At just about 1,000 acres, Buescher State Park is certainly not the largest park in the Texas State Park system.  Amenity rich Bastrop State Park, six times as large as Buescher, is just a few miles away on well traveled Highway 71.  Unless you happen to get off the main highway onto the back roads, you might miss Buescher all together.  The good news is once you make your way into this delightful state park, you will be richly rewarded with a beautiful and diverse forest of oaks, mesquite, and skyward reaching loblolly pines.

Hiking is one of the main attractions in Buescher State Park.  A long 7.7 mile hiking loop makes its way from the trailhead near the Cozy Circle Camping Area into the oak and pine forest parallel to Park Road 1C.  Along the trail you will experience gently rolling hills, babbling streams, a hidden pond, and if you’re lucky a deer or two.  One of the things that make this hike more interesting than others we have done in Pedernales State Park or Bonham State Park is the great contrast between the tree species along the trail.  Most trails we have hiked along in Texas feature mesquite and scrub oak with some occasional cedar trees.  In East Texas the tall pines dominate the landscape, but in Buescher all of these forest elements come together and the result is stunning.
This is just what we were looking for in a hike – stimulating terrain, solitude for reflection and beautiful scenery.  The hike was invigorating but not too demanding with a couple of long gradual climbs near the start of the trail.  The hike also held our interest with something different in the terrain or the forest at nearly every turn.  A scenic overlook at the top of the climb, mossy rocks in a gentle stream, and beautiful fall colors captured our interest along the hike.  Our favorite moment was the discovery of a still mirrored surface pond in the midst of the silent forest.

This was the longest hike we have done to date – a very rewarding journey.  It’s always great when we get the opportunity to hike into the forest more than a mile or two where the solitude of the woods surrounds us.  Buescher State Park is a great place to explore and enjoy peaceful surrounds.  If you’re in Central Texas, bring your hiking boots and take a long peaceful stroll in the Lost Pines of Texas.

We visited on a Saturday night. You can walk in any time but I would recommend the evening hours. There are lights twinkling and it has a picturesque quality that might not come through in the daytime. Luckenback is afterall, just a collection of old wooden buildings gathered in the dirt. At night with someone strumming a guitar and singing cowboy songs and the lights twinkling, you can be transported to the idea of the old Texas dancehall. The place where farmers and ranchers gathered of a weekend night to blow off some steam, see some neighbors and just relax after a hard week’s work.

Luckenbach was a busy little town in the 1800s but by the 1970s it was pretty well deserted. The Engel family, which had originally founded the town, put it up for sale. Hondo Crouch and some friends bought it up and made it their own personal playground for silly festivals and other diversions. And, it was a place to just hang out, drink a cold beer, play some checkers and strum a guitar. Eventually more and more people came to drink those cold beers and hear some music and in 1973 country singer Jerry Jeff Walker came to Luckenbach to record an album. He was looking for a laid=back Texas place and he found it. That album really put Luckenbach on the map and more and more country singers came to play the now famous hall. And in 1977 Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson made “Luckenbach, Texas” a hit song all over the country.

And still, when you go visit, it’s a laid-back, Texas kind of place. Sure, you can buy a Luckenbach t-shirt in the little store but you can also buy a real, old-fashioned limeaide and a hot dog for a few bucks too. The beers are cold and everyone we met was friendly. Luckenbach doesn’t seem to know it’s famous and that’s just what keeps it perfect. On a cool fall evening with the moon overhead and some country music drifting through the air, you can believe the Luckenbach is the same as it always has been.

Today we bring you images of Christmas in Texas – a slightly different view of the Christmas celebration invoking the spirit and culture of the state we live in.  This collection of images comes from our camping journeys across the state and should give you insight into the funny and sometimes quirky way that Texans celebrate the season.  All the best to you and your families and best wishes for a great new year!

Some Texas Celebrate with a John Deere Holiday Tree

Everyone Needs a Prickly Pear Cactus Wreath in Texas

…and the cowboy boots were hung by the chimney with care…

Even after mounting, the deer in Texas celebrate Christmas

Our favorite holiday light display…hill country deer at the corn feeder…

Merry Christmas y’all!

