Recently made a trip back to Texas. While the trip was primarily due to laziness in renewing a drivers license, took the opportunity to make a father/son trip out of it. Given we had a couple hundred DMV sites to choose from, decided to make it a destination trip to the hill country. We would first go to Government Canyon State Natural Area, then Lost Maples State Natural Area, then to Boerne for the license.
My 9 year old and I traveled together for the trip. We flew into Bergstrom on Saturday. We ate my traditional first meal back in Texas at Whataburger. I had a #1 with cheese, grill the onions. He had the kids meal chicken strips. Then on to HEB for provisions. I hadn't been shopping at an HEB Plus before. Quite large and I'm not a big fan of the layout, but man I forgot how good shopping at HEB is. Then on to Government Canyon.
Spent the night in site 19. The campsites there are all in the front country, no backcountry camping allowed. They are primitive in that at the site, you have no water or electricity. You do have a picnic table and fire ring. 19 is right next to the bathhouse which is convenient, but also end up with the lights of the bathhouse shining into the camp.
We had a fire that night. Had gotten post oak logs, so my 5 pieces burned through the night and still had enough for a morning fire.
Boy wanted hot dogs for supper, so we roasted them on the fire. Smores of course for dessert. Had gotten Hill Country Fare graham crackers on accident. Major mistake. Don't skimp on graham crackers.
That night we camped in my backpacking tent. I had bought my Eureka backpacking tent some 15+ years ago. Its first campout was to Caprock Canyons State Park and it still had stains in the fabric from the red dirt. It had camped from coast to coast, border to border. But over the years, the poles had become bent and shock cords stretched. I didn't know it yet, but this was the last night for this tent.
My son and I slept on the ground, a mistake we would not make the next night.
Sunday, after making eggs and sausage in a ziplock, we hiked the Joe Johnston Route to the dinosaur tracks.
Nice trail, not a lot of elevation change. Only two people blaring music while hiking. I had never seen that before until hiking in California, but mind blowing that anyone thinks that hiking with a blue tooth speaker playing music is acceptable. OK, so the lady playing George Strait gets a pass.
The tracks are well, the highlight of the trail, but not as impressive as other tracks. Mainly because they are partially under water and covered in leaves and algae. But we made the most of it.
We made our way back to the ranger station and bought a couple of gifts. While checking out, I noticed they had a camera scavenger hunt which we had not participated in. I asked my son about all the things we saw. Got to the end of the list and saw that it said if we had taken pictures of a certain number of things, we would have gotten a prize. The ranger overheard me so she asked my son his favorite thing he saw. He thought and said the dinosaur footprints. She asked him about the dinosaurs then rewarded him with a "don't mess with Texas" sticker that is now proudly on his Nintendo Switch.
Then loaded up and headed to Lost Maples. Decided to go through Hondo. Slightly out of the way, but drove some roads I hadn't driven before, showed my son the "This is God's country" sign, had a blizzard, and got real graham crackers at Wally World. OK, so we also got some foam pads to sleep on!
Getting to Lost Maples was like coming home after being gone for a long time. Granted I hadn't been there since college, but growing up, we went to Lost Maples probably half a dozen times. Camped in her hills, fished her ponds, swam in her rivers, and hiked her trails. My dad joined up there, so we had a granddad, father, grandson campout.
We were in campsite 21. A great campsite in that the field behind it is larger than others, however, there is a transformer in it that at night in the tent, you can hear. OK, well I heard it, my 75 year old dad did not. And my son? Well over the snores of my dad and myself, he didn't hear anything else.
Supper that night was backstrap and squash. My dad brought a full backstrap for a doe he shot this past season. Sliced it and pan fried it while sautéing the squash. Quite delightful. My son is still talking about this meal!
Campfire? Well, the county was under fire ban so our plan of car camping so we would have a fire had to be improvised. Charcoal for cooking was allowed, so charcoal is was. Night quite the same gathering around that, but smores were made.
Met our site neighbor as he was walking his dog. Turns out he and my dad both went to Abilene Christian, just 15 years apart. Oddly enough they both had the same professor for microbiology. He later went to Tech for his doctorate. He said of Abilene, "ugly town, but the people sure are nice." Having lived in Midland, I certainly understand that sentiment of West Texas, but couldn't help but dog on Lubbock and asked him if he was looking for the ugliest town in Texas by going there.
Took my son for a walk before the moon came up to lay on the road in the dark area and watch the stars. That's one of my favorite things camping.
Sleeping that night we shared a tent with my dad. He had a giant 6 man tent that was already set up, so we all shared that tent.
Monday, President's Day.
Breakfast was pancakes and sausage. Pancakes were the old reliable shake and pour Bisquick mix. Hill Country Fare spices are different than Jimmy Dean's, but it's good breakfast sausage. Lots of coffee of course. My dad brought his electric water heater, so we would huddle around the electrical plug making coffee water.
We then took to the trails. Walked up to the trailhead and started first on the Maple Trail.
Past that, we stopped at Monkey Rock.
