Great Finds around Stephen F. Austin State Park

 Note: We're including some blogs from the month of April that were interrupted when we had to make a speedy trip to Oklahoma to help after Denisa's Mother's house burned. So we are catching up with "old blogs" while we are still helping out in Oklahoma.

We are moving 161 miles north today--more than usual for us on a travel day. So we often look for a place to stop half-way. Today's random stop along a random highway was at a wildlife viewing area. We pulled into the turnout (just big enough to make a motor-home-sized u-turn) and got out to stretch our legs. Denisa can walk around and stretch her legs inside the motor home any time, but that is not possible for the driver. Outside, we climbed into the observation tower, and immediately started seeing wildlife.

We could see two different alligators cruising this pond tucked between two pastures. One cruised right up to the barbed wire fence just to check us out. What a great find!

This little water refuge is a great place for birds to hang out, and we saw big white herons, as well as smaller cattle herons on the bank . . . 

and wildflowers on the ground. Mark does a great job of finding places to stop in the middle of long drives. His research has to include a place that has some interest to us, plus a big enough parking area to make a u-turn, and a smooth entrance and exit. Great find, Mark!

We had another stop today, but it wasn't nearly as fun. Mark also researches the best places to get diesel. Price is important, but he must also make sure that a large motor home towing a pickup can maneuver in and out of the station. That means that we often miss out on the cheapest fuel, as we often have to opt for the truck lanes at large travel plaza stations. They often charge a premium for diesel, but this one was a bargain today. Is it sad that we think it's a great find to get diesel for "only" $4.75 per gallon? With a 100-gallon tank, it would cost almost $500 for an entire tank. It is making us rethink our summer travel plans.

At the end of our 161-mile drive, we pulled into Stephen F. Austin State Park. We disconnected the pickup to get a rare picture of the motor home on the road without its toad.

This is a beautifully green state park, with trees draped in spanish moss. Our camping loop was made up of sites that run parallel with the loop road. Just like many other Texas state parks, this one is a great find!

After a long (for us) ride in the motor home, we were ready to stretch our legs on the park's trails.

The trails took us down to the Brazos River that flows through the state park.

It also took us to several geocache great finds. Behind the Amphitheatre, we found the "Amp it up" box.

The spring blue bonnets are at their peak bloom at the state park. Finding these beauties in the spring is one of Denisa's favorite great finds.

We also smell the distinct aroma of onion on the trails this evening. The wild onions are also at their peak now.

On our evening hike, we recognized that the trails are wide and reasonably level. So we got the bikes out the next day to ride the longer trails in the state park. While we found cottonwood trees on the cottonwood trail, we are glad to say that we did not find copperhead snakes on the copperhead trail.

Besides the moss-draped trees, we also found the white-barked sycamores on the sycamore trail. They almost made us feel like we were riding through a white-barked aspen grove.

The bikes are faster transportation to get to more geocache great finds. This one was named "When U Come to a 'T' in the Road." Can you see the geocache in plain view in the picture below?

It's drilled into an extra piece of wood that matches the wood from the bench. There's a round metal cache in the center of the block of wood in the picture below.

We like geocaches that teach us about our new surroundings. This one was named "4 Fathoms Under x4." It explains that a fathom is a unit of measure for water depth. One fathom equals 6 feet. So that means that where Denisa is standing was under 4 fathoms (24 feet) of water during Hurricane Harvey in 2017. The "x4" suffix on the title refers to the fact that this spot has been 4 fathoms underwater four different times since 2017. Fathom that!

As a bonus, the geocache description also points out that the metal structures where we found the geocache were placed here decades ago to prevent erosion of the river bank during high water. 

It's another day of travel and exploring new-to-us places like Stephen F. Austin State Park where we are blessed to make great finds!