Mary moved with us, rain and all, to Goliad State Park.  I wondered why the map showed the campground as a rectangle but upon arriving to our parking lot campsite, I understood.

Good thing this is only a two day stop! Day one, visit the onsite mission and walk to another mission nearby and birthplace of General Zaragoza. His feats in battle are commemorated by the Cinco de Mayo celebration. So, in May when you are drinking a margarita or having a cervesa, send a silent thank you to General Zaragoza.

 

On the walk back, we ran across this little fixer

 upper.

Since we had exhausted this little park, the next day we took a day trip to San Antonio. There we experienced the river walk, had lunch at a little Mexican riverside café and visited the Alamo. Denny and I were last here in the early 80s and oh my, has it changed!

 Listening intently to Mary and looking like my mother!

The Alamo

The Alamo Courtyard

Mary moved with us again to Brazos State Park, a lovely park with lots of water birds, black vultures, and lots of alligators! You are supposed to stay 30 feet from them but when they are laying on the side of a path that's only 20 feet wide and the other side is a swamp, it's hard. We just hurried by quickly and nonchalantly. It must have worked because all of our limbs are intact!

Black vultures on a fishing pier

A BIG alligator on the side of the lake

A rare American Bittern, they stand like this to hide. Silly birds!

Lunch time at the dam

Mary is sporting a new knee and we gave it a good workout with nine miles of hiking!

We were happy to see that the black vultures continue to roost each night in the same group of trees as they did 4 years ago.  There must have been a couple of hundred. Impressive!

Mary had to return to the north but Denny and I continue on with our journey. We will soon be leaving Texas for the gulf coast.

Chris and Jill headed on to Big Bend and we were on to our next destination, Palmetto State Park. On the way, we stopped at ZippiVet in Austin to replenish Kismet's lactated ringers.   The good news is she has gained a bit of weight! The bad news is that the appetite stimulant that they gave her, made her crazy. She has been anxious and meowing all day. No more of those meds. I sure hope it is out of her system soon! I called the vet who said it could be up to 72 hours. Ugh, no sleep for me!

We thought it would be a quick stop but they wanted to do a complete exam first.

Palmetto State Park is small but very green and lush, kind of an oasis in the middle of Texas.

 Again, there are some lovely CCC buildings and the CCC did the entire Palmetto planting.

Denny’s sister, Mary, joined us on our 3^rd day at this park and brought the cold north air with her. We were hiking in shorts one day and light winter coats the next day. It was especially cold because it was raining. Mary is probably wondering why she left Michigan when it’s almost as warm there!

To brighten the day up, we did see a Pileated woodpecker right outside the rainy front window of our RV.

 A wet boardwalk through the swamp.

 

Its very lush and green here, kind of an oasis.

 Mary and I all bundled up and looking for geo-caches!

We have had a nice couple of days hiking with friends, Chris and Jill. We also introduced them to Geo-caching. We are at Inks Lake state park which is just as lovely as it was a year ago!

Before they arrived, we hiked and Geo-cached, At one point, I took a short cut and got caught in a sticker bush. I couldn’t move until Denny helped me pull them out of shirt, pants and skin. Ouch! Luckily, I had some antiseptic wipes to wipe off the blood. They sure have some nasty pickers in Texas!

Checking our route….or maybe resting

 Here’s a picture of the three of us trying to figure out where the next Geo-cache is. 

Chris logging her first Geo-cache.

 

Chris and Jill on our hike.

 A yucca?

Did you miss us? No wi-fi coverage in almost 2 weeks! I was still writing the blog but unable to post.

On the way to our next park, since it was raining, we stopped at LBJ ranch and National Historic Park. I liked it better than I thought I would and learned a lot. Did you know he signed over 60 pieces of education legislation and was a teacher when he was young? The ranch was impressive but the house was actually quite modest. Also, a small Air Force One that he took to the ranch after landing in Dallas was on display.

 And, the Johnson family cemetery was also there. Both LBJ and Lady Bird are buried there.

Onward, to Pedernales Falls State Park.  Supposedly, the falls are quite impressive after a big rain but it was quite unimpressive when we were there.

 But, the area was still beautiful.

 We left for a hike in long sleeve t-shirts and jeans and the humidity went way up, leaving us wishing for shorts and short sleeves. It didn’t take us long to strip when we got back several hours later!

An interesting tree burl.