The Founders Oak

  

In Landa Park.

 

A mighty oak.

 

A seedling in 1700, this tree is now three hundred years old!  It has been here for the entire life of San Antonio and New Braunfels as cities.

 

 

 

San Antonio

  

And would any trip to San Antonio/New Braunfels be complete without a trip to Landa Park for the wood ducks?

 

 

And the train.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Crescent Bend Nature Park

  

September 2020 Trip Map

 

Bird blinds!  Of a more open design.

 

 

And even more open.

 

 

All the while being careful not to disturb our slithery friends.

 

 

 

Life on a log

  

 

 

 

Now we're in San Antonio.

 

September 2020 Trip Map

 

 

 

I used to think

  

I used to think a person had to go to a Florida swamp to see cypress trees growing up out of the water.

 

But not so.

 

There are plenty of cypress right here in the Texas Hill Country!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The welcoming committee

  

Coming to say hello.  Barnyard geese.

 

 

They look friendly enough.

 

What could possibly go wrong?

 

 

 

A Wednesday visit with friends

  

Carolyn and Richie.

 

You may remember Carolyn as the proprietor of Island Woman in Port Aransas.  After that they moved down to the Valley in Donna, not far from us.  Just this spring, they moved to Canyon Lake.

 

September 2020 Trip Map

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The weather is comfortable.  Lots of nice places around their house to sit and have a visit.  They've got a couple acres and not another house in sight so it's a fine view in the back yard.

 

Deer visit regularly.

 

 

 

 

 

Technology

  

Connectivity.  We've a houseful of streaming devices; phones, tablets, and laptops.  The world is at our fingertips.  The devices are there.  The content is there.  But there is a weak link.  Connectivity.  It seems everything that has a picture or sound requires bandwidth.  And what we don't have while we're traveling is unlimited data.  At home, we've got a specific service for internet and it provides unlimited data.  But when we're traveling, our internet is tethered to our phone plan and a jetpack.  This setup works great; we get coverage practically everywhere in the country, but there is a limit to how much data we can use each month.  After that limit we pay dearly.  The carrier offers an unlimited data plan, and we got sucked in to that briefly, but under that plan you can use all the data you want until you reach a certain threshold, and above that amount they throttle the speed to make it essentially unusable.  The unlimited plan is not really so unlimited.  So while the market drives ever more data usage, we'll suffer the weak link of supply, until internet is determined to be critical for life as we know it and becomes universal.

 

Meanwhile, An Egyptian goose family.

 

 

 

 

Update

  

Now the tracks are predicted to cross.

 

Twice!  It was a hurricane race before.  Now it's destruction derby!

 

The whole mess has shifted north for now.  The bus is packed with everything except the last day stuff like computers, phones, and chargers.  We'll wait and watch.

 

 

 

Kerrville River Trail

  

Drove the bus a few miles up the road to Texas Coach in Pipe Creek for some long-planned tweaks.  Getting out of their way while they work, we took a walk on the Kerrville River Trail.

 

September 2020 Trip Map

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Followed by a visit with Roger and Mary who just left the Valley for a new home in the Hill Country.

 

 

 

They only just left the Valley and have more stuff still in boxes than they've put away yet, but nice to see them again and their new digs.  Cool weather and a breeze made for a comfortable visit on their front porch.

 

 

 

Daytrip

  

To South Llano River State Park

 

September 2020 Trip Map

 

This is one of the coolest places we go.  A campground we love, hiking trails galore, a river, ponds, oak forest, and four bird blinds!  It would be hard to get much better than that!

 

Lora's blind.

 

 

Here is what they look like inside.

 

And the view from behind glass the birds can't see in.

 

Agarita blind.

 

 

Juniper blind.

 

 

Acorn blind.

 

 

All the bird blinds are stocked with seed and suet, and they each have an active water feature.  Great bird attractors.

 

Campground and scenery.