Now as I mentioned, I had been here a lot, but never saw this. Hill country hasn't grown over the past 20 years, so it isn't a new feature, but the side trail to it must be within the past 20 years.
Then past A to the Grotto.
Had a snack here and prepared for the ridge climb.
Now its a tough climb, 500 ft in half a mile, but for the average person who hikes it isn't a big deal. To prove it, my 9 year old raced up it and my 75 year old dad did fine, just stopping a few times to catch his breath.
Lunch was at the scenic overlook on the ridge.
My dad and I had tuna on tortillas with deer jerky. My son had a pizza lunchable. Growing up he had a lot of immune and other issues, so he grew up on Wow Butter. HEB didn't have that and he can't tolerate peanut butter, so lunchable it was. I didn't get my traditional lunch nap in though.
We then hiked across the ridge, past B, and saw the ponds.
Going down to C, I forgot how tough that trail down is! Of the three of us, only one fell, me. Rock under my foot just kept going and on my butt I fell. Had a sore spot on my hip for a few days.
C has the ponds. At one time, it was one of the best camping sites in Texas, but is now just day use only.
My boy loves fishing, so he wanted to cast a line.
There were some boys chunking rocks so we went up the trail to another pond.
Saw some bass in the water and when he presented a topwater frog, they came out, but with that clear water and a sunny day, I think they also saw him and wouldn't bite. Our campsite neighbor said he only had luck at night with a topwater.
My dad made friends with a couple coming off the ridge. When they found that he came over the ridge too, they commented that they wanted to be like him when they were 75. He said the multiple knee and hip replacements, numerous stints, and one quadruple bypass to get there aren't necessarily worth it. They commented they were running low on water, so he gave them some of ours. One good thing being a former Philmont Ranger, I always have at least a quart more than I need.
Around 4 pm we headed down the trail to the other trailhead and back to camp. The trail back to the trailhead isn't tough, but seemed slightly longer than I remembered as a kid. Several of our trips were with our church's youth group. When I was the age of my son, my dad was a youth sponsor and would lead backpacking trips at Lost Maples over spring break. My brother and I would camp in the campground with my mom and hauled water for the youth to campsite C. I would take all their bottles and haul them in my red wagon up and down that trail. Walking it now, I am impressed with 9 year old me.
Back at the campground, the couple my dad met and gave water came over and brought cupcakes as a thank you. They were delicious and as that couple was from Austin, I sure hope they weren't edibles as I do get randomly drug tested at work.
Supper that night was hamburgers. French fires are tough to do in camp, so we settled for mashed potatoes.
Another charcoal fire with smores and to bed we went.
Next morning we had sausage and eggs, then hit the road. But not after retiring my tent. Since the poles were shot and it had been serving me for over 15 years, I left it behind and made room in my backpack for some souvenirs.
Now the entire reason for this trip was I needed to renew my drivers license. Had an appointment in Boerne and renewed it. Interestingly enough, it was slightly tougher than I thought it should be, but in retrospect, I should have expected it.
Back in March, my brother and I drove cross-country from Maryland to California. We were moving to San Diego and I needed to be there in March, while my family was staying in Maryland, so my brother joined me as my second driver. We made the trip quickly and by-passed Texas and the DMV. Well, we by-passed all but the corner of the panhandle.
However, there is no DMV at the corner of Texas, Oklahoma, and New Mexico.
5 months later when driving across Texas with the rest of my family, we entered the great state on a Friday and left on a Sunday, so no time for DMV. But my wife tried to renew my license online. The address on my license was current about 14 years ago, so when it seemed to have gone through without updating the address, we then submitted an address forwarding order for my old old old old old address. Nothing ever came and I forgot about it until...
"Sir, is this a duplicate license?" What is this man talking about? "Sir, your license is good until 2029. Well, not the physical one you currently have, but you renewed it last July." I played ignorant. He looked it up and saw that it was done online and had been mailed, but returned as undeliverable by the post office. I asked where it was mailed to. The address was the mailing address I had used when I renewed my license in 2015, my buddy's place in Maryland as we were living on the road. I denied ever living there, a true statement. He reissued my license and on the road we went.
My cousin lives in Boerne and runs a boutique, Under the Fig Tree. Hadn't seen her in almost 20 years, so decided to swing by her store.
Wasn't sure if she'd recognize me at first or not, but I barely cracked the door open and she says "what on earth are you doing here?!?!" Visited with her for a bit, then offered to go grab some lunch. Since she is owner, manager, stocker, cashier, and janitor, she couldn't head out for lunch. She mentioned Compadres, so I went to go pick up food for us.
Hot damn this place is good! I had the Hill Country Philly, she had the Hater Tater, and my boy had the chicken tacos. If you go through Boerne and don't eat here, you are doing a disservice to your palate.
While at the store, got a phone call. "Hey, where's her store at?" I told my dad the directions and he drove over. He too surprised my cousin and she called him by his infamous nickname of Old Weird. My son picked it up and plans on calling him that.
Ate back at the store, got some items for the Mrs., and back to Austin we went to catch our flight home.
One last view of Texas as we headed west, the Guadalupe Mountains.
