We’ve returned for a second season volunteering at Pedernales Falls State Park near Johnson City, Texas. This place is probably the best option for us to spend time near Pflugerville where Suni’s family lives. Out of all the state parks in this part of Texas, this is our favorite and I think it is the best of the lot. It is a little out of the way and an hour and 15 minute drive to Suni’s house, but that is also what makes it a good place to hang out. It’s hasn’t yet been totally civilized out here...just yet.
As I write this I recall two nights ago. I was walking the dogs around 9:30 PM. There was a half moon high in the sky and despite the brightness of its reflection stars were poking out of the black curtain of darkness above. All was quiet in the campground. Suddenly, not more than a couple of hundred feet away, came 4 indescribable screams in rapid succession. They sounded almost human, as if a half-woman half-she-wolf were attacking some poor soul. I knew it wasn’t human, though. No person could make such a hellish sound. Was it a raccoon? Was it a bobcat? Hell, I don’t know. But, such is the nature of the Park. While not a wilderness by any stretch, it is still far enough away from the urban sprawl of Austin to warrant a decent sense of being “out there”.
The campground can get very busy during holidays and weekends. They actually limit the number of visitors here, as they do in all the state parks around here. I’m not sure if the National Park system does that yet, but it’s a good idea. I hate to say it, but recreational areas are being “loved to death” all over the US. It’s a drag to have to reserve time in a park, it’s a hassle, but it’s worth doing for the sake of saving these semi-wild places. During the early part of the week, Mondays through Wednesdays typically, it’s not difficult to chart a hike where you won’t run into many, if any, people. I have a couple of favorites where I take Dash and Heidi. I let them off leash and let them run to their heart’s content. One of my favorite jaunts is down along the river bank where an “unofficial” path has been cut by a few visitors. I’ve seen flocks of Cardinals, Robins, and Cedar Waxwings there. Early mornings there are inspirational for me, but, of course, I love rivers. To walk along a river’s edge and join the animals and plants that cling to its life-sustaining renewal is heaven to me. So often have I traced the banks of rivers with my best friend Bob looking for that perfect spot to fish. So often have I waded upstream waist-deep feeling for catfish holes where I can set a trot line, or drifted with the current to become part of the river itself.
Last week, Diane and I hiked along the western boundary of the Park on an equestrian trail. Though not challenging or dramatic, the trail is sublime in its own way. The Park staff has performed prescribed burns in this area and it has resulted in the land looking much more like it did 150 years ago before the Juniper-Ashe took over so much of the landscape. Somehow it looks as if it were the plains of Africa, though for sure I’ve never been to the Serengeti. Clumps of healthy Live Oaks dot the plains amid high grasses that frequently burst from the burnt vegetation. Limestone glades punctuate the south-facing hillsides where gatherings of prickly pears congregate to make full use of the blazing summer sun. You expect to see lions lounging about or giraffes slowly nibbling away at high, tender leaves in the Oaks. Just the occasional smallish Texas white-tailed deer make appearances. The birds are plentiful, however. Actual flocks of Cardinals race among the Oaks calling out to each other in their distinguished whistles. During this particular hike we saw no other humans, just we two. Such is the Park on a Monday mid-afternoon in winter time.
It’s interesting to consider what constitutes wilderness or “the original landscape untouched by man” in the Americas. I’ve been reading this eye-opening book called, “1491” and among the revelations it contains are new perspectives about what the western hemisphere was like before European influences. For instance, when the Europeans landed on the eastern coast of America they found it fairly empty of human habitation and the landscape park-like, meaning it appeared to be landscaped by the hand of man. Animals flourished everywhere. For centuries historians and botanists and the like assumed that the natural order of the environment constituted this orderly appearance. Now we find out that it is not the natural order that they believed they were encountering.
For centuries the inhabitants had been shaping the landscape to suit their needs, gardening on a massive scale all across the eastern US and most of the hemisphere. Learning to cultivate crops to suit their dietary needs allowed people to expand and create civilizations. Corn, (maize) potatoes, root vegetables and many more edibles were actually hybridized by man, planted and grown over millennia, invented as it were for sustenance. In Peru they developed some 50+ variations of the not-so-humble potato. The animal populations were kept in check so that the crops could be maximized. Protein was provided by managing animal populations and from fish. Surprising to me, amazingly, large swaths of Amazonia were manipulated as well. Whereas the soil in the Amazon basin is very poor due to the constant leaching from the overly-plentiful rainfall, people learned to create great soil by adding charcoal along with detritus from the forest into the ground beneath their feet. The soil, when improved this way for many years, could support great populations of humans.
