Snortblog

Blanco State Park is located on the south shores of the Blanco River, in Blanco County, Blanco Texas. Blanco Blanco Blanco! Sister counties are jealous. It’s a quaint small hill country town, and the park has a more diverse patronage then many other state parks, presumably reflecting the makeup of Blanco. It’s also the only state park I’ve seen in Texas within walking distance of a bar.

I went with our crew, team Manu Chao, to see him perform at the Palladium Ballroom in Dallas, Texas as described in the Fort Worth Star Telegram.

Manu Chao can mix anything up: languages, melodies, and rhythms. Some songs I only recognized from the lyrics, as the underlying melody and rhythm were completely different from the recorded versions. The crowd was filled with Manu Chao lovers, and sang along much of the night. Energy levels were high, it was as much a workout as a concert. My lovely wife hopped like she’s never hopped before. I hopped until I stopped, and was still sore for 3 days.

We returned to the Dallas Plaza hotel, a 15 minute walk from the Ballroom. It was economical, though not without it’s challenges. We were more amused then inconvenienced though, and would probably stay there again, if we planned on attending a weekend show at the Palladium.

The following day, we went camping at Lake Whitney State Park, a fine park between Fort Worth and Waco with swimming and plenty of camping next to the lake. One caveat, presumably due to a particularly rainy summer, there were lots of mosquitoes. While I’m normally the last person to get bothered by them, there were plenty to go around and they were voracious!

We drove to Oklahoma and attended a wedding celebration. The company and good times were unsurpassed.

Overheard:

• “I could definitely get laid tonight. It might be with my cousin, but…” — My best friend, “T”, talking about his fly wardrobe (see below).
• “You’re pretty.” — A friend of the bride, “B”, to my very pretty wife.
• “All the married women think you’re cute.” –A friend of the bride, “B”, to yours truly. I think we need to hire “B” as a personal affirmation coach.
• “My brother’s pimping my wedding.” — The bride in regards to her brother, who was all decked out in a flat cap and a pale blue and white seersucker suit.

After the celebration, the wedding revelers headed to a gay bar in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where there was a transvestite cabaret under way. It made for some of the best quotes of the evening:

• “How did this happen?” — The groom, wondering how we ended up in a gay bar.
• “So you both have had intimate relations?” — The groom, more or less, when doing some impromptu counseling in the bar.

I made my way to the bar for a round of drinks. I had taken off my suit jacket earlier. I was wearing a windbreaker, a white shirt and dark pants. A rather effeminate man approached me, and asked if he could fix my collar. My wife had left early, she usually attends to these matters. I vaguely consented, or at least I didn’t resist. He arranged my collar, then proceeded to unbutton my top button. I stopped him as he attempted to unbutton the second. He took a look at what I was wearing and asked, “were you catering?” Meanwhile, someone cupped my right buttock. I scurried to a chair in a corner and stayed there.

We went car camping at Stephen F. Austin State Park, outside of Houston, Texas. It is adjacent to San Felipe, Texas which was founded by Stephen F. Austin. It’s a substantial park, there were lots of families, many boy scouts, and golfers run amok. There are nice rural roads nearby for road biking and trails for mountain biking, complete with a bike/dog/child washing station.

My favorite picture from the beach, east of Playa del Carmen, México:

The next day we caught a colectivo from Playa del Carmen. They depart from Calle 2, roughly between Avenida 20 and Avenida 25. Colectivos were leaving about every 5 minutes, and cost $2.50 U.S. or less up to Tulum. We were dropped off just past Hidden Worlds cenote. Tours were at 9am, 11am, 1pm, 2pm, and 3pm, though I think if you show up with enough people, they’ll form an impromptu group. We signed up for the longest tour, cajoled our way into full suits (generally reserved for scuba divers), and soon were joined by some Canadians, an Argentinian and a German woman, who just so happened to live in Austin. We visited Tak Be Ha and Hilario’s Well. Hilario’s well had been opened to visitors since we’d been there previous and was more enclosed, and had a wide variety of speliotherms.

We entered Cancun, went through customs (tip: when going through the line in the airport in customs, look for lines with 2 customs officials working the line instead of just one) and exited the airport. We then walked to the end of the building to the parking lot on the right where you can find a first-class bus headed to Playa del Carmen or to the central bus station in Ciudad Cancun. We were hoping to catch a bus to Rio Lagartos from there, but couldn’t find any that went directly there. It may be better to go through Valladolid before catching a bus to Rio Lagartos. We decided to head into Playa del Carmen, caught another bus, and made it into town by afternoon. We didn’t have reservations and found a hotel by feel. Most places in our guidebook had doubled or tripled in price. We figured hotels farther away from the beach would be more economical, and we found a nice place with some character called the Hotel Colorado. It was about $30 a night, high season. The rooms included a kitchenette, fridge, cable tv, fans (no A/C) and a private bath.

We stayed on the third floor to catch some breeze and had access to a nice balcony to watch the city from.

I took a few pictures when I rode my bike downtown early in the morning.

After we arrived in Santa Fe, New Mexico, we went on a bike trail called the Santa Fe Rail Trail. We picked up the trail from somewhere along Rodeo Road, where it turns to dirt. The trail itself is pretty smooth, with some gullying and mild ups and downs. I rode my commuter bike, not the best bike for the job, but with the exception of a few spots, it was smooth biking. It was a nice ride that paralleled the train tracks, all the way to the train depot at Lamy, where we found picnic tables. We were disappointed to find out that the train doesn’t run into Santa Fe, given the historical importance of the railroad to Santa Fe. There is a shuttle, but you have to have a train ticket to get a ride to Santa Fe. Based on the map, it looks like the train is available for special events. When we pulled in we were lucky to find a train full of tourists arriving and more importantly, a catered meal served just in time! The best map I could find on it is at www.bikenm.org/news/030607_trailsday.jpg.

Santa Rosa Lake State Park was a great stop for hiking and biking. There was plenty of road, not much traffic and beautiful countryside. The following photo is a panorama of the lake.