A number of birds from the Canyon Lake area have visited since we placed a bird seed feeder in the yard. When the South Texas Polar Storm hit us a week later, the feeder became an important source of food for the avian community, which experienced 6″ of snow over a week of temps 40 degrees below average. We’re happy to have helped out the local wildlife, while enjoying their colorful antics.
Tag Archives: texas
Kayaking the Guadalupe River in November (30-Nov-2018)
Sure it was a Friday, and yeah.. maybe I was supposed to be in Austin at the office.. .but.. with the temps coming back to normal, and the opportunity to go kayaking on the river while the flow is still up.. going INTO the office was just not going to happen.
The plan was to kayak the Guadalupe River from the base of Canyon Lake Dam, back to the River House.
After finishing up some work in the morning and dealing with the ever annoying Scrum Standup meeting, we packed up the truck and headed to the River House, where Uncle Senior Tim was waiting with the kayaks loaded and ready to go.
We reached the dam around 1:00, put in below the hydro plant and I immediately set to capsizing the kayak. I figure it’s best to get that sort of stuff out of the way first.
About 30min. into the trip, the sun came out, the temps jumped up and it turned into a glorious afternoon!!
Not far down the river, you hit Horseshoe Falls. 
It’s not that tall, and when the river is up, rocks are a lot less of an issue, but the hydraulics of the upper damn and the falls itself would make for a fun rafting run.. but.. in sit-on kayaks.. eh.. we opted to portage around as the sign suggested.
You can certainly see some great homes along the river.
You can also find some interesting art installations and other oddities, such as a caboose outbuilding or a 3/4 size longhorn bbq pit.
The weather was nice enough that the turtles were out on the logs and rocks sunning themselves all along the river.
The weather is supposed to be pretty decent again today so… I think we’ll do it all over again.
Texas Highway Turnarounds – an idea with real merit
Upon arriving in Texas, one of the first things I had to get used to was the difference in highway design philosophy compared to other states I’ve driven in. Personally, I think it’s a brilliant idea. It even works in the city cores, which is where I clipped this short video from yesterday.
Part of that design, is ability to implement these easy turn-around lanes, and I use these all daily. I like the way the turnarounds (generally, there are a few that do) do not require traffic controls, which improves the overall flow of traffic. Typically, if I needed to change direction on a freeway, you’d have to exit, wait for the right of way to make 2 left turns, and then re-enter the freeway.
You might be able to see, in this street map, there is a loopback lane that connects the opposing directions of the frontage roads.
These little turn-arounds are dedicated lanes that let you zip under (and sometimes over) the main roadway to return the other direction, either on the frontage road or the main road via a separate onramp. This is what the sat view of this intersection looks like:
This is basically how it works:
New Dashcam Test – Testing DDPai Mini Smart Dash Cam
Trying to catch up to the year 2010, I’ve finally installed a purpose made dash cam, as opposed to my temporary GoPro installs (which were disappointing at best) of the years past.
After a few days of testing, I feel that the installation location is good, and the amount of dashboard reflections I’m seeing have been minimized to the maximum extent I can.
The camera I am testing is the DDPai Mini Smart Dash Cam which I paid $46 for on Amazon.
To date I have clipped a hand full of videos, looking at hte day and nighttime performance. I plan a more informational post in the next week, but for now, his is a short example I shot while getting gas at a local Buc-ee’s station here in Texas.
Here is a snapshot for a night time clip. There may be settings I can adjust on the camera to improve night capture. It works OK, but unless headlights are on, it’s able to resolve almost nothing.
