March 27 – San Antonio to Garner State Park

Up early to catch the sunrise here at Top of the Hill. It was pretty. Packed up and headed out on what promised to be a very scenic drive. Our destination is Garner State Park about 60 mile west in the Hill Country. The drive on TX16 to us through Bandera, which is supposed to be the most true cowboy town in Texas. Well today it was a biker town. The roads are well known for good riding and apparently this weekend there is a gathering called Thunder in the Hills. Hundreds of bikes on the roads. After Bandera we turned south towards the town of Utopia which is nestled in this plain between mountains and from a scenery perspective lives up to its name. The road through the hills is VERY curvy and hilly. One hill in particular stands out which was signed at 25 mph because it was so steep and curved at the top. It was about all I could do to maintain 25 going up the hill with my foot IN the gas.
Arrived a Garner State Park. I went inside the office and was surprised to find a waiting room with numbers and a separate counter area with two people working the five stations. After about a 20 minute wait my number was called, we got registered and headed to our site. Sunny and I took a short walk near the campground then headed to the local store about 9 miles away in a town called Leakey. They have one ‘general’ store with basic supplies. Thankfully all I needed was cooking oil to fry up some of the catfish I have in the freezer from Morgan City. After leaving the store, we took a less than direct route back to the park. As we pulled into Garner, a herd of probably 20 whitetail deer were crossing the road. We split the heard and half run left forward while the others turned around and high-tailed it away. We got back to the trailer, put a package of catfish in water to thaw and headed out on a more substantial walk than this afternoon’s. It took us about a mile and half, up the old park access road, which had a couple overgrown scenic overlooks and up about 200 feet in elevation. Scared up a couple whitetail on the walk. Got back and cooked up the catfish nuggets, which by the way, Sunny is a big fan of!