Comfort Volksmarch - Sat., Apr. 19

Saturday morning I was at Susan and Darren's house tocarpool to our morning Volksmarch in Comfort, Texas. The walk was sponsored by the Hill Country Volkssportverein Volksmarch club. Every year on the day before Easter they have their Easter Walk.

After registering for the walk, we started out at 8:50 a.m. Easter eggs were purported to be hidden on the left side of the roads we walked on, but the three of us didn't find any.

Beautiful wildflowers were in bloom, however, and we enjoyed looking at those.

Sensitive briar (Mimosa nuttalli)

Stiff greenthread (Thelesperma filifolium)

Lilac penstemon

A field of yellow flowers.

Guadalupe River

Darren and Susan

Comfortable Pizza Restaurant

Adorable llamas or alpaca or both??

So cute!

Comfort, Texas

August Faltin house in Comfort, TX

We finished our 10K (6.2mi) walk in 2 hours and 10 minutes. For lunch, we planned to meet Bob at Random Beer Garden/Event Center at noon. We arrived early and walked around to check out the improvements that have been made to the property. But that sounds like a good "R" blog. Stay tuned on Monday.

Hill Country - Wed., Apr. 9

When we arrived in Texas in April 2012 we were pleasantly surprised by the hills. Being from the Pacific Northwest, our impression of Texas was flat and hot with lots of sage and scrub. Southwest Texas fit that description. But then we went to Big Bend National Park with its mountains, and the cliffs across the Rio Grande in Mexico.

As we traveled east, we encountered mesas and lots of hills. North and west of San Antonio is the Texas Hill Country, an area we have grown to love. The area is filled with live oak, mesquite, and cypress trees, springs, rivers, lakes, waterfalls, limestone, pink granite, small charm-filled towns, and wildflowers (in season).

A few of my favorite towns in the Hill Country include:

1. Fredericksburg: a town settled by Germans, with much of the German influence evident today. In Fredericksburg you will find:

• National Museum of the Pacific War. What's that you say? Museum of the Pacific War in south Texas? Why, oh why, would it be there? Because someone named Admiral Nimitz grew up in Fredericksburg. The admission to the museum includes two days because it is such an extensive collection, starting with the factors leading up to WW II, going all the way through WW II, all the theaters, then the signing of the Japanese surrender on board the USS Missouri. 

• Vereins Kirche/Pioneer Museum

• Maibaum (May pole)

• Wild Seed Farms: one of the nation's largest working wildflower farms. Spectacular blooming gardens in the spring, fun gift shop.

• Enchanted Rock State Natural Area
• Gillespie County wineries and vineyards

   2.  Comfort: a town settled by German free-thinkers.

• Many antique stores
• Treue der Union Monument

• Old downtown streets filled with historic markers on the buildings

Comfort, Texas

• Joshua Springs Preserve: Picnic areas, river, walking trails, event center

   3.  Wimberley attractions

• The Blue Hole: A gorgeous swimming hole, frequently ranked as "One of the 10 Best Swimming Holes in Texas.

• Mt. Baldy (Prayer Mountain): Challenge yourself hiking the stairs to the top. Go for the view, the exercise, and take your camera!

• Cypress Creek Nature Trail: Walk along Cypress Creek. (Note: This trail may have been damaged by the flood in October 2013 - check locally before going.)
• Jacob's Well Preserve: much touted, but not a lot to see. When we were there, the swimming hole was overgrown with green algae everywhere except where the spring came out. The well can pump thousands of gallons per minute into Cypress Creek from its underground caverns. This is one of the longest underwater caves in Texas and an artesian spring. (Note: The October 2013 flood damaged the rock ledge on one side of the well.)

• Fun shopping, dining and exploring in this historic town

Other places to visit in the Texas Hill Country:

1. Austin: state capital. Especially visit Barton Springs and Lady Bird Lake
2. Gruene (pronounced "green")
3. Pedernales Falls State Park: interesting look at a river that can become a raging torrent in a downpour
4. Hamilton Pool: another fantastic Texas Hill Country swimming hole. Get there early! There are only 70 parking spots, when they're full you have to wait in line in your car until someone leaves, then one car at a time enters as people leave.
5. Johnson City: Lyndon B. Johnson National Historical Park
6. Stonewall: Lyndon B. Johnson State Park and Historic Site. Take a driving tour of Lyndon Johnson's Ranch and tour the Texas White House.
7. Krause Springs: Beautiful pool AND a natural swimming hole, butterfly garden, picnic area.
8. McKinney Falls State Park: two swimming holes, one at each waterfall

Pedernales Falls

Krause Springs - swimming pool

Krause Springs - swimming hole with waterfall

Hamilton Pool

I could go on and on. Yep, definitely in love with the Texas Hill Country.

