Today Barbara and I visited the Riverwalk in San Antonio, Texas. We met up with an old high school friend of mine, Keith, and his lovely wife, Janice. We enjoyed lunch at Bubba Gump’s, took a boat ride around the Riverwalk, enjoyed some ice cream and caught up on old times. Great Day!
On Tuesday Barbara and I landed at the Medina Lake, Thousand Trails RV park northwest of San Antonio, Texas. According to the map provided upon our arrival this park contains numerous hiking trails so this morning I decided to go explore them. This park also has a lot of deer and most are use to humans so they allow you to walk right up to them. I frequently hear that everything is bigger in Texas. This is true, in most cases, but not the deer. These are by far the smallest deer I have ever seen. Most of the bucks are the size of a medium to large dog. This RV park is very rustic. It is a lot like the state parks in California, but with electric, water and sewer connections. They do have miniature golf, a pool and a clubhouse, but not much more.
Medina Lake, as you will see is almost dry. So I asked my friend Steve if Texas is experiencing a drought and he said no. They had an extremely wet winter this past year, so I asked Steve why the lake was dry? He indicated that many of the local water suppliers who depend upon the lakes for their water are draining the lakes to make repairs to the dams.
This morning I took advantage of the nice weather and took a hike around the Thousand Trails Park, Lake Conroe where we are currently staying. This is a big park and one of the nicest parks we have stayed at. They even have a mobile home community here with new mobile homes being installed almost daily. To walk the perimeter of the park I ended up walking 4.5 miles. I watched, what I’d have to guess was a young osprey try and catch fish. I thought these birds were supposed to be good fishermen. This one wasn’t. It swooped down twice and tried to catch a fish without any luck. Finally, it landed on the water, grabbed a fish and flew off. Better luck next time.
Today the outside temperature is below 75 degrees and so is the humidity, so Barbara took the short drive to the Montgomery County Veterans Memorial Park in the town of Conroe. This is a really nice park that respectfully pays tribute to our military veterans past, present and future. Take a look!
Yesterday we woke up to the sound of rain on the roof and thunder in the background. The rain lasted until around 2:00pm when Barbara and I enjoyed lunch with some college friends of mine. We ate at the Wunsche Cafe’ and Saloon in Spring, Texas. Legend has it that the cafe’ is haunted, but we saw no evidence of this while there. We were treated to a good meal with a screaming child in the background. Maybe the child was the ghost? I have not seen my friends Jamie and Steve since our graduation in May of 1991, but we have stayed in touch. It was really good seeing both of them and catching up on old times. Last night I hiked down to Lake Conroe in time to take photos of a Texas sunset. All together it made for a wonderful day.
On Monday we took our little boy back to the vet to have his stiches removed. The vet gave Hopper a clean bill of health and now he only has to take three pills a day. Down from the seven a day he was taking previously. The vet watched Hopper walk and indicated that it will likely be four weeks before he is walking normal again. That’s fine as long as he is not experiencing any pain, we are happy. So yesterday we headed south to the Lake Conroe Thousand Trails Park. This is a nice park, except the roads. This morning, while it was still relatively cool out, 78 degrees and 94% humidity, I took a hike down to the lake. Take a look!
Yesterday, Barbara, Judy, Mike and I traveled to the eastern border of Texas, with Louisiana, to take a boat ride in the swamp lands. Caddo lake is the only natural lake in Texas and is fed by the Red river. Legend has it that the lake was formed in 1811-12 by the nearby New Madrid earthquake(s). The boat driver, Captain Ron, indicated that there is a subduction zone (fault) below this part of Texas called the Balcones Fault, but I have not been able to find any information to confirm this. Maps that I reviewed indicate that the Balcones Fault Zone is located several hundred miles to the southwest of this location. However, the Talco Fault Zone is located in this area.
