Day 3305

 We got up at the agreed time of 7:30.  I wasn't in pain anymore, so I had breakfast along with feeding the pets.  John and Melissa just had coffee.

The kids showed up just before 9:30.  We left for the cave.  Ellen and I were in our car and the kids and John and Melissa went in their SUV.

The cave was about 12 miles north of Marble Falls.  It was a nice drive and we made good time.  The cave is in a state park.  The park has a nice gift shop.  I also has some amazing buildings and other stone work done by the CCC in the 1930's.

The cave itself is a 1.25 mile passage carved out by water.  It was amazing.  There were lots of different elaborate formations.  There was even a little flow stone.  The tour took about an hour and a half.  When we got out we went to the gift shop.

The shop had this cool machine that they use to break geodes.  You buy one and then use the machine to break it.  I had to buy one.   The machine works by wrapping a heavy chain around the geode.  Then a mechanism turned by a large wheel is used to crack the geode.  It takes quite a bit of effort to break the geode.  I ended up with a nice specimen.  Lots of people watched and a couple bought geodes, too.

After that we drove back to Marble Falls.  When we got there we turned on the road to the gun club.  We drove 10 or 15 miles farther than the club to a winery.  It was a really nice winery/restaurant.  We had dinner there and walked through part of the vineyard.  After that it was home.  We took the same road over to Cedar Park.  Then we took 183 and loop 1 home.  We made really good time.

When we got home Melissa opened her presents and we all had cake.  Both were a hit.  The kids left soon after because they need to make an early start tomorrow.  I sent the Legos we were going to sell with them.

We all sat down to watch car videos.  That lasted for about an hour before John and Melissa went to bed.  So did Ellen.  I stayed up writing the last two day's entries and then went to bed, too.