This morning, before leaving Texas, we visited the Blue Bell Creameries in Brenham. We toured the production facility, where we got to see lots and lots of ice cream products (pints, gallons, popsicles, ice cream sandwiches, etc.) being made and packaged. At the end of the tour, we each enjoyed a scoop – vanilla for Jay, caramel turtle fudge for Bex, cookies and cream for Andy, and sea salt caramel for me … yum!!
Ever used an atlatl? In case you don’t know, an atlatl was a tool used before the bow and arrow to throw spears. During our stay at McKinney Falls State Park, the park had an atlatl throwing program. When Ma and I heard of it, we went straight to it. After learning the basics, we began throwing. In the beginning, our spears didn’t go far, and they were everywhere. After a while, we got pretty good. Ma hit the fake deer about three times, and I hit twice. The first time, it nicked the top of the deer’s butt, and the second one hit right in the middle. Today, my arm is pretty sore.
If you go to Texas you have to see the Alamo because, well, it’s the Alamo. So after Padre Island we drove up to Guadalupe River State Park, which is about 45 minutes north of downtown San Antonio, to use as our base camp while exploring San Antonio.
The next day we braved big city traffic (something about living in a city of more than a million makes people drive like maniacs) for our whirlwind tour of downtown San Antonio. First stop was the Alamo. For me, the Alamo significance is as the site of the pivotal scene in Pee Wee’s Big Adventure: “There’s no basement at the Alamo!” At the Alamo we read plaques and peered at exhibits for a few hours (I still don’t understand why they didn’t just retreat and live to fight another day, and why an avoidable military defeat is so renowned). After lunch we put Little Kid on my back and walked the downtown portion of the Riverwalk, a former river turned into a picturesque canal lined with restaurants and shops. The Riverwalk runs below street level, and the streets cross it on bridges, so you can walk through the downtown area without having to cross any streets and without a lot of traffic noise. After the Riverwalk we trudged over to the historic Market Square, which is basically a collection of tourist traps. Finally, we hit the Witte Museuem.
After San Antonio we headed up to McKinney Falls State Park in Austin so we could take the Jetta to an Austin mechanic to have our squeaking front suspension fixed. I found the mechanic on the “trusted mechanics list” of tdiclub.com, the online fan club for the Volkswagen diesel engine (known as the TDI). Once again, the internet makes it easy to live on the road.
While in Austin we swung by the Texas capitol building and got the treat of seeing a young northern tourist make a what-the-heck?! face as she read the Confederate memorial (“DIED for state rights guaranteed under the constitution”). Inside the capitol building Becca was entranced by a cowboy trick roper who was there for the speaker of the house’s private christmas party.
In Austin we also continued our tour of North America’s city parks with a visit to Zilker Park where we walked around Barton Springs, took the little train, and walked the trail that loops along the Lady Bird Lake.
We had an amazing week at Padre Island National Seashore, on the Gulf of Mexico, Texas. We did lots of sand castle building, playing with sand toys, running in the waves, and walking on the beach.
At Padre Island, we collected many shells. One of my favorites was a molting shell of a leopard crab. It was really a leopard pattern!! Some of my other favorites were a small catfish bone, a crab leg, part of a sand dollar, a giant saw tooth pen shell, and a rust orange shell with a hole at the tip. At the RV, I glued a lot of my shells on a piece of drift wood.
On a night walk on the beach with Crazy Dog, we found some large crabs. Who knew that Crazy Dog is a good crab hunter? He tried to attack a nocturnal ghost crab! Crazy dog also found several other crabs. One night he actually sniffed a crab then jumped away. I think that the crab gave him a little pinch. That night he jumped, and when I looked there was a crab running away. Did Crazy Dog step on it?!?!?!
On the beach, we spent a lot of time cleaning up trash. There is a lot of trash on the beach because four currents converge there. We filled two bags with trash and dumped them, then picked up two more bags that other people had filled and left on the beach. We sadly found some trash with chew marks. Did you know that turtles can confuse plastic bags and bottles for jellyfish and eat them? The plastic can get trapped in their stomach, lifting their back end and stopping them from getting air.
We were lucky enough to be at Padre Island for a turtle release. It was not hatchlings, but cold stunned turtles. Cold stunning happens when there is a sudden cold front that lowers water temps. Since turtles cannot regulate their temperature, they become immobilized and drift to shore. Rangers rescue and warm them, then the turtles are released back in the ocean. We stayed to watch all sixty-two turtles released.
We spent a lot of Thanksgiving Day cooking, as the tofurkey and the pumpkin pie each took two hours to bake. In our oven , everything was either burnt on the bottom, or under cooked on the top. The tofurkey turned out well, the biscuits were under cooked, but the pie was a little strange. The crust was “heavily toasted,” and the inside was more pudding then pie. Every thing was good anyway, and we also enjoyed cranberry sauce.
Our last day on the beach, we spent driving on the section of beach where cars are allowed. Pa had not wanted to go until we talked to some people that said they went to the end without using four wheel drive. We didn’t go to the end, but we went pretty far.
Sadly, we finally had to leave Padre Island. We set off to San Antonio.
