Texas Hill Country

Some time to explore

We are volunteering in LBJ State Park in Texas for three months. After two months on the road, we were ready to settle in for a while. I think we are turning into whimps. This area deserves more than just 1 month to explore. We will miss the wildflower season but caught it two years ago.

Before President Johnson passed away, he had established the donation of his ranch to the National Park System. Maybe he didn't want his legacy to only be about the Vietnam War. He was responsible for Medicare, Headstart, Voting Rights and Civil Rights Acts. He actually signed more legislation than any other president other than FDR who had three terms compared to his 1 1/2.

The ranger gave an insightful and interesting tour.

Lady Bird Johnson, the first lady, had quite a history of her own. I won't go into it here but she had a good head on her shoulders.

It takes quite a bit of time to visit the state and national parks along with the national park in Johnson City but well worth the effort. There is also the Presidential Library in Austin.

Air Force One was too large for the runway on the ranch. The President and other officials were shuttled from Bergstrom AF Base by LBJ's smaller jet, "Air Force One-Half" as he called it.

Cycling in Hill Country has its own hazards. Traffic is quite low in the small towns and hilly back roads. But you never know what type of critter that will cross your path.

This mom cow was not letting us pass until all of the calves were safe.

Riding through the national park was jaring as we crossed some wicked cattle guards. We startled a couple of black angus (big cows) as we passed through a field. They charged out

out of the trees just missing us. Once was enough for me. I don't care how many online bike routes say it is a great ride.

We finally found an armadillo that wasn't roadkill. He moved faster than I expected.

Blackbuck antelope were brought from India and have no hunting limit they are quite prolific like the deer in Texas without predators . They also quite speedy as they cross the road.

Our ride while on duty.

Our job as maintenance host is 3 four hour days per week. That's a lot of time to get to enjoy the area.

Christmas is a big deal in Texas Hill Country. Fredericksburg has a tree lighting or parade every weekend in Dec and Johnson City went crazy with their beautiful lights. 

LBJ State Park has a huge Christmas lighting celebration and volunteers bake over 800 cookies in the week leading up to the event. This is the 75th anniversary celebration making it an even bigger deal and as they say "all hands on deck."

 Our campsite overlooks pecan and oak trees that the deer and cardinals visit everyday.

Sauer Beckman Farm

The Sauer-Beckman (Living history) Farmstead is a living history farm, presented as it was in 1918. Interpreters wear period clothing, do the farm and household chores as they were done at that

time, and conduct tours for the visitors. Part of their demonstrations is cooking what they grow and  in season. On our "working" days, we can have lunch with them for $1 donation.

They are quite tasty. We pass on bean and cornbread day or sausage and cabbage.

Hanna hard at work making bread in the very warm kitchen. They use a wood stove for cooking and no running water. Lunch always smells so good when we arrive.

One of the local volunteers spinning wool from the sheep into yarn.

Kids making candles to decorate the farm for Christmas.

Johan Friedrich Sauer and his wife purchased 188 acres along the Pedernales River and moved here with their four children in 1869. They built a log and rock cabin for the family, with a sleeping loft and a porch. As their family grew, they added rooms to the structure. By 1885, they completed a two-story stone dormitory for their 10 children.

Several German farming families made their homes on land that is now part of the park.

The Danz family built their dogtrot (porch in the middle of the rooms) cabin on a scenic spot overlooking fields above the Pedernales River some­time in the 1860s.

Hye Market and Post Office

The Hill Country is dotted with small towns like Hye with a post office that is also a great place for lunch just down the road from us.

Enchanted Rock State Park

Enchanted Rock is 17 miles from Fredericksburg and has fascinated humans for thousands of years. Most of the stories are rooted in fancy rather than fact.

Tonkawa Indians thought that ghost fires flickered on top of the dome. The odd creaking and groaning coming from the dome frightened them. Geologists say that the dome creaks and groans as temperatures change. As for the ghost fires, the rock glitters on clear nights after rain. The glittering is reflections from collected water.

One story tells of an Indian maiden who saw her tribe killed by an enemy. She threw herself off the top of Enchanted Rock, and her spirit haunts the rock still. Another

story tells of a young Spanish soldier who rescued his true love just as Comanches were about to burn her at the base of the rock.

We reserved our day pass for an entrance between 8:30 and 10 am. By 11 am the park was getting busy. 

We took the Summit Trail to the top of the hill while few people were around. By the time we had climbed back down and headed to the Loop Trail. The Rock was getting busy.
We didn't feel any ghosts.

If you come without an entrance pass, watch for flashing yellow lights along the highway that will signal closures due to capacity, weather or other emergencies. We had our pass and no signs were flashing.

Enchanted Rock was much steeper that it looked.

Going down, we were glad we were wearing our grippy hiking boots.

Our travels have evolved over the past 18 years. We thought volunteering would be a short term thing but have found staying in a place for a little while a good fit. We like contributing to the parks and living in a lovely place while seeing the sites. It is fun having a different window view every so often. Sometimes, it is good to just stop and enjoy a quiet day with my friend.

Thanksgiving weekend

Feeling Thankful

Caverns of Sonora

The music on the radio as we were driving through west Texas is George Strait, Dolly and Willie. We see a lot of cowboy hats, boots and tight jeans and hear lots of "yes, ma'ams". We have crossed over into a strange new land.

The Caverns of Sonora, in the middle of Texas ranch country claims to be the most beautiful show cave on the planet. We thought "yeah right" as we ponied up our $20 each

for the long tour.

