Joshua Springs Park and Preserve Volksmarch - Sat., June 1

Early risers this morning with a 4:45 alarm. Why you ask? To walk before the 94 F. heat of the day sets in.

The Hill Country Volkssportverein Club sponsored this morning's Volksmarch through the gorgeous Joshua Springs Park and Preserve in Comfort, Texas. We opted to do the 13K - that's 7.8 miles - walk. (Other options were 5K [3.1 mi.] and 10K [6.2mi.] walks). The walk started at 7:00 a.m. and we had to finish by 11:00 a.m. It took us approximately three hours to walk 7.8 miles (that includes all my picture taking stops).

What a lovely park! The facilities look relatively new - restrooms, picnic tables, fishing platforms, playground equipment, and group picnic areas. The walk took us by the lake, around meadows, up to the top of Ring Mountain (that was an additional 3K we opted to take over and above our normal 10K), through old-growth pecan trees, and a small arboretum.

Watch out for snakes in the grass! (We didn't see any.)

Below: The trail through the arboretum and by the lake.

A covered fishing platform.

Beautiful new signage.

The lake: You can kayak and canoe on the lake (no motors).

So pretty.

Texas Hill Country at its finest.

"I love you" shadows.

Hiking to the top of Ring Mountain. Great views of Hill Country here.

Oleander and Texas Hill Country view.

The suns rays took up 140 degrees of the view in the east.

Ring Mountain Event Center (was set up for a wedding later).

Creeping phlox

AVA 10K "walk route" signs show us the way.

A big round bale of hay.

Fields of Mexican hat and giant coneflowers.

Old pecan trees.

Greater tickseed (Coreopsis major)

A small pond.

A herd of 12 Axis deer flew by us. I was able to capture one of them in a photo.

Axis deer on the run.

Meadows of wildflowers and grass - watch out for the venomous snakes!

Musk thistle flower.

Bob enjoying the walk.

Purple thistle flower.

Chimney swift abode.

All about chimney swifts.

Bird blind. I was checking it out.

Nope, no birds spotted here.

Scenery in the park.

Low-growing firewheels (AKA Indian blankets) and green pom-pom-like flowers.

Nature's rock garden.

For those of you who like herpetology.

Soaptree yucca (Yucca elata)

Young Cypress tree.

Milkweed seed pods

A little waterfall.

Texas skeletonplant (Lygodesmia texana) - AKA Purple Dandelion or
Flowering Straw.

White-tailed deer we noticed as we drove out of the preserve.

The Volksmarch was well attended and the large parking lot at the Reserve was almost full. The hike was very well thought out with many types of landscape included. We will be visiting the preserve again and again.  I was hoping to see yellow-cheeked warblers; alas, none flew into our line of vision.

While we were in Welfare we drove around Top of the Hill RV Resort. It certainly is named well. You would not have to worry about flooding there. It seems it would be cooler because of the breezes/wind on the hill. Many of the sites did not look level. Some sections of the park had long-term residents in dilapidated RVs. There were some cute cabins for rent. We did not go in the cabins or check out the facilities at the RV park...just drove around the loops out of curiosity. You can read about it on their web page (see link above) or rvparkreviews.com.

On the way back to San Antonio, before we hit I-10, we stopped at Smittyville Country Store to raid the bakery. Oh my. The selection was not huge, but what they had was delectable. The store is impeccable and there is a cafe inside. Smittyville Country Store is at Exit 533 off Interstate 10 about 25 minutes west of San Antonio in the community of Welfare. The store opens at 9:00 a.m.

You can see the resident cat on the porch.

Very friendly kitty who purred and kneaded when petted.

In addition to the cafe and bakery, they offer coffees, Italian sodas and smoothies. Bob had a cheese Danish (good), I chose an apple/brown sugar crumble Danish (to die for!), and we bought a double chocolate muffin to share (yummy). Their pies were tempting too, especially the apple and the tart cherry pies. However, we refrained and took a rain check on the pies. Sorry I forgot to take photos of the food.

Smittyville Country Store menu.

Gotcha now mortuary (in case you didn't get it).

Smittyville Country Store Cafe.

We drove back to where we had parked Bob's truck so he could go to work. I headed to the cheap theater to see G.I. Joe: Retaliation. Please see separate blog for a review.

Travel Bug out.

Gate Guarding -- Wed. & Thurs., May 2-3

Ingram, Texas to Cotulla, Texas:

Wednesday morning we got up, prepped the 5er for the road, then took the Escape along the North Fork of the Guadalupe River. The morning was cool and overcast. Here is a pictorial of our drive:

We saw a herd of either axis or fallow deer with fawns. They took off when I tried to get a picture, but I sort of captured one under a tree...

Axis deer just to right of tree

North Fork Guadalupe River downstream from picnic area.

North Fork Guadalupe River upstream from picnic area.

North Fork Guadalupe River upstream from picnic area.