The park is bordered on the north side by the Pedernales River.  As the river begins its descent down the plateau into Lake Travis below, it forms a gradual waterfall over limestone formations in the river bed.  The waterfall is not the most dramatic or amazing, but viewing the falls from scenic overlook above does provide a sense of grandeur as you witness the relentless rushing water carving its channel through the rock.  It is here that we enjoyed our Thanksgiving day hiking adventure.

Chris and I hiked on two different trails in Pedernales Falls State Park – the first going down to the falls itself and the second into the mesquite and oak covered hillsides near the primitive camping area.

Pedernales Falls is formed by the Pedernales River cascading over limestone formations that drop 50 feet from the top of the falls to the river bed below.  The river winds along 8 miles of the perimeter of the park and showcases a great diversity of trees and plants.  Traditional hill country Juniper and Oak yield to a wide variety of trees, shrubs, and flowers along the river.  The trail down to Pedernales Falls is an easy hike – about ½ mile hike over maintained trails from the parking area to an overlook above the falls.  Stone steps descend down the last portion of the trail to the banks of the river and where you can walk into the limestone river bed near the falls.  From here you can see the cascade of the water up close and observe the rush of the river through narrow channels cut into the limestone by the river.

Hiking along the river you will find much variety.  Right at the falls sand lines the river bank and smooth rocks protrude into the river.  Hiking and exploring here is easy.  This is a popular destination as well – with dozens of visitors enjoying a warm Thanksgiving day while we were there.  Downstream is where the river becomes more charming – succulent grasses, delicate mosses, and tender ferns line the brilliantly clear waters of the Pedernales River.  In the springtime hikers along the river are known to walk amongst wildflowers as they bloom.  Should you visit here, take time to hike down from the falls along the river and enjoy more than just the falls.  You will be rewarded for your effort with some delicious scenery and moments of solitude.

Our second hike headed away from the falls into the hillsides overlooking the river.  The Wolf Mountain Trail head is near the park’s visitors center.  It is here that campers heading to the primitive camping sites at the base of Wolf Mountain begin their two mile trek up to the campsite.  The trail is well maintained for access to the campsites and also for hikers who want to explore Twin Falls and the Wolf Mountain overlook along the Pedernales River.  Here is where we found cascading creeks crossing the trail and many different kinds of birds.  Twin Falls, just a short walk down the Wolf Mountain trail was especially dramatic sitting on the edge of limestone cliffs staring into the cool clear and deep waters of the pool below the falls.  Birds flew from tree to tree singing and chirping in the deep limestone crevice carved by the water.

Pedernales Falls State Park is a great place to go hiking.  Here we enjoyed two different landscapes on two different hikes.  For casual hikers, the park has a lot to offer with two different falls and beautiful scenery.  For more serious hikers, there are a multitude of trails and places to explore.  If you are looking for a place to hike and enjoy in the Texas hill country, be sure to stop at Pedernales Falls State Park for an enjoyable and rewarding experience.

By miscellaneaarts on flickr

While browsing the internet one day, I stumbled onto the journal page submissions featured on The Travelers Notebook. Immediately, I was jealous. In an ongoing effort to capture a place and share it, I take photos, I make notes, I put flags in guidebooks, highlight phrases in neon yellow but never, ever do I draw. My drawing is awful, 100 times worse than my handwriting. Childish, kindergarten level stuff.

I’ve made travel collages that weren’t too bad. My first was on a family trip to Washington, D.C. when I was 8. My Mom gave me “The Kids Guide to Washington, D.C.” which suggested saving ticket stubs, brochures and other travel ephemera and putting it together into a scrapbook. I wrote page after page of what we did and glued everything, including the airsick bag the Secret Service gave me at the White House, into the book. Every family trip thereafter, I was in charge of the scrapbook.

I have a journal from a trip I took to Michigan in 2002. It was my very first, on my own, grown-up vacation. I was camping, by myself in Northern Michigan and revisiting sites I had seen as a child. It somewhat captures the trip, but uses my Mom’s style of journaling – she’s an accountant – of recording prices, odometer readings and where I ate. There are a few glimpses of travel writing in amongst the prices though.

