Kate was having fun laying in my lap. We were in the rocky area around the falls, and it was windy. By sitting behind a rock, it was a lot warmer. Mary was more adventuresome, and set up her lunch spot a short ways away by herself.
FYI, Pedernales is pronounced Pur-den-alleys by the locals. If you live here, you don't fight it, you just say Pur-den-alleys.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Here is a very wide picture of the falls area. It's pretty exposed, and there are lots of places to run and jump around. It is quite dramatic. You should see it when it's flooding. If it were, we would be about 10 ft under water. Back in the 50's I think, there was a big flood on the Pedernales. At that time, the water just a few miles downstream rose 70 feet above the low-water bridge, which is normally 3 or 4 feet above the water. That's why you see so many low water bridges that go under when it floods. It's not like it's practical to build bridges all over the place that will always be above the water. You just have to decide what part of the time you want it to be above water. If 99.99% is good enough, then you make it 4 ft high. If you want 99.999% availability you build it 100 ft high. To see the whole thing you may need to scroll to the right a bit. |
|
|
| |
Here is the camp site we stayed at. It was completely surrounded by trees. I know they look like bushes to most of you, but around here we call them trees. It was very private, and conveniently located right next door to the bathroom with a trail leading there. Just after nightfall, we were sitting around the fire when Kate saw two animals sneaking around our table. It was two raccoons. they were quite familiar with the site, I'm sure, because they knew just where to find the food. They were too determined to be scared off by mere threats, so at one point I shined a light in the eyes of the big one and lobbed a tennis shoe at him. It wasn't hard enough to do any damage, but enough that they knew these were not the idle threats of just any city slicker. They were the idle threats of a city slicker with good aim. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Well, I hope you enjoyed the pictures. If you want the full size photos, just email me and I'll send them separately. The Travis family |
Here's the picture Ann took of us at the falls. It is a fun place to horse around, with lots of room to run, and lots of fossils in the rocks to study. There are usually people around fishing and playing on the rocks and sand. The camera isn't tilted here. It's just that at pedernales Falls, the earth usually looks like it's about to fall over on it's side.
Here are the girls all settled in at our lunch spot which came complete with reclining lounge chairs built-in.
Mary wanted to eat lunch off by herself. She did not need any help from the rest of us thank you very much! She wanted to have a frown on when i took this picture, but I caught the true personality shining through.
I'm sorry Ann. I couldn't resist taking this picture.
To warm everyone up we had toasted marshmallows. In our family, this is referred to as "marshing" marshmallows. We also had hot chocolate. When you give Mary a cup of hot chocolate, you can be sure she'll be happy for as long as it lasts.
And no trip would be complete without a death-defying stunt by Kate. It doesn't seem like she would be able to do something like this and live, yet she's not only still with us, she doesn't have a scratch on her from the trip!