Week ending Dec 26, 2013 - Fredericksburg, San Marcos, Austin

After a scenic drive down one of the farm roads near the RV park Joan finished her Christmas baking by making some shortbread and baking it in the frying pan.  This was an unsuccessful experiment, so next year we will try a different method.  Our walk was again along the river to view the geese and swans.  When we got back to the trailer we set up our little Christmas tree, in preparation for Dec 25.

Saturday morning we were awoken about 5:00 A.M. by a thunderstorm. It continued off and on until almost 10:00 A.M. The sun then came out and the temperature rose and we enjoyed another warm day.   We walked around the municipal park and campground, admiring the streams.   The previously dry creek beds all of a sudden where flowing rivers.   The afternoon was spent played Wii.

Sunday morning we went to Cross  Mountain.  The hike to the top was not very long, but steep.  At the top the significance of the cross at the top was explained.  As it is the highest point in the area, the hill was used for signal fires by the natives to warn of the advance of white settlers.  One of the German settlers discovered a cross on the hill that had been erected by the Spanish when they first came through Texas.  A new cross has been erected to commemorate this, and for many years Easter bonfires were lit on the top of the hill.      

Monday we said goodbye to Fredericksburg, a place to which we would happily return. Our next stop was Canyon Trail RV park in San Marcos.   It is perfectly located half way between Austin and San Antonio, as well as about  a mile from two Outlet malls.  We booked one week, but will likely stay 2 weeks here, as the park has everything we need.  After getting set up we headed to the grocery store to pick up a last few items before Christmas.  Note to self, never go grocery shopping on Dec 23.

Tuesday we decided that Camping World would be a quiet place to shop on Dec 24. We were right, very quiet.  They did not have everything we needed, but they did have the weather station John wanted.  He will put one sensor in the area where the water pump and lines run under the floor to keep on eye on how cold they get when the weather drops below freezing.   On our way back to the RV park we stopped at Buc-ee's to fill the truck up with diesel.  What an operation they have, with about 60 pumps, all with diesel.  The price is the cheapest we've seen since we've been in the States.  Joan went in to pre-pay and look around the in-station store. We came to the conclusion we could do much of our grocery shopping there as they have fresh fruit and veg, and an amazing array of groceries for sale.

After having a Christmas day Skype visit with Trev, Sue and kids we headed into Austin to walk along Shoal Creek.   We have been warned about the traffic on the freeways going into Austin, so figured Christmas Day would be quieter than most.   Along the creek, we read about the history of Robert E. Lee having a troop here after the Mexican-American War, well before the civil war.   After the war, Custer had an group here to control a ruffian element of ex-soldiers.   Many of his soldiers died of cholera and were buried in the flats by the river. Eventually the bodies where moved to a army cemetery.   The walk along the creek was very pleasant and we admired the old architecture.  

What a contrast to the buildings only a few blocks away in downtown Austin. For example the Frost Bank Tower, the first sky scraper to be built in the US after the  911. 

On our way back to the RV park we drove by  Hope Outdoor Gallery, an amazing gallery of graffiti, done in an organized fashion. 

 

After our Christmas dinner of stuffed Cornish game hen we had our Christmas visit with Karen and Dominique via Skype. 

 On Thursday, we braved the Tangier Outlet Mall, to see what deals we could find, and after a couple of hours of wondering through stores, came home with several pairs of socks.   

Week ending Dec 19, 2014 Fredericksburg

Friday was cool and rainy.  Not a great site seeing or hiking day, so we spent it doing laundry and getting some shopping done.

 

Saturday dawned bright and sunny.   We took a trip out to Blanco State Park, on the Blanco River, on the edge of the town of Blanco.  It was a bit of a disappointment, as we expected more hiking trails and something less urban.  We then continued on to Pedernales Falls State Park.  It was more to our liking.  The falls, which are more like rapids at this time of year, are very picturesque. By the time we got to the falls the weather had turned cloudy and windy, so we didn't  do any further walking in the park.

 

On our way back to the trailer we stopped at Texas Hills Vineyard. After tasting several  wines we purchased 2 bottles of their award winning "Kick Butt Cab 2010".

 

Sunday was again a warm sunny day. We went to the Fort Martin Scott site, which is on the edge of Fredericksburg.   After we completed the self guided tour, we headed downtown to pick up some bread at a bakery, and walk through part of the historic downtown area.

 

 

Monday seemed like a great day to do scenic drive, so we headed to Llano for lunch at Cooper's BBQ pit,  highly recommended to us by our friends Brian and Kris who had enjoyed it when they toured Texas a few years ago.   John had brisket and Joan had chicken. Their BBQ sauce is very tasty and the meat delicious.   We came home with enough chicken for another meal.  After our lunch we walked around the historic town of Llano, which calls itself the deer capital of Texas.