So, when Europeans landed in central and South America it was their diseases, to which there were no immunities, that eventually nearly totally vacated the hemisphere of humans. Perhaps 90% of the pre-Columbian population was wiped out by disease within just a few decades. By the time the Europeans arrived on the east coast of the US, the manicured landscape was still mostly in place but the animal populations had exploded, rebounding from the absence of culling by humans. Some animal populations literally exploded. Passenger Pigeons, held in check by the humans, were one such example. Their numbers exploded into the hundreds of millions. Of course, man has since wiped them off the planet for good. Humans, themselves, were there in the 1600’s, but pretty scarce comparitively.
Here in the Hill Country of Texas we see the Ashe-Juniper have taken over the landscape. As the buffalo were eliminated from the area and cattle were allowed to overgraze the Ashe-Juniper were one of the few plant species that could survive. One of the issues that this explosion of Ashe-Junipers has created is very problematic for inhabitants of the 21st century. The plant drinks a lot of water. There is so much moisture being sucked up by the plants that many of the local springs that were fed by rainfall have dried up. Obviously, every drop of water is needed for the human population explosion here.
So far this year we have not spent as much time as last year exploring the area near the Park. I don’t really know why. Whereas last winter we went to several other Parks all around the Hill Country, this season we have seemed content just to hang out here in the campground or at Suni’s house when we visited them.
It has been a colder Winter this year than last. True, we had the “Big Freeze of ‘21” last February where the state virtually shut down for a week. What a disaster that was! In what would have been a thrice annual snow event for St Louis, Texas was totally unprepared for any kind of snow accumulation...at all. This year, at just about the same time, the area was hit by a very strong cold-front with a scattering of ice from freezing rain. We high-tailed it over to Suni’s to sit out the freeze as we had the weekend off anyway. Suni and Dane are so very kind to us in allowing us to hang out at their house. Being with the kids, Jack and Ella, is pure a delight for us and having our daughter and Dane to converse with is wonderful as well. You can never understand the joys of being a grandparent until you actually become one. We’d like to have had Jack and Ella spend more time out here at the Park with us but it just hasn't worked out for one reason or another. The times we have had have been truly joyful, though.
Last weekend the kids stayed with us and we had to work cleaning the campsites. Dutifully, and even joyfully, we got them to go out in the field and “work” with us. They really helped us pick up litter and I can’t help but think that we are helping build an awareness and appreciation for the outdoors during their visits. In the afternoons I fashioned scavenger hunts for them all over the back yard. Their prize at the end of the game, after following instructions left on little notes formed into poems, was toasted marshmallows over the campfire I had built. Once again, during the early evening one day, the deer came through our backyard here munching on the sweet green grass that grows there. Once again, as it happened last year, Ella sat motionless in a chair on the edge of the little meadow as the deer came ever closer to her. The communication between her and momma deer was evident though no words needed to be spoken. I’m certain this was the same momma deer that approached her last year and thrilled her so. They came within a few feet of each other and their eyes met in that eternal gaze that living beings can bestow on each other...inquisitive, appreciative, non-threatening, even empathetic, for that brief moment in time. That’s the best gift we can give our grandchildren, I feel. ...Time in nature, un-tethered to technology and outside of their normal comfort zones, yet truly in the ”real world”.
The holidays, Thanksgiving and Christmas, were delightful for us. To be able to spend those dear, sweet times with our family here in Texas is so meaningful for us. To feel the embrace of your children’s family after having raised and set them to flight out into the world is a most joyful and fulfilling experience. I can scarce describe it. We so deeply appreciate the welcoming spirit of Suni’s family. This particular year Christmas was highlighted by Dane’s brother’s visit. JW, the eldest of the brothers, and his spouse prepared a massive gourmet dinner rivaling any 5-star restaurant in the world. We also got to visit with Dane’s parents. Jeff and Cheryl, during this trip to Austin. It was fun reuniting with them after these past 4 years of traveling.
And, speaking of gourmet, Dane and Suni are becoming world-class chefs in their own right. Dane’s stint with the food company, Blue Apron, has propelled their cooking to ever higher standards and plateaus of richness and diversity. Of course, Diane’s cooking is beyond reproach and has been for decades. Eli and Suni gave us a Ninja air-frying cooking machine that apparently can do anything you need it to do to cook food. Diane has delighted in using it so creatively almost everyday since we got it. Give an artist a new palette and the springs of creativity, in this case food preparation, burst forth. All of this gourmet cookery has left me having added an inch or two to my waistline which must now be shaved off lest I become so laden down with my own weight I can no longer get out and hike the countryside.
