Donna Andrews

 

When I read, I usually stick with nonfiction. I enjoy most of it and find it a little less engrossing than the fiction I like. But, I was in the mood to read fiction, something funny, light, with a bit of suspense. I stumbled across a book by Donna Andrews in the humor/mystery section of my libraries e books. It costs nothing to try a new book this way, so I figured why not? Well, she is a really good writer in my opinion, her story line is realistic, but slightly unpredictable, her characters are very likable, and they are funny enough to make a reader smile, sometimes laugh. Unfortunately, there were 27 books in the series in my library. I read them one after the other for hours at a time. I would finish a book at two in the morning and wake up to start another because I could. Then after a month, I sadly read them all. Her newest one is in my Amazon cart. I don't often buy books, but I might soon buy myself a present. I will wait until I really need a dose of humor again. I wonder when she will write another.

Lake Houston Wilderness Park

 

Every time I go to Houston, I pass a sign directing me to Lake Houston Wilderness Park. A friend who lives near Houston also recommended it to me. I have been driving by it for almost a year now. I decided to take the exit and go explore. Driving there, I was a bit hesitant. It is in the middle of a rather industrialized town with lots of road construction. The lady at the entrance was nice. The entrance fee is $3 per person, it is not a state park but a City of Houston park. The roads were beautiful. They were lined with mature trees with the sun filtering through the woods. The directional signs within the park could be better, but encourage you to explore. I found a parking area near some bathrooms and a really neat bridge and walked around to explore. It was so cute. Hot, but cute. The bridge to walk over was amazing. I walked over Peach Creek. There were families playing in the shady water in the creek and having a great time. There was a great picnic area overlooking the creek. I went back across the bridge and followed the trail along the creek. There was plenty of access to get down the creek, but my time was almost up. The woods were nice and shady, a great break from the summer heat, but I looped around before the trail ended and cut through a group camping spot to get back to the truck. I decided I had a bit more time and wanted to explore more of the roads. I drove across the one lane bridge and found the road beyond was also essentially one lane. The camping cabins were along this road. I saw a dead end sign so turned around where I could. There might be a lake at the end of the road, that will be for more exploring another time. I drove back across the one lane bridge and saw a couple more trail heads. There is limited parking at one of the trail heads, good parking at the other. I saw a nature center and big park headquarters and followed a couple other roads in the park before I found the exit. The park maps were very hard to read and the trail maps were not very useful to me. I have gotten spoiled with the excellent maps and signs the state parks put out. I will definitely come back to this park when the weather is cooler. It will be a great place to spend several hours exploring. It would also be a good place to tent camp. 

Heritage Village Museum, Huntsville, TX

 

My sister in law and brother are staying in their rig with us for a while. They like to go on adventures and explore all the little towns around us. I have to admit, I say I like exploring, but have not done this yet. I see more solo adventures in my future. One day, they invited me to go with them. They didn't know where they were going, but I went. We headed out of town and stopped at the Heritage Village Museum just outside of Woodville, TX. There is a family style restaurant, an indoor gift shop with hand made woven stuff and crocheted and knitted stuff, rocks, and souvenirs. There is also an outdoor museum with about 25 different buildings from various eras of history. We walked in all of them and explored. We were allowed to touch many of the items, go behind the post office counter, go into the train station, play with a pump, and admire the amazing carriage barn. It was worth the $5 admission. We then spent some time hiking the nature trail. The beginning is slippery because they used rocks for footing, but once we got past the rocks, it was a really nice trail. It was surprisingly cool, even though it was in the 90's. There were many signs telling us what trees we were looking at. It always amazes me the diversity of flora in the Big Thicket area.