Texas State Parks 1: Brazos Bend

Currently in Dallas for Shabbos. But earlier in January -

Brazos Bend State Park. We came for 1 night and stayed for 3. It was a wonderful introduction to Texas State Parks. See for yourself:

This picture doesn’t properly show what a lovely campsite this was. It was in a serene meadow dotted with live oaks with no other campers nearby.

Fishing Dock

The trail along 40 Acre Lake to the observation tower provided excellent birding! Birder friends, help me out here if I mislabel.

Whistling Ducks (next 3 photos)

Synchronized Upside Downs

Synchronized Sleeping

Scarlet Tanager! I don’t think I ever saw one before!

Coopers Hawk

Koots

Little Blue Heron?

The labels mark past floods. See the one Bob is pointing to? That was the flood of December 1913. This entire area is totally flat for miles and miles. I can’t imagine the amount of water in the Brazos River to flood all this land up to that height.

On the White Oak Trail, Red Buckeye Trail to the Brazos River and Big Creek, and Creekfield Lake Woodland Trails...

A Vulture Condo. There were lots more on this tree!

Birder friends?

This trunk was at least several feet across. The tree had fallen and blocked the trail.

Interesting Stuff (it's a technical term) and Pretty Views

This trail was full of Dangerous Banks

The observatory was closed, but we walked over anyway and talked to the guys trying to fix the telescopes

The Nature Center

This Great Horned Owl makes her nest right behind the park office every year, then glares at everyone who comes to see her

Technically these Whooping Cranes were not in the park. But because they were in fields 10 minutes away, I have included this photo. My first time seeing a whooping crane. We (me) had seriously considered going 400 miles (round trip) out of our way to the Whooping Crane Festival near Port Aransas, TX and we (me) regretfully decided it wasn’t worth it. But I got to see them anyway!

Fun Fact: Although I have not been posting bird pictures, I have tons of great ones from other places. Maybe a future blog post?

Texas State Parks - Sheltering in Place During an Ice Storm

We find ourselves with some unexpected time on our hands as we hunker down in Pedernales State Park (west of Austin) for a winter storm in central Texas.

We were supposed to have left yesterday. The original plan was to drive about 100 miles north-ish to take a hike to Gorman’s falls at Colorado Bend State Park, then to continue another 100 miles north to Dinosaur Valley State Park (southwest of Fort Worth) to wade into the Paluxy River to see dinosaur footprints.

We started out yesterday morning, barely left Pedernales Park, and saw the ice already accumulating on the trees. After thinking about it a bit, we turned around and came back to stay safe at the campground.

So, I figured given the circumstances, I would do a post on the four Texas State Parks we have stayed at.

But as I started to go through my pictures, I realized I will need to do a separate post on each park, given the number of pictures I want to include.

So this post is just about the ice storm at Pedernales State Park. And these may seem like a lot of pictures, but I brutally cut the number down from all the ones I wanted to post.

Fun Fact 1: This storm has a name - Mara

Fun Fact 2: Yesterday wasn’t a good day to go hiking or wading anyway.

Koolulam at San Antonio Congregation Rodfei Sholom

Sometimes it’s all about being in the right place at the right time.

Today we attended a Koolulam Sing Along? Concert? Performance? (They call themselves a Social-Musical Initiative) in San Antonio at Congregation Rodfei Sholom where we were for shabbos.

This one stars Bob!.

Terrific community at Rodfei Sholom. We had a great time over shabbos. But this post is about Koolulam.

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Severe Storms Warning and Severe Storm, Also Riptides

Yesterday morning, Tuesday (we have to keep reminding ourselves what day of the week it is) we got an email alert from the Reserve Alabama Park web site:

noreply@reservealapark.com <noreply@reservealapark.com> 

Tue, Jan 3, 2023 at 8:01 AM

Dear Alabama State Park Camper:

Please be weather aware throughout the day today and into the morning tomorrow, Tuesday, January 3, 2023 and Wednesday, January 4, 2023. Severe storms are possible including flooding, damaging winds, and tornadoes. Heavy rainfall could cause flash flooding.

Be sure you have a plan to shelter in a safe place in the case of inclement weather. Please also be sure to have a source where you can hear weather warnings (do not rely on outdoor sirens), and we recommend enabling emergency updates on your mobile phone.

If you have any questions about local shelters or specific radio/television stations to follow, please contact the park/campground office.

Getting a message like this is always a little alarming, especially because we were camping in the parking lot of the Bass Pro Shop in Mobile, and no longer in the fabulous Gulf State Park where we had been the two nights before. Therefore the advice to "please contact the park/campground office” was not helpful. But all turned out OK. Fortunately, the storm was just full of sound and fury, but did not signify tornados.

Here’s more evidence of the sometimes alarming weather in this part of the country.

Leaving Gulf State Park, we drove to the end of a barrier island to catch the ferry (another cruise!) across Mobile Bay to Dauphin Island. This warning sign was on the road to the ferry:

Yes, that is correct. There are sometimes rip tides on the road! You don’t only need to worry about rip tides when swimming, but also when driving!

More info is needed. If caught in a rip tide while driving, I'm not sure if you need to drive parallel to shore and across the current to escape it.

This is the road where the riptides sign was. To be fair, this barrier island is barely above sea level and it wouldn't take much of a storm to flood it or send waves pouring over it and I guess even form a riptide. 

These are also the first places evacuated in case a storm is expected. You see evacuation route signs all over these coastal areas. Much of this area was totally flattened by Hurricane Michael in October 2018.

Caribbean Cruise - Sunsets with the Occasional Sunrise

We got back from our Caribbean cruise 3 weeks ago. It’s about time I posted about it!

This post is just for sunrise/sunset pictures. Little needs to be said other than that there were a lot more photos that I could have included.

Since we got back from our cruise, we have been puttering around in Florida. We are heading to Alabama today.

Wishing everyone a year of beautiful sunrise and sunsets!