“…The final stop of the day, after driving forever out to the tip of the Leelanau Peninsula, was Leelanau State Park. It has primitive camping – no electric, no showers, and outhouses. I am camped right on the beach though, which makes it all worthwhile. For the first time on my lake vacation I can fall asleep to the sound of waves on the beach.”

My only excuse for the boring journal is that I was on vacation from my day job as a newspaper reporter, so perhaps I was not in the mood to write. I remember that trip vividly – the journal entries could’ve been so much more. A journal that we currently keep in the camper is extremely similar though. I record where we are, if it’s a good campground or bad, gas prices and things we visit and if we enjoy them or not. I’m kicking myself. Am I a writer or not?

I can certainly share with you the places we go, how much the campgrounds or hotels cost, if we liked the restaurant and the best things to do in a city. But so can many other people. It will be so much more if I give you the sense of the place – whether it is a campground, an historic site, or a restaurant and what it feels like to be there. Whatever your travel style, there is a good way to record what you do. A way that works for you. My combination that gets me to these blog posts involve pen and paper notes, a “Passport to Your National Parks” book and the “1,000 Places to See Before You Die in the USA and Canada,” my camera, my iPhone, brochures – it’s messy and needs to be streamlined, but it works for me. I encourage you to branch out from what you normally do. To just sit down and look at a place and write, type or photograph until you capture what that place makes you feel. That is the best way to preserve your travel memories. What is your current method of capturing your travel memories? What would you like to try? Please, share in the comments so we can all get some new ideas to get that creativity flowing!

*Click on any of the photos to go to the original flickr page for each one. All of my old journals are at my parents house and were unavailable for photographing.

**This post originally appeared on July 30th, 2009.

The town square is what I’d call middling – not yet completely full of shops and restaurants but not a ghost town either. There is a pharmacy, a few antique shops, some restaurants, a gallery filled with local pottery and art, a small museum in the historic Blanco County Courthouse and a small visitor’s bureau office.

Our favorite stop was Cranberry’s Antique Mall. It was full of well priced, good quality items. This was not one of those shops with jumbled booths full of random stuff. There was an entire section full of substantial furniture pieces and many booths featuring glassware, linens and all manner of unique items. Items were well priced and of good quality. The Hill Country is known for its antique shopping so sometimes you run into some pretty high prices and some pretty fancy stuff. Cranberry’s was full of items in a range of prices. And, my favorite part was the large selection of spurs, cowboy hats and other Western memorabilia. I can’t say whether the spurs and such were antique but they were well used and would make a nice touch in a Western décor.

The Blanco County Courthouse looked more like a giant house than what you would traditionally think of as a courthouse. There are no domes or big statues at the top. It is a beautiful building though, and inside you can read about the history of Blanco and the courthouse itself.

Brieger Pottery is also on the square and is full of beautiful, functional pottery. I love to bring home trip souvenirs that I can incorporate in to my daily life like a mug or a bowl, and this is definitely the kind of place you can do that.

There are many other interesting things to see and do around Blanco – several Lavender farms to visit, Blanco State Park and more antique and specialty stores scattered throughout town that we did not have time to visit. I don’t think I would call Blanco a destination on it’s own unless you were going for the Lavender Festival in May, but it is a nice stop if you are exploring the Hill Country area.

Our stop in Hot Springs was not a planned part of our travel.  We were returning to Texas from our two week adventure across Indiana and New Jersey when we found ourselves with extra time on the return trip.  When we departed New Jersey our plan was to only drive across to Harrisburg, PA and stop over night in Pennsylvania’s capitol.  An early fall snow storm changed that plan, however, and we were forced to push south quickly changing our destination from Harrisburg, PA to Harrisonburg, VA – nearly 200 miles ahead of our planned stop.  This push to escape the snow gave us extra time on our return journey which left us wondering where we should stop for a day trip.  Chris and I had a day trip to Little Rock in August and we also stopped in Memphis, so our minds turned to a day trip in Hot Springs, Arkansas.

Hot Springs is a beautiful town.  Particularly as the green leaves of summer turn red and amber announcing the arrival of autumn.  The rolling hills surrounding the town were draped in the colors of fall.  Morning sunlight shown over the hills to the east and bathed the red, orange, and amber leaves in warm sunlight creating a colorful display.  We pulled into town and found Bathhouse Row – the collection of ornate bathhouses built in the 1920′s to serve up the warm elixir of mineral waters bubbling up to the surface from the various springs in the hillsides surrounding town.

