Walk Washout, But We Went Anyway - Sat., July 19

Lady Bird Johnson Community Park in San Antonio is where the Volksmarch Sunrise Walk was supposed to start. At 7 a.m. we arrived, paid $3 each, signed in, and started walking. As we headed through the parking lot, the first people to head down the path were returning saying, "The trail is under water!" We had to see for ourselves.

Yep, the trail is definitely underwater!

Not only underwater, but the creek is flowing swiftly.

Thursday night, rolling thunderstorms and full-sky lightning awakened us from sleep. Rain pounded for about 1-1/2 hours. We went back to sleep. At 4:00 a.m. I woke up because the bed was wet from my knees to my feet! Roof leak. The quilt and sheets were soaked and COLD. Thankfully we have a waterproof sheet on our mattress so it did not get wet. All the wetness was on my side of the bed. I got up, pulled a bunch of big, thick towels from the linen cabinet and put them all over the bottom of the bed. I made a towel cocoon from a dry towel for my feet and legs and then finally went back to sleep. We had 2-1/2" of rain. But I digress.

Friday, storms dumped rain farther north. It was obvious that there had been flash floods through the Salado Creek Greenway. What we saw Saturday morning was left as the water receded.

Some walkers found a gravel/mud trail higher up on the near bank and decided to take it from Lady Bird Johnson Community Park. They wanted to see if they could hook up with the main trail farther down.

Bob and I decided to drive to Tobin Park (farther south) and walk south from there. Good decision. We were able to do a 10K walk on Salado Creek Greenway Trail without encountering any low creek crossings blocked by the remnants of the flood. However, we saw where the floodwaters had come through and left debris high up from where the course of the river flowed.

Breaking news: South Texas is GREEN in July.

And there's water in the creek.

Seriously...turn around, don't drown.

Beautiful green from all the rain we've had.

In the next photo, you can see a pile of debris deposited on the bank by the flood. All the white/blue stuff is garbage.

Debris deposited by flood.

Salvia

More debris in the woods.

Me on the trail.

So much water where usually there isn't much.

Great egret

The water is still flowing strong.

Snowy egret fishing

Debris stuck on a tree.

Common sunflower

A history marker explains the Battle of the Salado, the last Mexican invasion of Texas six years after the Alamo. This battle prevented the capture of Austin, the capital of the Republic of Texas.

Other Volksmarchers.

Pretty yard at a glassblowing studio

Snail crossing the path.

Big debris next to the trail.

Bob under a beautiful old tree.

We ended up having a great walk and finished the 6.2 mile walk in two hours. Some of the people who had walked the upper gravel/mud trail from Lady Bird Johnson Park connected up to the main trail and we saw them along this section of trail. I'm glad we drove to Tobin Park and walked on the paved trail.

In the afternoon we went to Buckhorn Museum/Texas Ranger Museum. I'll review that in my next blog.

Travel Bug out.

Tuesday Afternoon - Oct. 22

Weather in San Antonio is perfect. Daytime high is 78, lows in the 50s. With our repaired screen door we can leave the front door open and the kitties can "hunt" birds and lizards with ease.

Cats "hunting" birds and lizards...thoroughly engrossed!

Before I finish the afternoon, let's back up to this morning. Bob headed off to work a little later this morning as he took a break from working out at the gym. I wasn't far behind as I headed out for a 5K (3.1 mi) Volksmarch at Salado Creek Greenway.

Appropriately dressed for the morning chill in blue jeans and a sweat shirt, I completed the walk in 40 minutes. Not many other people were out and about. I passed six walkers, eight bikers passed me, and I nodded at three joggers going the opposite direction.

Flowers along the trail.

Salado Creek Greenway Trail.

After a shower at home, Bob and I had a date for lunch at Asian Fire restaurant. We wanted to acknowledge our two-year anniversary of being on the road. A recap of last year had us reminiscing fondly about our seven-week road trip to Mesa Verde National Park (N.P), Black Canyon of the Gunnison N.P., Yellowstone N.P., Black Hills of South Dakota, Custer State Park, Mt. Rushmore, Minuteman Missile National Historic Site, Badlands N.P. and sites along the Oregon Trail.

