McKinney Falls SP in Austin, TX, Labor Day weekend

[DKB_SATX]

We had a last-minute chance to get away for a couple of days when we found out my partner would be off both Monday and Tuesday, and there were still a couple of sites open at McKinney Falls SP in Austin. This is campsite 2.





As you can see it's bone dry down there... in retrospect I'm glad I chose McKinney Falls instead of Bastrop, but we could still see the smoke plume from Bastrop on Monday.

In normal years there's actually water flowing over the falls:



This year green pools are all that remains. Hopefully it'll rain some before even those dry out.



Still, it was good to get out on the road, and the problem dog was a bit more relaxed on this trip than on our maiden voyage. The holiday traffic going home Monday wasn't much fun, and the 30 mph headwind offered me the opportunity to make use of all 5.4 liters! 9.5 mpg average from Austin-FTW with some idling to keep the dogs cool at one point.

[slowmover]

What route? Did you run US-67 and US-281 down to Lampasas?

[DKB_SATX]

Originally Posted by REDNAX

What route? Did you run US-67 and US-281 down to Lampasas?

The park is on the southeast side of Austin, and on the way home we were stopping in eastern Pflugerville to pick up some research materials for a project, so we made the mistake of taking the default route. TX130 to I35. In retrospect it would've been worth the investment of time to get over to 281 for the return, though when we take that route we stay on all the way to Stephenville and take 377 in, the convenience of the last part for getting to our house west of downtown outweighs the narrow stretch from Hico to Stephenville.