We then drove out past Armadillo Junction RV Park (where we were staying) to a church youth camp because Bob wanted to show me this cool swimming hole he found while out for a walk.

Swimmin' hole at a church camp.

Swimmin' hole at a church camp--other side of river.

After our exploration of the Ingram/Hunt areas in the Hill Country of Texas, we took off for Cotulla, Texas, where we are assigned to a gate starting Thursday (not Friday as originally planned). Our route took us from Kerrville south on SR 173 through Bandera ("Cowboy Capital of the World") to I-35; then south to Cotulla.

We didn't know where we were going to stay for the night. We got in touch with the company we're working for. They told us they were using an RV park about 20 miles out of town and said we could spend the night there and they'd hook us up to a generator. So that's what we did. The site was about 1/4 mile off the highway and protected by a gate. It was very quiet back there. 

When we first arrived and parked the 5er, Bob opened the door of the 5th wheel, then went to talk to one of the guys we'll be working for. Next thing we know, Bowie darted out the door and under the 5er. Oh, cr@p! He's an indoor only cat. I should mention that the field we parked in was full of weeds with thousands of burs. Bowie did not want to move because he realized burs are very painful. Hero Bob got down on his hands and knees and pulled Bowie out by the scruff of his neck. Bob came out with burs in his palm. Ouch! 

The escape artist safely secured, I set about removing burs from said cat. I used Kleenex to protect myself from the sharp barbs. Some of the burs had worked their way into Bowie's skin. He was good about letting me remove them.

I also used tweezers to remove pieces of burs from Bob's hand.

We saw our first roadrunner as it was getting toward evening. 


After our 5er was settled into the grassy field, we went to meet the people whose place we would be taking at the gate. They are going to their granddaughter's high school graduation. They told us about the job and showed us what they do. I asked Sharon what kind of animals they saw across the street on the ranch. She said when they first arrived, they saw big exotic animals which she thought were wildebeest. They seem to have moved away from the gate when all the big rigs started arriving.


On the drive toward our gate we saw a Caracara (in the falcon family). The Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Birds: Western Edition describes the Caracara as follows: "An omnivorous raptor, it feeds on small vertebrates as well as carrion. This bird, magnificent in flight, is the 'Mexican eagle' of the flag of Mexico. The Mexican peso coin shows the Caracara hacking a wriggling rattlesnake to death with its beak."


We told the people we're replacing we would be back in the morning around 10:00 a.m. to take over the gate. 

The time was going on 8:45 p.m. and I told Bob we needed to get into town if we wanted to get dinner. We ended up having a very good dinner at Dairy Queen. In the dark, we drove around town to locate the post office, Ace Hardware, grocery store and restaurants. We never did find the laundromat. I will refer to the map our friends Dave & Doris gave us. (They gate guarded in Cotulla in the winter.)

Both of us slept well last night. This morning, we pulled the 5er over to our gate and saw Barry and Sharon off. They gave us some more instructions and were gone.

Bob took the day shift from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Night owl (me) will work 4:00 p.m. to 4:00 a.m. We are 10 miles out of Cotulla. Our site has four oil pads (most have one). The oil company is almost finished at the first pad. I think this is considered a busy gate.

The temperature today must have been close to 100 with a hot breeze and blowing dust. During the day we saw some summer tanagers. Late afternoon, just before it started getting dark, I looked across the road and saw three Springbok antelope. I got photos from a distance. 

I also took some photos of our rig at the gate.

At dusk, I examined a woodpecker-type bird in a mesquite tree. It looked exactly like the Gila Woodpecker, but the Audubon book says they don't nest this far east. The closest second choice I could find is the Golden-fronted woodpecker which is common in this area, but the bird I saw just didn't quite match.

When it got dark, fireflies came out! I haven't seen a firefly since we were on St. Lucia.

Around 8:30 p.m., lightning lit up the sky to the north. It looked like lightning that started on the ground and went up into the sky. Truckers checking in here were commenting about it. They were afraid we were going to get rain. Rain would turn all the dirt and sand roads into a big, messy mudhole. They don't want to drive in it.

Bob is sleeping and I'm guarding the gate. We have three motion sensors (two in front for incoming vehicles and one inside for outgoing vehicles) that let us know when a truck is coming in. Sometimes I think I hear a truck coming, but I've had a lot of false alarms. I have to wait until the alarm sounds before I head outside. 

However, on one of my false alarm trips outside at 12:15 a.m., I saw an armadillo! 

It's been an exciting first day for us and the cats too. Bowie adapted to the alarms pretty quickly but Sunnie is a little freaked out by them. I have a feeling he'll get used to them soon enough. Right now Sunnie is hunting bugs; he especially likes flies, but moths will do.

It's 1:15 a.m. now and you can tell I haven't been super busy by how long this blog is! I will write again as I have time and internet connection. 

The internet and cell phone coverage here is not great. We get kicked off the internet frequently and it is very slow...it was almost impossible to connect and stay on during the day. (Tonight it got faster.)

That's all I've got. 

Travel Bug out.