Oh wow, it’s been a while.
I started out with this great goal to write a blog post every week, which seemed like a pretty easy thing to stick to! Not. The busyness of exploring and the challenges of personal struggles and development have made that a very un-easy thing to stick to.
But here I am to get you all caught up!
For the record, I am more-so keeping this blog for myself, as a sort of scrapbook/travel diary/journal, but I’m, so glad you’re following along too! The more the merrier.
So, last you heard from me, we were in New Orleans visiting our cousin. That was such a lovely weekend and a much-needed break from the wilderness. I never would have thought I could get tired of the outdoors, but it happened. A moment inside was refreshing. We took that Monday morning slow. Isaac slept in, I ate waffles and worked on a puzzle with my cousin. It was perfect. In the early afternoon, we picked a campground destination for the evening, bought tickets for a tourist trap on the way there, and hit the road.
What was that tourist trap? Thanks for asking! We took a tour at the Destrehan Plantation in western New Orleans. This antebellum home has the distinction of being the best-preserved plantation house in Louisiana, evident from the original flooring to the beautifully appointed dwelling areas furnished with the Destrehan family’s original furniture. The tour was jam-packed with family, local, and national history. If you are in the New Orleans area and looking to go back in time for an afternoon, I highly recommend the Destrehan Plantation.
From there, we drove a few hours west to the Franklin, Louisiana area to set up camp at Burns Point RV Campground. This destination was meant to be only a stop-over spot on our way to Texas. We didn’t intend to spend more than one hiking day in Louisiana. Burns Point had another idea. Before we had even set up our camper, Ike had been offered dinner by the family parked a few spots down. He’d gone over to offer his help in processing the deer they’d shot that afternoon, and boy am I glad he did! That simple offer set up one of the most out-of-the-box weeks of my life. After getting our little home settled, Isaac and I went over to introduce ourselves and take them up on their dinner offer. With warm introductions finished, we were served up big bowls of Alligator, Shrimp, and Red Fish (all fresh harvested) Sauce Piquant and instructed to sit by the fire. (It was in the 60s and these Louisiana folk thought they might die of cold. The Minnesotans thought it was balmy.) If you thought eating gator for dinner with total strangers was wild, check this out: before we’d left their campsite that evening, we had a very insistent invitation to Thanksgiving. To their family Thanksgiving!
What did we do with that invitation (which, by the way, was way outside my comfort zone and way not in line with my rough itinerary)? We took them up on it, of course! We spent the remainder of that week resting, cleaning, writing, reading, and getting to know our new friends. We found the entire corner of that campground to be so warmly welcoming, generous, and entertaining. We ate so much good cooking and spent every joyful evening around the campfire with nearly a dozen new friends, marveling at the strangeness and beauty of our crazy adventure life.
Thanksgiving was a wonder in itself! A day that, at home, would usually be spent skating on Grandma and Grandpa’s lake, saw Ike and me climbing aboard our friends’ airboat and skimming across the southern Louisiana swamp. I laughed out loud as we skipped across the bayou. How in the world is this for real? Like, are you actually kidding me?? This is my for real life? This is my for real adventure? This is my for real blessing and I’m not just dreaming it up? Giddy. I was absolutely giddy. And no, I wasn’t dreaming. The splashes on my face from the huge catfish Ike pulled up from our friend’s jugline reassured me of that.
And dinner! Oh heavens! Turkey Gumbo, candied yams, baked mac-and-cheese, dirty rice, cornbread stuffing, fried turkey, green bean casserole, potato salad, fresh biscuits. It was all unreal. Simply unreal. The finest cooking the south has to offer if you ask me!
Before this week, I thought “southern hospitality” was just a phrase with nothing behind it. I couldn’t have been more wrong. This delightful group of people welcomed us into their vacation time, into their camp dining rooms, into their families, into their holiday, without question and without giving us half a second to argue.
Hang on. Let me just write all this down real quick so I can study it for the rest of my life and learn to be that sort of amazing hostess and friend.
