Monday, March 19th
Mar. 27th, 2007 05:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dolariI move a lot in my sleep, Emily does too. In order to keep from either one of us banging into my busted ankle, I took a darvocet and slept on the bed, while Emily slept on the futon. I woke up to a very sore, but not incredibly painful anymore ankle.
We made a call to Dr. Arcinega, who couldn't see me until Tuesday. We then called Dr. Chase and found out his office was closed. Seeing as I wasnt going to be repaired today, and that I wanted to spend as much with Emily as possible, and that the ankle was a lot better, we decided to go on with our plans. I was going to give Emily a good time, wether my ankle wanted to or not.
Our original plans were to hit all the underground caves we could before they closed. Wonder World in San Marcos, Natural Bridge Caverns in Garden Ridge, Cascade Caverns in Boerne, and if we had time, The Cave without a Name in Kreutzberg. Our plans included Longhorn Caverns in Burnet and Innerspace Caverns in Georgetown, only if there was any time left, and they were open.
Not only do we wake up late, but I've broken my ankle, and we're going to walk a helluva lot. This had all the earmarks of a disaster waiting to happen.
And yet, the only disaster was that we missed seeing any other caves other than Natural Bridge Caverns. 180 feet down and up and three quarters of a mile of beautiful caves and formations. Emily had never been down in a cave before, and I'd never been to this one. Lots of pictures were taken (and came out! I love my camera!), which we may see in AWFW fairly shortly.
After we were done there, we began our trek to Boerne, only to find on the way that the cave closed at four, not five, and had closed before we even left the cave. So we pondered wether to try for Cave without a Name, when Emily had a better idea.
We were already in Boerne, we were stormed out of the old railroad trackage last week - let's pick up where we left off.
So we went up to the northernmost spot in Boerne, on the Spanish Pass road, and worked down, through Boerne, traveling on the rail in some places, or as close as we could get where it's been turned into a hike'n'bike trail.
We spent some time in the depot-ish pavilion reading up on the railroads that were here, and played around the parking lot on the other end of the tracks (she played with the crossing bell that was sitting at the entrance).
We continued through to Van Raub [MAP][INFO] and into Fair Oaks Ranch [MAP][INFO] before it became incredibly obvious where the tracks were.
Our biggest shock was seeing a building that had a specific short length of track still being used to haul stuff from one end of the property to another had not just pulled up the tracks, but pulled up completely, abandonning the building.
We explored the Wye in Camp Stanely [MAP][INFO], through Aue [MAP] and then just before Leon Springs....
At this point, the old highway made an S curve. It came to a halt a AUR road, crossed the tracks on Aue and continued on. When the highway was built, the southern part of the S curve was torn up, and the fill for the tracks were torn up as well just recently, as in the 1990s. My pickup hasn't done offroading since my high school days. I think she liked it. :D
We got into Leon Springs [MAP][INFO] and tucked in behind the Rudy's and Macaroni Grill (the originals, you know...I remember when Rudy's was a gas station that gave away popcorn with an 8 gallon sale).
We continued into San Antonio, where more and more evidence of the tracks could be seen. I'd seen a lot of this fully used just in 2003, and now it had been all pulled up. At Raymond Russel Park, we found the end of the line [MAP]. It was kind of sad to see these tracks sitting here, so overgrown and unused. We took a few pictures lamented the end of the line and continued on. Well...we THOUGHT it was the end of the line....
At Camp Bullis Road [MAP], we saw more trackage, but noticed that there were signs around saying "Tracks out of service." I thought that was wierd, as the tracks went down to a very used quarry and they often used these lines to hold rail cars full of gravel.
At Camp Bullis Road, the road became one way, so we headed down to 1604 where I know the track was being used and worked backwards. At first we were going to see Beckman [MAP][INFO].
Beckman was a flagstop on the SA&AP, and as of 1995 or so, was still accessable, but was creepy. Beckman was a company town for the quarry, and as such, all the houses were made out of cement for the workers. Just one lonely road with the houses dotting it. But in 1995, a trip down Nina Louise road showed row upon row of empty collapsed cement shells of houses, an an occasional vacant but still standing house. When we went back to see it that day, it'd all been closed off.
