Rio Cibolo Ranch Walk - Sat., Oct. 19

Whoa! Two hours for an 11K (6.8 mi.) walk! Must be the cool air and chilly breezes (and need of facilities) that made me walk so fast today. Temperature at the beginning of the walk was 57 degrees (minus some for wind chill). By the end of the walk it was 66 degrees and breezy. My sweater stayed on for the whole walk.

While I was walking, Bob went to the gym to play basketball with his buddies. He said his game was off, but at least he ran up and down the floor.

The Zuehl, Texas walk I participated in this morning was an event sponsored by the Randolph Roadrunners Volksmarch Club. That means club members staffed the start area, checkpoints and finish. Thank you to the many volunteers who made this beautiful autumn walk possible.

Where I'm headed to do the walk.

At the beginning of the walk we registered at Zuehl's Hall, a large building that can be rented for weddings, parties, family reunions, etc. From the Hall, we walked through part of the 130-acre longhorn cattle ranch. In addition to the Hall I saw the: Saloon, Frisbee golf course, hay ride wagons, canoeing area, 100-year-old pecan orchard, a place for barge rides, horseshoe pits, Kiddie Korral, softball field, and picnic areas. What a beautiful setting, made all the more lush because of the recent rains in south Texas. The plants, grass and trees are green again.

Main gate at Rio Cibolo Ranch

Zuehl's Hall for events.

"Come Walk with Us" banner.

Blacksmith shop.

Hay rides...but not today.

Llama and longhorns.

Burros.

Texas longhorns.

Longhorns and grackles.

100-year-old pecan orchard.

Cibolo Orchard sign

Barge not open today.

The barge rides weren't open today, but Volkssporting also includes boating sometimes. Today, there was an option to go kayaking. Kayaks, paddles and life vests were provided. If I didn't have an appointment to pick up my hearing aid at Costco at 2:00 p.m., I might have gone for a paddle.

Horseshoe pits.

Saloon.

Unique landscaping.

Took me a while to realize this is a BBQ'er.

Pretty flowers in bloom in October.

Our first checkpoint was at Zuehl Field, a WWII airfield. Locally it is known, tongue in cheek, as the Zuehl International Airport. It's claim to fame is that Robert Redford was here to film "The Great Waldo Pepper."

Sod airport runway.

The runway.

We walked along the left edge of the runway.

What's an airport without planes?

Don't know what happened to these!

There's quite a relic.

We walked along many country roads.

Family bar, The Double Ringer

Formerly Clemens School, 1891-1966 (now you can rent it for parties)

Fall berries.

The lane into Rio Cibolo Ranch.

Creative birdhouse.

River in Zuehl, Texas.

Lovely walk today and definitely not hot outside.

Just a note: I bought gas at Costco this week. It was $3.00 per gallon. You read that right: $3.00 per gallon. Wow!

Must get a move on to my appointment at Costco. Then Bob and I are going to see "Prisoners."

Travel Bug out.

Walking in the Rain -- Sat., Feb. 9

6:00 a.m. Really? Bob said, "Do you want me to reset the alarm for 7?" "Yeah," I replied.

Our goal for the day was to do two 10K Volkswalks at the Del Webb Resort in northwest San Antonio. When we finally got up and got moving, a look outside foretold our weather for the day...low-hanging clouds and drizzle. The temperature was 50 degrees at 8:00 a.m.

We followed the ava.org instructions to Del Webb Resort. I should have Google mapped the route because we ended up going way farther than we needed to from our location at Travelers World RV Park. The short route was 22.7 miles.  The route we took was 32.4 miles. Not only that but we got lost on the way there because we didn't see Lone Star Parkway, so missed that turn. 

By the time we made it to Del Webb Resort, it was 9:40 a.m. Registration for the walk was in the Del Webb Resort Center. Wow is that place nice! They have a huge work-out room, billiard room with three pool tables, meeting rooms, and lobby area that looks like it would be a great place to relax on a rainy day. In the registration room was a table with refreshments that looked so good--coffeecake and brownies. My mouth was watering. (We should have had them when we saw them because when we finished our first 10K walk, the coffeecake and brownies were all gone.)

After signing in for the Randolph Roadrunners sponsored Volksmarch event, we were off on our first 10K walk by 9:51 a.m. Umbrella and camera out and ready for use, we decided to do the Alamo Ranch neighborhood walk first. 

Nice paved sidewalks along the walk.

We headed out the Del Webb Resort gate and passed their entry fountain. Most of this walk was on main thoroughfares throughout Alamo Ranch and other neighborhoods. Many new subdivisions are going up in this area.

 

"Working for the weekend."

The rain and wind were particularly pesky on the hilltops along the walk. Earlier in the day, the precipitation remained a drizzle, but enough moisture that I kept my umbrella up most of the way. There was also 85% humidity which kept us feeling damp. I had on a T-shirt and fleece sweater, but Bob was wearing shorts and a T-shirt with his ubiquitous baseball cap. At least he had protection from the moisture, but no coat.

We passed a school, but spent most of this walk on Alamo Ranch Parkway for a long, straight distance. It went on and on. I didn't take a lot of photos because it all looked the same. Oh, except for the entrance into Alamo Ranch (one of our checkpoints on the walk) which was very nice.

A checkpoint for the walk. You can see how gray the day is.

After finishing up our first walk and checking in at the registration area where my Volksmarch books were stamped, it was time to make a decision about our second walk. We decided to do a 6K (3.1 mile) walk instead of  the 10K due to the weather. (Another reason we made this decision was that the last 4K of this walk duplicated the last part of our previous walk which wasn't very interesting.)

It ended up being a good decision to do the shorter walk because the drizzle turned to rain. We were happy that the 6k walk made use of trails through the woods at Del Webb rather than sticking to the streets. It made for a much quieter and less windy walk. I only took one photo on this walk of a funny yard decoration...they had three of these unique garden gnomes in their yard. We thought they were hilarious.

Looks like alien monsters have captured these gnomes!

All told, we started our walk day at 9:51 a.m., finished our 10K (6.2 miles) in one hour and fifty minutes. We started our 6K walk at 11:56 a.m. and we finished at 12:55 p.m. for a total of 16K (9.6 miles). Then we were off to find lunch.

We ended up at McAlister's Deli where Bob had a California Turkey Reuben with potato salad and I had a Spud Ole and chicken tortilla soup. We were hungry.

The rain was really coming down on our drive home. We're so happy we didn't complete a second 10K walk today. We'll save that for tomorrow.

Travel Bug out.