Having successfully Grapefruit Sculpin-ed our way through the Great Arctic Blast of March 2016, we bundled up (yesterday in the 80s, now in the 50s) and made our way up to Fredericksburg toward Enchanted Rock State Natural Area. We timed our arrival to conveniently coincide again with seemingly every other family in Central Texas—because now it’s Saturday AND Spring Break. We tracked down a parking spot, and braved said Arctic blast by eating outside on a patio in Fredericksburg's main drag under space heaters rendered completely pointless by the wind. It’s important to note that Fredericksburg is known for its wineries and wine tastings. We had neither, but we are reasonably confident that the town and surrounding environs is vastly different from Napa, Paso Robles, or Sonoma. Fifteen plus years and we keep saying we’ll plan a trip around Texas wine country.
While making our way out of Fredericksburg for the short drive up to Enchanted Rock, we noticed a local city government sign indicating the park was “Open.” While this led us to question if state parks were ever closed, except due to weather, it was enough for us that it was open and thus we continued on. Nary another blip in the frontal lobe. However, 5 minutes into the beautiful and windy trip out of town and down the road, flashing lights alerted that the park was, in fact, closed. Or was it? Is that what it said? I don’t know, I wasn’t paying attention. Were you? Ethan be quiet. Ella, stop crying.
“Sorry folks, park’s closed. Moose out front should have told you.”
This is a good spot for a quick definition:
Web Search Engine—A web search engine is a software system that is designed to search for information on the World Wide Web. The search results are generally presented in a line of results often referred to as search engine results pages. The information may be a mix of web pages, images, and other types of files.
Had we bothered to check The Google (hell, even Dogpile would probably work) prior to leaving the hotel, we would have seen the following notice on the park’s website:
“Park closures possible on weekends and holidays. Third-party shuttle service available.”
David admits feeling a flash of Griswold-esque rage, though it was somewhat assuaged by the fact that—for one of us, at least—this trip was more about getting out of town for a bit and getting Ella (or rather her parents) used to being in the car since we’ll be making a similar drive in a month for a camping adventure. Having no other choice, we settled for a 5 MPH drive-by followed by the summation we’d begin the trek back home. The views were spectacular even if we didn’t get to actually experience climbing the rock. It’s bluebonnet season after all and they’re gorgeous when in bloom—these wildflowers were everywhere and this immediately became Heather’s favorite area of Texas. Mind you, not enough to complete one of the top Texas traditions, which is to pull over on a 75 MPH freeway and slap your kid down in a mixture of ants and bluebonnets to get them to smile for a photo. Awwwh.
Faced again with the desire to salvage what was left of our road trip, we opted for more backroads, drove up to Llano before winding out through the south side of Austin, and on to Bastrop, home of, thankfully, a Starbucks, dinner from a local HEB grocery store, and most importantly a nice long hike at Bastrop State Park. Score. (We had sushi, not those gross-ass oysters.)
