Potter's Creek Park, Canyon Lake, TX

It has been a few days since I wrote the last entry- and we have almost reached the end of our time here at Potter’s Creek. We leave tomorrow for Hords Creek near Coleman, TX. It is truly a good thing that I reserved this site when I did- this park was sold out for Memorial Day weekend and I am pretty sure that most of the tent sites has over the limit. We were awash with tents, boats, campers, trailers, jet skis and tubers. Apparently it is very popular to tube the Guadalupe River and the proximity of this river to Austin, San Antonio and San Marcos makes it a mecca for college kids and families who want to get out to the country on the river. There is not much water in the river, but apparently that did not stop anyone. Besides the tubing, the Hill County is beautiful just to ride through- and the motorcyclists were out in the beautiful weather. Even rain did not deter anyone- the sites were filled to capacity every where Bruce & I went- and this picture is just an example of what the 20 miles of the Guadalupe River looked like on River Road (between Sattler and New Braunfels) when we drove it early Sunday morning. If someone had a piece of land along that 20 mile stretch, they had turned it into camp grounds and tubing entry/exit areas. Seems these areas are really big on the holiday weekends and all through the summer.

We have explored all around the lake- although we never made it to the Museum of the Texas Hill County to see the dinosaur tracks. We just ran out of time- and to get anywhere you have to go around the Lake. We did visit the Canyon Dam, walked over and back with Hazel (1.6 mi) and the on the nature trail downstream. The deer are prolific here, and there are fawns everywhere. We tried to take a picture of one up at the top of the dam, hidden by its mother in the tall grass, but that did not work very well. See if you can find the hidden fawn – this is much like our moose pictures when we went to Yellowstone in 87 – lots of vegetation but no real discernible animals in the pictures.

Have met some very nice people here and hope we can keep in touch as we continue to roam the country. The couple next door to us were an ex-farmer/welder and a nurse. He had recently been diagnosed with MS and was finding out what was still possible and she is still working as a case discharge nurse for one of the big insurance companies. We learned quite a bit about the Texas area, farming and their home town of Hutto (just NE of Austin). Very nice folks and full of good information. Who knows, we may meet them again when we come this way next time = and we will come again. This is a wonderful area, although getting here was over smaller Texas roads that caused The Beast to twist and turn a bit. As a result- we no longer have a working ice-maker. Seems the water supply tube has finally disintegrated. Once we discovered that we had water leaking into the bins, Bruce took the access panel off and discovered that the tube was broken. We have found what we thought were viable replacements – but once he cut into the insulation covering the tube- he realized we would be unable to fix this problem- the age and heat had taken their toll and the brittle tube just comes apart in his hands. Guess we will do without until we find someone who can run a new line- or just do without until we get back home. Ice trays work fine.

The defrosted food has all been taken care of- either cooked or we found it a place in the freezer.. I made pulled pork with the various pork cuts and beef stew with whatever beef was defrosted. Those can go in the frig as we seem to have room there and they will get eaten pretty quickly. We cooked the Italian sausages to eat later with onions and peppers fair-style and we grilled the nice London broil to slice for sandwiches. I shouldn’t have to cook for the next week – except of course for breakfast. Yea!!! – vacation coming up.

The animals are doing fine- Wolfy has gotten used to coming outside when all is quiet for awhile and Samantha is even getting up during the day to lie in the passenger chair and look out the windows. I think they are starting to adapt. Hazel of course has her own routine and that means so do we. Trying to keep her from gaining weight may be the best thing for us- although I still need to get to a Wal-Mart to pick up a set of scales. You can’t be too careful.

Check out the album associated with this blog for more pictures. Have to stop and help Bruce get The Beast ready for it’s trip tomorrow- with time for us to relax under the awning with some wine or a drink. More will follow.