May 14, 2023 – Don’t Mess with Texas

I’d like to say we made the most of our few days in the Texas Hill Country, exploring its natural areas that include springs, caves, and waterfalls. Camped between Austin and San Antonio would make it convenient to visit my alma mater in the culturally and musically diverse state capital, and a drive south meant a tour of the Alamo and San Antonio’s famous Riverwalk and Spanish Missions.

I’d like to say we timed it perfectly for a public viewing of the world’s largest bat colony take flight from Bracken Cave into the night sky or that we visited the charming town of Fredericksburg, one of the many German settlements in the Hill Country. Or maybe done a little tasting at any one of several wineries that speckle the rolling hills.

I’d like to say all that, but I can’t. Instead, three days parked at Canyon Lake were largely spent right there in the campground. And here’s why.

Everything in Texas is big. The skies are big, the clouds, the wind, the lightning, the hail – all BIG. And we had big storms chasing us from the Louisiana border all the way to Canyon Lake. Like clockwork, storms formed out of nowhere each afternoon and hovered menacingly over the Hill Country for several hours.

Second, according to our Texas born and raised campground host, San Antonio has a serious theft problem. In between restaurant recommendations and exclamations of great pride in his home state, our knowledgeable host described how our Ford truck is the most popular target for vehicle-stealing thieves. The statistics were frightening, as high as 40 vehicles a day. Why are Ford Super Duty trucks so popular among low lifes? A) Ford designed its driver-side door handle in a way that makes it extremely convenient to break into and start the truck without a key, and B) big trucks come in handy for smugglers crossing the border with cargo (human or otherwise).

Vivian had never been to San Antonio or Austin. We scratched our Austin plans but found a work around to visit San Antonio with some piece of mind. This comes with the following disclaimer – Please don’t consider this to be a typical solution, we were simply recipients of the good graces of management.

There are campgrounds located within San Antonio’s city limits offering security and convenient access to the city’s public transportation. Being KOA members, we had the bright idea to reserve a campsite for one night in San Antonio’s KOA – not to camp but to have a safe place to park the truck for the day. Upon explaining our idea to the camp reservationist, she quickly came up with a more affordable solution – why not rent a dry storage space for the day, only $15? Great idea! The part I would like you to remember however, is that after arriving at the KOA, we were informed that the manager would normally not allow us to park (liability, etc, etc), but since we were already there, we could park in the visitor’s parking and go have fun in the city. But don’t come back ya’ll!

We had our reasons to stay in our campground but the best reason was that we were in a beautiful space full of wildflowers, birds, deer, and a sweeping view of the water. Not to mention, we were tired of driving, no offense to our trusty F350, but we just wanted a day off.

We did have fun in the city, cut short by the early afternoon storms that blew us out of there. Mostly, what I remember from our short stay in Texas’s Hill Country are the deer and wildflowers that populated our campground. I enjoyed photographing them, so until next time, please enjoy this slide show from my time with the camera.