I have written in the past about meeting new folks and making new friends on the road. I may have said this before but it bears repeating, I did not anticipate how many new people we would get to know and become good friends with along the 50-Amp Vision Quest. Here in Texas, now in our second season, the full-timers...Denny and Char along with Vern and Sherrie, feel like old friends to us. It’s good to hang out and work along side them again. We’ve met some new friends as well who are working here for the first time.
One hard-working couple we met here, Glen and Marie, got an assignment at our old stomping grounds at Steamboat Lake State Park this summer. I gladly steered them to the supervisor there feeling that they would be great additions to the crew. That’s one of the other hidden benefits of volunteering as we do. You network, giving and receiving tips and information and even recommendations for other opportunities, be they choice volunteering jobs or places to visit and other folks to connect with.
For instance, joining us here at Pedernales this season are Wren and Nan, a couple we originally met in Big Bend National Park 4 years ago. Our paths have crossed several times over these recent years. We felt they would really enjoy this Park and this work and knew they would be a great addition to the staff. They are here with us now. Earlier this week we went out to dinner with them to a wonderful German restaurant in Fredriksburg called, Otto’s. It’s a true delight to spend time with Nan and Wren. We feel as if we known them for many years beyond our friendship’s actual tenure. I feel we’ll be good friends the rest of our days. I’ll say it again, to make new and good friendships at our age is pretty rare. It would not happen if we were sitting around a house somewhere rooted to the ground.
We were really happy to see yet another couple come for a visit whom we’ve met and worked with on the road. Eric and Susan, volunteers we met in Colorado who live in Fort Worth, dropped down to the park in their Airstream for a few days. We steered them to a good campsite and we all spent good, quality time together culminating in a feast at our campsite complete with Eric’s renowned Charcuterie Board and Diane’s Portuguese Stew, all by fireside in the early evening as the sun dipped low over the Oaks and the long shadows of evening stretched out before us. New, good friendships made and cultivated over the shared love of the outdoors and traveling this wide land. It’s so gratifying...the blessings are as numerous as grains of sand. I cannot count them all.
Though we’ve not gotten out and about as much as last season here, we have managed to spend some good time exploring Fredriksburg, TX. Paramount on my list was the World War II War in the Pacific museum. It was built in Fredriksburg primarily because Admiral Nimitz was from there, he being the leader who turned around the fortunes of the Pacific Fleet after Pearl Harbor. He led the naval battles in the Pacific with some 40% of the nation’s war resources given him. The larger bulk of war resources went against Hitler. The museum is splendid. One of the fine aspects of it is that it focuses a generous amount of space and documentation on the root causes of the war in the Pacific. I, myself, was not aware of the underlying history of conflict between and among Japan, China, Korea, and the US. I especially appreciated this aspect of the museum’s focus. Some of the battles that were highlighted had escaped my attention as well until I visited the museum. What I was aware of were the terrible hardships, the ferocious fighting, and the bloody costs of the war. This did not suffer any lack of attention throughout the exhibits.
In my childhood I recall many men my dad’s age who fought in the Pacific. Some suffered missing limbs, some suffered extreme damage to their psyche, most never spoke of the war. A lot of them drank...heavily. One such survivor of the War in the Pacific was my friend Tom Kennedy’s father. He took part in 4 island assault landings with the Marines. If I remember it right he had a Japanese flag he took from one of the battles. I believe he had a Japanese sword as well. He fought hand to hand on those islands. He was, in a word, Badass. He was badass back home, too. You didn’t cross this guy. You didn’t back-talk him. It was all “yes sir...no sir”.
During those childhood years there was a definite prejudice towards Japanese people. The War was recent history. For certain there still is a general hatred among some people in this country towards them, towards any Asian. Those individuals tend to hate anyone who is not like them, though. Back in the day, the strong negative feelings towards Japanese were more widespread and due specifically to the war. I confess, when I was very young, I felt suspicious of them. It wasn’t until I began to meet actual Japanese people that I shed that prejudice. My first dentist, Dr Furuya from Japan, gave me pause to evaluate my own feelings towards these people I really knew nothing about. Oh, make no mistake about it, the Japanese military foisted countless miseries upon their subjugated peoples, especially the Chinese. But in reality, hasn’t that been the broad history of warfare anyway? Weren’t the European immigrants to this hemisphere barbaric towards the native populations?
The American propaganda machine during the war was extremely effective at creating loathsome images of the Japanese. Touring this museum and especially learning more details regarding the terrible treatment of Japanese-descended families during the war uncomfortably reminded me of my racist and overly nationalistic early years.
