Lake Georgetown - Dec 2005

After the Thanksgiving holiday, we needed to head north to Austin, Texas to take care of several annual maintenance things -- some on us (doctors, dentists), some for our dogs (vets), some for our car and some for our motorhome. At first, we planned to stay at a private RV park and take advantage of a cheaper monthly rental rate, but we made the mistake of spending our first night at the Cedar Breaks Army COE campground on Lake Georgetown and then didn't want to leave. We arrived at the park just in time to see some fall foliage color on the cedar elm and hackberry trees. The weather was delightful for 6 days and then it turned windy and cold and most of the leaves fell all at once into big heaps on the ground. It reminded me how glad I am that I don't have to rake leaves anymore!!!

We parked in a lovely site with a great view of the lake and plenty of room for the dogs to run and play. The view out our bedroom's rear window was looking east out over the lake -- so every morning as we woke up, we watched the sun come up over the water -- very pretty.

One morning the temperature dipped down to around 30° and that caused the fog to rise from the surface of the lake and that made for an eerie sunrise. The fog difused the sunlight in several directions and we got a bunch of small, fuzzy, rainbow-like images hovering above the water.

Last Saturday morning's weather was forecast to have highs in the low-80s, so we donned our shorts and boots and took off for a hike along a portion of the 16 mile trail that goes around the lake from Cedar Breaks park to Jim Hogg park. We brought the dogs along and only went out about two miles before we turned around and headed for home. Our dogs (at 9 and 7) are not as young as they used to be (neither are we for that matter) so we made sure they didn't overdo. Unfortunately, they have no idea how long we're going to hike, so they'll just go until they poop out and then there's always a chance that we'll have to carry them home -- hah!

The trail was nice, but rocky and they don't call this area "Cedar Breaks" for nothing. Almost the entire trail was shrouded by cedar trees -- nice shade for a hot day, but affording few views of the lake. Next month these trees will be covered in brownish-red, dusty pollen giving many allergy sufferers something to sneeze at.

There is one critter that always reminds us that we're back in Texas -- the armadillo. They are so ugly with their pimply armor, beady eyes and pointy snout that they are almost cute. Our campsite must be next to a den of them as we see several roaming about. They have poor eyesight and so I can usually sneak up on them to get a picture, but once they see me, they can take off pretty quickly. Our dogs have discovered them and now everytime we go outside they have to reconnaissance the area for potential armadillo sightings.