Balmorhea and San Solomon Spring

A few blowout pictures just because...

Hey!  Not bad.  It's only flat on one side....

..this side.

We got it back good enough to travel.

Left too long to themselves and our kids always revert to honking the trucks.

The best honker came from a truck like this one.  It was carrying a nascar from Daytona to Arizona, where the next big race is.  These guys drive 10 months of the year on a circuit to all the races.

Here's another reason God is good.  If I didn't need to change the tire, I wouldn't have noticed that the spare under the trailer was only being held up by three screws instead of four, so one of its frame pieces was hanging down a bit.  If that tire broke free at 70mph we could have had a lot more damage than we got.  Thanks to some friendly neighbours at this park, it's all fixed now.

This is the same hill from far and then close. 

The channel that runs behind our campsite carries water from this pool at 1 million gallons per hour.

The water is crystal clear and fed by an artesian well.  It's 75 F, which felt a little cool today as it was about 82 here.

A fish pedicure.  That's a catfish in the middle.

Style....

....No style....

...style

Mckinney and Austin pictures

McKinney Falls State Park, right by Austin.

Red shouldered hawk

The Capitol at Austin

 Higher than any other original dome in the States....even Washington.  The star is 8 ft across......

...that's way up there.

They're right into Texas Patriotism, with every chandelier spelling Texas.

This is the only state where they are allowed to fly the state flag on the same pole as the national flag.

This very fancy water fountain just needs water pressure.

At the visitor center we met these two cowboys from the XIT ranch.

The girls can have this jag.  The guys will take the Dodge truck in San Anton.

At McKinney Falls we had lots of space to set up and play.

The limestone at the falls gives a sort of moon scape.

A good place to challenge your balance.

Fishing at the upper falls.......

.....and just above the lower falls.

Jake gave up on modern methods and tried the more traditional gaffing.

The lower falls

Some great bouldering rocks.

The guardian of the fort.

Lots of cool limestone formations here.

Just 1 hour drive from Mckinney and we were at another beautiful state park.

A 20 minute hike to the top is well worth the effort.
This batholithic rock has over 200 acres of exposed surface, as the tip of a 100 sq. mi. iceberg, so to speak.

 We carried on toward South Llano, where everyone seems to know the GPS will mess you up every time.

Sunset at South Llano, which has a lot of closed trails, so we only stayed one night.

Yesterday, travelling on the 80mph I-10, we had our first trailer tire blow out at 70mph.  It only caused minimal cosmetic damage, and gave me something more to do today. More pictures to come.

Austin, Sunday

I'll get pictures on again at the next stop, but for now I couldn't help but brag little.  This morning we went to church at Promiseland West.  The pastor is Randy Phillips of Phillips Craig and Dean.  He simply led in communion.  The worship was wonderful.  The guest speaker was Tony Campolo, and his message was classically riveting and challenging.  We had an awesome day.  The other highlight was finding a goodwill outlet store where they sell almost everything for $1.39/pound.  I got a decent Prince tennis raquet for 75 cents, and we were only there 10 minutes.  A good investment even if I didn't need the tennis raquet.
Pictures of Austin and McKinney Falls State Park will follow soon.  Everyone is well and really enjoying staying out in nature again.

San Antonio Stock Show/ volunteer hours

 Only one of us got our own new hat.
Guess who?

OK some of these kids are right into their hogs.

Ultra short legged Brahma cows.

The boy in the center front won a $10 000 scholarship with his grand Champ Angora Goat.  Every livestock category will have the same for the champion shown by a school student.  Also any money raised by the animals at auction goes straight to the kids.  This Stock show will give away about 8 million dollars each year for the youth of Texas.

This is a rodeo horse.  This barn has around 500 stalls like this one.

Nose bleed section for the rodeo.

Our favourite is the bulls.

This is Reba McIntyre on a rotating stage after the rodeo.  Everyone but Tori and I were too tired to enjoy the concert, but it was good.

Tori and I went again the very next night for the rodeo and Mercy Me concert.  It was way better than Reba.  One well led worship service.

Back to work.  Most of our time was spent helping in the hog barn for the largest hog show in the States.

This is where the pigs line up and pee before going in the ring.

T and J helping guide a pig out of the ring.

Can someone help me with this hat?

Another rodeo horse.

More play than work for sure.  Some take bumper cars way too seriously.

Tori and Janna upside down in the sun.

On our last day helping we actually broke a sweat.  It was great!

Jake went up and down as well as anyone.

Iron Mike, the boss of all things hoggish at the show, and our good friend.

Bill Jerman, chairman of all the stock at the show besides horses.  This is one busy man who still took the time to make us feel at home.  He is a gentleman who still removes his hat to meet a lady.

These volunteers are the heart of the show, and do they ever give a lot back to the youth of Texas.

More play

OK we usually are above the trucks around us, but not today.

It's actually for sale

Now that's cool.

It even has automatic steps that come out.

A little singing before bed on Saturday night at the Kareoke.