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The sites include : Longhorn Caverns, Inks Lake State Park for another Gem Trails of Texas, Colorado Bend State Park for Gorman Falls, Llano County to hunt for Llanite, Mason, TX, the bats of mason County, Enchanted Rock State Park, Fredericksburg, Kerrville, Cascade Caverns, and the Ghost Children of San Antonio.
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What's New ? How about two new jokes from the Jokes Page. That Red Spot - Hum, I better find me an Indian woman. Watch Out sister - For you Catholics. Oh yea, check out the Of Earth and Man website. I have added Hudson's Quality Patio Furniture. Last, but not least, don't forget about the big Pleasant Oaks Gem and Mineral Show of Dallas this September 20 -21. Well, on with the adventure..... Forward : Welcome to another adventure of the Texas Road Runners. So what makes up an ordinary Texas Road Runner adventure? Well, more caves, more water falls, more bat caves and bat tunnels, more hiking, more roadside attractions and more Texas Gem Trails. This time, the Chad came along for the trip. And speaking of roadside attractions, Chad passed our giant giraffe at the entrance of the Dallas zoo off of I-35 and Marseilles St. and, our beloved muffler man on intersection of I-35E and Colorado Blvd. on the way to my house. I was also excited about going back to Mason to look for the Texas Topaz again and try out my new sifter I built. I got an excellent price on all the plywood from the Home Depot. I'm calling this trip Part I due to I know I will be back down in October. So once again put on your Bob Philips hat and read on… Star Date : 8/29/2003 – Friday, Getting there in one piece. The first day of Labor day weekend. I will dread the traffic and the highway patrol. Just what is their problem? Unfortunately, due to a work commitment, we could not leave until the afternoon. So I gassed up and we set out from Waxahachie to take the scenic route once again. We drove south on I-35 then took Hwy 6 in Waco to Hwy 84 east into Gatesville and then pick up Hwy 281 in Evant It was time for an early dinner so we stopped at the Evant Café for their awesome hamburgers which in my opinion the best in the state of Texas. Unfortunately, the café had changed management and the hamburgers were not as good as the last time I was there and you can just forget about their freedom fries also. So we moved on. We continued south on Hwy 281to Burnett and hit Park Road 4 to gather some granite along some road cuts between Longhorn Caverns and Inks Lake State Park. For those with a GPS the coordinates for the Granite we found are at 32° 35.181 N & 096° 55.959 W. We did find a few good chunks. Just outside the Inks Lake entrance, the deer were quite prolific. We finally emerged on Hwy 29 and looped back to Burnett and onto Marble Falls. It would have been great if we could have found a motel in the Burnett or Lampasas area. Unfortunately, due to the holiday weekend, the were no vacancies and we had to obtain our lodging in Marble Falls. Marble Falls is know for their big granite quarry. Although they quarry pink/red granite here, they also supply granite products from all over the country. I think they need to rename their city Granite Falls but, I hear they named it after a nearby creek. Any way, we finally made it to the Ramada. After watching a few episodes of Monster Garage, it was time to crash… Star Date : 8/30/2003 – Saturday, The Lake Highlands area. We woke up early and breakfast was at the Bluebonnet Café. The Blue Bonnet Cafe was voted the number one breakfast café in the state of Texas. Many famous people have eaten there such as President George W. Bush, Willie Nelson, Larry Gatlin and many others. Our first main goal of the day was to Hit Colorado Bend State Park and hike to Gorman Falls. However, we found a few sites to check out along the way. We headed out again on Hwy 1431 to check out the Granite Quarry. Unfortunately the quarry's scrap granite and gift store is no longer in business to sell to the public. So we continued on to Look-Out Mountain for a view of Lake LBJ. We crossed the Colorado river in Kingsland and came to Hwy 29. We headed west on Hwy 29 till we got to Llano and then headed north on Hwy 16. Chad pulled out the Gem Trails of Texas book and we stopped at a road cut just south of a rest stop to look for Llanite. I saw about a 27 pound chunk of Llanite at the Rock Barrel rock shop in Dallas and they wanted $75.00 for it. Chad pulled out the hammer and chisel and carried a nice size chunk. I was satisfied with fist size pieces found laying on the ground. The interesting thing about Llanite is that it is only found in the one area of the country. Although it contained feldspar like the surrounding granite, instead of black mica and quartz, it has dark small agate nodules instead. The GPS coordinates for the Llanite gathering site is 30° 44.119 N & 098° 22.147 W. Here's what we picked up. We then continued to Cherokee and then took Hwy 501 northeast to Bend. From Bend, we took Hwy 580 for just a short ways until we found CR 442 which took you to the park. The road into the park was not paved until you actual