Padawan’s Journey 5

[brroberts]

Finished a bunch of maintenance and repairs at my folks today. So I’ll get back to trip pictures.

[brroberts]

After Pedernalles Falls we went to South Llano State Park. Barb really enjoyed it. Easy hiking, lots of wildflowers, a nice river, and a gazillion butterflies.

[brroberts]

The first part of this day was Honey Creek State Natural Area.

Next up was Guadalupe River SP and a really nice hill country drive. This was our favorite river for a soak.

There’s no place to stop on these narrow, hilly, curvey roads to get a picture.

[brroberts]

Our last state park for this trip was Garner. The Frio River was great, but the hiking was more rugged, so Barb didn’t enjoy it.

[brroberts]

Enchanted Rock State Natural Area was our next stop. I hadn’t been there since the mid ‘80’s, and Barb had never been there. I took 1.432 million pictures. Barb hiked a little, and the read while I hiked a bunch. I’ll start with a few pictures of the drive there.

[brroberts]

On to hiking pictures. A few from an overlook, and then a few from the top of the rock.

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Some more from Enchanted Rock.

[brroberts]

Okay, one more batch of Enchanted Rock pictures, and then the rest of the trip will have to wait a day for more posts. There are three more state natural areas to post from. This trip is winding down. We are supposed to leave my folks on Thursday and be home Friday, but are watching all of the tornado warnings to figure out travel. Our favourites from this trip were South Llano, Garner, and Enchanted Rock. Our favorite drive was FM 337.

[brroberts]

The next stop was Fredericksburg for Barb to shop, and me to see the National Museum of the Pacific. Nimitz grew up there. It was a tourist day.

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Hill country state natural area. It wasn’t our favorite. It’s really more setup for horseback trail rides. Not a place I’d personally work to get back. But here it is from a seven and a half mile hike. This one I did without Barb.

[brroberts]

The next state natural area we visited is on the NW edge of San Antonio. It’s called Government Canyon. It, like Hill Country, was not a favorite, but the hiking was easy and Barb did 5 of the 6 1/2 miles with me, so that was nice. A lot of the dinosaur tracks were filled with recent rain water.

[brroberts]

This last state natural area, Lost Maples, has memories for me because in the mid 80’s, I spent many weekend nights hiking in and camping to get out of the city of San Antonio where I was working. Barb hiked a couple of miles. I did about 8 of the 11 because I skipped one loop and wanted to be out of there in the early afternoon. There are lot’s of ranches around that are part of the exotic animal association, so I added a picture for that also.

[brroberts]

There’s more pictures, but that should be enough to give you a taste of a Texas Hill Country trip. We are headed home tomorrow planning on being outside McAlester,OK on Eufala Lake. It’s looking very rainy, but not super windy tomorrow. If the forecast is true, we may have to stop some while the heaviest rain goes past. It will be a long day, but that puts us home Friday with storms returning on Saturday. The tornadoes continue in NE Kansas where we live and elsewhere. So far, our place appears to be unscathed.

Hope you enjoyed our trip and are also out making memories.

The next trip is a short one without Padawan. It’s 17 days in Iceland this summer. The next episode in Padawan’s Journey will be number 6 September through November with the longest stays in Ohio and Pennsylvania, but with some other stuff included.

[Centex]

Thanks for the excellent chronicle and photos, Randy, thoroughly enjoyable!

Wishing the best for y'all, your folks, and continued safe and happy travels.

[brroberts]

You are welcome. We are just waiting on rain to pull out. It’s going to be a slow slog today.

[brroberts]

Well we pulled out at 8:15 this morning and came back to the campground. If we could get 10 miles north, we could head home, however, roads are flooded, and we can’t leave. Looks like another night here. We’ll have to dodge rain and roads Friday and Saturday to try once again to get out and home. Try to stay safe folks. I’m parked in a drier site than I left. I’ll eat a reservation, but it’s not worth damage or injury to push it.

[brroberts]

We were able to get out this afternoon. Headed to Mt Pleasent TX for the night. We’ll probably get in around 7:30. We will get up early and plan on 480 miles home Friday. We don’t like days that long, but Saturday brings more storms, so we want to beat them home rather than drive in them. Also the tongue jack on my trailer broke hitching up today. I used a bottle jack and will add a replacement to the to do list.

[Mike G]

Weather forecast in NE Oklahoma for Friday looks clear, if that is any help.

[brroberts]

That’s why we are rolling. Will head toward Coffeyville KS in the morning along the east side of Tulsa. Tomorrow, once the morning rain lets up, should be good all the way home, but for now, the storms are back at home Saturday, so we just want to avoid driving in those.

Thanks for the local knowledge. That’s one thing you don’t often have traveling.

[Mike G]

My daughter lives about 5 miles east of Coffeyville.



It's still cloudy this am but the rain has finally moved out as of 8am, and we should get some sun this afternoon. Another round coming in Saturday am, so you are in the window!