It is early November, and as such, it's the wet season in the Hill Country, so it wasn't any surprise that it was drizzling as we paused for road drinks in Comfort and I read the details of the drive we were about to embark upon. I could recount them again here, but why do that if I'm about to describe the actual drive we took?
Well, the first error happened as we were going out of town. There was a road we were supposed to go east on, and I turned what I thought was east, and as we left Comfort, I noticed that none of the other landmarks that we were supposed to be seeing had come up. Eventually, we turned around and went the other way, but I'm still not entirely sure how that happened. Let's see....
Heading northwest on I-10, we exit for Comfort and turn left...this should be south. The road goes straight into Comfort, going south as far as I know, and somehow a left turn takes us west again. Go ahead and look at a map...I can only guess I missed something, but I think Comfort may actually bend the space-time continuum somehow. Anyway, turning right from a road leading south somehow took us east and then curved to the north, where we crossed back under I-10, and were on our way.
Shortly after passing under the interstate, we looked off to our right and saw what the book told us was the only bat roost of it's kind left in Texas. Looking like a steeple without a church, it was built by the people of Comfort in the hopes of keeping the mosquito population down. Interesting, although I'm not sure how by just building a house for them, bats somehow know it's there and move in.
Driving up a road and it curved to the right....and it curved to the left, and up and down, and oooohhh....this is a fun road to drive....someday, I really need to make this run on a bike....farmland and gullies, and my dad talking about the bonsai trees he could make from many of the twigs he's seeing on the side of the road as we pass. It was drizzly, and things were going dormant in preparation for winter, but it was still gorgeous country, well worth going again in the spring to see it all coming back to life.
Many many sheep on the roadside, as well as goats, cows, horses, chickens, and wait....is that a single turkey in that person's yard cavorting around with the chickens?? It is! Wow...maybe all those hens were well behaved because of the size of their co....er...rooster. *grins*
After much curvy fun (although my dad was beginning to complain of motion sickness), we arrived at last at the Texas Railroad Tunnel Wildlife Management Area. Wow....the view from up there.....as we exit the car, we see a small platform, and just past is are steps leading down into a simple set of wooden benches arranged like stadium seating, overlooking a deep valley. This is the upper deck for watching the emergence of the bat colony which now lives in the cave. Alas, they've migrated farther south for the winter by this time, but I will definitely want to make a return trip for a unique wildlife-watching experience. As I look around, I notice a trail off to the right, leading down into the valley. Angela figures that it's closed (as the bathrooms are locked and the gate is shut), but I notice there's no lock on the gate, so I swing it open and start making my way down the trail, my dad following behind. Soon, we come across the lower deck bat emergence viewing area, which is right next to the wall of the hill leading into the tunnel, from which a haunting noise is emerging.Ooooooo.....
Oooooooooooo......
It seems a flock of doves or pigeons is inhabiting the cave in the absence of the bats, and all the cooing is eerily appropriate, so soon after Halloween. We creep down the trail and finally see the tunnel from head-on. Shortly after, Angela makes it down, and we pause a bit to take it in, wishing there were time to explore the other mile and a half of trails that make up thie State Park area. But it was not to be, and we reluctantly climbed back up to the car, and continued on our way...
Hm....now there's a guy with way too much time to hunt....as we make our way through the ghost town of Grapetown, we see a ranch entrance with deer skulls hanging from every square inch of that fence. Continuing on, the sun comes out, and we're just chattering away in the car, enjoying the day, following the twisty windy road, when suddenly, a near disaster!
Without warning, we go around a curve and find ourselves facing downhill toward a one-lane bridge, and another car coming the opposite direction zooms onto the bridge without even slowing down. I twist the wheel to the right and press hard on the brakes, bringing the car to a jarring stop......about two feet from driving off the road into the river.
Without even an acknowledging honk or wave that we were even there, the oncoming car cruises past us, and we carefully back up into the lane again and cross the bridge, breathing slowly to give our hearts a chance to restart. Crisis averted, we were soon joking about telling the rest of the family about how I nearly drove us into the river, and enjoying the Hill Country scenery once more.
Next thing we know, we're facing a secondary highway, and I'm trying to figure out how we ended up there, as the book was supposed to take us along back roads all the way to Luckenbach. Strange...it seemed we had missed a turn and wound up on Highway 290, across from a stand where a woodcarver was selling his work. Dad and Angela stopped to browse around while I got my bearings to reorient toward Luckenbach. It didn't take long at all, and soon we were back on the road, turning the correct way, and stopping in Uptown Luckenbach, at the old granite mill, for a Free Postcard! (as advertised by the roadside sign). We browsed around the little gift shop, where I was also given a Fast Armadillo (the proprietor took a drill and a beer bottle and carved an image of an armadillo in it in about 3 seconds...pretty cool stuff). We bought a few trinkets and made our way into Downtown Luckenbach, where there was apparently a biker rally or classic car show or something going on. We poked around in the old post office and listened to the music drifting over the air from the back room before we finally took note of the time and knew that it was time to go.We take a completely different route back to San Antonio, and along the way, Dad mentions that WurstFest is going on in New Braunfels. Oooh....German food festival....sounds like something worth checking out tomorrow.....
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