What happened here? Tornadoes in the area - Mon., Nov. 2, 2015

The National Weather Service has confirmed early Friday a.m., October 30, four tornadoes touched down around San Antonio causing substantial damage. None were in San Antonio itself, but they were to the north (Zorn, TX), east (D'Hanis, TX), south (Floresville, TX) and west (Geronimo, TX) of us. Read the full article here: NWS-confirms-October-30-tornadoes. In the story is a photo of the 5th wheel that was lifted and dropped on the third floor roof of a Holiday Inn. Thankfully its owner was thrown clear while the 5th wheel was on the ground.

In addition to the tornadoes, there was torrential rainfall to the north of us. New Braunfels and San Marcos had 17" of rain in six hours causing rivers to rise rapidly to flash flood stage. River Ranch RV Resort on the Guadalupe River in New Braunfels, which sits under the I-35 bridges, was hit hard. Check out this blog for before and after photos of that RV park: http://ourrvadventures.com/2015/10/well-that-was-fun-2/

We had some people check in to Travelers World who had been staying at Pecan Grove RV Park in San Marcos. When they checked in they told me that RV park lost 35 RVs to the flash flood. Very sad.

We didn't have quite this much standing water this time. The photo is from May 2015.

Less rain than this in October
(only 2-4"), this photo from May has about 6".

Our hearts go out to all those affected. It could happen to any of us.

Parts of Austin and Houston were also effected by flooding. We were very lucky in San Antonio!

Enough Activity to Fill Two Days (Part 2) - Sunday, July 12, 2015

The second half of Sunday, we drove to Wimberley, Texas on the Blanco River and Cypress Creek. You may remember all the flooding in our part of Texas on Memorial Day weekend 2015. Wimberley got the worst of it. A 40' tall wave of water slammed into a bridge, destroying it. Over 300 homes were either pushed off their foundations, floated downstream or had flood water flowing through their homes. Twelve lives were lost.

What led to this horrible destruction? Upstream from Wimberley, six inches of rain fell in three hours. That was in addition to rain that had already fallen, leaving the ground saturated. All that water had to go somewhere. It went downstream, picking up speed and debris as it swept downhill. Mashable.com has the best description of the chronology of events.

We love Wimberley and have done Volksmarches there, hiked with friends to the top of Prayer Mountain, explored Jacobs Well and The Blue Hole, and shopped and dined in this "little bit of heaven," as described by Wimberley residents. The "downtown" is just plain cute with good eateries.

But I'm getting ahead of our day's chronology. For our drive north to Wimberley, Bob wanted to show me the beautiful area he runs in when he's in the final days of training for the San Antonio Rock 'n' Roll Marathon in November.

The road took us along the Guadalupe River (which had no damage), through gorgeous Texas Hill Country, past many businesses where you can rent "toobs" to go down the river, and lots of RV parks. The route is lovely.

Tree tunnel along the Guadalupe River

Guadalupe River below Canyon Lake

You can get it all here!

RV park on the riverbank

American flag flying over the road

Lone kayaker on the Guadalupe River

A vintage Airstream food truck in Sattler, Texas

We drove through the town of Canyon Lake and meandered over hill and dale to get to Wimberley via a back way. The first sign of damage from the flood was the guardrail on the bridge over the Blanco River. You can see how the trees and debris bent the metal. Look how low the river is now. The main part of Wimberley's shopping/dining area was not damaged by the flooding.

Damaged guardrail on Blanco River Bridge

Wimberley storefront

By the time we made it to Wimberly, our tummies were growling, so we parked and headed to Cypress Creek Cafe for lunch. The cafe is decorated inside with guitars that have been turned into works of art and are available for purchase.

Cypress Creek Cafe

Two artsy guitars above our table

For lunch, I had the best Cobb salad ever (in my opinion). It was loaded with chicken, black beans, avocado, tomato, hard boiled egg slices and I ordered it with honey mustard dressing on the side. It was definitely yum-tastic! Bob had a mahi mahi sandwich which he gave two thumbs up. He helped me eat my salad. We resisted the urge to have a slice of their Italian Cream Cake (so excellent!).

After lunch we walked down to Cypress Creek (no major damage) and hoofed it around town looking at all the six-foot tall painted boots (Bootiful Wimberley). We loved them!

