There is a big hunting tradition in this area. This lumber store sold a lot of stuff to get you out hunting in style. Most interesting to us were the blinds which were very sturdy things with real stairs to climb up. They don't use tree stands like we do in Maine because the trees aren't big enough here. And feeders. Big feeders to put out to attract the animals so that you can later hunt them. Next to the state park is a ranch that raises some sort of antelope. These are meant to be hunted. We were told that there is very little public land in Texas. In order to hunt here you must lease the right from the landowner. But the public land (state parks) allows anybody to fish without a license. This park is closed to camping during the turkey hunting season but open for turkey hunting.
Our reason for needing the lumber store involves our bed. The High Country is a lighter weight fifth wheel than most and is because it uses lighter materials. The bed platform/frame (part that the mattress rests on) is made with wide straps. Light weight but the mattress sags in the middle and we therefore don't "sleep tight". There was no apparent way to firm this up so Mr. FixIt devised a way to make a plywood platform to place over this. Since he didn't bring a saw along with him (why ever not I wonder since he brought every other tool) he needed to get a 4x8 sheet of plywood cut in a certain way.
For some reason, when we came to Texas I was dreading it because I had the idea that the people weren't nice. I'm not sure where this came from but it couldn't be further from the truth. We've met some of the friendliest people of the whole trip here. The lumber yard folks were no exception. They said that they would have to charge for cutting which was okay with us. In the end, they only charged for the plywood. The fellow doing the cutting was surprised that we were from Maine because he thought everybody from the northeast was grumpy all the time! And the children here are raised to be polite. I don't mind a "yes ma'am" now and again. We just had 4 little boys come careening through the campsite on their bikes and the first thing they said was "sorry". Our pink flamingo yard art has a way of attracting the little ones. It is fun to get to talk to them. But I digress. The plywood worked perfectly for the bed and we shouldn't have to worry about rolling into the Grand Canyon if we happen to move away from the edge of the bed now.
The South Llano has plenty of water in it. Tubing and swimming and kayaking are very popular at this park. There were a number of people in and on the water today. The park has been very busy this weekend with lots of children giggling and running about. During the week it has been very quiet with a few old people (like us).
A warm day just calls for a nap so that is what happened. Well, somebody had to try out the fixed up bed too before we committed to it for a whole night (Brett tried out the bed).
There are several bird blinds set up around the park. These are the "on the ground" kind rather than the "climb up the stairs" kind. After it got a bit cooler we walked over to one to see what we could see. The birds all seem to be in bed for the night. We did see two axis deer. These things make quite a noise in the evening. I thought I was listening to a mountain lion roaring.
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