Two Out Of Three

Sunday, February 3, 2019

This morning was like most mornings lately. Cloudy! Don’t know if this is the norm for this part of Texas this time of the year but we have had a lot of cloudy mornings with the sun breaking though for a beautiful afternoon. We had a beautiful afternoon today.

We planned to do three things today. Church, riding the River Trail and visiting the Riverside Nature Center. We went to early service at Kerrville First UMC . It is a beautiful church that looks new. They have three traditional services in the sanctuary and one contemporary in the fellowship hall. We attended the first early service at 8:15. There was a good crowd, a very good message from the senior pastor (They have three), and communion. The senior pastor and the one associate pastor we spoke with knew about NOMADS. Yea – maybe the word is getting out.

Inside Kerrville First UMC
Inside Kerrville First UMC

After a late breakfast, we headed out to ride the River Trail on our bikes. Perhaps because we rode earlier today, there were fewer people on the trail today. It was still a beautiful and fun ride. We rode to the end and back. Today when we turned toward home we discovered there was a strong head wind we had to fight against. Made for a harder ride today, but still fun.

One of the parks along the trail
One of the parks along the trail
Shoulda checked those hours
Shoulda checked those hours

Unfortunately, we did not do our homework on the Riverside Nature Center. It’s closed on Sunday. Oh well, two out of three ain’t bad. It was still a great day. After some lunch we did a little more hiking in the park and then just relaxed outside at our campsite the rest of the afternoon. Tomorrow is moving day.

A Nice Day In The Park

Saturday, February 2, 2019

This morning was warmer than the past few. It was still very cloudy and an occasional drizzle. We haven’t been able to sit outside or eat outside much since we have been here due to the weather, so this morning since it was warmer we enjoyed having our breakfast outside. Kerrville-Schreiner Park was much fuller this morning since it is the weekend. Lots of kids out playing. Parents biking with their kids. Nice.

Today we decided to stay in the park and hike and do some geocaching. There are several hiking trails in the park that wind all over the 517 acres. Today we hiked 11 miles and both of us got over 26,000 steps. Think we will sleep well tonight. Some of the trails went through areas thick with cedar trees. You could smell the cedar as we hiked through. We hiked up to the highest point of the park where there was a beautiful view of the surrounding area. We had a great day in the park!

 

Enchanting

Friday, February 1, 2019

The weather didn’t look that great this morning. We had some fog and drizzle again but it was warmer. We really debated about what to do today. In the end we decided we would go ahead with our plans to climb Enchanted Rock State Natural Area and we are so glad we did.

Enchanted Rock entranceEnchanted Rock is about 18 miles north of Fredericksburg, or 44 miles north east of Kerrville on a Texas farm road. Enchanted Rock is a huge pink granite dome, think Stone Mountain. Enchanted Rock rises 425 feet above the base elevation of the park. Its high point is 1,825 feet above sea level, and the entire dome covers 640 acres. Climbing the Rock is like climbing the stairs of a 30- or 40-story building. We might have gotten better photographs with better sun but the cloud cover made for a much more pleasant hike. The scenery is amazing. It’s no wonder this small park gets over 250,000 visitors each year. We had so much fun hiking around on the top. There were other people at the summit but the area is so large you don’t even notice the other people. The granite is beautiful. There are huge pieces of it on the sides of the road and in pastures as you approach the park. There are lots of other hiking trails (about 10 miles) in the park in addition to the hike to the summit we took today. We will have to consider going back for more hiking another day. We will see. The weekends are always more crowded so we may hike more of the trails at the park tomorrow. Hope everyone has a great weekend.

Sobering

Thursday, January 31, 2019

Yesterday we went to the local doughnut store for breakfast and then tried a Tex-Mex restaurant recommended by Barb for late lunch. In between we did some hiking in the park. We also did a little shopping yesterday but otherwise it was a quiet day in the park, relaxing. It was a gray cloudy day so not a good day for pictures.

Today was suppose to be better but not so much. We had heavy fog this morning and light rain or drizzle most of the day. Fortunately for us it stopped while we were in Fredericksburg walking around town but started back about the time we were heading back to the truck to drive home. Light rain continues now and the fog is again thickening.

Museum EntranceWith the drizzle, we decided it was an indoor day and we went to Fredericksburg to tour the National Museum of the Pacific War. This is a very well done museum. We found our experience much like our experience at places like Pearl Harbor. It’s a very good experience, well done. We are glad we went. It isn’t something you can say is fun. It is very sobering. It is however, very important that we all remember our history. If we do not, we will repeat our mistakes and poor choices.

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The sobering visit to the museum today reminded a lot of our visit to Pearl Harbor a few years ago.

After the museum we had a great late (3:00) lunch at a local sports bar and grill. The sandwiches were great with a good German potato salad. We saw some more exotics that we have not photographed driving back to Kerrville, but the rain and low clouds kept us from getting any pictures. Maybe another day. Another good day in Texas.