Country Fever

Map Route

Nick catching his breath at the top of Enchanted Rock

After looking at Texas' capitol we drove from Austin toward San Antonio. We drove along Texas Hill Country road with our first stop being Pedernales Falls State Park. We walked out to look at the falls and then went to the swimming area. After being in the hot motor home we were looking forward to some refreshing water. We were sadly disappointed to find that the water was lukewarm. The river felt more like bath water, which I'm sure would be nice at night but not in the scorching noon sun. We paddled around the murky waters then continued on to LBJ state park. By the time we got there the park center was closed but we followed the map and drove around looking at the living history barn and church. We made our way to the Enchanted Rock State Park. The park is for the rock formations, the largest rock of entirely pink granite. We followed the path through overgrown bushes, cactus, and flowers to the base of the mountain. Natalie and I, naively in flip flops, hiked to the summit. The hike was very steep. Ominously, vultures circled over us as we neared the summit. The mountain seemed to be getting more steep with each step, we came over a ridge to find a dozen vultures sitting and watching us. Luckily we pulled through and the view was worth it. The sun was setting over the valley which created more of a pink glow on the granite. The rock is said to be enchanted because there is a buzzing noise at the top from the mass contracting and expanding. We laid on the top and felt the earth around us, listening to the buzz of "spirits".  We got up and hiked back down before it got pitch black and wandered our way back to the motor home for the night.

Enchanted Rock

Pink granite of Enchanted Rock

In the morning we woke up and drove to the Museum of Western Art in Kerrville, there they had life size iron sculptures of cowboys and horses outside with miniature ones inside. We walked around looking at all of the country paintings, stagecoach wagons, and horse saddles. We then drove on to the Lost Maples State Park. This is an area where Maple trees grow because the park is shaded by canyon walls and river runs through providing water for the maples. We walked down the Maple Grove along the river. After a quick hike we drove to Garner State Park, we only drove through to see tons of people camping and floating in the Frio (cold) river. We didn't have enough time to stay as we were trying to make it to Houston. We drove on and through Bandera, the cowboy capitol of Texas. Sadly no hot cowboys were waiting in the streets for us, so we continued through to San Antonio. In San Antonio we went to the Alamo and then did the famous River Walk. the sidewalk follows along with the river on one side and restaurant on the other. It was really cool thing to see, there were a lot of people and there were river tour boats going by. We left and headed upstairs back to the main street level. We drove to Houston, all while watching a lightening storm that lit up the whole sky. The lightening crackled across the sky looking like a root system. In Houston we parked and slept for the long drive.

Alicia and Natalie at the Alamo

Indian sculpture at the Museum of Western Art

Natalie and Nick on the River Walk in San Antonio, TX

4th of July!!! We left Houston early and drove to Galveston, TX- an island in the Gulf of Mexico we reached by bridge. We somehow found free parking and made our way to the beach which was packed for the fourth of July. We claimed a piece of white sand and made our way to the brown, seaweed infested waters. The water was cool and refreshing as we swam and body surfed the small waves. After laying out to dry off we took the ferry across back to the mainland. We drove to Louisiana, the highways are mainly bridges over swamps. We drove through Baton Rouge, one of the more green city we have seen (from tons of trees). We made it into New Orleans, and after getting lost down some road by the train tracks we were beginning to feel uneasy. Where we had accidentally drove to looked like a movie set for a rape/murder/ torture road, one where nobody would find our bodies for a month at least. After redirecting ourselves we made it far away from the creepy zone and to the campground. The campground, Pontchartrain Landing, is on the marina, and had their own fireworks display that we saw go off over the Pontchartrain Lake. We took a cab to Bourbon Street to experience the night life and boy were we out of our element. The first thing you notice when walking up the street is the mass amounts of people and the crazy things they're doing (not as much flashing going on as I'd had imagined) then the smell hits you. There was a constant smell of shit all the along Bourbon Street, but the smell changed as you went along to more of a pee smell, then more of a vomit smell, to more of a rotten food smell. This was not a smell any normal person could get used to. We walked the streets trying to avoid running into all of the people and not step in small puddles of mystery brown liquid. This time it was Nick and I that had wore sandals which is not something I would suggest to anyone. We went inside Bayou Burgers for bite. We got Gator Traps- deep fried alligator with jalapeno cheese, and the ultimate hamburger that had a grilled cheese bacon sandwich within it. We continued along the streets, I honestly didn't feel comfortable enough to drink anything because I felt hyper aware of everything going on around. When we made it to a cross street we decided to turn back and walk the other direction. We had made it 20 feet before we saw a wall of people barreling towards us. Like the Lion King we were about to get ran over by a stampede. Everyone was screaming and you could see pure fear in their eyes, something that reflected back in ours. One girl yelled into my face that there were gunshots and we needed to get out of there. We turned and ran as fast as we could so we didn't get trampled to death. We made it to the crossroad and turned, some girl grabbed mine and Natalie's arms and pulled us to the side. She said to calm down and that nothing was going on. She had lived there forever and goes to Bourbon Street all the time and she said this was a regular occurrence. She said that we shouldn't run and just step out of the way unless we actually hear the gunshots. This wasn't really an option for us, if we had tried to move out of the way we would have been knocked down just like the homeless man that was cowering on the ground covering his dog. My heart had finally stopped pounding and the crowd had cleared so we made our way back down the street. After the stampede tons of policemen were out riding their horses, we came along a huge group of people bunched together. We didn't know what was going on in the middle, but a police officer riding a horse rode through the group with the horse swaying back and forth to break the group up. When this happened it created a lot of commotion people screaming again and jumping out of the way of the horse and other people. In this process my foot got smashed by a large man and I was officially done with New Orleans. We caught a cab back home and called it at night at 12am. I can honestly say I will never go back to Bourbon Street as the craziness is a normal thing there, I cannot imagine what Mardi Gras is like. Tomorrow we will got to Frenchmen Street- a place where locals go that is "very calm" and more artsy with live Jazz music. Hopefully we won't get trampled.

Alicia and Natalie on Bourbon Street

Bayou along Hwy 10 in Louisiana

Quote:
       "The wish to travel seems to me characteristically human: the desire to move, to satisfy your curiosity or ease your fears, to change the circumstances of your life, to be a stranger, to make a friend, to experience an exotic landscape, to risk the unknown."