Unintended rewards

Sunny Day Farms is a rehab or farm animal shelter of sorts that takes in goats, horses, pigs and jackasses to name a few.  I attended a homesteading festival which included rain catchment design and installment demonstrations as well as an aquaponics irrigation system that uses minimal electricity. Later in the day was a permaculture introduction demonstration, which I skipped because I didn't  especially feel like waiting two hours through lunch. For those that don't know permaculture is more using nature processes to produce food and work with nature than against it. It was a great time, I just wish I had some  land of my own to hit the ground running. I just can't commit, with the way land prices are on the area, as well as restrictions that are unappealing. ( septic, electric hookup). Almost as if it is a necessity. Solar and compost is all you need. (in theory). That was a fun time. The unexpected drive is what I enjoy. I stopped by a familiar spot in Castroville,TX, the lifesaver of a park(inside reference)- Castroville Regional Park. Enjoyed the Medina river and rapids along with it. I always wanted to visit Medina Lake and since I was in the area, I set the gps to take me to the "hill of contentment". No, that's the actual name- Hill of Contentment; aptly named I might add. If memory serves me correctly. Coming from Castroville, take FM 471 N and it magically turns in to CR 2615 . Your gonna wanna stay on this road until you see a bush that looks like George Washington. There will be a guy smoking a "tobacco" pipe on his front porch wearing a " I support Ron Paul shirt". If you see the retired admiral playing battleship in his above ground pool you've gone too far. Go past Paradise Canyon RV Park  and take a right on CR 271. This is a top drive in my book. A few water crossings and rushing creeks. I took a left on FM 1283 and drove down through the neighborhood of Pebble Beach in the City of Lakehills. The lake is kind of low but the water is as blue as ever. Avalon State Park has some great views along with a boat ramp. Heading back home I was in for a big surprise. As mentioned before I spotted a 2011 Chevy volt in San Marcos,tx a few weeks ago. I did not have my camera and they were leaving. So there I was driving down FM 1283 and I spotted the distinct tail end of the Volt. I maneuvered and took a hard left. Okay so I put my blinker on and coasted into the left turn. More like Fast and the Furious meets cheap and frugal. I had continued to follow the rockstar of the car world for 2011. About a mile down the road it had pulled in to a driveway and I pulled up by the side of the road. I asked the man (Don), if I could take a picture of his car and he let me get in and even opened the hood. He seemed very excited to talk about the car. He stated he has only filled it up once and he was one of the first Volts issued in December 2010 out of ATX. I knew the stats on the car, but wanted to get some real world numbers. 38 miles is what he averages with electric. HILL country mind you. Now that you lasted through this, you can interpret the pictures.

Guadalupe River State Park

A little biking, tubing and camping with only a few people in the park makes it a great day. It is the middle of drought season and the Guadalupe is trying hard to work its way through to Canyon Lake. There is just enough water to tube. Mind you it is a lazy tube ride and not very long. I headed out from New Braunfels around 11:00 and arrived at GRSP at around 11:45 after stopping in Bulverde at H.E.B to get some jerky and trail mix. Checked in and got a camping spot with a decent view. (24) Although I have been hiking here, this is the first time for mountain biking. Some parts are challenging and some are easy coasting, navigating through the rocks. I plan on biking here again real soon. Of course I would make sure that day that there were not many equine on the trail. Some people love 'em and some people, hate 'em. If I were at Hill Country State Natural Area it would be nice to have them but GRSP is a mountain bikers paradise and I don't need a horse mucking that up. After sweating and coasting, one the reward of the other, I ate some lunch.(a bag of jerky and a "bit of honey") and then headed down to the river with all my gear. Beautiful day with the sun shining and wind blowing. The water was cool enough and did the trick. I was out there for a few hours and floated that stretch about four times, tying off to a rock in the rapids to get more time out of it. It was getting late and I headed up to the campsite to set up my tent. A little trail mix and a cup of coffee was dinner and off to an early bed. That didn't last long. The sun was on its way down but not quite there yet and it was a tad warm at 87 degrees. I waited about an hour and it had dropped to 75 degrees. The wind felt nice. I got back in and had a night filled with coyotes and wild pigs waking me up every few hours. I guess that is the price you pay to be in such a wonderful place. http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/spdest/findadest/parks/guadalupe_river/