I used 7 vacation days which should have resulted in 11 days off of work. Unfortunately I did have to work for a few hours yesterday though. I think I’ve napped twice today. In fact I’m so exhausted that I’m not even going to add pictures into this post but I will post a link to all of my pictures I have from my time off. It includes family trips to Natural Bridge Caverns and Sea World, as well as a trip for Luna and I out to South Llano River State Park. The effects of the pandemic were evident in their own unique ways. For example, at Sea World everyone had to wear masks everywhere, including on rides. Yet when I stopped at Junction Burger Company and walked in I was the only person wearing a mask, customers and staff included. The burger was pretty damn good though and the jalapeno mayo is on point.
South Llano River State Park was really pretty great and I’d love to visit it again sometime. There are a lot of trails to hike and the river is very nice. We didn’t spend as much time at the river as I planned but the hike did me in on day 2. At least on day 1 we did get our feet in. The weirdest part is during part of the year part of the park is closed for part of the day due to it being a turkey roost. After March 31 it becomes not an issue. On our first night there we got caught up in a tornado warning with marble to ice maker size hail. Luna was not a huge fan of that for sure. We ended up having to abandon the tent for the ‘shelter’ of the picnic shelter and then eventually hung out at the restrooms with many other campers until the warning subsided. After that there was a lot more hard rain. I just stayed awake petting Luna until things calmed down.
The park also has a LOT of armadillos. Probably the most I have ever seen on one camping trip. Luna was super interested in them and usually ended up at the end of her leash on her hind legs. She was also super interested in the boar we encountered (it was probably 50 yards away) that was bigger than she is. I actually thought it might have been a juvenile bear but after talking to the rangers and my park neighbor I’ve decided to just go with ‘boar’. By bigger than Luna I also mean that its legs were probably as tall as Luna. Overall though, Luna was great on the trip and loves the adventure.
Well, as promised, here is a link for some pics and videos (hope it works). They include the cavern, sea world, camping, armadillos, screenshots of what my garmin recorded on the camping trip (i think Sea World day was another 10 miles), and screenshots of the constellations I saw so clear.
Spring Break 2021 (Natural Bridge Caverns, Sea World, South Llano River State Park)