We drove up just a bit north of Beckman, where the quarry had been with all its sidings and loops and spurs, and to my horror, the march of time had gone on. Right at the crossing with Leon Creek was one lonely tressle, warped tracks trailing off into a new landscaped Mall-City. This wasn't there last year, and now it had obliterated not just the tracks, but the quarry, the forest around it, and basically was a blight on my childhood.
Emily got on the tracks (with my ankle, I decided against it), and about halfway down had an enounter with a snake. The snake wasn't pissed off, thank goodness, because it was a damned diamondback rattler. Welcome to Texas, indeed. I decided to stay on terra firma thanks to the ankle, and Emily actually walked the trestle back into the quarry up to the fenceline to see where the tracks went (and ended up getting my a tie-plate from the trestle, complete with spikes). This was now the northernmost area of the tracks. The pieces we saw at the park were orphaned thanks to the absolutely need for a huge parking lot for Bass Pro Shops.
Emily and I found the beginning of the orphaned track, dated it to 1971, took some pics and while she mourned the end of the track, I mourned the destruction of the trees to make room for a road to the pro-shops. It kinda put me in a dour mood, yes.
We ended up deciding to have Chinese food for dinner, and this time, take Emily to my favorite chinese buffet ever, on Culebra. Anytime I had Chinese in town, I went to this place called Golden PAlace. We got there, only to find that, like King of Lemon Chicken, it was gone, replaced by a Mexican Restaurant.
We ended up going back to Chopsticks for a late dinner. Emily noticed how quiet I was, and I told her about all the changes I've seen to a lot of places from my childhood. Change is inevitable, and you can only acept it and move on, but this was a lot at once. Most other places survived with only slight changes, this was the first time I'd seen such drastic changes over a short time (most of these places existed just last year!).
My ankle was giving me some grief, so Emily drove home, while I slept in the truck.
We made a call to Dr. Arcinega, who couldn't see me until Tuesday. We then called Dr. Chase and found out his office was closed. Seeing as I wasnt going to be repaired today, and that I wanted to spend as much with Emily as possible, and that the ankle was a lot better, we decided to go on with our plans. I was going to give Emily a good time, wether my ankle wanted to or not.
Our original plans were to hit all the underground caves we could before they closed. Wonder World in San Marcos, Natural Bridge Caverns in Garden Ridge, Cascade Caverns in Boerne, and if we had time, The Cave without a Name in Kreutzberg. Our plans included Longhorn Caverns in Burnet and Innerspace Caverns in Georgetown, only if there was any time left, and they were open.
Not only do we wake up late, but I've broken my ankle, and we're going to walk a helluva lot. This had all the earmarks of a disaster waiting to happen.
And yet, the only disaster was that we missed seeing any other caves other than Natural Bridge Caverns. 180 feet down and up and three quarters of a mile of beautiful caves and formations. Emily had never been down in a cave before, and I'd never been to this one. Lots of pictures were taken (and came out! I love my camera!), which we may see in AWFW fairly shortly.
After we were done there, we began our trek to Boerne, only to find on the way that the cave closed at four, not five, and had closed before we even left the cave. So we pondered wether to try for Cave without a Name, when Emily had a better idea.
We were already in Boerne, we were stormed out of the old railroad trackage last week - let's pick up where we left off.
So we went up to the northernmost spot in Boerne, on the Spanish Pass road, and worked down, through Boerne, traveling on the rail in some places, or as close as we could get where it's been turned into a hike'n'bike trail.
We spent some time in the depot-ish pavilion reading up on the railroads that were here, and played around the parking lot on the other end of the tracks (she played with the crossing bell that was sitting at the entrance).
We continued through to Van Raub [MAP][INFO] and into Fair Oaks Ranch [MAP][INFO] before it became incredibly obvious where the tracks were.
