We left Davis Mountains State Park on Tuesday, 2/25 heading toward San Antonio. We stayed at a rest area past Kerrville (never heard of it, but it's a BIG town!). Got up the next morning and stopped at Balmorhea State Park in Balmorhea, TX (famous for the hot springs). There were ducks enjoying the warm water and other birds. I needed to get to a WIFI and phone by Noon EST to register for the Biggest Week in Birding (in May @ Magee Marsh, OH) with Rita. We got to Lost Maples State Natural Area right at Noon, and I RAN in and signed onto the WIFI but could not connect to registration! Rita was able to do it for me, thank God! David said it reminded him of Sheldon and the guys trying to get tickets to Comicon (the Big Bang Theory) LOL!

David drove to the Hill Country SNA the same day and we stopped at Bandera (biggest cowboy town in Texas) for groceries and gas. We rested on Thursday and walked a trail (at least there is WATER here!). David threw Festus in the cold water and he didn't know what to do! He started running up the hill away from David :) Wish I could have read Festus' mind :) We discussed plans for staying one more night and going to the Alamo, along with David's desire to go to a restaurant he saw on a TV food show, that serves Goat burgers in Tarpley, which is on the way LOL. We gotta do it!

On Friday, we did pay for one more night at Lost Maples. We went to Tarpley so David could have his goat burger. We got to Mac & Ernies and NO GOAT BURGERS, so he had an Antelope burger instead & was not happy (I wasn't going there!). We then went back to Bandera so we could use the phone (really!)...looking at Bandera from the place we're staying on a map looks like a 15 minute drive, but it's actually over an HOUR! So we spent all day, I got my nails filled in, went to a park and saw some manky ducks and a new unidentified butterfly, we enjoyed a Dairy Queen, and I actually got to go in a thrift store! I tried to call Cornerstone Church (Pastor Hagee's church) to see if we could park in their lot for church this Sunday, but we have to play it by ear. Got up the next morning to leave and our coffee pot DIED! We live on a pot of coffee a day (Chelsea understands!).No coffee the next morning :(

We left Lost Maples headed to San Antonio to park in the Cornerstone Church parking lot (received a voicemail it was ok). We decided to go to the Alamo (30 minutes away) and got our picture taken with Festus, then took him on a 40-minute carriage ride (he loves horses)! David found a Target & got a coffee pot and he wanted pizza so we had a $10 Little Ceaser's pizza for dinner and headed for bed. Church started at 8:30am and we got there early. The sanctuary looks bigger on TV and the people we sat by were very friendly and all welcomed us. The praise and worship was awesome and Pastor Matthew gave the sermon on Mark 2:1-12 about the paralytic being bundled up and lifted down from Peter's roof to be healed by Jesus, and that was EXTREME! What a great message! We met Senior Pastor John Hagee after service at a visitor's reception and he asked where each of us was from. David said “Monroe, MI” and Pastor Hagee told him “you're a long way from home”! We met Carl, a home leader, and he took us on a tour of a newly built Children's Sunday school building “Ark” that is 2 stories tall and has life-size animals that move! If I was a kid, I sure would want to come here to church! Each of the rooms, by age, had an ark theme also! God showed me that a ranch in Tarpley had the words “Thy Word is Truth” with XII in the middle was part of Cornerstone Church earlier in the week (will put a picture on my website). David asked someone with a badge and the XII on it about Tarpley and he confirmed that the place is used as a retreat for men, women, children, and members for prayer and fellowship XII is for the 12 tribes of Egypt as in the Old Testament.

After church, we ate a quick sandwich lunch and had a long drive to Cagle Recreation area near New Waverly, TX (we had visited this place on the way, but did not stay – it's where David left my stool I use to get in the truck). We will see if they have it in Lost and Found :). I'm happy we have cell service here (no wifi though)! I'm going to try my personal hotspot to upload this week's pictures! We are here for a week – David's parachute jump is rescheduled to March 9, then we're going to Louisiana, hopefully more birds, visit Jesse Duplantis' church in Destrehan, LA then HOME!

week 7 – David drove 1,417 miles this week! no new birds (Cagle Rec Area is where the Red-cockaded Woodpecker lives, so I pray we find one this week)!