Trip to Tejas Part One

Off to a Rough Start...Dawn called me while I was in lecture on Friday because the car wouldn't start and she was stuck at the gas station. Convinced it was the starter, I didn't even try to jump it off even though I had a set of cables. We waited four hours for the tow truck to come and take the car to the mechanic. The mechanic recharged the battery and it started right away! I felt really stupid. We got on the road five hours later than we wanted and arrived in Ft. Worth at two in the morning.

On Saturday we spent time with friends and went to the botanical gardens and Sheridans. We went to church and then to lunch with the Pelters on Sunday. After that we drove to Waco and celebrated the seven Downing August birthdays. We spent time with family and Waco friends on Monday and Tuesday and played Rock Band - I even sang! We went to a natural science and history museum with a great children's area that we played in and we also went to the Dr Pepper museum.
Our friends Mike and Melissa's 18 month old little boy is super funny. He only eats solid food - nothing semi-solid like yogurt, peanut butter, or mashed potatoes. At dinner he tried to eat a french fry but it soon turned to mashed potato in his mouth and he started screaming. The solution: dad had to dig it out of his mouth with his finger! Also, he loves corn on the cob but doesn't like to have dirty hands. He was going to town with the corn and at one point crammed the whole thing in his mouth long-ways. But he soon noticed his messy hands and kept repeating in a very calm voice: "Uh-oh." They gave him a paper towel and he cleaned himself up then tried to use the paper towel to hold the corn. He couldn't quite get his fingers to do what he wanted so he abandoned that idea and went back to the corn with bare hands. Wednesday morning we headed to Lake Buchanan about an hour northwest of Austin and rented a pontoon boat. We went up the Colorado River where a little stream makes a waterfall into the river. We swam in the river and we went under the falls. Then we drove the boat to an embankment near the falls, ran the boat ashore and pulled it up as far as we could onto the muddy bank. Our goal: to find the source of the waterfall.

The hottest skipper EVER!

We walked across a muddy area in bare feet and put our shoes on at the other side. Then we hiked up a steep hill covered in rocks, bushes, and cactus. I even saw a snake sleeping in the shade of a rock. At the top of the hill, we swung around a fence post hanging over a 60 foot cliff to cross the fence. A small wooded area was next and then a short drop-off to the creek bed and we were there!

It was beautiful! Several crystal clear pools of water were interconnected by small waterfalls and they were full of brim and catfish. The water had carved its course out of the dense limestone rock and left miniature cliffs perfect for jumping into the deep pools. Watch out fish!



When we got back to the boat at the muddy river bank, it was stuck fast in the mud. I resorted to digging out the thick mud from under the boat with my hands as Dawn helped...by watching! But it worked and we were on our way.

We docked the boat and headed to Conroe to spend time with Dawn's parents.