got to the office and the camping areas. We bought our tickets at the ranger station and of coarse a refrigerator magnet for my collection. We then waited for the ranger to escort us to the parking area near Gorman Falls. From there, was a short hike down. We first viewed the falls from above. Gorman Falls was spectacular. A lot of good shots were taken. We also wanted to do the Gorman cave tour, but it was all booked up. Oh well, I plan to go back in October with the DFW Outdoors Group. After we viewed the falls, we headed back to Bend and then east on Hwy 580 back to Lampasas. Once in Lampasas we headed south again on Hwy 281 back to Burnett and then headed west on Hwy 29. Once back in Burnett again, we checked out the remains of Fort Croghan. It was kind of cheesy and was not much of a fort but more of a display of old buildings and farm equipment used during the late 1800’s during the settlement of the area. It was more like the Whitehead Museum in Del Rio rather than let's say Fort Davis. We then stopped at Don’s Rock Shop located just before the Buchanan Dam area. We checked out his rocks and I purchased some picture rock slabs to make cabochons out of and some Mexican agate and Leopard Skin Jasper to tumble. We showed Don our loot of Llanite and Granite then he had showed us some very nice polished pieces of Granite and Llanite. We told him we were heading to Mason, TX to look for some Texas Topaz. Don then showed us his collection of Texas Topaz from the Mason area so that we would know what to look for. For you rock hounds, a visit to Don’s is well worth the stop. He also told us about other local areas to hunt for granite. We left Don and made our way to the Buchanan Dam. At the Visitor center, I picked up a great map of the Texas Hill country and the sights to see. I also picked up another refrigerator magnet for my collection. When the dam was built, it was the longest arched water crossing in the United States at a length of over 2 miles. There were quite a few boaters out enjoying the holiday. It was then time to head on into Mason, TX. We checked into the Mason B&B and toured/shopped around the town square. We found this interesting shaman roadside attraction from a local metal sculpture and jewelry artist. We also found the remains of old Fort Mason and were able to look down at the city below. Time to hit the James Eckert bat caves. Again, we headed out following a map from the local tourist propaganda. I had been here before so I knew what to expect from the back dusty roads. Time to put the truck in 4X4 mode and cross the Llano river again. After we made it across, we continued to the parking area. We met up with a other bat watchers and took the nature trail to the caverns. Unfortunately, the lower caverns was closed to the public due to a swarm of bees infesting the cave and attacking the tourist. So only the upper cave was open for viewing. Therefore, we could not observe the bats producing the black tornado effect. But our guide did hand out this post card showing the effect if viewing from the lower cave. We did finally see them emerge at around 6:40 PM. One good thing about this vantage point was that one had a great view of the hawks dive bombing the bats for their dinner. The sky was filled with several swarms at a time. Around 7:40 PM a different species of the free tail bat emerged from the upper cave in which we were able to get an up close view of. Instead of the emerging out of the cave with the black tornado effect, these bat simply just darted out in their separate ways. It had began to rain, so we headed back, crossed the Llano river in the dark and onto our B&B. We crashed for the night to get ready for the next day’s adventure. Topaz hunting! Star Date : 8/31/03 – Sunday, Fredericksburg and beyond. We had an early breakfast and unfortunately it was pouring down rain. At least some folks were prepared. So we gave up on looking for the Texas Topaz and headed south on Hwy 87 to Fredericksburg, TX. Once in Fredericksburg, we headed north on Hwy 965 to Enchanted Rock State Park. Along the way to the park, we noticed another granite quarry to our right. It is owned by the same company who works the granite quarry in Marble Falls. I had climbed Enchanted Rock before in the Texas Hill Country 2001 Adventure. Warning, Enchanted Rock makes realize just how old you are getting. But we managed to find the trail head and begin our ascent up. We continued up and up and made it to the top. We found this lonely tree and took in a view. We explored the other side and checked out Enchanted Rock Cave. Enchanted Rock cave was nothing more than a bunch of granite boulders which had fallen down and created a little cave. After the hike we drove back to Fredericksburg. We first checked out the Fredericksburg Winery. Unfortunately it would not open until 12:00 pm. So we toured the Admiral Nimitz Museum and the WWII Pacific War Memorial. On the way to the museum, we found the Gillespie County Court House. We got to the museum and the ranger told us that our tickets were good for live firing demonstrations of the weapons used in WWII and a re-enactment of taking a Japanese machine gun pill box. We took the