Cliff jumper, South Point, Na'alehu, Big Island - Monday, March 10, 2025

Cliff jumper, South Point, Na'alehu, Big Island - Monday, March 10, 2025
Cliff jumper, South Point, Na'alehu, Big Island - Monday, March 10, 2025

Sunday, July 5, 2015

Wilderness Park near San Antonio - Sun., June 5, 2015

Friedrich Wilderness Park was calling our name today for a Volksmarch. A whole new part of the park has been opened up with new trails. Susan met Bob and I about 7:45 a.m. to do what I thought would be a 5k Volksmarch. She showed me the map with the new trails and it was immediately apparent this would NOT be a 5k. In fact it looked longer than the old 10k hike at Friedrich! I wasn't going to take my hiking poles, but when I saw the elevation changes, out came the hiking poles.

Before I say anything else, I'd like to congratulate Susan on her new position as Regional Director for the Southwest Region (Texas and New Mexico) of the American Volkssport Association.

Today, we were tasked with finding an easier way to do the 5k, one with less turns; however, that was not to be. As we started up the hill toward the new trails we realized there was not an easy way to go to the new section of the park. The easy 5k will have to remain as it is for now.

We started up the Main Loop Trail as it wound upward to the right. We stayed on it until we reached Vista Loop Trail, then took that to the new Restoration Way Trail. These trails are Level 4 out of 5, and I thought we were going to do an easy 5k. Ha!

New directional signs to Restoration Way
Susan writing new Volksmarch trail directions
Our new Regional Director on the trail at Friederich
As we were hiking we saw a very tall chain-link fence with barbed wire on top of it. I remarked it looked like we were hiking into the park at Jurassic World.

A beautiful, fragile, ethereal rain lily.
Quite a few wildflowers are currently in bloom at Friedrich Wilderness Park. We hiked open meadows, south Texas scrub, through some aloe and cacti as well as treed areas. The day was hot and humid.
Mexican hat (Ratibida columnifera)
Check out the new trail!
Coreopsis?
Nature's bouquet
Blackfoot daisies (Melampodium leucanthum) and
Mountain pinks (Centaurium beyrichii)
Bob and Susan discussing the Spurs
(for about two miles)
We got the biggest kick out of the signs on the high fences. Someone else thinks like I do. LOL.

New cactus garden soaking up the morning sun
Dayflower (Commelina erecta)
Rose mallow (Pavonia lasiopetala)
Purple horsemint (Monarda citriodora)
It was a good hike, but I was tired, hot, sweaty and grumpy because I thought we were only doing 5k (3.2 miles). When we finished, we had done 7.2 miles.

We went to Taco Cabana for lunch, then Susan headed home. Bob and I went to see Magic Mike XXL. If I thought the day was hot, the movie was scorching hot! Whoa. We'll leave it at that. At least the movie theater was cold.

Tonight we watched the U.S. women's soccer team take down Japan in the World Cup Finals. The finale was satisfying. U.S. women won handily.

That's it for today. Travel Bug out.

The Week of June 29 to July 4, 2015

For three days this week, I slept in until I woke up. Felt great to get enough sleep.
Monday I took it easy and spent time hanging out with the cats. Tuesday was my "Cinderella" day: vacuuming, dusting, scrubbing floors, grocery shopping and laundry.

My only photos from Monday and Tuesday are cute cat photos.

"I wanna hold your hand paw."
Bowie and Sunnie
Bowie, my stretch cat

Sunnie still holding paws, hours later. Aww.
Can't believe how long Bowie (our smaller cat) can stretch.

From Wednesday through Friday I worked. A huge Seventh Day Adventist General Conference is in San Antonio. They have approximately 70,000 people attending. Quite a few of them are staying at Travelers World RV Resort. We checked in close to 30 on Thursday and another 25 on Friday. At a normally quiet time of year, the park is at almost 90% occupancy! Most of this group are inexperienced RVers. It's been interesting.

Because I'm full time, Saturday was our paid holiday. The office was closed. I got to sleep in again. To me, that is the best treat in the world. I'm a night owl, so usually am burning the midnight (or later) oil.

We finally got out of the house at 2:30 p.m. and headed over to Stinson Field Airport for their July 4th Family Fun Day. The Commemorative Air Force (CAF) was there with vintage planes on display. If you wanted to pay the price ($225), you could go for a ride in one of the old aircraft. We didn't, but it was fun to gawk at them.


C-47 "Bluebonnet Belle"
C-47 "Bluebonnet Belle"
B-17G "Texas Raiders"
North American B-25 J "Mitchell" bomber
If you're interested, here are specs on the "Mitchell."
"Yellow Rose" of Texas on the "Mitchell" bomber

L5-C Sentinel
B-17G "Texas Raiders"
B-17G "Texas Raiders"

B-17G "Texas Raiders" - Bob checking out the bottom gun mount
B-17G "Texas Raiders"
B-17G "Texas Raiders"

C-47 "Bluebonnet Belle" in flight
Patriotic colors
Stinson "Voyager"
There was also a car show. The Mustangs were leaving as we arrived...



Shelby Daytona

Daytona owner hamming it up at the "Yellow Rose"
"Boss" Mustang
When we finished seeing the vintage vehicles, we decided to tour the Texas Air Museum nearby.


World War II aircraft
Katherine Stinson - fourth woman pilot
Flying the hump - China, India, Burma
Air Force uniform
The following photo is quite interesting. The caption reveals that switchboards nearly always are located on the highest floors in business buildings. In London, because of air attacks, most top floors are evacuated, except for the switchboard force. Girls, sticking at their posts, wore steel helmets as protection against flying shell fragments.

Deemed the bravest workers in London
Some of the first flying machines
Love the sign. If I had some bloomers, and $1...
1968 Pietenpol Air Camper

We would have spent a lot more time at the Texas Air Museum, but they don't have air conditioning throughout the building and we were sweltering. So many interesting stories to read about "Little Vittles" (a candy airdrop to children in Germany), the First Aero Squadron in the U.S. in Texas, the "Aztec Eagles" (201st Fighter Squadron of the Mexican Expeditionary Force in World War II), U.S.-trained Mexican pilots who flew combat missions against the Axis powers in the Pacific, stories about the Stinsons, the history of Mexican politics, etc. We will go back sometime when it's cold outside (it will also be cooler inside!) to read at our leisure.

Saturday evening, we were invited to Susan and Darren's home for a 4th of July BBQ and potluck. We had an awesome feast of the proffered hamburgers, hot dogs, sausage, salad, wonderful home-made punch, fresh-made salsa, chips, cherries, grapes, and three different desserts, the best of which was Susan's blueberry crisp with pecans. Mmmmmmmm!

At 7 p.m. we watched the Macy's fireworks show on TV. It was a great cap to our patriotic day. Kudos to Susan and Darren for being such good friends and inviting us over for holidays. Thank you for all the thought and work you put into the day. And thank you for your long service to our country. We love you guys.

Long live America the beautiful, home of the free and the brave!

Travel Bug out.