Pulling a camper into the center of town helped us learn our first lesson about Hot Springs – there are few places to park if your pulling a camper or driving an RV.  This is not actually a new lesson for us, we have gone many places where parking for RV’s was an afterthought.  Usually, when we are confronted by such a situation, Chris or I will pull our camper down a side street a couple of blocks and find on street parking or an open parking lot walking distance from our destination.  In Hot Springs we tried this trick and found ourselves driving down a narrow street marked “narrow mountain road – vehicles over 30 feet prohibited”.  When pulling a camper or driving an RV, this is not really a good sign to see.

After solving our parking problem we headed down to Bathhouse Row and learned our second lesson about Hot Springs – you must have reservations.  Chris had a great idea about taking a mineral bath and enjoying part of the day soaking in the spa comforts of at one of the Bathhouses.  We stepped inside the foyer of one of the ornate and historic buildings along Bathhouse Row expecting to be welcomed with open arms and shown to our 140 degree Fahrenheit bath.  We soon found out that all appointments on this particular Sunday were booked.  Our plans were dashed.

This left us with only one option remaining in our stop in Hot Springs – a tour of the Fordyce Baths, the Hot Springs National Park visitors center.  Finally, we were successful! Here Chris and I enjoyed walking through the restored 1920′s building with ornate stained glass windows and sculpture.  The clean lines of the neo-classical architecture, polished marble, and shiny fixtures throughout demonstrated just how posh these surroundings must have been to visitors seeking relief from ailments   such as rheumatism, syphilis and kidney disease.  Thoughful interpretive elements placed throughout the visitors center tell the story of the ornate bathhouse during the height of Hot Springs as a health retreat and its transition into a town of modern spas and recreation.

Overall Chris and I found Hot Springs to be a lovely town with lots of activities and places to visit.  Unfortunately, because we made an unplanned stop here, we were not able to enjoy the full experience.  Without a doubt we will return to visit Hot Springs to enjoy a bath, hike in the hills surrounding town and stay nearby in a campground.  When we do visit again, we will be sure to write up part two of our visit and share even more photos!  Chris and I are already looking forward to that trip into the Arkansas mountains.

Boy was I surprised.

The campground we stayed at – Panther Lake Resort in Andover, was surrounded by picturesque small towns with a very New England feel to them. White clapboard churches, picket fences in the yards, sheep grazing nearby and fall decorations everywhere. I saw fields of pumpkins, horses grazing, fresh produce stands and people embracing the idea of the fall harvest all over the place.

Partway through the week it dawned on me – New Jersey is called The Garden State after all. I always scoffed at the idea, thinking yeah, right, garden of what? But the rolling hills, growing fields, and pastures of animals really changed my mind. New Jersey was actually very pretty and gave me a sense of relaxation that urban sprawl would not.

I drove a fair bit of the length of the state, and the center and western portions all seem to be equally agricultural, rustic and charming. Sure, there were some strip malls amongst the cute small towns, but overall it felt very rural. I am sure the eastern side of the state is much different with it’s proximity to New York City, but I had no occasion (or desire) to drive near the city.

In those small towns, the people I met were friendly. Maybe not as outgoing as the Texans I am used to, but they were very friendly. I had only one instance of less than friendly people and I’m assuming it had something to do with my more hiking oriented clothing in a rather upscale clothing shop. That can happen anywhere though. Shop workers, cashiers, people passing on the street, overall were a friendly lot in small town New Jersey.

The one bad part of Eastern New Jersey? Traffic. The roads are still two-lane highways and rural country roads but there are thousands of people traveling to train stations or into New York proper every day and things get pretty jammed up. If you are not used to driving in traffic at all, it may make you crazy. But, we are relatively accustomed to running into traffic snarls around Dallas, so, it was a little annoying but not unexpected. Just make sure if you are planning to be somewhere in the early morning or late afternoon, you will need to plan extra time to arrive. We also drove through it pulling our trailer. Not something we loved, but, it wasn’t really too bad. Put your more aggressive or confident driver behind the wheel and you’ll be fine.