This area has a beauty that I’ve never experienced before as I have never seen anything like it. While riding on the boat, several times, I closed my eyes and just listened to the water crash into the front of the boat and the birds in the trees while enjoying the wind on my face. I can see why the remaining founding member of the Eagles, Don Henley, owns property here. Captain Ron indicated that Don’s dad took him fishing here for the first time as a small child. Don was born in nearby Gilmer, Texas in 1947. As you will see there are a lot of nice homes here too and for you movie buffs, you will likely recognize this place because several movies have been filmed here.
Unlike the manmade drought currently experienced in California, Texas is experiencing a drought in this area. The lake in most places is only about three feet deep. Most of the trees seen here are Bald Cypress and in their branches you can see a lot of Spanish Moss. Spanish Moss is gray when it is dry and turns green when wet.
On Thursday our friends Mike and Judy treated Barbara and I to one of the local fish hatcheries in Athens, Texas. This is a cool place to visit. They have a video that tells about the Texas fisheries, several tanks where you can see many different types of fish, a nature trail, with exhibits, ponds that you can fish in without a fishing license, a museum with many trophy fish and a store and gift shop. It made for a great day with nature, but with all of the fish on display I didn’t take one photo of fish. What’s up with that?
This morning I got up early, 5:30AM, to go fishing with my friend Mike Collins and his father-in-law, Earl. While loading the truck, Earl cut his arm and required some medical attention. After we got Earl taken care of we noticed that the lights on the boat trailer weren’t working. We stopped at the gas station down the road and Mike and I tried to troubleshoot the problem. It appeared to be a fuse in the truck so we replaced it, but the brake lights and the turn signals still didn’t work. Mike decided this was not an issue so we continued on our way. On our way to Lake Limestone we took a wrong turn and ended up on a road with no access to the lake. Darn GPS. We turned around and tried again. When we arrived at the marina, we discovered that the marina was closed. Due to this we were unable to buy any bait for fishing, so we said, “the heck with it” and headed for home. Just down the road we saw a bait and tackle shop that appeared to be open so we turned around. We stopped by the tackle shop and discovered that it was also closed, but a local fishing guide, who is not the owner of the shop, opened it and allowed us to buy some bait. So fishing was back on again. We headed back to the lake and by the time we got the boat on to the water it was almost 10:30AM. This was five hours after all of us got out of bed and the lake is only an hour drive from Mike’s house. We fished for almost three hours and during that time I caught a 14-inch crappie, Earl caught a small catfish that was too small to keep and Mike didn’t get to fish because his time was spent driving the boat and helping Earl. So after approximately three hours of fishing we packed up and headed for home. It was a strange day but it was a fun day. My worst day of fishing beats the best day of work anytime.
Yesterday Barbara and I, along with our friends Judy and Mike, dropped Hopper off at the vet. Hopper had to go in for surgery to repair a torn ACL in his back right leg. So we didn’t sit around and worry about Hopper, we did anyway, we headed to Waco to visit the Waco Mammoth National Monument. In 1978 two men were walking along a dry stream bed when they came across a bone sticking out of the ground. Their find was reported to nearby Baylor University and it was discovered that what they found was a bone from a Pleistocene age Columbian Mammoth. The owner of the land, understanding the importance of the find, donated the land. Since that time, the area has been turned over to the National Park Service and an indoor excavation building has been constructed. So far there has been several mammoth and camel skeletons unearthed and they believe more are likely present. Camels are native to north America. After travelling to the National Monument we stopped by the Russell Stover factory for ice cream and other sweet treats. Yum!
This morning, we traveled back to pick up my little boy after what appears to be a successful surgery. We really missed him last night. I woke up three times last night and each time I instinctively looked for my little boy. The vet told us that for a dog his age, almost 16, he came through the surgery remarkably well. He had his knee repaired, his teeth cleaned and a skin tag removed from his forehead. He’s now home and resting, hopefully comfortably. He should be up and around again in a couple of days.
RV There Yet? 