Thank God for the soldiers, sailors, and support staffs, including those at home who manufactured the weapons needed. Thank God we persevered after being attacked by surprise at Pearl Harbor and won the terrible war. Thank God, too, for those leaders who work diligently to avert war and all the hell that it brings down upon those who live through them. War is, indeed, Hell.
Here in the campground things have gone along very smoothly. I haven’t had to deal with any angry campers. The campers themselves have been a very well behaved lot. Once again, my theory that the cleaner that campers find a campground the more aware and committed they are to keep it that way, has proven itself true yet again. Picking up trash and litter has not been very onerous this year. There have been no serious injuries at all, emergencies have been kept to dead batteries or lost items such as cell phones. There was one curious incident this year that bears telling, however.
There was a gentleman hiking in the Twin Falls area on a particularly warm day in December. The sun was out and the large rocks and boulders grew exorbitantly comfortable and warmly alluring to the local snake population. At Twin Falls, rattlers are known to inhabit the rocky crevices as they are predominantly south facing. On this particular day a gentleman was hiking along the path there in the warmth of the afternoon when out from the high grass bordering the trail came a rattler who struck at him from close range and bit him on the calf muscle. The bite wound was deep and seemed to give certain evidence that the rattler meant severe harm. The man said he never saw the reptile before it bit him. Aided by his hiking buddies he made his way back to the park headquarters. The Park Manager and officer, John, inspected the wound and advised they wait a moment before heading to the local hospital. John explained to me that something didn’t look right to him...the wound and the amount of time that had passed between the bite and the hiker arriving at the headquarters should suggest more redness, more swelling. Something from John’s experience told him to wait for a few moments before rushing off for medical help. I'm not so sure I would have done the same thing.
Moments turned to minutes and no swelling was occurring and the man, outside of having a little pain at the wound site, was suffering no ill effects. It was as if no venom had been injected by Mr Rattler. Finally, after some requisite amount of time had passed and the man was suffering no symptoms from rattler venom, it was decided the gentleman could go back to his campsite and enjoy the rest of the afternoon. John had applied medical attention sufficient enough to warrant no cause for alarm so long as the man kept the wound site bandaged and clean and medicated with ointment.
John, for his part, took off for the site of the incident at Twin Falls trail. He wanted to ensure no one else stumbled upon the snake. Trailing off down the path a ways John found the high grass area the hiker had described. John surveyed the area for a moment and what did he see but a dead rabbit laying next to, you guessed it...Mr Rattler. The mystery of venom-less snake bite was soon obvious. The snake, in its eagerness to be sure of dinner, had injected all its venom into the rabbit. When the hapless hiker stumbled by the defensive snake struck him so as to chase him away from his prized catch, the rabbit. No venom was left to inject, it had been spent on dinner. John said the rattler was a young one and that younger rattlers, having not yet learned to preserve some venom for another day’s fight, will invariably inject all the venom they possess in a single bite. Older rattlers typically save some venom for round 2 of the fight, or perhaps tomorrow’s encounters with an enemy. If it has to be, and I’ve already had two close encounters with these critters, let me be bit by the older, wiser, and perhaps more reserved rattler, not that I’m yearning for the experience, mind you.
Now, on this the last week of February, 2022, another cold front has settled into the Hill Country sending temperatures down into the high 20’s with gray, overcast skies and spitting sleet and rain. Our time here for this year is nigh over as this last weekend we are on duty. We plan to leave on the 28th, or perhaps the 1st of March. We will wind our way along the coast of Texas north stopping at two state parks for brief stays. The plan is to then head easterly all along the Gulf Coast till we reach St Augustine, Florida. It will be great to see this area of the US again. Visiting New Orleans again will be oh, so interesting. Whereas I used to go there every 6 weeks for business for years, I haven’t seen the city since Hurricane Katrina hit. I wonder what it will be like nowadays. We plan to fish a lot from the beaches along the way and hopefully create some great finny dishes for dinners.
We are excited as all get out at the prospect of traveling again. It’s time for exploration and new views. The 50 Amp Vision Quest will continue. Still, we can’t help but consider the world writ large. The future of this world seems so uncertain to us now. What will Covid bring us this summer? How bad will inflation get? Where will Putin’s War take the world? What will happen to the world markets and our 401k’s that have been so heavily hit by all this recent turmoil? Will this nation finally take steps to mollify or address the environmental changes that we see beginning to manifest themselves? Most importantly, how will all this affect our kids and grandkids?
In a day or two, me and Diane, Heidi and Dash and Nell, our trusty Conestoga motor home, will set out on adventures to be, thankful to the Lord above that we have this opportunity to discover the country anew together.