Central Texas Flood - Sat., Nov. 2

You may have heard the news about flooding in central Texas last Thursday. We were not affected in San Antonio, but a few miles north it was a different story. The small town of Wimberley had 13" of rain overnight, Canyon Lake had 11.3", and Austin had 5-6".

Many rivers criss-cross central Texas and those rivers came up fast! Our friends Jim and Peri were in their RV in an RV park near the San Marcos River. Here are Peri's words about their harrowing experience:

"I'm sorry I haven't called you, it's been a little crazy. We were awakened by a loud knock on our door yesterday morning and when I opened the door, the water was up to the second step of the RV. We quickly got dressed and were able to get the pickup out [it was parked in a different location], but my car was parked in front of the RV and there was already water up to the seat. After we got the pickup out, Jimmy waded back in to be sure our neighbors had gotten out. She had to be taken out in a canoe and Jimmy had to help her husband walk through the water. The water was up to my waist at that time. We had to wait out the flood by the clubhouse unable to get out until the water receded. The water went in the RV at the slides and maybe the door. Both the RV and the car were totaled. Locals that have lived there 30 years say they have never seen the water rise that fast. Apparently, all the rain from the Wimberley area came down the Blanco River and then backed up on the San Marcos River where we were. We were at the same spot we were at last year. It looks like the water rose about 40 feet. The river crested at 9:45 a.m. and then started going down. By about 11, we were able to go back into the fifth wheel with a layer of mud inside. The insurance has totaled the fifth wheel. We spent today getting stuff out and only cleared out the den and kitchen. We had no idea how much stuff you can fit inside until you have to start packing everything up. We still have the bedroom and basement. We're not sure when they will be towing it off, but we want to be sure we have everything out before they do. We're staying with our daughter right now in Austin...It looks like we'll be shopping for another RV."

Here are a couple of photos Peri sent over...

Jim & Peri's 5th wheel.

The high water mark on the side of their 5th wheel.

Our thoughts are with Peri and Jim while they deal with their loss. Tomorrow we will head up to San Marcos to help them finish packing.

We have been busy working. Once again, I have one day off this week. I will be working at the insurance office Monday through Wednesday, and at our RV park office from Thursday through Saturday this coming week. Bob has also been working long hours.

This morning Bob volunteered at a booth for Random event center at the American Diabetes Association's "Step Out Against Diabetes." The event featured a 5K run/walk, booths, vendors, rock-climbing wall, children's bounce house, and two stages with music.

After work, Bob took me to dinner at El Mirador Mexican restaurant just south of downtown San Antonio. The restaurant has a nice ambiance. I had Pollo a la Parilla with poblano sauce, Bob chose enchiladas verdes. The meal was very enjoyable. The Pollo a la Parilla was the tastier dish.

Tonight Bob we have the Trailblazers vs. Spurs game on TV. I don't know who to root for. We have been Trailblazer fans for 35 years. Now that we're Texans we'll have to root for BOTH. We'll be happy no matter who wins. Both teams are very evenly matched.

Travel Bug tuckered out.

Some Like it Hot - Wed., Aug. 14

If you're someone who likes it hot, then San Antonio, Texas, would be right up your alley. Early morning temperatures in the summer are 82° degrees. Today, the high is expected to be 99° with a 20% chance of afternoon and evening thunderstorms. When you plan to do an 11K (6.8 mi.) walk in the mid-summer Texas heat, it's best to start early.

I was up at 5 a.m. with a plan to start my Volksmarch in the Broadway neighborhood by 7 a.m. Didn't happen, but I did make it by 8 a.m. (It is said, the pathway to somewhere hot is lined with good intentions.)

If you like it hot, then the Broadway Daily Bread Company would be a good place for you to get your morning coffee and some pastry while it's fresh. That was the start point of the walk.

Thankfully, this walk spent about 80% of the time in the deep shade of old live oaks or on park walking trails. Having long morning shadows helped too.

The walk started by going around the block behind the bakery in a stately old neighborhood, through a small shopping center, past HEB's Central Market and onto the campus of University of the Incarnate Word. The university is getting ready for new student orientation on August 19. Construction workers, early new arrivals with their parents, and those preparing for the arrival of new students were out and about on campus today. It wasn't very crowded.

Photos at University of the Incarnate Word:

Cemetery at the University.

Beautiful iron bridge.

