Random Blue Bonnet Pictures (Austin, TX) – March 2020

 Spring time (around the middle of March) is usually when the blue bonnets really bloom, especially if there’s been a good amount of moisture.  The dampness really helps these wild flowers grow at various places, whether along the roadside, in parks, or other locales.  During the month of March on the weekends, and when I had some planned time-off before the mandatory lock-downs happened, I drove around various places in Austin to snap pictures of blue bonnets.  Many of these I sent to Mum not long after I took them, as these were her favorite flower.  And as it seemed likely that she wasn’t going to get down here to see them anytime soon, it was a proxy way for her to see them.  Here are the various places where I took these pictures (all in Austin, unless otherwise noted).

 

Brushy Creek Lake Park (Cedar Park, TX)

 Loop 360 (between 183 and Route 2222)

 St. Edward’s Park

 Loop 360 (near Pennybacker Bridge)

 Mansfield Dam Park

 Spicewood Springs (west of Scotland Well Drive)

xxx

Random Parks (Austin, TX) -- February and March 2020

 In the early days of 2020 (before the pandemic hit and the world went to Hell), I’d take some walks at some area parks.  I’d take a few random pictures here and there, but they were never meant to be a “pictorial” of a particular location (which incidentally came about later in a roundabout way).  Since all of these pictures were taken between February 2020 and March 2020, it made sense to group them all together in one file.  All of these are in Austin, unless otherwise noted.

 

Great Hills Neighborhood Park (February 2020)

 Lake Walter E. Long (February 2020)

 Twin Lakes Park (Cedar Park, March 2020)

 St. Edwards Park (March 2020)

 Mansfield Dam Park (March 2020)

 Tanglewood Park (March 2020)

 And just for good measure, here’s some random deer pictures of those that hang out in the neighborhood.

Driving Around the North Shore (Mandeville, LA) -- November 2019

 While we were in the area, we also went across to the North Shore to visit some of Lauren’s friends in Mandeville.  This was a lake-side community which didn’t seem to be very big, but there was more here than meets the eye.  Of course, the high-end property is on the waterfront, but as you headed north of the causeway you reached where the normal people lived.  And some of the other people got to briefly touch-base with here in Madisonville (a smaller area to the east) and Covington (a community of equal size north of Mandeville).  Most of the pictures were of the area as we drove from one place to another, simply because I didn’t want to take pictures of other people’s houses to post on this website.  Seeing what it looked like from the streets was enough to give you an idea of what it looked like.

Lake Pontchartrain (Louisiana) -- November 2019

 In order to visit some of Lauren’s friends during our trip, we also needed to go across to the North Shore.  That meant crossing Lake Pontchartrain.  While there are major roads on the east and west side, those are rather a long way around depending on where you were going or coming from.  Someone had come up with the idea of building a bridge across the Lake, which was a distance of twenty-six miles.  Yeah, you could actually do a marathon by starting at one end of the bridge and running to the other.  I wonder if someone has done that yet.  Just because of the thought association I had to take a picture of the “13.1” mile marker (which is the half-marathon distance).

 

While it looks like the bridges for the Florida Keys, it’s not the same.  There’s no islands to anchor this to.  It’s just two sets of double lanes going in each direction, which an expanse of water were the median should be.  Rarely is there a turn-around spot too, and there’s not much of a shoulder to pull off on, or to allow emergency vehicles to get through.  This is a toll-road also, but only in one direction.  When you’re heading north out of New Orleans it’s free, but the return trip south is five bucks.  Keep that in mind for the poor commuters who use this every day.

 

The day we went over the weather was pleasant, so we got a nice view of the clam water and clear skies.  This must be quite the white-knuckle situation if you’re driving on this during a good thunderstorm.