tour and picked up some souvenirs and checked the times for the demonstrations. We then had lunch at the Fredericksburg Brewery. As usual, the food was excellent. After lunch, we then went back to the Fredericksburg winery and attended a wine tasting session. I picked up a few bottles for gifts. During the whole morning in the city, we noticed those crazy little Mini Cooper cars. We couldn’t figure out why in a town so small would have so many of these vehicles. The answer was just waiting for us. Some folks at the Fredericksburg winery told us about the Chisholm Trail and Bell Mountain wineries outside of town. We first hit the Chisholm Trail Winery and lo and behold, once we got there, there were almost 70 little mini Coopers in the parking area. Unlike the Fredericksburg winery, these folks did grow their own grapes. They performed all production at this facility. Once we got in and began the wine tasting, we mingled with the crowd and found out that folks from all over the state with their Mini Coopers had their big Labor Day Mini Cooper rally in Fredericksburg this year and they used the Chisholm Trail winery as one of their rally points. There was even live entertainment in the patio area. Unfortunately, both Chad and I were unimpressed with their wine. We next headed to the Bell Mountain Winery. Unfortunately, they were closed and were only open to the public on Saturdays. Please keep this in mind if you visit the area. However, it did look like they grew their own grapes and it did look like they had a nice operations facility. So we left for the 4:00 pm live firing demonstration back at the Admiral Nimitz museum area. Of coarse most of the show was a lecture on the combat tactics and weapons used by both the Japanese and the Americans in the Pacific war theater. Each rifle, machine gun , specialty bombs and a cannon was fully demonstrated. Then finally, we got to see the demonstration of taking a Japanese machine gun pill box. This also included a tank and the only WWII working flame thrower in the state of Texas. After the show, it was dinner time and this time we chose the Auslander Bier Gardens. Again, the food was most excellent. Then after dinner, it was time to check out more bats at the Old Tunnel Wildlife Management Area. This bat viewing area was just off of Hwy 290 east of town. On the way to the tunnel, we found the old Fort Martian Scott. Unfortunately there was no time to explore it and it would have to wait for another adventure. Basically, like the train tunnel in Quitaque, this tunnel was also abandon by the railway and later Mexican Free Tail bats moved in. We took a right on Old San Antonio Road and followed it all the way to the facility. The upper deck of the view area was free to visitors. However, the lower area seating was situated right by above the tunnel’s entrance and it cost only $5.00 to hike down there. We paid out fee and headed on down. Of coarse there was a guide who gave a lecture on the bats and answered any questions from the public. The bats finally emerged around 7:30 pm and this time we got to view the black tornado effect. Sorry about the picture, the bats were flying so fast up close that they were a blur. Unfortunately, it started to turn dark and it rained again. So, we got some more camera shots and then headed out of town south on Hwy 16 and onto Kerrville and to our cabin at Waltonia. Star Date : 9/1/2003 – Monday, Labor Day and the trek home. The next morning after breakfast, we were able to check out Waltonia some more. These are great cabins with very reasonable rates when compared to the other cabins in the Ingram area. We headed up the Guadalupe river on Hwy 39 and made it to the Hunt area. We continue west until we hit Boot Hill, another Texas roadside attraction. Basically, one signs their name on an old boot and mounts it on the fence post. We had no old boots to spare, so we headed back to Hunt. Once back in Hunt we took Hwy 1340 and head west again to the Stonehenge roadside attraction. It is a replica if the real thing. The man who built the mock down of Stonehenge also built several statues of the likes found on Easter Island. We then headed to see Jack and Jennifer at the Dove's Nest. Jack and Jennifer sell outdoor patio furniture in which I checked out. Ok, Jack, now you have a presence on the Internet. Click here for more information on their furniture. Unfortunately, Jack’s mother fell ill and had left for back home back in Lake Jackson the previous night, so we visited with Jen, her sister and her father before getting back on the road again. We soon left and made it back to the Ingram Loop area and visited some of the shops. Unfortunately most of the shops were closed. Even Miss Kitty’s, a local beer hall was closed. We then proceeded back Kerrville in which we noticed that Kerrville is the county seat of Kerr county and headed out to San Antonio southeast on I-10. Our first stop was in Boerne, TX where we hunted for fossils on some land owned by Gavin’s (A friend from work) parents. Unfortunately, Gavin’s old running grounds is now built up and there is no way to get to the creek beds with out jumping over fences on private land. So we then decided