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The local No Kidding chapter had an activity planned for Thursday, which was take your kid to work day. So since everyone was theoretically going to be at work with their kids, we planned to go to Hamilton Pool for the day. Hub agreed, so we drove out to the grocery store where we all agreed to meet. About 6 others were there, and after we picked up a bit of snackage, we headed out to the preserve. It was about 15 miles outside of the tiny town of Bee Caves, past a shooting range I'd been to once about a year ago. The drive was beautiful, if overcast. We got out there, and were in fact the only people there. The NK people all unloaded and immediately started down, not waiting for us. This was OK, since we didn't really know any of them, but a teeny bit stand-offish and unfriendly- this set the tone for our interactions with them for the rest of the day.
The hike down was gorgeous, but tough. It was a fairly long and steep trail and I was hauling a bunch of stuff, but when we arrived, I forgot my woes- that place is gorgeous. There is a collapsed grotto overhang above a deep clear green pool. Waterfalls spun off the overhang about 40 feet down. Inside the grotto were deep cave-like nooks, where a lot of those mud-dauber birds nested. They would occasionally fly out in flocks of 20 or so, circle around and through the waterfalls, and back to the nests. We all set up our chairs and stuff, and started to unwind.
The NK people proceeded to talk about how much they hated kids, and all the wonderful exotic places they travel to regularly, and began to plan a SCUBA expedition. It quickly became evident that hub and I weren't crabby enough or wealthy enough to run with these people, and they didn't seemed inclined to include us much. This was irritating but not as much as it could have been; I was there to enjoy myself and nature, and complaining about children was the last thing I felt like doing. Hub said 'they complain more than me!' which is saying a lot. :)
There were plenty of trails, although the vibe was somewhat broken by signs every 5 feet warning us to stay on the damn trail, you terrible humans! But everything was exquisitely green and new, and vibrating with life. There were lots and lots of ferns everywhere, maidenhair and the little spiky ones too. The water was chilly, and no one wanted to go in but I thought 'screw it' and finally went in. It was really cold at first, but there were pockets of warm, and once I started swimming around I warmed up. It cleared off about this time, and the Sun was pleasant- a minor cool front had blown in, so it didn't heat up as quickly as it could've. There were lots of fish and turtles and things, and even a yard-long swimming serpent of some sort, which I didn't get a close look at (coulda been a water moccasin). I brought some goggles but they were pretty old and somewhat cloudy. I could still see enough, though, and it was just absolutely beautiful. I love rivers. When it got too deep to see the bottom easily, there was that shimmering effect where the rays of the Sun seem to converge somewhere deep down... ah.
I sat under a waterfall, and after falling that far it's pretty stingy- like when you have one of those shower massagers and put it on tenderize. The water was falling from an above-ground stream, and was pleasantly warm. I moved under a different waterfall, and it was falling from an underground stream and was freezing! It was quite a fascinating contrast.
I coaxed hub in, who doesn't like getting in cold water much. He swam for a bit, but got tired and wanted to get out. Sadly, he over-exerted himself and got very nauseous, and wanted to head home. So we packed up, waved at the NK crowd, and headed back up. It was a killer hike because this time it was all climbing up. Hub noticed that when he's climbing stairs, he doesn't break a sweat while I'm huffing and puffing, while in the water I was swimming circles around him and hardly feeling exerted at all- we decided that I was Aquaman, the lamest of the Superfriends, with my nigh-useless ability to communicate with fish, in addition to the ability to swim a lot. Wheeee!
I got home, and realized that I was Caucasian and had a horribly painful sunburn on all of me that wasn't covered with swimsuit or hair, excepting the face because I put sunscreen on my face. Smart, ain't I? :P
That evening I went to a meeting where a bunch of us discussed the possibility of forming a CoG local council, and it looks pretty likely at this point. My elder River's probably going to end up the president or first officer or whatever they are called, since she's doing the bulk of the organization. She was very excited about it... after some thought, I realized that my motivations for joining are because it seems to be expected. So my personal motivation isn't very high, but as I was telling Gordon on the ride home- if I wanted to form a bureaucracy with anyone, it'd be with these people.
The hike down was gorgeous, but tough. It was a fairly long and steep trail and I was hauling a bunch of stuff, but when we arrived, I forgot my woes- that place is gorgeous. There is a collapsed grotto overhang above a deep clear green pool. Waterfalls spun off the overhang about 40 feet down. Inside the grotto were deep cave-like nooks, where a lot of those mud-dauber birds nested. They would occasionally fly out in flocks of 20 or so, circle around and through the waterfalls, and back to the nests. We all set up our chairs and stuff, and started to unwind.
The NK people proceeded to talk about how much they hated kids, and all the wonderful exotic places they travel to regularly, and began to plan a SCUBA expedition. It quickly became evident that hub and I weren't crabby enough or wealthy enough to run with these people, and they didn't seemed inclined to include us much. This was irritating but not as much as it could have been; I was there to enjoy myself and nature, and complaining about children was the last thing I felt like doing. Hub said 'they complain more than me!' which is saying a lot. :)
There were plenty of trails, although the vibe was somewhat broken by signs every 5 feet warning us to stay on the damn trail, you terrible humans! But everything was exquisitely green and new, and vibrating with life. There were lots and lots of ferns everywhere, maidenhair and the little spiky ones too. The water was chilly, and no one wanted to go in but I thought 'screw it' and finally went in. It was really cold at first, but there were pockets of warm, and once I started swimming around I warmed up. It cleared off about this time, and the Sun was pleasant- a minor cool front had blown in, so it didn't heat up as quickly as it could've. There were lots of fish and turtles and things, and even a yard-long swimming serpent of some sort, which I didn't get a close look at (coulda been a water moccasin). I brought some goggles but they were pretty old and somewhat cloudy. I could still see enough, though, and it was just absolutely beautiful. I love rivers. When it got too deep to see the bottom easily, there was that shimmering effect where the rays of the Sun seem to converge somewhere deep down... ah.
I sat under a waterfall, and after falling that far it's pretty stingy- like when you have one of those shower massagers and put it on tenderize. The water was falling from an above-ground stream, and was pleasantly warm. I moved under a different waterfall, and it was falling from an underground stream and was freezing! It was quite a fascinating contrast.
I coaxed hub in, who doesn't like getting in cold water much. He swam for a bit, but got tired and wanted to get out. Sadly, he over-exerted himself and got very nauseous, and wanted to head home. So we packed up, waved at the NK crowd, and headed back up. It was a killer hike because this time it was all climbing up. Hub noticed that when he's climbing stairs, he doesn't break a sweat while I'm huffing and puffing, while in the water I was swimming circles around him and hardly feeling exerted at all- we decided that I was Aquaman, the lamest of the Superfriends, with my nigh-useless ability to communicate with fish, in addition to the ability to swim a lot. Wheeee!
I got home, and realized that I was Caucasian and had a horribly painful sunburn on all of me that wasn't covered with swimsuit or hair, excepting the face because I put sunscreen on my face. Smart, ain't I? :P
That evening I went to a meeting where a bunch of us discussed the possibility of forming a CoG local council, and it looks pretty likely at this point. My elder River's probably going to end up the president or first officer or whatever they are called, since she's doing the bulk of the organization. She was very excited about it... after some thought, I realized that my motivations for joining are because it seems to be expected. So my personal motivation isn't very high, but as I was telling Gordon on the ride home- if I wanted to form a bureaucracy with anyone, it'd be with these people.