"Homegrown Music," by David Richardson

Cypress Creek

Turtles on the rocks - Cypress Creek

"Boot Hill," by Dan Moore

Boot painting by Bejat McCracken

"East Meets West," by Rozi Turnbull

Once back in the car, we headed out to River Road along the Blanco River. What we saw saddened us deeply. People's homes were gone or ruined. Bald cypress trees that started growing in the 1400s, were snapped, uprooted, laid waste...or not touched at all.

This beautiful home is ruined. You can see
the right side wall is no longer attached at the bottom.

Close up of the roof collapse

Side view of roof collapse

A whole row of old bald cypress trees downed

Once stately trees used to provide much-needed shade

Part of a house in the debris along the riverbank

Some trees seemed untouched, while others next to
them were down.

Stairs to the river were washed away - now
perilous ladders line the bank.

More devastation

A number of houses were gutted

The foundation is here...the house is gone.

We then drove back to the untouched part of Wimberley, past the Hotel Flora and Fauna. That's a place I'd love to stay.

Hotel Flora and Fauna was not touched

Could not find name or artist for this boot

The Blanco River in Wimberley

Driving home, we returned along the Guadalupe River. In Texas, toobing is THE thing to do on a hot summer day. You'll notice the cooler has its own tube!!

Must have the cooler along!

Toobing the Guadalupe River near Sattler, Texas

That's it for today. Thanks for reading.

Welcome to the Wonderful Wimberley Walk - Sun., Apr. 27

OK, I admit it, I put off my Saturday "W" word until Sunday when we did the Wimberley, Texas Volksmarch. On our 1-1/4 hour drive to Wimberley from San Antonio we had enough mist that I had to use windshield wipers most of the way.

We met Peri and Jim, Susan and Darren, and Susan's friend, Carol, at the Wimberley Community Center, the start point of the Volksmarch sponsored by New Braunfels Marsch- und Wandersgruppe and the Mayor's Fitness Council of Wimberley. Bob made the trip to Wimberley, but had to forgo the walk due to a basketball injury from yesterday. (He rolled his ankle.) He stayed in the air-conditioned community center and read his study book for an accounting exam he will be taking a week from Monday in Dallas, Texas.

Bob with his study text.

While Bob read, five of us headed out together: Jim, Peri and I opted for the 5K (3.1 mile) Volksmarch; Susan, Darren and Carol walked the 10K. The two walks shared the same route until the first checkpoint when our two groups headed in different directions and we agreed to meet for lunch.

Darren, Peri, Jim

Fragrant honeysuckle in bloom.

Dead trees carved into totem poles.

Wimberley shopping area.

Welcome to Texas!

Carol and Susan M.

Heading from downtown to The Blue Hole.

The Blue Hole swimming hole.

Darren, Carol, Jim, Susan A., Peri

Great photo op...Jim "Jimmy" Dean in front of the local
theater's marquee.

Wimberley Players Theater

Following the marked AVA route.

Wonderful Wimberley mural

Look closely at the boots in this photo then see below.

Old boots re-purposed as birdhouses.

Ino'z Brew and Chew

What-cha-ma-call-its and gew-gaws.

Cypress Creek in downtown Wimberley.

Wildflowers currently in bloom.

Luna moth.

Our weather was cloudy, warm and humid, but no rain. However when we reached The Blue Hole, we thought it would feel mighty good to jump in! We didn't though. It would have made for a miserable walk back in wet clothes.

After the 5K walk, we met up with Bob and headed into downtown Wimberley to window shop and look for a lunch place. We made it through two stores before Susan called to say they were finished walking and were driving over to meet us.

Meanwhile, Bob scoped out Ino'z Brew and Chew. It looked good, was close, and that's where we chose to eat. Bob and I both ordered the Grilled Tuna Sandwich. We were expecting tuna salad grilled with cheese. However, we scored. The sandwich was a big hunk of grilled ahi tuna on a whole wheat sourdough bun. Excellent!

After lunch, we took Peri and Jim to Jacob's Well since they had never been there. You can read more about it here.

Jacob's Well in Wimberley, TX

Jacob's Well - popular swimming hole.
Temperature outside today is close to 100 degrees.

After our side trip to Jacob's Well, we dropped off Jim and Peri at their car and headed home. But we didn't quite make it back right away.

To be continued in my next blog....