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Wednesday, March 11, 2015

A Few of the Many Faces of Austin

A week ago we moved just 10 miles to Oak Forest RV Park in East Austin, TX. We're spending a month here, it's somewhat quieter than our previous location but still an easy drive (depending on time of day) into town if we want to visit the city.

Texas is still challenging us with wintery weather, though it's changed from days that can't get out of the 30's to days of wet, wet, wet; be it a slight drizzle all day long or 2" of rain in 48 hours. We're looking forward to several rain-free days this week!

Right across the street from our RV park is Green Gate Farms. It's primarily a CSA, but also has a three-days-a-week (supposedly) farm stand. We walked over one day to check out the farm stand but it wasn't happening and we couldn't get any answers...but we did get some photos. We'll try the farm stand again on a sunny day, perhaps we'll get lucky then!


Barn cat.


Green Gate Farms has a bunch of happy looking Berkshire hogs.
They were very curious about us.



One misty day we needed to get out of the RV no matter how wet we got. We headed over to the Roy G. Guerrero Disc Golf Course near downtown Austin and proceeded to play this terrific course in the damp. We had it all to ourselves on this wet weekday, it's a beautiful course with some very long holes but not too much undergrowth to hide your discs.

I liked the contrast of brilliant green grass, brown trees, gray sky.
Soon all the trees will be leafed out, providing welcome shade from the Texas sun (that we haven't seen much of yet!).

We finally got a sunny day and did some walking downtown and came across the Hope Outdoor Gallery. This public space is open to all muralists, graffiti artists and community groups who want to paint positive messages in a public space.

Visit this space on a regular basis for an ever changing feast for the eyes.



Hans' longtime friends Ashley and Lila have lived in Austin for years. We've gotten together for dinners at our homes a few times already and one cold, sunny day recently Lila was able to join us on a hike at McKinney Falls State Park. We hiked the 2.8 mile Onion Creek Loop, saw lots of birds and checked out the falls, what a great day!

Hans and Lila at the upper falls.

Someone painted this detailed drawing in a hole in the falls!

Obligatory turtle pic!

Deep holes abound in the limestone bed of Onion Creek.


The lower falls.

Austin is a music city, you can find tons of live music any night of the week and with SXSW coming the number of musical events is astounding. Thousands of musicians will perform over the next few weeks at both official and unofficial SXSW venues, day and night. Not being night owls, early shows make us happy so you can be sure we'll catch a few shows over the next couple of weeks. We happened to catch an early evening show at a funky dive bar, the Carousel Lounge, recently.

Circus themed decor makes this dive bar an interesting venue.

With two sunny days in a row we figured some trail hiking was in order; we hoped the trails wouldn't be too muddy at McKinney Roughs Nature Park. We hiked seven of their 18 miles of trails with very little mud, good rolling terrain, lots of pretty forest and a few birds along the Colorado River portion.

Some of the pecan trees have been dated to around 200 years old!

Fossilized oyster shells were abundant along the Yaupan trail.

Good birding along the river.

Walking along the river we could see the high water line had once been head high!
Trees were just beginning to bud, this view will be very different in a few weeks - all green!

We've got a decent site at Oak Forest RV Park, the oak tree next to our rig is just beginning to leaf out and will look completely different by the time we leave. The annual rodeo begins in just a few days and this park is just down the road from the rodeo grounds so it is fully booked for the next couple of weeks.

Pull through site #16.

Stay tuned for more adventures in Austin!

18 comments:

  1. Your posts from Texas have reinforced my view that while I'd love to do the hikes you have done including the really great looking ones today, Texas as a wintering spot is probably not in my future. Looks like a nice site. Love your pics of McKinney Falls State Park. The water is beautiful, the colors so vivid. Hope you can score at the farm stand.

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    1. I'm glad we're doing TX this year, but I don't see us coming back soon. McKinney Falls is the ideal place to stay in Austin, but two weeks is the limit and we needed a month.

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  2. Here's to better weather with spring just around the corner. We have never visited Austin and from your post it sounds like a really fun place to go! I love falls and rivers and streams...they add so much to see with birds and trees and flowers...

    Looking forward to more beautiful pictures and info...enjoy!

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    1. The terrain near the waterways is extremely thick brush and trees...very different than we've seen elsewhere in our travels. I think we like more open terrain better (thinking of UT).

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  3. Nice photos of the old barn! I think Texas is getting more wintry weather than the Pacific NW right now.

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    1. I agree with you because I've been watching OR weather too. This is pretty dreary for us!

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  4. Very cool places in Austin. Love the barn photo. Keep Austin Weird!

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  5. I can relate with the weather :) but the good thing for you is that you are near a funky city and have things to do there. And the best part is there is also hiking with beautiful sceneries.
    And since we won't be going there anytime in the future, I am enjoying our pics of the city.

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    1. Yes indeed, you suffered through a much longer TX winter than we have!

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  6. Nice pics of McKinney Falls....hmmmm, seems so familiar;) When we were there the campground was covered in leaves and they were still falling off the trees. Looks strange to see it so clear!

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    1. It will be interesting to see it change to the trees completely full of leaves! The leaves will entirely hide the river on many of the trails!

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  7. Boy, TX just won't warm up, but glad you did see the sun:) I love the rocks on your hike along the river. Someone must have painted that picture upside down in that hole. Pretty cool! How neat to find the fossilized oyster shells in the rocks!

    Sounds like fun times ahead with all the music:)

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    1. They had to have hung over the hole and painted it upside down! Crazy, but talented, graffiti artist!

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  8. Looks like you've found some of that seasonal weather you thought you'd like more of :-). I think late winter, early spring is the hardest to predict - we will be in the 90's this weekend (yuk). Love the barn cat and the ones of Onion Creek. Couldn't figure out why you took a close-up of a granola bar, then saw the oyster shells caption......made a lot more sense :-)))) Enjoy the music!

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    1. You are absolutely correct, I wanted more weather and I got it! We've decided we couldn't live in a place where it rains day after day after day! Though I think I dislike heat more than rain!

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  9. What a nice post, informative and with lovely pictures. Never been to Austin but this post definitely got it on my short list of places to see in Texas. I also want to see San Antonio.

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  10. I completely understand needing to get outdoors, rain or shine! The hike at McKinney Falls looks beautiful. We spent a good part of April in Texas last year and the weather was fantastic (as were the flowers in the hill country). I bet it will be the same for you. The music festival sounds like fun!

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