While I am on vacation, Lisa is not, I decided to go back to Balcones Canyonlands National Wildlife Refuge. Sometime in the last few days, I’ve wrenched my left knee and it has been painful to walk. Not horrid, but the thought of an extended hike was not a pleasant one.  My first turn off was to Warbler Vista Sunset Deck. The road started out paved and changed to gravel.  About a mile and a half up the road, there is an observation platform. Get out! Get out of your car! The view is stunning. The deepest green I’ve seen so far in this Texas landscape.  A road winds to the right and far below. A lake and another (perhaps the same) to the far left. Vista was indeed the perfect name.

Next was the Refuge headquarters,  I took the short trail around the headquarters but first I checked out their photography blind.  It rather looked like you might be entering a bunker from the front but the back opened over the creek and I’m sure would a great place to bird watch. I took the shortest trail and found lots of new growth the capture with macro photography, little pink buds and purple flowers, and tiny leaves,

From headquarters, the volunteer told me to take Cow Creek Road to Doeskin Ranch.  Everyone needs to experience Cow Creek Road.  The Road and the Creek cross each other several times.  The creek has cliffs, rock slides, waterfalls, all a great beauty. However, all are on private property and the No Trespassing signs are hard to miss. No access to the beauty that lies beyond.

I came around a bend and I rather got a shock. There on the other side of the road was a longhorn. A magnificent beast, a cream color mottled with some cafe au lait coloring mostly on its head and shoulders.  She eventually meandered back through a break in the brush so small she swung her head back and fourth the make her way through.

While I did drive to Doeskin Ranch, I didn’t get out of the car to shoot. Something didn’t feel right and since I’m traveling alone, I always respect my cautious side,

Now to find ghost towns. The first on the list is Nameless.  I found where the cemetery was but again on gated private property. The next I went to find was Corn Hill,  It took a bit of looking on CR 312 near Jarrell. During the search I found a great on Mobilgas station and had to loop back a couple of highway exits to get to it, but it was worth it. There isn’t much left of Corn Hill. Perhaps two buildings but both were rather interesting,

The last town was Cele. A store/community center and a couple of outbuildings appear to be all that remain.  I felt pretty satisfied that I found the three that I desired to find.

Lisa made a fabulous homemade chicken pot pie, Add wine and a cheeses and strikes up another positive day,

Today was about family,  My nephew Rhett is stationed at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas.  He lives there with his wife and 5-year-old son. I reached out to him before I headed south to see if we might get some time together. We agreed on Sunday because of his work schedule.

The plans were to go to Balcones Canyonland National Wildlife Refuge. We did go just to find out that they were closed on Sunday.  We walked out to an observation area, we were in some scrubland, cactus, succulents, low trees, and maybe three birds. There is a great starkness, much gray, a few green shrubs and one lone blooming tree with lovely white blossoms.

We came up with an alternative plan to visit Georgetown, Texas. Lisa and I had planned on going there this morning but ran out of time.  Georgetown is a pretty little town built around a central courthouse mirrored hundreds of times across the United States.  What is often not mimicked was the square was busy and many stores were open this Sunday afternoon. There is an art gallery, restaurants,, the Gumbo has a minaret and a second-floor balcony, a museum, antique stores, and gift shops.  One store had toys, ice cream and candies.

I entered the guitar shop while my nephew, his wife, and my great nephew were shopping in the toy store.  I asked permission to take pictures, the store owner said, “Sure, for a dollar a picture.”  I knew he was joking so I said, “I’m okay with that.”  He did not know I was kidding.  I have this way of shooting that I call “breaking things apart” where I just photograph a portion of an item.  I think it adds some tension and makes the photos more interesting,  I shot frets, and long lines of guitars, between the mandolins, and the strings.  I shot practically anything I thought I could get a good angle on.  I think I owe the owner about $50.00,

We left Georgetown and came back to Lisa’s and she lead the way to Rudy’s Bar-B-Q. As a first time customer, they give you samples of the different types of meat.  There is a well-marbled brisket, tender and juicy, and baby back ribs also tender and delicious. I wasn’t sure if the meat was dry rubbed but the sauce wasn’t necessary, The creamed corn was thick and sweet.  I sat across from my five-year-old and started snapping pictures. He was at times pensive, playful, and I think, finally, just done. One of the fun things they have is a hand wash station that has a Jacuzzi for your hands.  You put your hands in and the water and soap swirl around your hands.  And there were stickers!  I have clean hands. We didn’t notice until we got home that there was a reference to a Bible verse on it. Job 17:9. Nevertheless, the righteous will hold to their ways, and those with clean hands will grow stronger.

Sunday’s are traditionally days to spend with family and mine was perfect.

