Shelter From The Storm

 -

There's a race of men that don't fit in,
A race that can't stay still;
So they break the hearts of kith and kin,
And they roam the world at will.
They range the field and they rove the flood,
And they climb the mountain's crest;
Theirs is the curse of the gypsy blood,
And they don't know how to rest.
   -robert w service
 
 

  Today we are in Llano, Texas. We camped last night at Lost Maples State Park in Vanderpool, Texas after stopping briefly at Blanco State Park. We got to Lost Maples pretty late and it had been raining all day. We decided to stay and camp rather than do another long drive to find a motel room. We got in a quick hike while it was getting dark and tried to hike up to tthe waterfalls along the many bluffs there. The heavey rains had all the creeks and rivers overflowing and we were even concerned about getting the car over one of the crossings and getting trapped there as the water continued to rise. We left the car at the campsite and walked the road to the trailhead and headed up to the falls. We were soon crossing the flooded Guadalupe River where they had huge stepping stones but found they too were under rapid  flowing water and we managed to get across in two spots before being stopped by another right before reaching the falls. We turned back as it was getting dark and hiked the road back to our tent. There we made hot soup to warm up and had hot tea and fig newtons for dessert! Then we hit the park's showers and had long hot showers! That warmed us right up and we put on clean dry fleece tops and bottoms and climbed into our sleeping bags for the night. I slept the best I had in a few nights and being warm and dry in our bags as the rain fell all night surely had something to do with it. This morning we debated if we really wanted to do any more hiking as it was still raining and the thought of putting on our cold wet hiking clothes and shoes was all it took to have us breaking camp and looking for a warm motel room, a laundrymat and BBQ!! On the way to Llano it rained harder than it had the last two days and as we passed Enchanted Rock State Park we decided to drive in and see what the conditions were getting in and out on the park road. Here we encountered one of the deepest crossings so far and though the trusty little Focus made it through we thought with the rain getting even heavier we may well get trapped in the park or worse, between two high water crossings so we turned the car around and continued on. So here we are in Llano, dry, clean, well fed and wondering where to head tomorrow. We still have a few days before we have to be back in Dallas for Sheila's check up.