Bob's Austin Mararthon Run - Sunday, February 14, 2016

Today was not a typical Valentine's Day. We were up at 4:30 a.m. I drove us to Austin so Bob could run the Austin Marathon. At 5:00 a.m. we left San Antonio for the 1-1/2 hour drive north. Thankfully, there was little traffic.

Humidity in the form of fog settled over the freeway from time to time, but didn't limit highway visibility. However, the fog floated around the lights creating an eerie feel in the early morning hours.

Bob was at the start line at 6:30 a.m., and was on the course at 7:01 a.m. He expected to take the full allotted seven hours to finish the 26.2 miles. I was worried about him the week before the race because his atrial fibrillation (a. fib.) was acting up and he wasn't feeling well.

The morning of the race, I asked him how he was feeling. He said he felt nervous, but couldn't tell if it was from the excitement about the race or if it was his a. fib.

We were both a bit worried that the weather would be hot and humid (80 degrees), but that was not the case. Starting temperature was 57 degrees and humid, but a little later the wind picked up and dried him out. The day stayed cloudy until almost 2:00 p.m. As he was coming down the road for the last mile or so, the sun came out. I don't think the temperature got much over 70.

After I dropped Bob off early in the morning, I headed to IHOP for breakfast since I hadn't eaten yet and was pretty hungry. Bob had eaten a bowl of oatmeal in the car while I drove.

With the whole day ahead of me, I decided to head to Mount Bonnell. I had a general idea of where it was, but I didn't know the exact freeway exit. As I was heading north on I-35 to Hwy 183, a gorgeous sunrise was happening. It was so pretty I didn't want to miss it. I pulled off onto the shoulder of Hwy. 183 and snapped a couple of photos. I was a little too late to catch the sun when it was bright red as it first rose over the horizon.

Sunrise over east Austin

From Hwy. 183, I headed south on MoPac and soon realized many of the exits in the area of Mt. Bonnell were closed due to the marathon. When I finally found an exit (I think it was Cesar Chavez) that was open, I took it. Well, wouldn't you know it, it was the marathon route and only one lane was open. Thankfully, I was early enough and the runners were just starting to round the bend onto the road. I kept driving on the road. Then I started seeing signs "Road Closed Ahead." Uh-oh. I was fortunate to make it through before the runners.

Side roads were barricaded and I wasn't sure what to do. I stopped to ask locals sitting alongside the road in lawn chairs how to get to Mt. Bonnell. They gave me good directions and I found my way to Covert Park at the top of Mt. Bonnell.

This is my stair-stepper exercise this morning!

View of Lake Austin from Covert Park

Mt. Bonnell stone

The flower in the photo below is the Bracted Twistflower. (Sorry for the poor quality, the photo was under glass and had a lot of glare.) According to the informational sign, "The bracted twistflower is a rare annual plant that is native to the Edwards Plateau (the Texas Hill Country). When in full bloom, bracted twistflower is impressively beautiful with vibrantly colored lavender-purple flowers. The plants are normally 1-3 feet tall but can reach a height of five feet under optimal conditions ... Bracted twistflower grows in a variety of habitats in juniper-oak woodlands on rocky limestone slopes and on terraces between such slopes, often above permanent flowing water."

Bracted Twistflower

View from a neighborhood atop Mt. Bonnell

When I finished driving through the beautiful homes atop Mt. Bonnell, I headed down (away from the marathon route).

The road down to Lake Austin from Mount Bonnell.

Along Lake Austin are some amazing homes. I didn't stop to take photos of them.

I worked my way over to MoPac and took it south not realizing it didn't hook up to I-35. When MoPac stopped at a traffic light on Slaughter, I took Slaughter east to I-35. I ended up at the exit just south of Austin's Lone Star Carefree RV Resort, one of Travelers World's sister parks in Texas. Having never seen the park, I stopped in for a tour.

At  the front desk I met John and Debra who, coincidentally, were headed to Travelers World for three nights as soon as they got off work. It's a small world. Anyway, John was nice enough to drive me around the park in the golf cart and I was able to see another Carefree property.

From there, I drove north one exit and stopped in at H-E-B (local Texas grocery store chain) to buy some snacks. I wanted to spend my day at McKinney Falls State Park reading and hanging out in nature.

