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4/25/2019

Fun at St. Edward's Park

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Joke of the Week: What do you get when you cross a four leaf clover with poison ivy?
*Answer is below the pictures.

by Brayden Brown

On Monday, April fifteenth, the Roving Learners went to St. Edward’s Park. We waded, swam, played on a log and got dunked by John. We also made fish food out of algae. The algae was kind of mucky and slimy. But we had lots of fun doing it.

When we got there we ate lunch. After lunch we started hiking. While we were walking,I saw some poison ivy. Before this, at Home Base, we took a poison ivy quiz. We took the quiz because we are going to be around the stuff a lot over the summer, so we need to know how to identify it. We continued hiking until we got to the creek. When we got to the water we started walking.

We waded through the creek full of rocks. We did that until we got to land. We got to a small rocky bank, put our stuff down and played in the water. At the swimming hole there is deep water and shallow water. There is also a log that some of the Olders played on. I had to stay in the shallow water because my Little does not know how to swim. After a while John walked over and then… he pushed me into the water. I broke the surface laughing. John stomped over to me, I stumbled backward tripped and fell. John started laughing. I thought it was funny too.

John said it was time to continue so we did. We hiked up a little splash pad like creek. Then we came across another small bank. We sat our stuff down and, you guessed it, we played. We found a blocked off section of the creek and started playing in it. The blocked off section has lots of big rocks that we could sit on and talk. Also a little farther back is some land that we could have played on, But we did not.

While we were there we played PTP. PTP stands for Pepper, Theo, Phoenix. It is a game where we collect algae, dry it and then put it on sticks and then we went fishing. We collected algae and dried it. We did that for a while and then my Little and I got called to Pepper’s rock. She said that our “fish food" was phenomenal and that she wanted us to work at PTP full time. I consulted with my Little and we agreed that we would work there full time. We told her yes, so we were hired. Almost everybody was playing PTP that day except for Sal and Terran. Then John said it was time to leave, so we gathered our stuff and trekked back.

That day was one of our best excursions yet, or so John says. I think it was great because of all the fun everyone had. I had fun with my Little and working at PTP. I also had fun during the car ride there as well as the car ride back. If you want to follow in the Roving Learners foot steps, here is a link to the Saint Edward’s Park website and their address so you can rove, just like us.
https://austinparks.org/stedwards-park/
7301 spicewood springs Rd, Austin, Texas 78759

Hiking the Creek

Falling Off the Log

Collecting Algae

Resting Pups

Answer to the Joke of the Week:
A rash of good luck!

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4/11/2019

Return to Williamson Creek

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Joke of the Week: What is the insect's favorite game?
* Answer is below the pictures.

By Pepper Toft

On April 5th, we went back to Williamson Creek. When we got to the creek we found fossils, trash and animals. While we were in the water we also found fossils like ammonite and more. While we in the water it was getting deeper and deeper the further we walked.

When we got to John's house we ate lunch. After lunch we played with our Littles. I was buddied up Ciel. Ciel was playing with Uma and Sal. They were picking up crickets and forcing them to eat Theo’s half eaten apple. While we were playing, John was washing the van and he decided to drench me with hose water. After we played for a while we went down to the creek.

At the bank of the creek we found 11 huge brown trout. I started to walk in the water to see how close I could get to them. After that John decided we were going on the water route instead of going on the land route. We waded through the water.

While we were in the water John found a 2 foot long snake in the water. When we got to land I found a leech in a small ditch filled with water. We were back in the water it was so deep the littles had to swim. Before we knew it we were back to land and we found fossils, CD’s and other trash; like, candy bar wrappers, rubber bands and more. We tried to skip the classical music CD’s across the water.

I had a good time at the creek. After lunch we played with our Littles. My little was Ceil. She was playing with Uma and Sal. They were picking up crickets and forcing them to eat Theo’s half eaten apple. We found some CD’s and tried to skip them across the water. My favorite thing about this excursion was the deep water part.

Answer to the Joke of the Week: Cricket!

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4/4/2019

Turkey Creek

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Joke of the Week: Why did the turkey cross the road?
*Answer below the pictures.

by Silas Weber

When we were at home base on March 25th, we were planning where we were going to go. We looked at John’s book, named, 60 Hikes Within 60 Miles 3rd Edition. We will be using this book for lots of other hikes. We looked at a few and we settled on Turkey Creek, so that's where we went. We decided which Littles we would buddy up with. Mine was Ciel.
It took us a while to get to Turkey Creek and our ears were popping because we were at over so many tall hills and deep valleys. As soon as we got there, the thing that you notice first is all the beautiful trees and plants. We looked for the trail but we couldn't see it.
We saw a map of the trail soon after. We looked for a while. We could figure it out. But it was hard because there was a lot of symbols that represented things, like it had a blue marker when we were crossing the creek. We figured it out because we could see the parking lot and there was a trail on the corner so we went there and sure enough there was a trail. While we were walking, all the plants made shade for us and it was a very hot day so we were very cool. Over all, the shade made the trip better.
Once we were walking for a very long time we found a dead tarantula. The back of it was crushed and there were guts on it. It was cool because it was our first animal we saw. It was small and and John said that it was rare around Austin. It looked like a baby. I thought that the plants and wildlife was the coolest things of the trip; like the tarantula, bugs and beetles. I saw a butterfly, and most of all the plants and trees. Except there were plants that we had to watch out for, like Poison Ivy and Poison Oak. We didn’t go off the trail because John said to not touch the greenery. Sadly, we just went where we were supposed to go. I think that it was sad because there was so many cool places to explore that we couldn't go to.
In the middle of the hike we stopped near a creek and John made us sit. I sat up on a hill. We had to close our eyes and stay completely still. Once we were done we had to tell John what we heard the most. I heard the wind and the creek and a tree that sounded like it was going to fall over. We had to go back because we were out of time. We had to cross the creek. It was fun to cross the creek because we had to jump across stones.
I thought that the plants and trees were the coolest thing. I also thought that the tarantula was very cool. I also liked the other wildlife; like the bugs and beetles, the dead tarantula and a butterfly. I thought that the creek was cool.

Overflowing Dam

Pups Drinking Turkey Creek Water

Climbing Around the Creek Bank

Answer to the Joke of the Week:
To prove he wasn't a chicken!

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Fun at St. Edward's Park

Return to Williamson Creek

Turkey Creek

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