 

Today I woke at my friend Lisa’s house. we haven’t seen each other in about 35 years.  We grew up in the same neighborhood in Indianapolis, we went to kindergarten through high school together. From there our roads split, I moved away and eventually, she moved away too.  We ran into each other a time or two but that had been a long time ago. Through the technology of Facebook, we reconnected.

She planned our day, breakfast at a local favorite of hers, Gloria’s. My breakfast of scrambled eggs with beef and veggies, crispy, shredded hash browns, with warm tortillas was flavorful and filling.  Then we headed to Salado, Texas.

Salado is a tourist town with several shops lining Main Street.  We visited a few and I bought a gift for my husband, and a trio of dessert toppings that sounded yummy, like peach pear & amaretto; strawberry pepper pecan; and fudge pecan.  Is your mouth watering yet?

Along the sidewalk, Lisa spotted a small frog on the sidewalk.  We thought it might be a child’s toy because it was so vividly green, but it hopped a bit as we got closer,  She picked the little guy up and moved him to a grassy area just off the walkway.  What a beautiful little creature.

We went to the Salado Cemetery that had some lovely wrought iron fencing around some of the older graves.  And wildflowers, pink, and white, and lavender, and bluebonnets were just showing their lovely colors. I remember when I was I child, I was always frightened of cemeteries.  Today, cemeteries are some of my favorite places to shoot.  I visit some more than others like Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery, Bellefontaine, and Calvary in St. Louis.

We went to Chalkridge Falls Park next.  We hiked the mile to the falls, I had a bit of difficulty getting to a vantage point. I man with his young daughter sitting up his shoulder stopped and helped me get down the rather steep decline to snap a couple of pictures. Then he stayed to help me back up.  Most grateful for good hearts! After Grand Falls yesterday, I must admit, these falls were a bit underwhelming.  The height of the cascade was higher, but the breadth of the falls was less, there were no pools to invite reflection and thoughts of playful splashing.

We hiked back to the car and decided that lunch was in order.  With several wineries in town, we thought one might be a good place to start.  However, they do not serve food where you sample drinks, I suggested we try someplace different,  We went to The Shed, Lisa was able to get a beer and I had a drink called a sniffling weasel (because you have to try a drink like that, right?) and a baked potato pizza.  Both the drink and the pizza were delicious,  The weasel was a fruity concoction with a twist of grapefruit on the rim and the pizza was much like a loaded potato on a pizza crust,

On the way back to Lisa’s, she drove us to a Westinghouse facility where they kept a couple of longhorn cattle in the field in front,  They were lying down in the field,  One was facing where we stood the other was both farther away and facing the other direction until, of course, I turned around to go back to the car.  At that point in time, it decided to become quite animated, rolling around and moving its head.  All of which I missed because I had turned around, We did laugh  about that one,

Once we got to Lisa’s we thought we just needed to chill, get a bit of rest, talking and laughing,  It felt good, Dinner was TexMex and a margarita, on the rocks with salt, Thank you very much.

 

My day started much earlier than I would have preferred waking up at 4:30 am and sleep then eluding me.  Out of bed, shower, hit the breakfast buffet, and on the road. This morning it’s to Grand Falls outside Joplin, Missouri. As the review said, you can see the falls from the parking lot but it is so much more glorious close up.  It was exhilarating to realize I was the only one there. There are pools everywhere, reminding me somewhat, of tidal pools.  Despite the numerous pools, it was not difficult to maneuver around them and find different view points from which to shoot the falls. My favorite was shooting with the pools in the foreground, reflecting trees, and the falls in the background. I shot a long fissure line and had just climbed down beside the falls when the first of the  other visitors arrived.  It was time to take the last few shots and leave.

As I drive away, I stop to snap a few pictures further up the river where the current is calm and there is great reflections of the trees and grasses from the far side of the river and then once again from the middle of the low water bridge that crossed the river so that I seems I may have been traversing the river by boat rather than in my car.

I head west on I-44.  When I have driven into Oklahoma, I see a sign that says “Entering Cherokee Nation” and I rather gleefully envisioned a war party racing along side my car.  All buckskins and bows and arrows.  But perhaps I am the victim of too many John Wayne movies as I child; I have no idea how they might have looked. My mind wandered to things like how the land would have looked then.

There is a great vastness to this golden landscape.  It is rather a color I am unfamiliar with in most settings, it lies just shy of orange but is very rich still.  Most fields are not tilled so it is not wheat. I remain bewildered yet enthralled.

There is an old barn with a yellow roof that calls to me and I stop. There is a portion of fencing with weathered wood. And from another angle a beautifully symmetrical tree that I find lovely. A tree in the middle of a small pond and and old Purina mill also captured.