And, if you can, visit in the fall. The fall colors were beautiful and the small towns as charming as any in New England and it was a good bit less crowded I am sure.

Chris and I hiked up the yellow blazed trail from the Fairview parking area to where the trail intersects with the Appalachian Trail.  This nearly 1 ½ mile hike included both steep climbs and level ground while cutting through a magnificent forest of oaks, maples, and hickory trees.   The view was spectacular under an amber canopy of leaves accentuated with red and orange.  Ferns low to the ground reached skyward in an effort to touch the sun.  Fallen logs and resting boulders along the trail provide the perfect resting place – a bench for the weary, or for those who wish to admire the beautiful surroundings.

After an hour of hiking and photography our journey up the yellow blazed trail connected with the Appalachian Trail.  In the middle of the forest, away from busy highways and city traffic was a busy intersection – an intersection of hikers and cultures.  Here we met up with people from three different continents – visitors from Asia, Europe, and North America.  Each of us from a different place, seeking the same experience with nature in Delaware Water Gap.  One after another hikers made their way up the trail in a steady stream.  Some stopped to visit, others carried on their own hike to the top of the trail and the peak of Kittatinny Ridge.

From the top of the yellow blazed trail at its intersection with the Appalachian Trail, Chris and I headed down the path and were rewarded with an even more brilliant view of changing colors as the sun began its afternoon decent.  The backlit trees and gentle afternoon breeze made for a brilliant display as autumn leaves fell like the big snow flakes of an early winter storm.  Fall was in the air and nature was in its greatest beauty.  As we hiked down the trail, the hillside basked in the afternoon sun and our day was complete.  We stopped the crazy frenzy of activities in our normal day-to-day life and for a few minutes we reveled in the timeless beauty of autumn in the middle of the forest.

The tour we attended was on Keystone’s Laredo line of 5th wheel trailers – a popular line of mid-price trailers manufactured in Goshen, Indiana. This is one of several tours offered on the Keystone factory campus. We met with our tour host and the other tour participants in a customer reception center adjacent to the Keystone maintenance and repair facility. At the time of the tour, our host introduced himself and we followed him from the customer reception building over to the Laredo assembly building for the tour.

Campers and RV’s at Keystone are made on an assembly line – the process starts with a trailer frame that is loaded onto a rolling dolly which progresses down several stations where the structure and internal components of the trailer are added. The tour walks along the assembly line where you can see various stages of the build. At each station, the tour host explains what is happening with the construction at that stage and how the trailer is being assembled. You can see everything as it is built from the core infrastructure such as plumbing, electrical and waste tanks to the framing, interior finish and application of outer skin and roof. Our tour host took time to explain the different materials used, why those materials were selected (wood vs. tubular aluminum, for example) and various features of the trailer. We were able to walk all around the units inspecting the assembly and asking questions about the trailer.

The tour at Keystone was very informative and well worth going to if you’re in northeast Indiana. Unlike other factory tours I’ve been on, this was not a schedule driven manufacturer infomertial. The tour was relaxed and designed to provide information and a two-way dialogue with the host. At several points along the tour our host stopped and asked for our feedback about different elements of features built into the Laredo line of 5th wheels. “What do you think about the outdoor kitchen?” our host asked. This lead to an interesting discussion about features and design elements in the camper. This interaction made the tour much more than just a show and tell – it was a lively information exchange.

Things you should know before going. Local campgrounds and tourist information centers are good locations to find information about available tours. In general factory tours are open to adults and sometimes older teens (16+). Tours are led through the assembly area where nails, screws, wire, and other hazards exist. You must wear closed toe shoes and appropriate attire for walking through a factory. There is a defined schedule and starting point for each tour. Considering each RV manufacturing campus can have dozens of buildings, you should check the manufacturers website for details about where the tour starts. Do not be afraid to stop and ask for directions. Some tours have a limited number of slots and require reservations. Even if the tour you are interested in does not require a reservation, it’s good to call ahead and confirm the tour is still on schedule.

Overall stopping at Keystone for a tour of the RV manufacturing process was an interesting experience and worth the stop. We shot a lot of video on our tour and over the next several weeks we’ll be assembling a video podcast to share the experience. Be sure to bookmark the Little Travel Notebook site and check back often for more updates on our adventures!