 Do you think maybe the mascot at this university might be a cardinal??

This cardinal was nice enough to strike a pose.

Cardinal sculpture at Benson Stadium.

A meditation maze on the side of a footpath.

Below is a photo of St. Brigid's Oak, a live oak tree that is approximately 600 years old, dedicated to St. Brigid of Kildare (451-525 AD).

Live oak (Quercus virginiana)

Fall???

"In Celebration of Children's Play," by Joe and Betty Frost.

"Classmates," by Paul Tadlock

1881 school insignia in walkway.

Below is the lovely Jordan Carillon Clock Tower. I got to hear it play music at 9 a.m. and 10:30 a.m.

Jordan Carillon clock tower.

Stained glass as seen from inside the clock tower.

Another perspective.

George Washington Brackenridge Villa with sculpture.

From the university, the walk took me down Broadway just past the Witte (pronounced witty) Museum and into Brackenridge Park. I love walks in Brackenridge Park on tree-shaded trails. Here are photos of the park and surrounds.

Gate to the Witte Museum grounds.

The start of the San Antonio River.

Turtles sunning.

A photo from the old days taken in the San Antonio River.

The restaurant below looks like good place to eat. We'll have to try it. It's called Bombay Bicycle Club Grille.

Next destination in Brackenridge Park: the Chinese/Japanese Tea Garden. This garden is built on the site of an old quarry. Don't you just love all the rock work?

The Japanese Garden waterfalll

Japanese Garden Pavilion

The pond surrounded by rock work and filled with koi.

Koi polloi.

Another koi.

Lotus blossoming.

Lotus blossoms.

Pavilion.

So, I'm walking along the trail toward the San Antonio Zoo. Off to my left, I see a wooden enclosure with two furry critters in it. At first I think it's a rabbit pen in the middle of nowhere. Didn't make sense. So I zoomed in and found that someone is feeding stray cats here. One of the cats spooked when I turned on my camera and beat feet out of there, but I was able to get a photo of one of them.

Stray cat feeding station.

Agave in bloom.

Dragonfly on water lily pad.

Water lily in bloom.

On the opposite side of the river people and their kids were feeding the ducks. The two youngsters below were as still as stone. I almost missed them. But when I zoomed in I realized they were ducklings. Beautiful!

The pattern of falling water.

Wilderness Trail in Brackenridge Park.

Grass seed pods in morning light.

I did this walk by myself. Even though it took two hours and 45 minutes (because of all the stops to take photos) to do 6.8 miles, it didn't feel near that long because of all the things to look at. When I'm out walking I'm always glad I got out and did it. It's so easy to stay inside in the air conditioning and watch movies, read magazines and blogs, but it's essential for me to exercise and enjoy the natural world. This particular walk is an excellent one to do on a summer morning. I like it hot, but I also like shade.

Travel Bug out.

The end.

Summer Heat and Movie Reviews - Thurs., Aug. 1

Monday, in the heat of the day, laundry chores were completed. Spoiler alert re: The Bachelorette. At night, I watched The Bachelorette and was completely disgusted by the show. Normally I love watching, but Brooks, her runaway favorite, all of a sudden in Antigua decides he "doesn't know how" he feels about Desiree. Chris Harrison talks to Brooks about his feelings and draws out the maudlin conversation to ten or more minutes. Then Brooks has to tell Desiree that he's just not feeling right about their relationship. The show devolved into Desiree having a blubbering, sniffling pity party. Again, this part of the "drama" was stretched like Silly Putty to its breaking point. Talk about time fillers. The show could have been over in an hour instead of two. Sheesh.

Movie review: Tuesday I went to see The Wolverine in the middle of the afternoon. The reviews I read in Entertainment Weekly and The Oregonian were good. Even though I was skeptical about going, I went because of the reviews. I should say here that I totally enjoyed the X-men movies. However, I did not enjoy this movie. It had moments of exciting storyline and a couple of interesting characters, but overall, just another angst-ridden comic-book character. My favorite character was Yukio (Rila Fukushima) who brought an element of the unknown into the movie. I liked her verve and stick-to-it-iveness. Otherwise there was a lot of gratuitous violence and preposterousness (is that a word?).

In the parking lot at the movie theater, I saw the coolest car grille...looks Spiderman-ish.