My phone continues to vex me and its inability to hold a charge.  Lunch was at Runts Bar-B-Q in Muskogee, Oklahoma. The bring me to a table near an outlet and plug in my phone. Two ribs, green beans, Texas toast, and a piece of coconut meringue pie. The food was fabulous and I was delighted to see they employed a bus boy with Down syndrome. As I leave town, I sing loudly, “I’m glad to be an Okie from Muskogee, I don’t know any other words to this song!” I sang it another time of two for good measure.

The highway speeds have increased to 70 mph, too fast to take in the landscape for many pictures.  One more stop for a small town cemetery and my photography is done for the day.

Another day where I turn my phone off and on to preserve the charge but today it sends me off in the wrong direction. When I hit Dallas, it sends me to I-30W.  Once there it is sending me off and on the interstate. I most formulate another plan.  I stop for gas and directions. The recommendations I received included Subway for dinner. Ugh.  I don’t want chain store food on vacation.  When I get to the parking lot, I see a sports bar with two cars in the parking lot.  Bonanza, I think!  They should be excited for me to come in, order dinner, and charge me phone.  I step into an all but deserted bar other than five waitresses and a family of three.  The waitress that greets me takes my phone to the bar and plugs in my phone.  The other waitresses have clothes that show a great deal of cleavage. I feel I entered a Hispanic version of Hooters.  I speak a couple of times to the waitress, she tells me that the bar doesn’t usually get busy until at least 10:00.  I told her my daughter was a server as well.  I order a dish with chicken and shrimp.  I was decent but not great food.  The cheese was so think that I ended up spinning it on my utensils much like pasta. It was time to pay and leave,  My phone still not fully charged.

I took a pit stop, got some gas and actually took the time to see if I had USB ports in the back seat. I had felt while driving but only felt the vent. There were more ports and my phone would charge.  Fabulous!  Back on the road again and for the first time in two days, felt at peace with the process.  Arrived in Leander, Texas at 11:15 pm. Lisa and I have a lot of catching up to do.  After all we haven’t seen each other in person in thrith-five years,….

 

 

While I generally prefer to start on the road early in the morning, today I had a meeting to attend that started at noon.  Traveling in a rented Volkswagen Passat, I set out toward Joplin, Missouri, my first night’s stop on my trip.

I find that the car is not charging my cell phone, I am not particularly worried.  I have my GPS and most of my trip today is highway.  At some point I will need the assurance that my phone will charge so I change out cords, it still doesn’t work. I buy a new car phone charger, it still doesn’t work.  I couple riding a Harley double check my charger, it is fine. It just won’t charge in the car.  By this time, I’m resigned that my phone won’t be charging in the car.

Driving southwest on I-44 from St. Louis, I make it barely past Cuba, Mo before I need a change of scenery. I take F north; then a left (west) on Dunham Road. Dunham is a hard-packed rutted dirt road. Unfortunately, that’s about as scenic as that stretch tended to be.  There were no old barns or silos, but there were a couple of interesting fence posts. Barbed wire and weathered wood. I come to an intersection, skewed enough that I wasn’t sure what direction I needed to go.  That is when I discovered that the GPS was no longer working. I put the address into the Google Drive on my phone.  I turn left onto CR1210, traveling southwest. It was along this stretch of road, that I find the only thing worth backing up for, a clearing beyond a clearing. I love how the light plays in the far clearing as if it has this great secret and invites you to come in and see.

Then I hit Missouri B, take a left and follow it until I intersect with I-44 once again.  Knowing that my GPS may be broken and the Google Drive app will probably suck up my phone’s resources like a thirsty man at a desert oasis, I will not be able to adventure off road again today.

Driving on 44, I reach down to adjust my seat forward, hit the wrong button and find that there is power lumbar support in this car,  I begin to think that lumbar support may just cover a great many sins until I realize that I’ve got a great many more miles to cover and my phone will not last that long.  I called my husband and told him that if the phone got to 15% power, I’d turn it off until I got the the exit for the hotel.  I wanted him to know that I might be unreachable. I did have to turn if off: 14%.  For an hour and a half, I was indeed on my own, my own thoughts, my own adventure.

I pull off the road at exit 8, I have 11% power. How does one lose 3% when the power is off I wonder,  Thankfully, the hotel is close,  But by the mile and and half, three turn route, I am down to 4% power.  I try desperately to find the confirmation email my husband sent because despite the fact I know the address, I don’t remember the hotel name.  My phone goes dead.  I pull into the first hotel and walk in the lobby.  It’s the right one.

I am grateful that I arrived safe and sound.  Now to make a plan for tomorrow…