Our other major adventure last year was a six-week vacation, sans RV, to Australia. Use of accumulated Hawaiian air miles and three weeks of timeshares made the trip possible. We did have rental car, car insurance, food and attraction expenses in Australia, but credit took care of that. Words don't do justice to the fantastic time we had. We spent a week at each destination and saw as many waterfalls as possible. Our last week in Australia was dedicated to traveling The Great Ocean Road which wasn't originally in our plans. All I can say is, some of our best memories were made on our ocean road driving trip - glow worms in the forest at night, koalas in the trees, gorgeous king parrots eating out of our hands, and spectacular ocean scenery. 2012 was quite a year.

Oh, there was one other trip of the not so fun kind. But those wounds are healed and our plans for 2013-2014 have changed accordingly. We are in stay-in-Texas-work-and-pay-off-debt mode.

Speaking of which, we are now officially Texans with Texas license plates and driver's licenses. Yee haw!

More work has come my way...the insurance office wants me back tomorrow and Monday and our RV park office has asked me to work the next four Saturdays (in addition to Thursday and Fridays). Yay, love that income!! Robert Half Office Team also offered me two jobs, but both were hours I couldn't accept. One was 4-8 p.m. Monday through Friday, and the other was Mon-Fri 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. When it rains it pours.

Here are photos of what the cats were "hunting" from inside our 5er...

Quite a large lizard!

Beautiful pattern.

White-winged dove.

White-winged doves.

 And then late afternoon arrived. Cat nap time!

 Sunnie and Bowie.

Thanks for spending the day with us. This is typical full-time RVing for us and we like it. Our current mind-set is we could be full-timing for another 10-15 years! Yeah, baby!

Travel Bug out.

Lady Bird Johnson Community Park - Sun., Aug. 4

San Antonio, Texas -
Despite Bob's pain from his plantar fasciitis, he decided to do a Volksmarch with me this morning. I opted to do the 5K (3.1 miles) instead of the 10K walk. Our route took us on the Salado Creek Greenway Trail from Lady Bird Johnson Community Park to Tobin Park and back again.

We walked slowly at a pace Bob felt he could maintain. Still, his foot hurt quite a bit.

Silver-leaf nightshade.

A small dam or water catchment basin.

Master of faster (only not today)

Salado Creek Greenway Trail

Big turtle on a side trail.

Dayflower (Commelina erecta)

Unknown people on the trail.

Dayflower

Turk's Cap (Malvaviscus arboreus)

The trail passes through Los Patios, an area with restaurants and shops.

Find the hidden cat.

Bob, almost back to the car.

After our walk, we came home and I made Pumpkin-blueberry pancakes with pure maple syrup, fried eggs and cut-up peaches served separately. Very tasty.

Observation from my day at the beach yesterday: Make sure you don't miss any spots with suntan lotion! When I got home last night it didn't take me long to discover that I missed the back of my right shoulder. It is bright red and hurts!

Bob's been driving around in a black BMW this weekend, very chic! His boss is trying to sell it, so Bob took it for a wash and then to three different places to assess the value. I can only imagine the talk/gossip around the RV park as to how we could possibly afford such a luxurious car. They probably also wonder what happened to our pick-up truck and how could we tow our 5th wheel with a sporty BMW. Tonight, the Beemer changes from Cinderella's coach back into a pumpkin: He returns the BMW to his boss's house and picks up his truck. Order will be restored to the RV park. LOL.

Our refrigerator has died. On Friday morning, I awoke to find the dreaded "n" code on the refrigerator. Instead of going back up to Camping World and having to deal with cats in the car for hours on end, we called a mobile RV repairman who works with Good Sam's Extended Service Warranty. On Friday afternoon he came to our site and tightened a loose wire, re-set something and the fridge was working until we went to bed. Saturday morning, the "n" symbol was back and we couldn't get the fridge to come back on. The frozen meats in our freezer were half thawed. Bob called the repairman who told us he thinks it must be the motherboard. He does not have one in stock. Hopefully he can get it fixed on Monday. Now we are back to using our Coleman cooler with ice. Our RV park is so nice. They are letting us put our meat in the Rec Hall freezer until ours is repaired.

No more excitement to report. Travel Bug out.