to visited Cascade Caverns. I had been to Cascade Caverns when I was a kid. At least this time I could better enjoy it being older now. Although Cascade Caverns had a few good formations and an interesting history, it still was not as nice as Sonora Caverns out west. However, here are some of the highlights : After the tour of Cascade Caverns, we then headed to the Alamo Rock Shop which is also located in Boerne. I had bought a Zacatecas geode from these folks at the Alpine Rock show two Springs ago and was interested in seeing their shop. Another unfortunate, they too, were closed. So we hit the road again and continued on I-10 to San Antonio and took the 410 loop around to the southeast side of the city to visit the ghost children. Very, very spooky. Ok, here’s the story. Back in the 1950’s, a school bus load of children and the driver got stuck on the rail road tracks on the corner of Shane road and were hit by a speeding train. Every since then the area has been haunted by the children and their driver. Now for the experiment. Park your car about 25 feet from the tracks. Wipe down you bumper, trunk or tail gate. Then pour baby powder over the trunk and bumper. Turn the vehicle off and put the vehicle in neutral. The ghost children will then push the vehicle up and over the rail road tracks. Bear in mind. The road is uphill to the tracks. But will it work for us? Here's a few links to research : While Chad navigated, we took the Southton exit and headed south. We then turned right on Shane road and came up to the tracks. I stopped the truck and asked Chad if we were on the correct side of the tracks. Just for fun, I put the truck in neutral and then all of the sudden we were coasting uphill and up and over the tracks. By the time we crossed over, we saw quite a few cars parked on the road perpendicular to Shane road and other folks performing the experiment. We parked and hopped out of the truck and visited with the others. I wanted to document this paranormal event, so we cleaned up the tailgate and bumper, sprinkled baby powder on it. We could hear a train coming so Chad quickly took the truck back on around. I gathered my cameras and got into position. Chad turned the truck off and placed it into neutral. Once again the truck began to move uphill and over the tracks. I quickly ran back and heard all the excitement. Everyone around were inspecting the one palm print of the bus driver and several smaller handprints of some of the ghost children. Ok, this is not evidence. We then noticed a big white car coming over the tracks performing the same experiment. Then I heard my name called out. Would you believe it? It was Carl and Tommy Edmison and Family, some friends from Desoto. Apparently they took their Labor Day weekend vacation down to Corpus Christi and heard about this place and decided to investigate it on their drive home. So we visited for a minute while a young couple in a purple car prepped their vehicle and drove it around for their turn for the experiment. Unfortunately they had to wait for the train we heard earlier to pass. After the train had passed, others lined up. The purple car began to move, but it stopped on the tracks. The next 3 vehicles also mysteriously moved to the tracks and also stopped on the tracks. Either the ghost children were too tired to push the cars any further or they stopped pushing since the train had passed and the danger was gone. In any event, palm and finger prints were also found on all the cars. Very spooky and interesting. Boo!! It was early afternoon and time to go home. We drive up north I-10 through San Antonio and north on Hwy 281. We decided to stick with Hwy 281 due to high traffic on I-35. We did find the Blanco county court house in of coarse Blanco. We finally hit Evant and turned east on Hwy 84. From an article I read about in a Rock and Mineral magazine issue and a write-up in the Gem Trails of Texas book, we tuned east on Hwy 107 in the Gatesville area and drove for about 20 miles to some limestone road cuts. Plenty of fossils were found along with some flint. The GPS coordinates for a road cut with the most fossils found were at : 31° 23.479 N & 097° 32.615 W. It began to get dark, so we headed back on Hwy 84, made our way to Waco and took I-35E north. Around the city of Italy, we found this huge caterpillar roadside attraction. As it turns out, Monolithic Dome Institute built it to advertise their construction techniques of domed building made of concrete and they even built a small community their named Dome Park. We made it back to the hacienda and unloaded. Chad said his farewells while I got things ready for work tomorrow. Bummer…. Aftermath : I do wish we had more time. I wanted to also hit Oatmeal, TX and get a picture of their water tower. No, it is not leaning, but I am told it does have an interesting paint job. Also too bad about the weather on Saturday morning. Maybe I can look for that Texas Topaz in October when I go back to visit Gorman Cave with the DFW Outdoors group. So watch out for the Texas Hill Country Part II. So until next time, take care and I'll see You, on the road!!! Francis
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