Travel Bug out.

Joshua Springs Park and Preserve Volksmarch - Sat., June 1

Early risers this morning with a 4:45 alarm. Why you ask? To walk before the 94 F. heat of the day sets in.

The Hill Country Volkssportverein Club sponsored this morning's Volksmarch through the gorgeous Joshua Springs Park and Preserve in Comfort, Texas. We opted to do the 13K - that's 7.8 miles - walk. (Other options were 5K [3.1 mi.] and 10K [6.2mi.] walks). The walk started at 7:00 a.m. and we had to finish by 11:00 a.m. It took us approximately three hours to walk 7.8 miles (that includes all my picture taking stops).

What a lovely park! The facilities look relatively new - restrooms, picnic tables, fishing platforms, playground equipment, and group picnic areas. The walk took us by the lake, around meadows, up to the top of Ring Mountain (that was an additional 3K we opted to take over and above our normal 10K), through old-growth pecan trees, and a small arboretum.

Watch out for snakes in the grass! (We didn't see any.)

Below: The trail through the arboretum and by the lake.

A covered fishing platform.

Beautiful new signage.

The lake: You can kayak and canoe on the lake (no motors).

So pretty.

Texas Hill Country at its finest.

"I love you" shadows.

Hiking to the top of Ring Mountain. Great views of Hill Country here.

Oleander and Texas Hill Country view.

The suns rays took up 140 degrees of the view in the east.

Ring Mountain Event Center (was set up for a wedding later).

Creeping phlox

AVA 10K "walk route" signs show us the way.

A big round bale of hay.

Fields of Mexican hat and giant coneflowers.

Old pecan trees.

Greater tickseed (Coreopsis major)

A small pond.

A herd of 12 Axis deer flew by us. I was able to capture one of them in a photo.

Axis deer on the run.

Meadows of wildflowers and grass - watch out for the venomous snakes!

Musk thistle flower.

Bob enjoying the walk.

Purple thistle flower.

Chimney swift abode.

All about chimney swifts.

Bird blind. I was checking it out.

Nope, no birds spotted here.

Scenery in the park.

Low-growing firewheels (AKA Indian blankets) and green pom-pom-like flowers.

Nature's rock garden.

For those of you who like herpetology.

Soaptree yucca (Yucca elata)

Young Cypress tree.

Milkweed seed pods

A little waterfall.

Texas skeletonplant (Lygodesmia texana) - AKA Purple Dandelion or
Flowering Straw.

White-tailed deer we noticed as we drove out of the preserve.

The Volksmarch was well attended and the large parking lot at the Reserve was almost full. The hike was very well thought out with many types of landscape included. We will be visiting the preserve again and again.  I was hoping to see yellow-cheeked warblers; alas, none flew into our line of vision.

While we were in Welfare we drove around Top of the Hill RV Resort. It certainly is named well. You would not have to worry about flooding there. It seems it would be cooler because of the breezes/wind on the hill. Many of the sites did not look level. Some sections of the park had long-term residents in dilapidated RVs. There were some cute cabins for rent. We did not go in the cabins or check out the facilities at the RV park...just drove around the loops out of curiosity. You can read about it on their web page (see link above) or rvparkreviews.com.

On the way back to San Antonio, before we hit I-10, we stopped at Smittyville Country Store to raid the bakery. Oh my. The selection was not huge, but what they had was delectable. The store is impeccable and there is a cafe inside. Smittyville Country Store is at Exit 533 off Interstate 10 about 25 minutes west of San Antonio in the community of Welfare. The store opens at 9:00 a.m.

You can see the resident cat on the porch.

Very friendly kitty who purred and kneaded when petted.

In addition to the cafe and bakery, they offer coffees, Italian sodas and smoothies. Bob had a cheese Danish (good), I chose an apple/brown sugar crumble Danish (to die for!), and we bought a double chocolate muffin to share (yummy). Their pies were tempting too, especially the apple and the tart cherry pies. However, we refrained and took a rain check on the pies. Sorry I forgot to take photos of the food.

Smittyville Country Store menu.

Gotcha now mortuary (in case you didn't get it).

Smittyville Country Store Cafe.

We drove back to where we had parked Bob's truck so he could go to work. I headed to the cheap theater to see G.I. Joe: Retaliation. Please see separate blog for a review.

Travel Bug out.