When I got to the park, the Visitor Center where I was hoping to spend some time, was closed. In fact most of the main part of the park was closed due to damage from floods earlier in the year. The Upper Falls and most of the trails were closed as well. Lower Falls was open and the campground was open. I didn't go to Lower Falls as I figured it would be crowded.

Instead I headed to a quiet parking lot near the dining hall. I read my "Entertainment Weekly" magazine and ate some Valentine sugar cookies. As I was reading, I heard a tap, tap, tap and looked up to see a male cardinal attacking the rear-view mirror on my car. Apparently the bird in the mirror was invading his territory! My nature moments today included Mr. Cardinal looking in my windows and putting on a defensive display trying to chase himself away in my rear-view mirror! It was quite comical.

Must get that bird!

A moment of relative quiet

More attacks

Objects in the mirror are closer than they appear.
How about objects ON the mirror?

He's looking in my front windshield.
Looks like the mirror got the better of him.

As I was reading and watching the cardinal come back to fight the mirror, I also kept an eye on where Bob was in the marathon. You see marathon runners tie a chip on their shoelace and as they run, their chip is tracked as they cross different checkpoints. I looked up his bib number online and was able to track where he was on the course. Bob was doing very well!

In the morning he hadn't been sure if he would do the half or full marathon, but when I checked around 10:30 a.m., he was at 13.1 miles heading toward 18 miles and his pace had been pretty steady at 15.11-minute miles. There was an estimated finish time online. Pretty cool. That made it easy for me to know approximately when he'd cross the finish line.

I napped for a little while in the car, watched the cardinal and read some more. When it was 1-1/2 hours before Bob was due to finish, I stopped at H-E-B again to buy a turkey sandwich for lunch, and headed north on I-35 into downtown Austin. Once I found a place to park, I headed to the finish line, then started walking along the course until I found Bob. He was just coming out of the University of Texas.

Eve and Bob in front of the University of TX
Darrell K. Royal Texas Memorial Stadium

Bob introduced me to Eve. He had spent the last 13 miles walking with her.

Eve and Bob

Bob and Eve crossing the finish line together

He looks pretty happy to be finished!

Congratulations, Bob, you did a great job on the marathon today!

We headed home, but made one stop at Camping World. For Valentine's Day Bob gave me a gift card to Camping World. I had fun shopping.

At home, we had leftovers (from our Valentine's Dinner at Olive Garden last night) while we watched "60 Minutes."

Travel Bug out.

Work and Play - January 13 to January 17, 2016

After three days of walking and movies, it was time to go back to work. I worked four ten-hour days at the RV park which is work I absolutely love. We make reservations for incoming guests, check people in and out, sell items from the store, and talk to people about all there is to see and do in San Antonio and the surrounding Hill Country and Gulf Coast.

Bob spends his days at Southwest Electric as the Controller, making sure budgets are in line, doing tax preparation work, quarterly statements, financial statements...as he puts it, "Just accounting."

The Austin Marathon is on Valentine's Day, so Bob is training for that. His training run on January 16 was 18 miles. On January 24 he will do his longest training run at 20 miles, then taper down until the marathon. Last year he did only the half marathon, even though he had signed up for the full marathon. He didn't feel well part-way through the race and decided not to do the full. This year he hopes to conquer the full marathon.

Saturday night after work, I made a bow tie pasta salad to take to Susan M.'s house on Sunday. She invited us over to watch two football games: Seattle vs. Carolina and Pittsburgh vs. Denver. As usual, she made wonderful food: vegetarian chili, crescent rolls, veggie platter, chips and spinach dip, and chocolate-peppermint cookies. We enjoyed the food, the games were exciting (except the Seahawks lost), and I got to reads lots of magazines (I'm not into football). Whenever we go to their house, we have a good time.

Tomorrow Susan and I are doing another 10k Volksmarch from Mission San Juan to Mission Espada. This walk is sponsored by the Selma Pathfinders Volksmarch Club and it's actually the third walk they're sponsoring this holiday weekend. All three walks highlight the UNESCO World Heritage Site Missions. After the walk, we plan to see "The Revenant" with Leonardo DiCaprio.

That's all for this blog. We are looking forward to tomorrow's walk.