Our biggest shock was seeing a building that had a specific short length of track still being used to haul stuff from one end of the property to another had not just pulled up the tracks, but pulled up completely, abandonning the building.
We explored the Wye in Camp Stanely [MAP][INFO], through Aue [MAP] and then just before Leon Springs....
At this point, the old highway made an S curve. It came to a halt a AUR road, crossed the tracks on Aue and continued on. When the highway was built, the southern part of the S curve was torn up, and the fill for the tracks were torn up as well just recently, as in the 1990s. My pickup hasn't done offroading since my high school days. I think she liked it. :D
We got into Leon Springs [MAP][INFO] and tucked in behind the Rudy's and Macaroni Grill (the originals, you know...I remember when Rudy's was a gas station that gave away popcorn with an 8 gallon sale).
We continued into San Antonio, where more and more evidence of the tracks could be seen. I'd seen a lot of this fully used just in 2003, and now it had been all pulled up. At Raymond Russel Park, we found the end of the line [MAP]. It was kind of sad to see these tracks sitting here, so overgrown and unused. We took a few pictures lamented the end of the line and continued on. Well...we THOUGHT it was the end of the line....
At Camp Bullis Road [MAP], we saw more trackage, but noticed that there were signs around saying "Tracks out of service." I thought that was wierd, as the tracks went down to a very used quarry and they often used these lines to hold rail cars full of gravel.
At Camp Bullis Road, the road became one way, so we headed down to 1604 where I know the track was being used and worked backwards. At first we were going to see Beckman [MAP][INFO].
Beckman was a flagstop on the SA&AP, and as of 1995 or so, was still accessable, but was creepy. Beckman was a company town for the quarry, and as such, all the houses were made out of cement for the workers. Just one lonely road with the houses dotting it. But in 1995, a trip down Nina Louise road showed row upon row of empty collapsed cement shells of houses, an an occasional vacant but still standing house. When we went back to see it that day, it'd all been closed off.
We drove up just a bit north of Beckman, where the quarry had been with all its sidings and loops and spurs, and to my horror, the march of time had gone on. Right at the crossing with Leon Creek was one lonely tressle, warped tracks trailing off into a new landscaped Mall-City. This wasn't there last year, and now it had obliterated not just the tracks, but the quarry, the forest around it, and basically was a blight on my childhood.
Emily got on the tracks (with my ankle, I decided against it), and about halfway down had an enounter with a snake. The snake wasn't pissed off, thank goodness, because it was a damned diamondback rattler. Welcome to Texas, indeed. I decided to stay on terra firma thanks to the ankle, and Emily actually walked the trestle back into the quarry up to the fenceline to see where the tracks went (and ended up getting my a tie-plate from the trestle, complete with spikes). This was now the northernmost area of the tracks. The pieces we saw at the park were orphaned thanks to the absolutely need for a huge parking lot for Bass Pro Shops.
Emily and I found the beginning of the orphaned track, dated it to 1971, took some pics and while she mourned the end of the track, I mourned the destruction of the trees to make room for a road to the pro-shops. It kinda put me in a dour mood, yes.
We ended up deciding to have Chinese food for dinner, and this time, take Emily to my favorite chinese buffet ever, on Culebra. Anytime I had Chinese in town, I went to this place called Golden PAlace. We got there, only to find that, like King of Lemon Chicken, it was gone, replaced by a Mexican Restaurant.
We ended up going back to Chopsticks for a late dinner. Emily noticed how quiet I was, and I told her about all the changes I've seen to a lot of places from my childhood. Change is inevitable, and you can only acept it and move on, but this was a lot at once. Most other places survived with only slight changes, this was the first time I'd seen such drastic changes over a short time (most of these places existed just last year!).
My ankle was giving me some grief, so Emily drove home, while I slept in the truck.
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no subject
Date: 2007-03-29 04:40 am (UTC)BTW i light a healing candle for your ankle & my knee... I figure this thing should work for one of us!
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Date: 2007-03-31 05:15 pm (UTC)