Just Like Last Time . . . at South Llano River State Park, Junction, Texas

After just one day at Lake Colorado City, we were ready to head down the road to our next Texas state park. We have chosen our route south this year so that we could see as many new-to-us state parks as possible So we were a little miffed at ourselves when we pulled into this state park and realized that it looked very familiar. We have taken hikes through these same pecan trees down to the South Llano river before!

It's a good thing that we have five years of blogging our travels, because we could use the simple search tool at the top of our web page to discover that we had camped here in January 2017. That's almost three years of campgrounds ago, so we're not surprised that we had forgotten. As soon as we got set up in a very nice water and electric site, we read our blog to see what we did on that first visit.

Just like last time, we went to the four bird blinds in the park. They feed the birds every morning, so they are well-visited.

Just like last time, Denisa took way too many pictures of the birds.

Just like last time, Denisa still doesn't know all the names of these birds.

She does recognize the male and female cardinals, and they are the showiest of the Texas birds this time of year.

Also enjoying the seeds are the resident squirrels, who were gorging themselves on this easy meal. The squirrels we saw were all the usual brown variety . . .

until we found this black squirrel at the last bird blind.

We continued to watch as he stuffed his jowls full of the bird seed, and then posed for the camera.

Our timing was great for this second visit, because the ranger office was hosting a special party today--"Christmas at the Ranch." They had chairs set outside to listen to the local band that was playing favorite Christmas tunes on the porch.

It is a rule that we can't sit still why a good two-stepping song is being played, so we got up to dance. Thanks to our new friend Jeff, for taking these pictures of our impromptu dance at the state park ranch.

We enjoyed the outdoor booths, where everyone was encouraged to string bird-friendly garland and make peanut-butter-and-bird-seed ornaments for the evergreen tree in front of the park office. The weather was absolutely beautiful, with temperatures in the 70s and not even a breeze to blow the bird seed.

Denisa enjoyed making an ornament, but we both really liked what was going on at the next display table. They were cooking dutch oven treats over a camp fire, and then sharing them with the visitors. We didn't get a picture until after several servings had been dipped out of the cast iron pan. But we can verify that the peach cobbler was delicious!We also enjoyed the camp fire biscuits served with homemade strawberry and cherry jellies.

Denisa also visited the booth to decorate a sugar cookie. Sugar is the key word here, as we left on a sugar-high after also tasting the hot apple cider, and hot chocolate with marshmallows. "Christmas at the Ranch" was a tasty success in our eyes.

We needed to do some more hiking to burn off all those calories. So just like last time, we headed into the "back country" part of the park.

We left a little late in the day on this 9-mile loop hike. As the sun was starting to set, we saw that we needed to shorten the loop. So we did some bush-whacking through the mesquite and junipers to find the other side of the loop. Even shortened to just 7 miles, we were still walking back to the motor home in the dark.

Just like last time, we saw more than a dozen armadillos that make their home here at South Llano River State Park.

God gave these guys a thick armor shield to protect them from predators because they can't see or hear when danger is near. It was easy to get a good picture, because an armadillo would approach because he couldn't see us.

We did catch one in an upright pose, when he suddenly realized he was not alone.

Just like last time, we spent some time looking over the fence at the wild game ranch next door. This is a black buck antelope that we pictured last time too.

When we read the blog from three years ago, it mentioned that the Junction Methodist Church was the friendliest church we had visited in the two years we had been on the road. So of course, we went back to visit again this Sunday. Just like last time, they welcomed us with open arms and invitations to join them for other worship opportunities!

Even though we love exploring new places, some times it is nice to return for a repeat visit--even if we didn't mean to. Just like last time, we enjoyed our two days at South Llano River State Park.