Friday morning saw us packing up, saying reluctant goodbyes to our dear Burns Point family, and hitting the road to head west again. The day’s drive brought us as far west as Rutherford Beach near Cameron, Louisiana. This remote and quiet beach offered the craziest shell collecting EVER and a quiet place to refocus after our week of rest. On Saturday, following a cozy pancake breakfast, we roughly planned out the next week, drove 45 minutes for Domino’s pizza (yes, it was worth it, thank you very much), walked the beach again, and tried not to track the entire beach worth of sand into the camper. We wanted to find a local church to attend on Sunday, as we want to do every Sunday, but sadly, they were nearly all closed due to damage sustained from Hurricane Ida. The devastation in the area was pretty intense. Driving past the shredded houses and toppled trees was tough. Ida really did her worst there.
By Sunday evening, we’d set up a one-night camp at Palmetto State Park a couple of hours after crossing into Texas. Hello Texas!
Week three: check.
Next: week four. (obviously)
Excuse me, time, if you could stop moving so fast, that’d be great. Thanks.
Wow, it’s almost been a month. What in the…?
This week, which was spent exploring the Texas Hill Country, was a little busier, so I’m gonna go back to my day-by-day rundown format if that works for you.
Monday: I think this was probably the busiest day yet. It has to be. Listen to this:
· We packed out of Palmetto State Park and headed toward San Antonio.
· We realized the very cool Jacob’s Well was almost directly on our route. Stop added.
· We popped into a goofy little (actually not so little) antique shop next to the highway, because, cute. I’m so glad we did because the lady pointed us in the direction of Blue Hole. Stop added.
· We went to Blue Hole, which is a deep spot in the crystal clear and blue-tinted river. Sadly, in the off-season, swimming isn’t allowed, but we still enjoyed watching the fish and being soothed by the gently flowing water.
· We drove to the nearby Jacob’s Well. This natural phenomenon is a 140-foot-deep spring that bubbles up to join the waters of the river. (I can’t remember the name of the river) While the well is beautiful, it was a little disappointing, if I’m being totally honest. Most of the depth is hidden from the surface of the water, visible only to those crazy folk who want to scuba dive into tiny spaces. (Imma pass, thanks.) The 24-foot main cavern was still cool and worth the short hike. You should check it out!
· We remembered the Alamo! That’s right, we drove into the heart of San Antonio and saw the actual, historical, famous, storied Alamo. It. Was. So. Cool. I’ve always enjoyed history and I think this journey is turning me into a full-blown history nerd. I’m fine with that! I was enthused and wide-eyed the whole time. From reverently touring the church where the locals and soldiers took cover, to walking through the oldest building in Texas, to standing in the shadow of the façade I’ve seen in pictures a thousand times, I soaked in every little detail. I will always remember the Alamo.
· We strolled the San Antonio River Walk. Oh, you thought our day would be over after the main event at the Alamo? Wrong! We were only in San Antonio for a couple of hours, and we wanted to feel like we’d actually seen the city. Thanks for helping us with that, River Walk! I can’t really describe this unique space. It is a quiet, lush, bustling, peaceful oasis tucked down in the middle of a big city. That’s the best I can do. You should just go see it for yourself.
· We drove the remaining miles and set up camp at Crane’s Mill Campground on Canyon Lake. Wowza. What a day. We got the camper up, made dinner, and went to sleep.
Tuesday: Today wasn’t even a whole lot less busy than Monday. I started the day by waking up early to take the laundry down to the local laundromat. Even adventurers have to do chores, ya know? After a somewhat slower start for the other half of the travel gang, the day’s adventures began at Natural Bridge Caverns. Our tour down into the mineral caves was awesooooome! The volume and immensity of the drip formations in the almost mile-long chain of caves was not what you expect to find in the middle of the desert, but there it was! We marveled and climbed and learned and marveled some more and wished we could turn around and go back in as soon as we stepped out of the caves. The Texas Hill Country has several cave tour locations, and even though I haven’t been to any others, I’d confidently say that Natural Bridge is the place to go!
