Lake Texana

Saturday, September 15, 2012

Considered going to downtown Houston to see some museums but decided after last night and 8 million people it was time to get out of town!   The freeways are 10 lanes and seem full of cars even on Saturday.  This place goes on forever, but finally we were back in small towns.  Ahhh…  Drove to Brackenridge Park and camped on Lake Texana.  Jodi wanted to go swimming but after seeing the signs, to swim your own risk and do not feed the alligators, she decided she could handle the heat. We camped across from a group of men one with a young boy who went fishing and brought back 4 catfish.  We talked to a couple from a small town about 80 miles away.  They were really nice and then the man said something about being younger than Jack at least he thought Jack looked older.  We thought nothing of it but apparently the guy got in all sorts of trouble with his wife!  Jack saw him in the bathroom and he told him.  It turns out it he was indeed 10 years younger, Jack laughed and told him he took no offense at all and we all laughed about it!  We walked around the campground, saw 2 alligators in the lake near the marina.  The park used to be the home of the Brackenridges, a famous Texas family.  A park in San Antonio is named after them.  We saw their cemetery which is completely surrounded by a stone wall with no entry and a huge underground cistern.

 We also saw a paintball area that looked like a lot of fun for kids with all sorts of walls for hiding behind with holes for shooting.  There was no one playing today.  At first we did not know what it was and thought maybe it was for horse jumping as there were equestrian trails.  In hindsight those walls were awfully close together! There was a former state park across the road.  There were not many people there, Jack did not want to stay as there was a sign for be cautious of venomous snakes.  I am not sure why he thinks they couldn’t be right across the road but I guess he felt safer without the warning signs.

Sunday, September 16, 2012

Got up and took a walk to take pictures of the alligator warnings and go visit our friend the alligator.  Just as I was getting ready to take a picture I stepped in a fire ant mound.  OUCH!  I hate those things.  Now I know how they got their name.  I got about 20 bites and my foot burned for almost an hour.  The lesson is to not wear flip flops and watch where you put your foot.  They are so fast and attack you all at once. And did I mention that in 24 hours you get blisters on all the bites.  As if my feet were not ugly enough!  Took down camp and figured out a place closer to San Antonio to camp one more night.  First we stopped in Gonzalez and had the most amazing Mexican breakfast with the best refried beans we have ever eaten.  Also incredibly inexpensive.  We later learned that it was from this town that the only people went to try to help at the Alamo after they had sent out word asking for reinforcements.  32 additional men went to help and all died. 

We arrived at Palmetto State Park and were trying to pick out a sight when it really started to rain.  We decided to call Nancy and see if we could come a day early to San Antonio and she said yes.  We hung out in Starbucks for awhile so we wouldn’t arrive too early and then went to meet her at 4.  We got settled into our room and then she went to her nephews for dinner so we ate our leftover spaghetti and went to bed early.