Wednesday was the start of our mix up day. As you are well aware, all vacations are meticulously planned so that every minute is accounted for. This vacation was a little more laid back than most, but it still had a strict schedule to follow. This was upended when we tried to make reservations for today's adventure. The plan was to go to Vanishing Texas River Cruise and spend the day kayaking Buchanan Lake or even better Beaver Creek. However, when we called the lady recommended that we don't make reservations more than a day in advance. So when we called on Tuesday, she said that the winds were too strong and to try again on Thursday. So on a moment's notice we switched our Wednesday plan from kayaking to going to Colorado Bend State Park which was the farthest park from our house in Kingsland. This meant that we would be spending a significant portion of the day in the car. Since that evening we would be headed all the way to Austin.
The first confusing thing was the name of the park. It is named after a beautiful bend in the river as it flows around a large bluff creating spectacular views. But what river you may ask? Yes, Colorado Bend State Park is named after the Colorado River that flows through it. Now, I grew up in Arizona, and know a thing or two about the Colorado River. The first thing I know is that it definitely is not in Texas. Turns out that there are two Colorado Rivers in America. The more famous one in Arizona (starting in Colorado), and this much less known river that is only in Texas and flows through Austin and empties into the Gulf a little south of Houston. Apparently, this one was discovered by Spanish explorers first and was even thought to be the same river by them for many years.
Having figured out this mystery, we happily drove the hour & 15 minutes north to see the lovely park. We got to the park and drove down to the river. While there are many trails to take, the rangers recommended two. The first started at the main camping location and followed the river for the entire course of the park, letting you see the high hills on the other side of the river while always being covered by a thick (for Texas) canopy of trees. The other started near the park entrance and took you to a waterfall. That one, however, was far more open and the ranger worried that we would get too hot. Personally, I wanted to take the Gorman Falls trail, but Stacy preferred the cooler trail. So we hiked the river trail. Although it is hard to know exactly how far we went, the consensus was about 3 miles round trip. We found a nice bridge to eat lunch at. This was also the first hike that Julia and Joanna took where they were required to carry backpacks and help bring the lunch. With lunch over, we climbed a couple of fallen trees and got back to the car.
The trip back felt faster, as it needed to since we had enough time to make dinner and then drive over to Austin Texas, another hour car ride, this time to the south-east. Before we got to the church, we stopped at a gas station a mile or two away only to be panhandled by a bum with 2 or 3 more bums looking expectantly at my response. We got to Capitol City Baptist Church thinking that we got there 30 minutes early. Instead we had just enough time to find a seat before Church started. This turned out to be a theme as not only did I mistake the Wednesday service time, but I wrote down the wrong Sunday Morning service time as well. Thankfully, we were early enough that nobody realized our mistake except Stacy and I. We were greeted by a friendly church with 3 different families inviting us out to eat. The first was the music leader and college leader (Robbie Simpson), who was very interested in Matthew attending. The second was somebody who was late to Church and screamed in my year when she realized who it was that was standing in front of her. Yes, Bethany Smith made me jump out of my skin with her yelling, but it was still good to see her and her new husband. The last was Jonathan and his father (we wouldn't see his mother until Sunday). We accepted the invitation from the Simpsons' as this was the main reason for our trip to Austin and from Jonathan's family for obvious reasons.
The service was great, and here we learned another problem. Originally, we had planned on attending college classes on Friday, but while we were there we learned that there was a camping trip planned from Friday and the classes were only Mid-term tests which may be a bit boring to sit in on. So we had to reschedule our kayaking trip to Friday and move class visit to Thursday. It was a long ride back to our VRBO, and we got to bed late and exhausted, and Matthew and I had to get up early in the morning to get to class on time.
So Thursday morning, Matthew and I set out to Capitol City to see the college in action. We arrived at about 8:10am. The first class was on Christian Leadership where all the men met in Bro. Simpson's office while he taught. It was very cramped and they had to pull in extra chairs for us. Then the whole college assembled to the auditorium for Bro. Simpson's class on Cults. It was interesting and Bro. Simpson is a good teacher. Then the school children were brought in for chapel where the college students ran most of the service until the end where a teacher gave a short lesson (after several short lessons from the college students). Finally, Pastor gave his class on Revelation. After that it was time for lunch. Before whe left, we scheduled a time on Saturday to tour the college dorm.
After that, we drove back to Kingsland to meet back up with the girls. I really didn't have anything else scheduled for the day, so we wandered the neighborhood. There was a park a couple streets away, so we tried going to it only to find that it was locked and that we didn't have the combination (although at first we thought we did). Then we found a place to use the kayaks and paddleboards. I took all the kids to the river and they played in the water with until both Matthew & Rebekah broke the paddles of their respective equipment (Matthew on the kayak, & Rebekah on the paddleboard). We notified the owners, but that was basically the end of our fun on the water. Nobody wanted to actually get into the water as it felt just slightly above freezing, either though the air temperature was near 80.
After dinner, we played a game of Flamecraft before settling down to watch Karate Kid II.
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