 We entered the dormant section of the cave and it looked just like a hole in the ground, interesting but it was a cave. It was a warm 70 degrees and a 98% humidity. Which made for hazy photos but I could feel my wrinkles plumping up. 

We came around the corner to the living section and it looked like someone had decorated for Christmas. You can't see the sparkles but they were shiney.

The calcite that makes the water hard here made beautiful formations. It also had a higher concentration of CO2 as we walked lower into the cave making us feel like we were
walking at 7000 feet.  

The 1 hour 45 minute guided tours allow for no more than 12 people at a time to protect the cave.

The soda straw stalactites are hollow as the water runs down the middle and forms on the end.

Of course, we had the lights out section as we all sat on benches.

We have been through a few caves and agree that this was the most beautiful one we had see so far.

We camped at the campground for 2 nights one of which was Thanksgiving. The family that owns the cavern and ranch invited all of the campers to join them in the hall for Thanksgiving dinner. We broke out the pie in the freezer. It was fun sharing dinner with other campers and the ranch and cavern staff. The local deputies were even invited.

Two fireplaces made it cozy on a drizzly day. And there was so much great food.

Junction, Texas

We always stop at Lum's BBQ in Junction if we are nearby. Who cares if it is 10 am.

Now that is a Texas Longhorn.

Fredericksburg, Texas

We head to Fredericksburg a day early to catch the tree lighting. It seemed almost everyone it Texas had the same idea. Even with hundreds of campsites in the area, we were lucky to score a site at the KOA that someone happened to cancel but a required 2 night stay.

There were carolers in the park before the lighting of the tree and German pyramid followed by cider and cookies. The city had a video that was far better than my pictures.

Lighting of the Christmas tree

Thanksgiving weekend is a huge deal in Fredericksburg. There is a huge craft festival and a polo tournament across from our campground that ended with 30 minutes of fireworks and hot air balloons. No wonder there weren't any campsites or hotel rooms available. Everyone we spoke with made reservations months ago. The parking lots to the wineries were packed.

As we walked through town there were musicians and bands in the outdoor restaurants. We followed the sound of music from a band in the courtyard and had a beer. They were quite good.
A person can find music playing every day of the week somewhere in town.

We are heading 13 miles east to Stonewall and LBJ State Park as volunteers. We agreed to 3 months of volunteering since we had plenty to keep us interested and other things adults just have to do.

 We will see how living in Hill Country is in the winter once the weekend crowd clears out. So far so good.

Hueco Tanks State Historical Site, Texas

Climbing in the Rocks

As we crossed into El Paso Texas, the mileage sign read 892 miles to Beaumont TX. That's a long ways across Texas. If we are going to drive through the state we might as well "see" it. Even if we are only going half way this time.

We learned about Hueco (whey-coe) Tanks State Historic Site 30 miles north of El Paso from Raven and Chickadee's blog. It has one of the largest groups of Native American rock paintings and masks in North America

As we were driving to the park, Mike asked "where in the heck are we going?" I was thinking the same thing. Until we reached the rocks, things were looking a little shaky.

We watched the required 15 minute video in the visitors center reminding people to be good stewards of the place and help preserve the area before hitting the trails.

We made reservations for the 20 site campground but only six sites taken during our stay. It gets very dark at night as the stars filled up the sky.

We planned ahead reserving a self guided permit for the day that we arrived since only 70 people can enter North Mountain at a time due to the fragile nature of the park.

As far back as 1,500 years ago, Hueco Tanks visitors left pictographs and petroglyphs around the area. This was a stop for the Butterfield mail stagecoach. Many of the people passing through left their signatures on the walls in the 1800s often over those from ancient times.

I was glad Mike had his hand on the chain as we climbed back down. His foot hit a section on rock that had broken away. He would have taken a bad fall if he had not been hanging on.

I also booked the guided tour in the guide only East and West Mountains several weeks in advance for the only slots left open for our weekend there. It would have been a shame to miss that.

Masks in the top of a cave.

Our guide was 78 years old. I wasn't sure what kind of tour this would be. At first he was walking slow and a bit unsteady. By the end of the tour, he had us climbing and navigating rock walls. OK, I know my thinking was "ageist". He is a retired history teacher and very good at spinning his tales. He said the some of the best pictographs were on North Mountain that could be accessed without a guide.

We climbed along the ledges above the valley for a stop in a cave for more stories from our guide.

People come from all over the world to boulder (rock climbing) with only their hands and a crash pad to catch them when they fall.

To get directions, we had to give the ranger our driver's license then he gave us a sort of map of directions to get to Cave Kiva. It took some rock scrambling to find it just off the trail we had been on a couple of days before. It helped that a couple were on the way back down from the cave as we were going up. Mike did his usual critter check before we headed in. It is one of his jobs, checking restrooms or other places critters could hide before I enter. He has only had one run in with a critter so far. He put his hand where he shouldn't have and a crab was on his finger when he removed it. But that's another story.

I hadn't charged my camera's battery in a while. Once we found Cave Kiva, it gave me a rude charge battery message and shut down. Actually, I was glad it happened as a reminder for me to take the charger along on a trip to Mexico we have planned later this winter. I believe I would have forgotten to pack it.

Several storms were brewing in the Pacific Ocean as we headed towards Fort Stockton, TX. We were parked between two large rigs that might have helped cut down on the wind and
gusts 55mph for two days. It gave us a chance to rest up, do laundry and stock up the fridge as we were winding down our two months traveling from Oregon to Texas Hill Country.