The next item in the day’s plan didn’t quite go as planned. I had researched and picked out a hike for our afternoon activity. It had been a while since we’d done much of anything physically strenuous and my mind and body was craving a good workout. Maybe I should have double-checked that desire and picked a slightly easier trek, because the one I selected, rated as “difficult” started after a three-mile walk from the nearest parking location. We decided to reroute. I didn’t do that with much grace. I just wanted to hike! So, the 45 minutes we spent trying to find this place and the hour drive to our new hike destination didn’t sit overly well. It wasn’t my finest moment. But we got out on the trail, I sweat out some of my frustration, and we still managed to see some of the best that Central Texas has to offer. Thanks for the refreshing evening, Pedernales State Park. You’re pretty pretty.
After the rejuvenating hike, we hit up the oldest continuously operating dance hall in Texas. Gruene Hall in New Braunfels, Texas. It was a super neat old bar with a huge dance floor and little performance stage. The space, complete with its early 20th century advertisements and décor, gave me all the best old west, two-stepping, hat-tipping vibes as I sat listening to the live music. I could have stayed all night. We did, actually! We stayed until the musicians were packing away their instruments, and even then, I just wanted to stay and feel and imagine the joy and community that room has held in its 143 years of operation. Dance on, Gruene Hall.
Okay, remember when I told you about that day I was a little disappointed by our hike? Well, Enchanted Rock was the cure to that disappointment. Oh. My. Goodness. Not to brag, but what the park ranger said would take us 30-45 minutes, we did in less than 15. Maybe we shouldn’t have, maybe we’re just superhuman. We’ll never know. Enchanted Rock is a 425-foot-tall batholith composed of Pink Granite. It is inside the Enchanted Rock State Natural Area and so very much worth the journey! The views from the top are amazing, the feeling of summiting the thing is pretty great, and the lower-elevation hikes are fantastic as well. We hiked and explored the top of Enchanted Rock for well over an hour, met some vultures and lizards, narrowly avoided stepping on a rattlesnake, and took all the landscape and cactus pictures.
After we descended and ate some PB&J (the food of the gods after a sweaty hike), Ike and I decided to split up for the rest of the afternoon. I wanted to tackle a longer hike and he wanted to climb up Little Rock, Enchanted Rock’s smaller neighbor. I didn’t know it when I started, but that solo hike was so exactly what I needed. It was like a big deep breath of fresh air. Not because Ike and I aren’t getting along well, but just because it was a big dose of personal space that we were both in need of. I zoomed through my hike. Then I hit another trail that took me most of the way back up Enchanted Rock. I was sweating and out of breath and so stinkin’ happy. Isaac had his own crazy probably-shouldn’t-have-done-this-when-no-one-knew-where-he-was rock climbing adventure that seemed to recharge him as well. We took in a beautiful sunset as we drove back to camp from the rock and reveled in the perfection of the day.
The next couple of days were just travel days. We spent the night in a hotel in Houston before picking up Ike’s girlfriend, Chloe, from the airport on Friday. With our lovely friend situated in the Adventure-mobile, we headed southwest for Padre Island. If I can give you one word of advice it would be “go”. And by go, I mean go to Padre Island. The national seashore there is free wild camping on the ENTIRE 65-mile length of south beach. If you don’t mind the absence of electricity, running water, toilets, or cell phone reception, you will love the place! It is quiet and so very purely restful. You’ll have your own stretch of gulf shore beach all to yourself, perfect ocean waves all to yourself, all the relaxation all to yourself. We took advantage of that goodness and spent the weekend resting, swimming, running, and enjoying sweet time together.
Whew! There ya go! That’s what happened in weeks three and four. Lots of rest, lots of adventure. A good mix of both, I think. I am feeling so thankful for all that we have seen and hiked and explored and felt. The world is a beautiful place. I hope someday you get the opportunity to see the world in this way. It will change you.
Until next time!