us off at the gate to the large section of the park across the highway.

There we walked a short section of the trail through the oak and juniper thicket.

This is a winding, pretty trail.

After only a half mile we left the trail and headed back to our campsite.

That’s because to get back we had to cross this open land, the highway and the campground on the other side.

Our half mile trail walk was a mile and a third by time we got back.

We were at this campground three years ago and then we walked pretty much every trail on the map. But it’s been too cold to use the stroller and after a two mile walk at the last park we ended up taking Matey to the vet. He’s now on pain medication for arthritis, but she told me that adrenaline could make him want to walk farther than he should. So this visit we have only walked around the part of the park between the highway and the river and two short walks on the Teal Trail, the closest trail to our side of the park. I miss our long walks.

Another Park, another Shot of Winter

On Monday we moved to Kerrville-Schreiner Park, a park run by the city of Kerrville, Texas. It was cold and cloudy but we were able to fill our water tank and use both our electric heaters with the 50 Amp service. We needed to add the gas furnace to bring the trailer up from the 50 degrees it had cooled to during the move. The air temperature was only 36 and with no sun it felt worse.

This park is an old state park built along the Guadeloupe River.

Matey and I took a short walk along a very pretty trail between the river and some cabins.

The original park was built by the CCC and you could see their work in the stone steps and terraces in front of the cabins.

This morning we woke up to temperatures in the low twenties and a light covering of snow. The sky was clearing from the west to the east.

Mid-morning the sun was out. The snow was no match for the southern sun. It was still below freezing but the sun was sublimating the snow; taking it directly from solid flakes to water vapor without any liquid water formed.

This system will be mostly passed tomorrow, meanwhile, the park has all the water taps dripping to make sure pipes don’t freeze and burst. Not the sight we were hoping for south of I-10, but we are happy that for both these uncomfortable shots of winter we have been safely settled with all we needed. Still, I hope this is the last of winter for us this year.

More Fun with Jack and Sharon

Right in Jack and Sharon’s neighborhood is the Wizard Academy. As it says, it is totally not a cult. It began when a marketing consultant, so good he was called “the wizard”, decided to stop traveling to companies around the country and instead have students come to him.

It’s a very eclectic place and the grounds are scattered with sculptures.

Thursday afternoon we went there with Jack and Sharon. The others tried the whiskey and beer at the artisan distillery on site, I tried a Blueberry Soda from Maine, of all places. Here we are waiting for our food order from the Mexican food truck also on site. It was all very good. Matey is in his stroller because he was not very energetic.

After we ate, Jack, Matey and I strolled around the grounds. We saw more sculptures.

There are some beautiful views of the surrounding hill country.

That is the Wizard Academy Tower and even though the sign says “Students Only” we walked up to it.

It’s a fascinating building.

There are more sculptures. Jack said this one was supposed to be a figurehead for the bow of the ship, the ship being the tower.

And this is the channel the “ship” is sailing. There are two lions guarding the channel.

This sculpture now marks the back boundary of the property.

It’s a very odd and beautiful place and there are never many people around. It’s a fun place to visit.

On Saturday Jack and Sharon came out to the park. Bud was working on a wonderful dinner of smoked salmon and stuffed squash. Sharon and Matey stayed with him while Jack and I took a hike. We had to park more than a half mile away from the trail we wanted to take because there were so many people out enjoying the nice sunny day before a bout of frigid weather. We walked the Rock Shelter Trail to reach the Homestead Trail where we wanted to walk and Jack took this photo of me in that pretty place.

Ultimately we reached our goal of the Williamson Creek Overlook Trail. This is Jack at the overlook.

On the way back we passed the McKinney homestead ruins. I was not expecting a structure this imposing.

I also finally identified which tree was Old Baldy, the 500 year old Bald Cypress. I had Jack take my picture posing with this beauty. I’m glad the trail is a fenced boardwalk here, protecting the roots of this great old tree.

We went 6 miles, a great hike. And came back to a great meal. We don’t get to see Jack and Sharon enough, but we always have fun when we do.

