Back to Thousand Trails Colorado River early in the month . . . the 10th. The Feast in New Braunfels begins on the evening of the 16th and we arrived at River Ranch RV Resort on the 14th.
Early in the month I spotted a cluster of flowers between some trees behind our RV. There were butterflies all over them. It was fascinating watching them. I saw a new butterfly . . . a Great Purple Hairstreak. It was a fascinating insect. It took a while before I could tell which end was which. The back end of the wings had hair like appendages and the wings (closed) would move up and down making it look like all the action was on the wrong end. This is probably the coolest camouflage trick I have ever seen.
Trumpets was on the 3rd in Houston. George and Ann always have a nice spread in between services and we enjoyed our usual company, Jon, Tony and many others who stay in.
On the 12th I went to Austin for Atonement. It was wonderful seeing my roommate from college, Teddi and her husband, David. One of my friends from FB was there, having moved into the SA area recently.
Services on the Sabbath were in San Antonio. There was a large crowd and it was wonderful seeing many friends I had not seen for awhile. Sunday evening the Feast began at the New Braunfels Convention Center. This center is awesome, well lit, roomy, convenient. I think everyone enjoyed getting to know many of the 300+ attendees and participating in the varied activities.
Our park . . . River Ranch RV Resort . . . between I-35 and I-35 Business was great. Right on the Guadalupe, we saw a variety of birds and fish. Pads are concrete and there is a fenced in dog run under the old I-35 Business bridge. The puppies loved running around without their leashes.
Denny brought his newly purchased RV and camped right next to us. He and Tony golfed several days which gave me the freedom to take care of the jobs I volunteered for . . . typing announcements in the Feast Office and taking photographs of events for a PowerPoint presentation shown before services every day.
Three wonderful ladies helped out in the office and no one was overly burdened with work. I loved taking photos of the events and would jump at the opportunity to do it again.
We had bowling, floating down the Comal, Senior Luncheon, and more. Since New Braunfels is small we bumped into friends at restaurants and other places. There food in the area is awesome!
Buttermilk Cafe was our first stop on Saturday morning for breakfast. It was so good that we went back several more times.
Huisache Grill was another fantastic place we visited. The trout was to die for and a friend had duck and filet medallions that were equally delicious. The fried brie for dessert was a nice light ending.
We also managed to make it to Mamacita's several times . . . no surprise that I would end up at a Mexican restaurant more than once. Their food is wonderful and the margaritas and cheese cake are very high on my list also. We met friends from Houston on one visit.
When we got back to Columbus (Thousand Trails) Erika and William showed up a couple of days later, 3 sites down from us. Erika and I started walking in the morning and began picking up pecans and filling our pockets . . . to the point that they fell out of our pockets when we bent over to get more pecans off the ground. So, the next day we brought a regular grocery bag and wound up filling our bags full. The next day we brought two bags.
Every time I went to Dad's I took the pecans for him to shell. The pecans began to add up. Erika dried hers on top of her picnic table and it was completely covered! William spotted a squirrel stealing pecans one day and after he took about half a dozen he took the dog out for a walk . . . bye, bye squirrel.
This went on for 3 weeks and by the time we left to come to Lake Conroe in November I had collected between 80 and 100 lbs. of pecans. Dad's had been continually shelling, a gallon bag almost full and we planned on two nice pecan pies for Thanksgiving. Yum!
On one of our walks down by the Colorado River Erika spotted a Coral snake that quickly fled toward the trees. I ran after it to take photo. Photos of an escaping snake are not wonderful but I did get a few!
I was able to take some great photos of the Colorado River, turkey vultures, spider webs, and a few deer. Let me tell you about the deer. There are several herds of deer that stick around Thousand Trails Colorado. Several people keep deer corn around so we purchased some at the local grocery.
I would throw a pitcher full out at sundown and the deer would hang around until it was gone. The puppies wanted to bark at them. I made a little headway convincing Pepper not to bark every time she saw a deer but Jack was a lost cause. After one week the 50 lb. bag was gone and I got two more which likewise disappeared by the end of the three weeks we were there.
The deer get used to the corn being thrown out morning and evening and began to ignore the barking of the dogs as we led them out of the RV for their walks. There were lots of babies growing up, many females and some nice bucks . . . 4, 6, 8 prongs.
The night before we left I had a dream that when I opened the door of the RV, the deer were all lined up outside the door waiting for their food, and a huge buck (about 16 points) was in the center as if they were posing for a photo. I miss them back at Lake Conroe. There are deer in the area but they are not in the park.
This blog is being finished almost a year later . . . how slow I have been about keeping this current . . . enjoy the photos!