Austin Marathon and Spring Lake Preserve - Sunday, February 15, 2015

After our great Sunday in Port Aransas with Faye and Dave, and seeing whooping cranes for the first time, it was back to work for Bob Monday through Friday, and Wednesday through Saturday for me (second week in February).

On Saturday, Bob drove 1-1/2 hours to pick up his Austin Marathon packet. At 4:00 am Sunday morning we got up then headed to Austin at 5:00 am. The marathon start was around 7:30 am for Bob's bracket. The plan was for me to hike in San Marcos, have lunch with the group, then pick Bob up about 1:00 p.m. As RVers we all know about plans made in Jell-o, right?

I dropped Bob off in Austin near the marathon start point and headed south to San Marcos, Texas, to hike with the San Marcos Area Trail Walkers on a four-mile, two-hour hike in the Spring Lake Preserve near Aquarena Springs. We were to meet at 9:30 am.

I was there by 7:15 a.m. Because I had been to Aquarena Springs/Spring Lake before, I knew I could do a short hike to the Wetlands Boardwalk and see if any interesting birds were up early. I love the light for early morning photography.

Below is the old Spring Lake Park Hotel which is now Meadows Center for Water and the Environment run by Texas State University.

Meadows Center for Water and the Environment

The springs that form Spring Lake come from the Edwards Aquifer. From the Edwards Aquifer Website is the following description of San Marcos Springs:

"One of the greatest outflows from the Edwards Aquifer is the San Marcos Springs. More than 200 springs burst forth from three large fissures and many smaller openings. Early travelers and settlers described the large ones as fountains, gushing water several feet above the surface of the stream they created. Today, the Springs lie at the bottom of Spring Lake and are viewed through the floor of glass-bottomed boats."

I walked along the lake toward the Wetlands Boardwalk. In the leaf-naked tree I saw a beautiful red-shouldered hawk. As I was taking photos, another red-shouldered hawk flew by, landing in a nest in the crook of a tree.

Red-shouldered hawk

Red-shouldered hawk on its nest

After watching the hawks take turns on the nest, I headed onto the Wetlands Boardwalk. Not too many birds were out in the wetlands. I saw turtles, fish, and some interesting water plants.

The back, unlocked entrance to the boardwalk

Water lilies and another interesting aquatic plant

On this early Sunday morning, a number of scuba divers were suiting up to jump in and explore Spring Lake. 

Scuba divers entering Spring Lake

Meadows Center for Water and the Environment

It was close to 9:30 a.m. so I made my way back to the parking lot to meet up with the hiking group. Introductions were made and we set off into the Spring Lake Preserve. This was my first time hiking with this group, although I soon found one lady with whom I had hiked a few times with the San Antonio Hill Country Hikers.

Spring Lake Natural Area Trail

Our hiking group on the trail

Our hike leader, Rob, talking about the trail

View from the top of a hill

Pencil cactus - look at those spines!

New development next to a historic structure

It was at this point in our hike, a little over half-way into it, that my cell phone rang. Bob called to tell me he wasn't feeling well and opted to do the Half Marathon, not the full one. He was finished and waiting for me in Austin. He was feeling dizzy and nauseous. It was at this time that the rain started.

What a dilemma. We had about 40 minutes left in our walk. Because I did not know the way back, I stayed with the group.

We debated what this building was used for.

Hike with a view

Unusual cactus next to the trail.

As soon as we returned to the parking lot, my phone rang. I had hiking poles, umbrella, camera, and car keys in my hands. The rain was coming down steadily, I was wet, and trying to get into the car, remove my wet coat, and answer the phone all at once. It was Bob telling me he was waiting on the curb outside an IHOP in Austin.

In my haste to get out of my wet coat, my hiking pole hit my glasses, knocking them off my head into the gravel. My hearing aid went down with the glasses. No harm was done to either accoutrement.

I used the restroom, said good-bye to the group, hopped in the car, and made my way 1/2 hour to Austin to pick up my ailing honey. There he was waiting by the side of the freeway access road. Luckily it was only drizzling in Austin.

We headed home. Bob slept most of the way. When we arrived home, he promptly fell asleep in the recliner for the remainder of the afternoon. I'm proud of him for recognizing the Half Marathon was his limit today. He received a beautiful Austin Half Marathon medallion. Way to go, Bob!

Travel Bug out.