Tuesday night, Bob and I went to see San Antonio Mission baseball against the Corpus Christi Hooks. It was a pleasant night at the ballpark...not too hot and a nice breeze blowing. The Missions won the game. Yay! Afterwards we went to Sonic for their half-price shakes. Bob had peanut butter fudge and I had strawberry cream pie. So delicious!  It was a very nice date night.

Movie review: Wednesday, Paycheck, our Netflix selection, arrived. The movie stars Ben Affleck and Uma Thurman. I watched the movie in the afternoon and boy did I love this movie. How I missed it at the theaters is beyond me. The story is about a man who, in the not-too-distant future, works at reverse engineering high-tech products to make them better and cooler than the competitor's products. To do the work, he goes into seclusion at a company for four to eight weeks. At the end of that time, when the product is ready, his memory of the weeks he worked on the project is erased and he then collects his paycheck. Erasing his memory is done at great risk to his health. For his next assignment, he is asked to do a very top-secret project which will take three years. Impossible, he says, no one has ever done an assignment over eight weeks (and that was him). Eventually they talk him into it with the offer of stock options that are "guaranteed" to be six figures. He accepts the assignment. His memory is erased. When he goes to collect his paycheck, he is told he signed away his rights to the stock options. Then his belongings are given back to him (they were collected when he started his three-year assignment). Only thing is, the items aren't his. Or are they? From this point on, the movie really gets moving and becomes a thriller in which he has to figure out what the items are to be used for to save his life. Very exciting and a whopping good puzzle. I highly recommend this. The DVD also had "extras" which were very well done, including an alternate ending. I gave it five out of five stars.

When Bob got home Wednesday night, he watched Paycheck and enjoyed it too.

Today, I went back to work at the RV park office to start my two days for this week. August is our slowest month of the year. We had one check-in and four departures. We also made four future reservations.

That's all from here. Safe travels to you.

Travel Bug out.

McAllister Park, San Antonio, TX - Sun., July 28

First off, happy birthday to my sister, Jan. I hope you enjoyed your day today and partied with friends. I look forward to spending time with you in September.

This morning, San Antonio Hill Country Hikers meet-up group met at 7:45 a.m. for a hike at McAllister Park. The early birds were there at 7 a.m. to do yoga warm-up moves before we set out on the trail.

At 7:45 exactly, Paul led us on another trail adventure, faking us out from time to time and taking us around in circles. No disrespect, we love you, Paul. You make the group fun.

McAllister Park is 976 acres with 15 miles of trails on the north side of San Antonio, not too far from the International Airport. Today we hiked seven miles of trails, mainly on the Red and Blue Loops (I think). If you asked me to lead a group of people on the same hike we did, I would be bamboozled as to where, exactly, we went. I'm glad Paul knew where we were going! We didn't get lost in the urban wilderness.

Here are a few photos of our hike.

Paul caught us looking dazed and confused at the beginning.

Now we've got rhythm and someone to follow.

We didn't see any bunnies. : (

Virgin's bower clematis

Snapdragon vine (Maurandya antirrhiniflora)

The hiking train keeps on rollin' down the track.

 I ran ahead to get a photo from the front and they all had to ham it up.

Paul, our leader, wins for the best model pose.

Lots of deer in this park!

Deer in the headlights look.

After seven miles of hiking, eight of us wanted to have breakfast, so we went to The Egg and I. It was a great group with lots of conversation and some really big pancakes!

Sandy

Ruby ordering.

Jessie with her hazelnut coffee and SmartPhone.

Paul with not one, but two, monster blueberry pancakes.

After the walk and a good breakfast, I went back to the 5er and slept for three hours. (I only had four hours of sleep Saturday night.)

This evening, Bob and I went to see "The Way, Way Back" movie with Steve Carrell and thoroughly enjoyed it. The story is a coming of age tale about a 14-year-old boy going on vacation with his mom, mom's boyfriend and the mom's boyfriend's teen-age daughter. They vacation at the shore and the boy is bored, mortified, and angst-ridden dealing with his mother's boyfriend and the interesting group of people vacationing at the beach. He goes to work at a water park where the owner takes him under his wing and helps him deal with being an awkward teen-ager in an awkward life situation. We both recommend this movie.

The short sale on our rental property in Las Vegas is finally going through after we put it on the market a year ago. Tomorrow we sign papers. One more property off our responsibility list; three rentals left in two western states. Luckily, they are all rented and have property managers. Things are looking up.

Travel Bug out.