The wildflowers continued as we drove through the hill country part of Texas to reach Leander, where we have a four-day (mandatory for the reservation) stay to see about 4 minutes of totality during Monday’s solar eclipse. We are seeing RVs from many places in the US. If one wants to travel for the eclipse and have warm temperatures for a stay in an RV, Texas is your best bet this time of year. The temperatures here near Austin are in the low 60s at night and low 80s during the day.

Upon check-in, we were given these boxes with a Moon Pie and Sun Chips inside. This KOA is located on the edge of town, so we have a field behind us and didn’t really hear traffic. I did hear birds and frogs with my window open during the night.

Because this KOA is located on a county street with no sidewalks for safe walking, we found a nearby park in Georgetown. Garey Park is really picturesque and charges at the gate for day passes. It sits on 525 acres and has over seven miles of trails. It was worth the $8 for the two of us, though we usually don’t pay just for walking privileges. There is a beautiful mansion on site, and a wedding was being held today, so Garey House was closed to the public. Some trails are equestrian and we did see horse riders.

The wildflowers were grabbing my attention here, too. I even found sensitive plants in bloom. I loved having botany students grow these in our school greenhouse to see an example of plants very quickly responding to environmental triggers. The leaves collapse together when touched. And butterflies of many colors flitted around the blooming flowers.

Some trails are along the San Gabriel River which is very good for water tromping right now as the water is low. There are dried bits of algae high on the shoreline rocks to show that this is not always the case. Signs say swim at your own risk. The houses across the river are quite large and beautifully landscaped.

We saw the bride and groom out in a stand of Bluebonnets for pictures – what a beautiful spot! We had a lovely snack of chips and salsa in the shade before heading back to our campsite.