McKinney Falls State Park, Austin, Texas

This is our second visit to McKinney Falls State Park, which is within the city limits of Austin. It has an extensive trail system.

Yesterday I walked Matey and we looped around to the Armadillo Trail.

Matey enjoyed the trail through the oak thickets, but we saw no armadillos.

The real draw for us is getting to visit our good friends Jack and Sharon. Here we are, yesterday, about to sit and eat a wonderful meal at their house. It tasted as good as it looked.

So far the only wildlife we’ve seen are the deer that regularly graze on their front lawn.

Today they came to the park.

Sharon, Matey and I walked along Onion Creek that flows through the park.

With scenery like this you would never know you were inside the city limits.

Matey and I walked the very nice Rock Shelter Trail…

which leads right under the sheltering rock used for millennia by the people who lived here. It was a very welcoming place.

Sharon met us with their truck at the Lower Falls,

an area of gorgeous rock formations where we found Bud and Jack, who’d come down to fish. Jack caught one little fish, not a keeper. Still, it was a nice afternoon.

Good friends in a beautiful setting, you can’t ask for anything more.

Winter Weather Alert

We had a winter weather watch here for yesterday and today. This is what we got. I admit I was excited to see snow and was tempted to go out in it. But before I could bundle up to face the 34 degree temperatures, the snow of this “intensity” had stopped!

Goodbye Hot Springs, Hello Winter

Sunday afternoon Sean, Jamie, Bria and I went hiking at the Waterworks Trails.

These are biking/hiking trails around the pretty little reservoirs…

still in use…

after 144 years.

It was a nice afternoon, sixty degrees and sunny.

But Monday morning, when we packed up to move here, to Tyler State Park in Texas, it was twenty-four degrees.

Matey and I have been taking our morning walks around the lake here in below freezing temperatures.

We enjoy the walks, though neither of us wants to stay out long.

It is a pretty park…

and it has been sunny,

so our afternoon walks have been pleasant.

We have water and groceries in because tomorrow we may get rain, ice, sleet and snow. At least we don’t have to move again until Monday, when all that should be melted and gone. Hello winter, indeed! As long as we don’t lose power we’ll be fine. Here’s hoping the heavy stuff misses us as predicted so far.

A Good Start to the New Year

Sean, Jamie and Bria came over for a hike today. I had taken Matey on two short walks, so this time he stayed home with Bud. It felt strange to walk without him. We drove up to the top of Hot Springs Mountain and walked the trails around the top of that and North Mountain. Here I am following Jamie and Bria along Goat Rock Trail as it leads to North Mountain.

We stopped at a rock wall for this selfie, that Sean took. With his long arms he’s our official selfie photographer.

A bit further on we came to an opening where you could look down across the hills. You can just see one of the campers far below in our campground.

All together we walked almost four miles and ended up back near the Hot Springs Mountain Tower. We came back to the trailer and had a supper of black-eyed peas with collard greens, cabbage and ham and corn bread that Bud had made. It was delicious. A good start to the New Year.

Right Campground, Wrong Site

We’re staying at Gulpha Gorge, the campground for Hot Springs National Park. We’re the blue dot in the upper left of the map, and if you look closely you can see the dotted lines that are the hundred year old trails going over and around Hot Springs Mountain and down to Central Avenue and Bathhouse Row. Those trails are why I love this campground.

The campground itself is pretty small and is squeezed between Gorge Road and Gulpha Creek.

Unfortunately, it’s been a very rainy stay and these stepping stones, which have been an inch to four inches under water the whole time, are the only way across to the trails.

But this is still the right campground for the holidays, because Jamie and Sean live at the red pin. That’s only seven miles across town from us at the blue dot and an easy drive at night; city driving and no worries about animals on the road.

This time I chose a site right along the creek. Looks nice, but these sites are close together.

I thought it would be quieter, but the road is still close and we still hear the traffic.

Worse, the winter sun drops behind the mountain putting us in the shade even at 3 in the afternoon. So I will definitely come here for the holidays again, but will choose a site away from the creek with a bit more space and sun.