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McKinney Falls State Park, Where It All Started

March 9, 2015 by Eric Highland 4 Comments

Upper Falls at McKinney Falls State Park

Upper Falls at McKinney Falls State Park in Austin, TX

Brittany and I started our RV adventure at McKinney Falls State Park in Austin, Texas just over a year ago. Today we find ourselves here again. It is sublime. Simply put, we love this place and it’s time to get back into our RV blogging groove…

We’ve received so many messages from folks, asking us to update our blog. Thank you for that! It means a lot to us to know y’all follow our adventures. You are truly our family out here on the road and we’ve been blessed to meet so many of you in person!

We’ve been floored to have 1700+ of you follow us on Facebook, 700+ on Twitter, and even 100+ on Pinterest!

I know we haven’t updated our blog in awhile and this year we resolve to do better. We’ve actually hatched a plan…

Brittany and I have struck a deal we believe will make regular blog updates work. Confession: I hate adding photos to my articles, but don’t mind writing them. Brittany said if I write them, she’ll add the photos. If you don’t like the writing, you can blame me. If you don’t like the photos, well…

As always, we promise to be transparent in our writing, sharing the good, the bad and the ugly. Also we promise to be an open book for anyone out there with questions about the lifestyle. So never be afraid to comment or ask a question. No topic is off limits and we’ll be happy to give our take on anything y’all ask!

We’ve got an article that is going to cover our entire past year that will be coming out soon. It is our longest and most photo heavy article ever. It covers our entire first year, all the way up to February 21, 2015, our one year anniversary of full time RV living. So I’m going to start writing today as if that article is already published…

It’s Been a Tough Winter

Eric Highland Kidney Stone ER

Eric in the ER with a kidney stone, December 2014

Folks across America have had a tough winter. We did, too.

Brittany was sick before and after Christmas, my mother came down to Texas to visit and she got sick and I got a kidney stone and paid a visit to the ER. I think at one point we calculated that out of 28 days in Austin in December, 20 of those days one of us was sick in bed.

Simply put, it sucked.

We made the most of it, though. All the details will be in the epic year-long recap article.

All that to say we can finally see the glimmer of spring on the horizon. Slowly temperatures are starting to warm up and we hope the worst of winter is behind us.

And, for what it’s worth, all of us are better now and healthy.

After losing 30 lbs last year, I’ve gained 8 lbs over the winter which I’m determined to take back off. Cold temperatures have limited my walks and warm meals have filled my belly. I feel kind of like a bear that has been hibernating.

Brittany has started doing pushups and sit-ups, and she’s really cute about it. She’s never really done them before, but she’s getting stronger each day.

Trogdor Sandfire Bearded Dragon

Baby T, our bearded dragon, in his “sleepy spot”

Trogdor is doing fine. He’s actually been through a lot too, with all of Meriwether’s recent time in the shop. It’s been tough on “Baby T” going in and out of his home, but he’s a trooper…especially at his age (6) when the lifespan of a domesticated bearded dragon is 6-10 years.

Out of the Shop and into Nature

We left Iron Horse RV in San Antonio on Saturday with our new Vortex front end cap. We’ve been getting a lot of questions about it, so expect an article on that entire process soon. Needless to say, we’re really happy with it! Just look at how cool our bison is!

RV Wanderlust Bison Logo Air Brushed

Air brushed RV Wanderlust bison on our new Vortex front end cap

As much as we love the work Iron Horse does, we were ready to be out of the shop and back to adventuring. So we made our way north to Austin, Texas, back to where we began our adventure.

We love McKinney Falls State Park and today we hiked the Onion Creek Trail (part of this whole determined-to-take-off-8-lbs-thing I was talking about earlier). Onion Creek is a 2.8 mile trail that goes past the Upper Falls and runs alongside the creek that feeds into the falls, before looping back toward the campground. It was a bit wet out, but the fresh air, greenery and some active steps were definitely a welcome change.

Here are some photos we took along our walk…

Upper Falls at McKinney Falls State Park

Upper Falls at McKinney Falls State Park

Onion Creek Trail at McKinney Falls State Park

Onion Creek Trail

McKinney Falls State Park Hiking

We love the wet bramble and rocks, and there’s also great bird watching here

Old Tree McKinney Falls State Park

A beautiful old tree we found on our hike

Thank you for catching up with us! Look for regular updates from here on out, now that we have a system in place!

Give us a follow on Facebook, Twitter or Pinterest. We’d love to connect with you, and don’t be shy to leave a comment. We read every single one!

-E&B (and Baby T)

Filed Under: Activities and Sights, Exploring America Tagged With: austin, state park, texas

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Eric and Brittany Highland

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Welcome to RV Wanderlust! We're Eric and Brittany Highland and we're on a pretty amazing adventure. As of 2019, we're starting our sixth year as fulltime RVers and we've been transparently documenting the journey all along the way. In December 2016 we … Keep reading

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