I wanna horrify you into a coma.

[dolari]

Now that there is better news on the Carrot front, I feel a bit better, even if my day has been filled with bitterness over the job situation and the hormone situation and the parental situation and the financial situation and the...well...yuo ge the picture.

I worked a bit on Closetspace today, cheating to get the first panel done. I can't get ove rhow hard it is for me to get this on paper...I almsot feel like it's pushing me away, saying it doesn't want to be drawn yet. But once I get a few strips under my belt, I'm sure that'll go away.

While pulling up the picture of Alamo Plaza for the opening strip, I found some other.

When I saw Lord of the Rings, I was really taken by the Shire. And by how mych it reminded me of my own little playplaces. Everywhere I have lived, save Austin, has had these little forests I could retreat into. Even in Pennsylvania. The oneI had most fun in, though, was the Huebner Creek area. When I saw the Shire in LOTR, I swear Jackson filmed it in my backyard....

These woods were just behind my house, on a creekbed. When Itook these pictures, a homeowner had cleared out a few of the trees (dammit) but left it much the same...I got the idea he was making a playground for his kids out of the floodplain. But still, it's mostlythere...the big rock I'd sit on and read against. The trails that either took me to my middle school, or my high school, depending on the direction you took. It's back here that I spent most of my middle and high school days, on a bike, witha book, (And later) with my GameBoy. :)

This was a mile down the trail towards my high school. This area was so beautiful...the trails took you through thick shrubbery and heavy forest, until you hit this grotto. Here the ground flooded so often that grass and shrubs couldn't take hold - but once it dried out, it left you a wonderful place to have a picnic. When I was coming from High School, I stopped here a lot and did my homework against one of the trees. I once tried to drive my truck in there. Don't do that. :) SniceI tookthis pic, they've replaced the asphalt ford with a concrete bridge - so parking is a problem now, especially since I live pretty far away from there now.

My father bought ten acres of property in Comfort, TX. We came out here religiously for abot three years, then never went back. My father ended up selling a lot of it off, and now got most of it back. Once I started driving, I'd make the trip up here all alone, and read, homework, hike, bike out here. Supposedly this little rocky place'll be mine. Well, we'll see. Right now, the family is still giving it to me, but that changes depending on their attitude. If I can just get it in my old name, I can get it in my new name...and then it will be mine...all mine (maniacal laughter).

Not too long after dad bough that property, we went on a drive exploring the country side. We discovered Camp Verde, and the roadside park that was where the old highway crossed Verde Creek. Again, after I started coming up to Comfort on my own, I came here as well. Especially when I was upset at my parents, or my own situation. It's really beautiful here, and despite the rural highway near it, and the roadside park, you can just turn your back and your in another world. It's so quiet here, that you can hear thunderstorms twenty miles away....

About 1988, my father and I began to explore the old roads in the Hill Country. We found the old Fredericksburg highway and followed it to this abosutely wonderful spot in the Guadalupe River. The old bridge here was just a few inches from the water, but has since been replaced with a nicer two lane bridge that (I think) canoers can go under. Big swimming and fishing spot here, and the provate landowners look the other way when someone is parking on their property as long as they're not being asses.

On that same trip, we found this old Railroad tunnel. Originally, it was part of the short lived Fredericksburg & Northern railroad, but has since become a home to five million bats. From 1988 to 1995, I came here religiously at sundown to watchthe bats fly out of the cavern. There was a ledge you could dangle your feet down and watch this swirling torando of bats fly out. When I came back in 1997 (during a visit from Pennsylvania) I was really dissapointed to find the whole thing roped off where you couldn't get to it (My dad an I would walk right up to the cavern). When I came back in 2000, they had not only reopened the cavern, but made a nature trail on the old railroad bed, added two viewing theaters (one on that very ledge I used to sit on), bathrooms (YAY!) and information guides! Wow...thankfully, they left a nice view of the cavern from teh naturetrail, so I won't tresspass anymore. :)

And coming home from the tunnel, we found this gorgeous waterfall. Sorta. Dad wasn't paying attention and didn't see it. It was my secret till abotu 1998, when Ifinally told my dad about it and they started visiting and having picnics here.

All these places are about an hour from San Antonio (Except the first three,w hich are actually INSIDE San Antonio) Texas is a beautiful state...I never found anything remotely like this in Pennsylvania, other than your standard everyday wilderness mountained forest.

Comments

Texas

[zaecus.livejournal.com]

I'm rather fond of the state myself. I grew up in the country, and some of my favorite memories involve warm summer evenings watching the fireflies and full moon nights spent on wooded trails and by our pond.

Re: Texas

[jenndolari.livejournal.com]

Oooh, what part of Texas?

I was pretty lucky - we lived in rural San Antonio. First on the far far west side, and when the city got too close, we moved to the rural Northwest. When the big NW population explosion kicked in, we moved even FARTHER west. Unfortunately, my parents have hit bad times and we don't have the money to move again, so I've seen beautiful woods and fields mowed down for rows of houses.

Re: Texas

[zaecus.livejournal.com]

We lived, and my mother still does, a ways north of Houston. The place stayed wonderful until about ten years ago, then a lot of changes started happening. We've had two subdivisions start developing in the area, and the city we're next to just tried to annex a chunk of it.

I love that land, and it's very special to me, but I can't do anything about the encroachment and I can't stand to watch it happen.

Re: Texas

[jenndolari.livejournal.com]

My uncle lives out that ways, in The Woodlands. That was bautiful country out there, but I've heard it exploded, and is losing it's lovely nature.

We will eb a borg planet ione day, I'm sure of it.