The plan for today was to see a mission in San Antonio. And go to Cake Art. We never made it. We had a great day anyway. We got off track when we figured we cold go by way of Canyon Lake. It was a huge distraction.
I read about canyon lake in our book of pretty drives in the Texas Hill Country and it was practically on the way so off we went. But first we had to eat. Out came google and the list of the 50 top bbq joints in texas.
And there it was, Cooper’s in new Braunfels. We went in for fortification and it was not only tasty food but a great experience. We were met at the entrance by Dave and his grill.
He cut us a bit of this and a bite of that. We moved through the line turning down most sides, grabbing cups for sweet tea and into the communal dining tables. We opened up our plates ( pieces of paper) unpacked our meats and chowed down. The prime rib was to die for, the beef rib and brisket wonderful, the original sausage wirth coming back for. The pork loin and ribs were good but not worth the effort when you have other choices.
Then on to The Lake, the dam, and the gorge. Wait, The gorge! Turns out that in 2002 the dam overflowed and a new gorge was created. A tragedy for those that were flooded but an amazing natural wonder. Signs posted informed us that you could only see the gorge on a guided tour but we found as we pulled out of the park the bridge we crossed went right over the gorge. Brad reluctantly pulled the car over and we hopped out to take a look.
None of this was exposed until 2002.
I just can’t get over how amazing creation is… that in a single moment water overran the lakeside, found its path of least resistance, tore through, and routed out this path.
The day was getting away from us and San Antonio was just under an hour away so why not check out Guadalupe River State Park.
I’ll tell you why, because it will take you the rest of the day to walk its edge, watch the river, gawk at the trees, skip stones and you will head back to Austin without ever making it to San Antonio, But thats okay.
We paid a 14 dollar entry fee to get into the park. Got a map and off to see the river. We did learn from the not so forthcoming ranger at the gate that there is an old town or ranch on the property but to see it you need to take a tour.
It was such a great lazy do nothing peaceful afternoon. We did notice 4 rv’s that looked somewhat permanently camped, which reminded us that we forgot to ask where we can park an RV. Omg!!
We took the long way back to Austin and arrived as darkness was descending. We washed our hands and headed out to see about food trucks. I think we aren’t food truck people because nothing we saw interested us. We did however pass the new Umlauf piece that was going up as we tried to find the holiday light festival….
