Changes

It has been far too long since I last posted in my "marathon journal".  I am not running...not at the moment anyway.  Injuries sidelined me first - weight and work keep me from where I want to be...but I WILL get there! 

I've been switching from reading running blogs to reading "retirement" blogs.  Those are blogs of folks that have taken the plunge and become part of the traveling RV family.  Some are full-timers, some part-timers, but all are on the road and writing about their adventures.  I don't think I could EVER do a daily journal - my life just simply isn't THAT interesting, but I do think I could update when we travel and take our pictures. 

With that thought in mind I went back to the next trip we took after we went to Palo Duro Canyon over Thanksgiving of 2012 (can you believe that is almost two years ago now!).  Our next trip was spring break and we took off to go camping at Inks Lake State Park.  

After we got our campsite set up we went for our first hike.  Our site was close to the Devil's Waterhole so we walked there first.

 An HDR painting photo of one of the trees along Spring Creek near Devil's Waterhole

We then decided to walk another trail closer to the lake to look for spots where we could set up to shoot the sunrise. Love seeing the native plants along the trail and sharing the view overlooking the lake as the sun slowly set.

 One of the many Yucca cactus along the trail

 Have you ever looked at a Yucca from the top?

 Sun through the clouds over Inks Lake 

 Love the God's Rays showing through the clouds over the lake in this view

 Sun going down over the cove

 Reflection of sunset in the cove at Inks Lake 

That was pretty much it for our arrival day.  We went out just a little on Sunday as well - can't remember too much WHY now, that would be why I need to write these as soon as we get back - which is where I am headed!  Anyway... here are the shots from Sunday!
I had never really looked at Yucca blooms close up before, they are really quite pretty!

I loved the play of light on the cactus and rocks as the sun set.

And finally at the end of the day the deer came out to play!

That's all for today - but I'll come back soon to share sunrise over Devil's Waterhole and our trip to Longhorn Cavern State Park as well.

Tomorrow

Tomorrow we will run/walk our last Cowtown 1/2 marathon.  It will be our 5th year and we will complete the medal series.  We started this 6 long years ago and so much has passed since that 1st Cowtown 5K.  That was our first race - the one I thought I couldn't do - but did.  The very next year we signed up for the 1/2 marathon.  It was the beginning of the Texas Star Medal Series.  The medals are so beautiful when put together, so this year we get to pick up our plaque and hopefully finish so we can get that 5th medal to show.  We ran race 1, we ran race 2 even faster and felt even better....then came the injuries.  We didn't do too bad on race three, although Rick was running in a lot of pain with his neck...and I was running in jeans because I forgot to pack my running pants!  The 4th year was the first after my back surgery - so zero training, but we finished it.  This year again very little training...I haven't really gone more than about 4 miles...every time I would start running something else seemed to fall apart - a knee, an ankle, etc.  But here lately it is all flowing back in place and feeling pretty good again.  I have NO speed, not that I ever had much to begin with...but the endurance is showing some improvement.  I'm actually looking forward to this one.  I'm in the process of proving once again I CAN do this.  If this one goes well I'll pick a new 5K and keep training and trying.  Wish me luck!

Palo Duro Wednesday

Up early again.  I thought it might be fun to go up to the visitor center area to watch the sunrise...well, think I'll stick with Pepaw picking where we need to set up for that! It was a pretty sunrise, just the place we were at wasn't the best for it...Oh well, I still got this pretty cool shot!

Loved the reflections on the car, and you can even see Pepaw down the road getting his shots for the morning.  Then we drove down into the valley.  I walked up one of the closed off road to get this shot of one of the bluffs on the other side of the valley lighting up.

After we finished with the sunrise pictures we drove back down to low water crossing #2 so I could get another reflection picture of Capital Peak.  The water was so still it was like a mirror!

We decided to hike the Capital Peak trail and see if we could find any more "hidden" trails.  As we walked along the trail we saw this buck working his way through the brush.

You'll want to double click this one so you can actually see him!

We moved along and came across this formation, so I took a couple of pictures from each side.

Pepaw was off taking his pictures and I had done about all I could see, (I always finish first!), so I thought I'd play around with the camera a little and see what it could do.  First I tried a sepia tone shot.

WOW! That was cool...let's try some black and white!

Same shot in color

Another black and white,

Well, THAT was fun!  I REALLY liked what I was seeing.  We walked back to the car and traveled back up the road again.



Another panarama shot. Love how this one came out!



Now I was ready to play with the HDR Paint functionality.

Isn't that cool looking!

We went back to the campsite for a while and decided we would go around the bend to the cabins and see what we could see from there.

Another HDR painted picture

Then I got this shot of the sun going behind the clouds.

And the cactus growing on the rock over the valley.

We drove back to the trailhead for The Lighthouse and Capital Peak.  We weren't going to walk the trails, but just wanted to get a few more pictures of the area.  I got this one in Black and White and the same shot in color.

My final shot of the day was this sepia toned capture of the windmill.  I thought the sepia made it look really "old - time".  You can even see the moon right there by the windmill if you look really close!

I liked my new camera before today - but after this - well, I think I fell in love with it!  So great that you can look through the lens and see what the shot will look like when you do these.  Love, love, love it!

Thanksgiving day would be our last in the park and I was looking forward to it!

Tuesday at Palo Duro

Tuesday morning we got up before sunrise again - I was excited because we were returning to the spot we'd found the night before to watch the sun come up.  We got there pretty early and got set up and started waiting.  I don't do "waiting" very well, so we started playing with the cameras and I was able to get these shots of Pepaw all ready to shoot pictures for the day!

Not very often I get a shot of him - he's usually right beside me behind his camera!

The sun finally started coming up - it wasn't an amazing sunrise - don't get me wrong, they are all beautiful, but there weren't the really pretty clouds that make some of them really amazing!  I tried some shots that were a little different, but still showed the beautiful morning light.

After watching the morning light we headed back to the campsite.  We wanted to take a look at the map and try to decide where we wanted to go from there.  I took a quick picture of our "home away from home".

We determined that we wanted to take a look on the other side of the park - go to the "old park rd. 5" and see what was around that section of the loop.  We drove over and parked in a turn-out.  We saw this really cool looking cave and decided, once again, to go exploring. Here are some shots from the cave.

 From inside looking back toward the road.

 Trying to get the top of the cave entrance!

 It always makes me sad when I see things like this...I just don't "get it".  Why do people think they need to leave their mark?

 THIS is what the walls should look like!

 My friend was posing for me as we made our way down.

 The climb to the entrance.

What caught our eye from the road and made us curious enough to climb up and take a peek!

We drove a bit farther and noticed some more awesome formations.  We walked over and noticed the moon rising over the formation.  So tickled I was able to get these shots!

We also got a chance to see this amazing formation as well.

A couple of pictures I saw along the trail.

LOVE, LOVE, LOVE, this crooked tree!

Then we walked a little further and caught the beginning of the evening light.

I did love how the evening sun lit up the yellow leaves in the valley though! We were going to move to another spot, but ended up going into town instead because our car informed us we had low tire pressure on one of the tires...didn't want to be stuck in the morning with a flat tire!!!

Only one more day of camping left!