Time for something a little different. Usually on our vacations, we travel to a new National Park somewhere in the United States. But this time, we decided to visit the great state of Texas. Specifically, Texas Hill Country surrounding the greater Austin area. We chose a VRBO in Kingsland, TX as our base of operations and early Monday morning we set out on the 13 1/2 hour drive to Texas. I decided to change things up a bit and instead of taking our usual route through Memphis and Little Rock, we drove through Birmingham, Jackson, & Shreveport. The drive is a slightly longer distance, but it means that we got to be on Interstates almost the entire trip.
The trip was mostly uneventful. Matthew got to drive in a construction zone, where the lane was at least 2 inches wider than our van, which might have made him a little nervous. We stopped for dinner at Braum's in Athen's TX. I didn't realize that Braum's is not only a fast food restaurant but also contains a small grocery store in it. A weird combination, but we enjoyed our dinner and shakes. I got a Hawaiian burger which contained a large pineapple slice. Quite strange. We finally arrived at our VRBO at around 10:00pm. We quickly unloaded our entire van into the house and went straight to bed. The next morning we took stock of the house that we had chosen. It was absolutely perfect for our family. It had a large children's bedroom that had two bunk-beds, and another twin bed plus a crib in the closet. Matthew got a queen size bed with his own bathroom. Then the master bedroom was gigantic with an absurdly large bathroom. We have stayed in many VRBOs that just fit our family, have rooms that are tiny, or where the listing says sleeps 8, but Matthew ends up having to sleep on the couch in the living room. This house looked small on the outside, but seemed to double in size as we took in each room.
We chose Kingsland because it was centrally located between all the places we wanted to go on this vacation. Each day, we planned on a different State Park, and all but one of them were over an hour away from our location, just in different directions. Tuesday's location was Enchanted Rock State Natural Area. Here we almost made a fatal mistake, only being saved by the kind heart of the ranger. All State Parks request that you put in a reservation before arriving. Some parks are obvious, like a lake or a cave where you need a guide. But I didn't bother making a reservation for Enchanted Rock since it was well over an hour away from Austin, and we were going on a Tuesday. What I didn't realize is that it was Spring Break in Texas. When we showed up to Enchanted Rock, it was swarming with people. It was strange, because there was practically no traffic leading up to it, but when we got there at around 11:00am, there was almost no parking left. The park ranger should have turned us away. But she took pity on our family and gave us a pass.
Enchanted Rock is a 400 foot high rock that juts out of the land. It is perhaps a mile wide, but basically it is just the biggest round rock you have ever seen. There is something resembling a trail up to the top, but mostly people just find the best way they can to get to the top. It was very crowded, but everybody was enjoying themselves. Some young kids running up as fast as they could, some older people who were walking very slowly and carefully, and all types in-between. Matthew & Rebekah ran up the rock in record time, while Stacy had to stop and catch her breath every few minutes. Once at the top, the wind was very strong. I had to constantly hold on to my hat for fear of it blowing away (which it almost did more than once).
After enjoying the view at the top, we made it about half-way down to small enclosure of rocks that shielded us from the wind. We ate lunch there and laughed at the antics of other children claiming that the rocks were eating them. We also saw a rattlesnake warning us not to come any closer. It was the unmistakable sound that will sear itself into your memory for the rest of your life. But we kept away from it, and it left us alone.
Once at the bottom we took a short hike around Frog Pond. By the end Julia & Joanna were getting a bit tired of the place, but that might have been after Julia fell into some cactus. Next on the list was driving over to Llano TX. The county seat and bustling city of over 3,000 people. We stopped at a strange place for Ice Cream: The Llano River Creamery. It was a combination Ice Cream shop, gift shop, breakfast cafe, and bar. We might not have even noticed that it was part bar except for the fact that we had to go through it to get to the bathroom.
Finally, we toured the Llano County Courthouse. The Security guard there was very talkative and happy to have some visitors. We spent some time with him until finally it was time to go back to the house. But first we stopped at Kingsland's only grocery store: H-E-B. which we would later learn is a popular chain in southern Texas. Here it was a small grocery store with tight aisles and for some reason very busy on a Tuesday afternoon. We stocked up on all our needs and went back to the house for a nice dinner.
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