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.

Ahhh...Relaxation, Sat., July 20

Remember all those things we were going to do today? We did all of them except go to see the Mexican free-tailed bats. Tomorrow night is when we anticipate seeing the bats.

After going to the Visitor Center, walking to Upper and Lower McKinney Falls, and going grocery shopping, we were in mellow vacation mode.

McKinney Falls State Park

Upper Falls Swimming Hole

Upper McKinney Falls swimming hole--dry falls.

Upper McKinney Falls swimmin' hole cypress trees.

Visitor Center at the park.

At the Visitor Center, we saw man-made chimney swift towers. Chimney swifts historical natural nests used to be hollow old-growth trees. However, since most old-growth trees were logged years ago, the swifts adapted to man-made structures. The towers are for birds to roost and nest in.

Chimney swift tower.

Short walk to Lower McKinney Falls. Can anyone identify the flowers? The photos aren't very good.  The first flower is white with yellow center. The second is like a jack-in-the-pulpit. There's a pod with a very small purple "head" poking out.

Swimmin' hole at Lower McKinney Falls.

We can't wait to go swimming!

Interesting potholes in the rock.

For dinner, I fixed herbed chicken breasts and caramelized red peppers served with coleslaw.

Bob finished reading "The Madoff Chronicles," by Brian Ross which he enjoyed. (Thank you Mona Liza of The Lowe's Travel Adventures!) I've been catching up on blogs because I'm way behind reading them.

After Bob finished the book, we started a campfire so we could make s'mores. It has been a very long time since we've had a campfire. The s'mores were yummy. When we finished those, I also had a turkey hot dog because I really wanted a campfire-cooked hot dog. So tasty.

The campfire and our new roasting sticks.

On the right, a s'more waiting to be eaten.

Just a gooey, melted marshmallow.

We sat outside by the fire and talked for a bit before heading inside for the night. The moon is so bright we can see our shadows! And we never did receive more rain this evening. The storms must have parted and gone around the campground.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend.

Safe travels from Travel Bug and Bob. Over and out.

McKinney Falls State Park, Austin, TX - Sat., July 20

Easy peasy two-hour drive was accomplished this morning from San Antonio to Austin, Texas. When we reached McKinney Falls State Park at 11:45 a.m., a sign informed us the campground is sold out. Good thing I made reservations four weeks ago!! We will be here for four nights.

Back-in site #27 was assigned to us, but the ranger told us if we didn't like it we could drive around and find a site we do like, then call to find out if it's available. Site 27 had no appeal for us whatsoever. We drove around and found a pull-through site we liked, called the office and were approved for the pull-through site, no extra charge. So nice here; but hot and sunny. Here we are, all set up.

Our home for four nights!

Nice and spacious.

We have a fire ring and no fire restrictions!

Did I ever tell you all how much I love nature? Just a few minutes ago, a deer ran by our 5th wheel and a squirrel is hanging around outside our door.

In our 18 months of full-timing we have never had a campfire. Either we were in RV resorts where there were no fire rings, or there were fire restrictions. Tonight will be our first campfire with s'mores while on the road!! Can't wait.  We used to do s'mores all the time when we took the kids camping years ago.

More blog and photos to follow later this evening. We're so happy to be on the road, if only for a short while.

This afternoon we plan to check out the visitor center and see the waterfalls in the park. Grocery shopping is high on our list for marshmallows, Hershey bars, and campfire sticks to cook marshmallows. We may have to get some turkey dogs to cook too.

Downtown Austin is our destination this evening to watch Mexican free-tailed bats fly out from under the Ann Richards Bridge.

Life is good on the road.

Travel  Bug out.

Uncool - Mon., July 15

Our refrigerator appears to be dead, as in uncool. Everything we could think of was tried to make our refrigerator return to a cold state. The manual for our refrigerator has this to say about our code: "2nd time after reset: This is not owner serviceable. See your dealer or authorized Norcold Service Center."

Our most perishable refrigerated items are now in a medium-sized Coleman ice chest and the rest are in the freezer compartment of the fridge with three bowls of ice tucked in around them. We have a Good Sam Extended Warranty, so tomorrow we are driving the 5er up to Camping World in New Braunfels, Texas, for diagnosis, warranty authorization and, hopefully, repair or replacement.

Of course, once you have the rig going in for repair, you think of the other things that need repair. We now have a list of seven items total. We'll see how long this is going to take.

McKinney Falls State Park in Austin, Texas, is our destination for Saturday. We have reservations for four nights. I hope we can make it!!

This morning we had some rain and the temperature outside is pleasant today. There's a breeze and cloud cover. Yesterday was 100 degrees, today is 85. Quite a difference. We have a 60% chance of heavy rain and thunderstorms through Tuesday night. I can hear thunder in the distance as I type. The sky is dark too. Wheeeee!

I'm going to the office to check for mail before the downpour starts.

Travel Bug out.