(Double click on any picture for more detail)
For this blog edition I am just going to give a few of the highlights from Feb 22nd to March 3rd. We moved from Lake Charles westward to San Marcos. Denice, and I guess I better include myself were a little apprehensive about tackling Houston routing of I 10 to San Antonio, so we elected to skirt northward about 40 miles around that metropolis. Its rather funny, when you look at a map many of these roads are just a small black line, so us northerners think this is probably no more than a gravel road or maybe even just dirt, where a sudden rain squall may turn it to mud and disaster. Well not the case down here. We struck off on one of these, SR 105, when we left Beaumont Texas, but to our amazement found it to be a divided 4 lanes almost the entire way to Austin where it joined I 35. At a point some 30 miles east of Austin we jogged on to SR 21 down to San Marcos. We had reserved at Pecan RV Resort right on the San Marcos River. In fact the rear of ELTORO almost hung over the bank down to the river. We ended up staying here 8 enjoyable days. A lot of the time we just rested and enjoyed retirement, but there were some activities that are note worthy. Denice has a favorite cousin, living with her son and family in New Braunfels, about 15 miles south of us. So one night we met all of them in Montana Mikes Restaraunt for dinner. Had a great steak there, Then the next day we picked up Hettie, Denices cousin, and headed into San Antonio and to the riverwalk,
We all enjoyed a boat tour through the river and downtown canals, as well as lunch at the Guadalajara Grill. Must mention a little about Hettie. She is a little yonger than we are, 2 or 3 years, but was always a heavy smoker. A few years back she had a bout with cancer. She beat that one but a year or so back it came again and she had to have her voice box removed, so now she has the hole in her throat to talk with. She has done remarkably well and now speaks quite well although quietly. But the highlight is that now she is the greatest non smoker activist that we have encountered for some time. She does not hesitate to lift the neckerchief around her throat and show what can happen to you if you continue to be a smoker. We had planned to drive up to Austin as it was only about 40 miles away. Austin Lake is supposed to be beautiful, as is the surrounding countryside of the Texas Hill Country, but at the end of the time we decided against as it is in fact just another Big City. One other trip that is worth mentioning though is on our final day there and at the recommendation of our neighbors, we decided to go to the wildlife Park and Natural Bridge Caverns north of New Braunfels.
Arrived at about 2:00PM and immediately went on the guided tour. The cave is great and in our estimation rivals Carlsbad, although much smaller. It is very active yet, and wet and humid and hot at about 85 F. If interested more info can be found at:
http://www.naturalbridgecaverns.com/index.aspx
After completing the cavern tour we went to the wildlife drive through as well. It was very good as well. It is billed as a Safari, Texas style. Hundreds of animals are enclosed in 4 large pastures. At the gate you purchase food pellets and then drive your own car through these pastures, feeding the animals at your own discretion. They are wild animals so it is recommended that you drop the pellets on the ground where they will pick them up. But they have learned quickly that if they stick their heads right into your window they will get a lot more attention. Animals that we observed were deer of all sizes and types, elk, African antelope and deer, wildebeast, ostrich, emus, elands, giraffes, longhorns, watusi, zebras, camels, rhinos, donkeys, etc, etc.
They were all segregated into the 4 pastures as to what was compatable together. As you had no guide other than a CD, that you placed into your vehicle CD reader, you had all the time in the world. Entrance fee was for the full day, so you could stay as long as you wished and take as many pictures as you wanted. We put in an enjoyable couple of hours there before returning to home.
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