Lost Maples

Lost Maples is a state natural area not too far from our house. I've heard great things about this place. Apparently it is THE place to see leaves change. Rumor has it, it rivals a New England fall. (I've never been to new england, but I'm pretty sure this was nothing like that). I kept checking the website and we decided to take a little road trip the weekend of 'peak color'.

I'll be honest - the color wasn't anything incredibly fantastic. Yes, there was some, and the drive was beautiful (how have we lived here for nearly three years and never driven through hill country?. . . . . made me feel closer to "home" ie Texas isn't entirely flat afterall) but the park itself was kindof a let down.

We hiked, took pictures, went into a little nearby town to do some shopping and out to dinner.

Seems like a simple, basic enough weekend adventure right? not so.

On our way out we hadn't gotten but 15 miles down the road and Michael noticed smoke coming from the car engine. great. We pulled over so he could take a look and try to figure out the problem. The car was overheating like it was nobody's business and to top it off we had an extremely tired screaming baby in the backseat. (We were planning on her napping on the drive hmmm)

We hadn't been parked but 2 minutes when we were approched by a cowboy. You know the type: pickup truck, 10 gallon hat, boots, chewing tabbacco, the whole shebang. He even breaks horses for a living and grew up on a farm where he learned all sorts of car/tractor related fixes by demand.

anyway, he just happened to be the nicest cowboy ever. He took us back to his place, ran Michael to and from the auto-parts store a half a dozen times and helped/showed him how to replace the thermostat and radiator as well as a few other little things- all while begging me to go inside his house every 10 minutes. He saved us. quite literally. He called his wife to come home from running errands so I'd go inside. Where she told me her life story and that he can't pass someone on the side of the road and not stop. A few hours later, they sent us on our way- telling us that if we have any other problems to come back, "you know where to find us". Nicest man ever. We'll just say certain steryo-types were confirmed and others shattered. :)

We made it to the state park, as I proceeded to get our backpack with stuff for the hike together I realize the sippy cup of water I had for Rylee was empty, and the bag and camera that was inside the bag was DRENCHED. I was livid. Since the camera was soaked we took it apart to try to let it dry out and couldn't use it. I'm happy that camera phones exist, but I was so upset! After we got home we put the camera in rice and it totally worked! 80% of the moisture was out the first night and there was a stubborn water drop but after a week you can't even tell it took a bath. genious!

We just kept laughing (trying to) at how strange our day was as we were deciding where to go to dinner. Then the hostess asked us if we wouldn't mind sharing a table with the random couple waiting for a table behind us. Why not make a strange day stranger? So we ate dinner with a random retired couple who adopted Rylee as their granddaughter for the evening. fine by me. You do what you gotta do when you live 1400 miles away from a blood relative :)

Thankfully, for the time being, life is back to 'normal'