Brazos Bend State Park, Needville, Texas
When she saw that he had left his cloak in her hand and had run out of the house she called her household servants. “Look… this Hebrew has been brought to us to make sport of us! He came in here to sleep with me, but I screamed. When he heard me scream for help, he left his cloak beside me and ran out of the house.” She kept his cloak beside her until his master (Potiphar) came home. Then she told him this story… ~ Genesis 39:13-18 Here is a woman scorned, and we’ve all heard the saying, “Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned”. And now she needs to somehow explain how Joseph’s cloak came to be in her possession. Certainly, she’s not going to admit what she’s done. She’s angry. Furious actually. Her pride is shattered because Joseph doesn’t want her, and she’s most likely used to getting everything she wants. She’s frustrated. She’s seething from the inside out. I’m pretty sure she never actually screamed, otherwise the servants would’ve come running. And I can’t help but wonder if the servants actually believed her story, or did they just accept what she said because they didn’t want to rock the boat? Did they remain silent, out of fear? How often do we do that? Do we remain silent when we know, or even suspect the truth of a matter, because we’re afraid of receiving some type of retribution – Punished? Laughed at? Teased? Disbelieved? Loss of position at work? Loss of status? Loss of friendship? God calls us to Truth, regardless of the possible outcomes. Easier said than done, right?
Being as how it was another glorious day here at Brazos Bend, we took up our bikes and headed out to explore another area of the Park. There are forty miles of trails here, so you (we) (I) can’t possibly do it all in a day.
You don’t dare ride fast either, because if you do, there’s a good chance you’ll miss something, plus just the bonus of being out in the world God created for us to enjoy!
There were a couple, but this one was the only one who wanted his picture taken. : )
Our ride today took us over to the observatory. It seems like an odd place for one, but it is pretty dark here since there are no towns close. Blaine got us tickets for Saturday night, so I’ll talk more about it then.
“The stars at night are big and bright (clap, clap, clap, clap) deep in the heart of Texas” : )
They put the sun right by the door to the museum.
We discovered the place where the Black Vultures roost. Or rest. Or whatever it is they do when they’re congregated. There were quite a few hanging out, and gobs of them in the air swirling about.
but they were too far away and in the shade for our phones to pick up.
It was after that, that our real adventure began.
We hit an extended damp area, and our tires got filled with swamp gunk, so once we were through, we stopped and scrapped the clinging mud off edges of our tires with sticks, hopped back on and continued our ride, which took us to the bank of the Brazos River.
There used to be a steamboat landing area here, for a boat named “Yellowstone”. : )
you can see the mouth of the creek as it hits the Brazos River. : )
This is as close as we could get.
When we asked yesterday about kayaking around here, the only place available was this river. One look and we knew that wasn’t going to happen! First of all, it’s a brown, muddy mess. Secondly, it was moving so fast that we’d be in the Gulf of Mexico before we knew it with no way to get back! Drat!
After that, we headed down a long strip of trail, which was nice. Until we began hitting muddy puddles that you couldn’t see how deep they were, and were surrounded by swampy muck. I don’t do well in muck. I guess I’m just not strong enough to peddle through it, or too chicken to try. So a few times, I got off and walked it, keeping to the high grass as much as possible. My shoes still got mud-covered. We were tired, and we were much closer to the end of the trail than we were to the beginning, so turning around really wasn’t an option.
The ground was always a bit spongy, though not difficult to navigate.
By the time we got home, I discovered I had mud splatters from head to toe. Blaine was kind enough to scrub my bike and shoes. Isn’t he just the sweetest thing? 😊
Tomorrow we’ll find something to do outside the Park. Something that doesn’t involve our bicycles.
More pictures of grandkids arrived this evening! It was their Valentine parties at school. Shena had to make their shirts because she said there was noting available at the store. I think what she made far outshone anything she could’ve bought at the store.
