My Perspective; Chapter 4: In Which Some More of Texas is the Central Figure

Remember that beautiful sunset I was talking about? That was *almost* the last day of sunshine that I saw for nearly a week. There were two more days of partial sun as we traveled central Texas to our next stopping location near San Antonio.

I must say. I loved the ‘hill country.’ It was so…country. I love the country. 

Texas, where there are beautiful fields of yellow wildflowers.

Texas, where there are gorgeous yellow trees. They looked like Washington scotch broom, except, they were trees. And, the flowers were very soft, delicate, fuzzy balls. It also had thorns and smelled like chemicals. :D

Texas, where there are MILLIONS of freight trucks. For every one car, there were literally 50 trucks.

Texas, where the speed limit is 80 mph

Texas, where two lanes one direction is sufficient to handle said millions of trucks at said speed.

Texas, where the roads are straight as a dart. (As opposed to ‘crooked as a thief’)

Texas, where pine trees have much longer needles than pine trees in Washington.

We stayed at a little RV park at Medina Lake Texas. The GPS apparently doesn’t think that that is a real place. To get to it, you have to go a bit off the beaten path on a very twisty, winding road. The speed limit was between 50 and 60. That’s all well and good for a small car. With the motorhome, we pretty much went 40. Except for when we went 3mph.

Why did we go so slowly? The route we took happened to be the same route they were having a bicycle marathon or something. Each contestant. (we only saw too, so that might be too general of a statement) had it’s own private car following along behind.

The first contestant we ran across was, well, rather rude. Although there was a fairly wide shoulder in that particular spot, and several driveways to pull into, the byciclist and her escort decided to drive/ride in the middle of the road. Did I mention that it was a twisty road? There weren’t very many places to pass legally. And, while others passed illegally, we weren’t about to do that in a motorhome. It just wasn’t that safe. 

However, the story ended after all with us passing illegally. But, only after several miles of slow going.

The second bicyclist/escort was much nicer and pulled off onto the shoulder to let us pass.

When we finally reached the campsite we drove around for a while looking for a place to park. As we did so, we got a good look at Medina Lake. Or rather, at what used to be a lake. According to my grandparents, Texas had been going through a drought for three or four years. It was a beautiful lakebed with great stretches of beautiful green…doesn’t that sound nice? There was also a herd of cows out to pasture…

We spent two nights there. That way we could go to church with my big brother in San Antonio. Yes, the same one who would, and did, get married the week afterwards.

I’ve been to San Antonio before, and I liked it just as much this time as the last. When someone asked me if I liked it, I admitted that I did…It’s a very organized city. The roads make sense. I know that sounds like a terrible reason to like a place.

San Antonio, where there are newspaper hawkers on the street corners!!!!! I didn’t know such things existed anymore in this age of internet and television!

San Antonio, where many of the street lights are still horizontal instead of vertical. It drove me nuts. (and it made us almost run a red light…)

I very much enjoyed my brother’s church. The pastor preached an excellent sermon from Galatians Chapter 1 through part of Chapter 2. I also got mistaken by more than one person for Sarah, my brother’s then-soon-to-be wife.

It would run like this:

“And this is Sarah! You look a lot like your fiancé!” It was amusing.

We went to a Chinese Buffet afterwards, where I used a chocolate fountain for the first time and also managed not to overeat. Then, we went to see my brother’s house. Since he had been robbed a few weeks before, it was rather empty and messy, but a truly lovely little place with a nice view of a large green field.

This is my brother.

This is his nice view.

This is me and my brother. Don't we look nice? It was the only picture the entire time that didn't turn out. It was also the only picture of us together. Isn't that sad!?

That evening, back at the RV park. I saw one of my favorite sights of the whole trip. There were hundreds of mule deer. Possible up to 500 hundred. And, they were ALL RUNNING together at a distance of less than a football field! 

It was truly beautiful to see.

Then, on Monday, we continued our travels. And, because I’m running out of adjectives and things, you’ll have to wait until tomorrow for that.  Suffice it to say, that with Monday, all sunshine was gone for almost the rest of the trip. That is why I don’t really have a tan after two weeks in the south. :D