It’s a rare day when Paul has time off work, so when he does we like to go somewhere. This morning we got up around 4:30 and Laurent and Jacob arrived a little before 5am. I was still charging my camera batteries so we waited till 5 to give them a little more time on the chargers. Then we sorted ourselves into two cars – Laurent had Jacob, Ruben and Jordan, and Paul and I went in Tom Truck. Since I still needed to charge the batteries some more, one battery went on Laurent’s charger and one in the truck.
We set off on our adventure, stopping briefly for a little snack and some water, and then headed out west to the White Tanks. We arrived just as the sun was rising, exactly as we planned.
While Paul unloaded my wheelchair, I got out the camera and went to put the charged batteries in, only to find, to my dismay, that I had left the battery tray back at home on my desk. Dadgummit! That left me with only my phone, which admittedly was easier to handle with my surgery hand than the heavy camera would have been.
Anyway, we set off on the lovely paved Waterfall Trail, perfectly suited for wheelchair accessibility.
Although I have been doing so much better with my back pain, I didn’t think it would be wise to risk trying to walk the whole way, so we brought the chair.
I took a few pics as we rolled along…
After a little while, I got out of the chair and pushed it along myself. It was a long, gradual climb, and felt really good. At last we reached the end of the pavement, and I think I probably walked about a half mile uphill. I was worn out by that much, and was ready to sit and rest there while the rest of the crew climbed the final ascent to the waterfall. I took a few pics of the gorgeous view while I waited.
In this pic you can see the large gentleman approaching from up the trail with his very big black dog. He stopped by and asked if I would take a pic of them together with his phone, which I was extremely happy to do. He was delighted and thanked me as he continued on his way.
I continued turning around and snapping pics of my surroundings as I waited…
Meanwhile, Paul was up the trail and brought back some pics of where they went at the end of the trail… Obviously I’m not quite up to getting that far yet!
I was enjoying the way the light was hitting everything around me…
It wasn’t too long before Paul came back down to be with me so I wouldn’t be alone. We started back down the trail, knowing the rest of the crew was coming along behind. Right before we got to the parking lot, we discovered a baby rattler tucked in beside the sidewalk having a nap. We made certain not to bother him!
Once everyone got back to the cars we decided to head over to the brand newly opened Buc-ee’s on the way home.
I found it strangely underwhelming and overwhelming at the same time. I felt like it should have been bigger, but at the same time, the number of people inside were really overstimulating for me. SO many THINGS. Very “America.” I will be content not to go back again any time soon. The brisket was tasty though!
We were back at home by 8-something and had the rest of the day to relax.