 

 On our way back to Fredericksburg we drove through Cherry Spring and admired a beautiful stone church.  Many of the buildings in this area are constructed out of stone, and although well over 100 years old still in great shape.  

 

 

Just before we got back to Fredericksburg a wild turkey flew across the highway in front of us.  If we had been traveling at the posted speed of 70 MPH we would have had our Christmas turkey but fortunately we missed him. 

 

 

Tuesday continued the sunny streak. We almost turned on the air conditioner, but it just seemed wrong to have an air conditioner running in the winter.  Joan made a fruit cake in the slow cooker. No touching for a few days, so we won't know how it turned out for a while.  But it is soaking in brandy for a few days, so its got to be good. We did a short walk around the park here.  They are building a new swimming pool and the geese are very territorial down by their part of the creek.

 

Wednesday morning we heard Global Calgary News announce that the Alberta government has changed the rules for snowbirds.  We are now allowed to be out of Canada for 7 months of the year and still retain our Alberta Health Care. This change is effective immediately. Since we have dental and dr appointments in late April this change will not effect us this year, but it will give us more flexibility in future years.   We went back to Enchanted Rock State Park to complete the 4 mile hike we had not done the last time we were there. It was a beautiful warm sunny day, it made for very pleasant hiking.   While at a view point, we chatted with a couple of people who are both parked at the same campground as we are.   She is from Field B.C. where she works for Parks in the summer. She spends her winter in the southern states.   The fellow she was hiking with is from Minnesota and traditionally spends his winters here in this park.  She is the first Canadian snowbird we have encountered in Texas.   On our drive back to the RV park we took one of John's "shortcuts".   An interesting  narrow winding scenic ranch road, with warnings that since the road was through private lands parking by the road would be considered trespassing.  When we finally got back to the main road heading into Fredericksburg we were the same distance from Fredericksburg as we had been at the park, but we had seen some interesting countryside.

 

Thursday was banking day.  We deal with Bank of America because they don't charge Scotiabank customers a fee to use their cash machine.  We drove the 20 miles back to the closest branch, in Kerrville.   We had decided to do a hike near town, but we found it was a city park, not a state park.  Since it was a cloudy, windy day, we decided not to bother paying the fee to do the hike.   We went to Rails for lunch, which is a neat place in the old railway station.  Joan had a fruit chicken salad with raspberry vinaigrette, (really tasty) John had a venison burger with the crispest chips we've ever seen.   The food was perfect.   

 

Across the street from the restaurant was a the Drive-In (literally) liquor store.   Bizarre! 

 

Week ending Dec 12, 2013 - Kerrville and Fredericksburg

 

Our first morning in Kerrville was brisk. A few degrees below zero. After watching the men's curling we decided to check out a western wear store in Kerrville, after an unsuccessful browse through the store we headed to OST in Banera for lunch. We took a scenic route through Medina.  What a neat drive, we knew it would be when the road banned big trucks.   Unfortunately, the road was so winding and narrow that we couldn't get any pictures.   We stopped at the OST (Old Spanish Trail) restaurant, which had been recommended by folks at the RV park.  It has neat bar stools and a room dedicated to John Wayne, with posters from all his movies. 

 

 

On our way back to the trailer we stopped at Camp Verde.  Just past Camp Verde we noticed the Whisper Valley Ranch, it appeared that its animals of choice were zebras and gnu's.

 

Saturday our drive took us to Stonehenge II and some Easter Island statues.  They were commissioned by a fellow who had seen them in real life and decided he needed to replicate the sites. They are 2/3 size of the real thing.

 

 

On our way back to the trailer we saw field full of antelope, the males had the most beautiful horns.

 

Sunday the sun came back, and although the outside temperature wasn't really high, the sun heated up the trailer beautifully and we were able to shut off all our heaters. We took a short drive to go see Scrappy, the majestic Mechanical Deer.  It appears that Scrappy's home is up for sale and he has been moved.  We could not find out where his new home is.   The rest of the afternoon was spent watching the men's Olympic curling play downs.

 

Monday, moving day, was a damp misty morning. But our move was only taking us 30 miles down the road. Just after noon we arrived at the Lady Bird Johnson Municipal RV park in Fredericksburg. The weekly rent advertised on the web site was 175.00 with an additional charge for wi-fi. We discovered the weekly rent in the winter is 125.00 and wi-fi is now included.  What a deal!  The bathrooms are nice and clean and showers are large and also free.  All in all we lucked out here, because some of the places we contacted here did not have space for 2 weeks, but this one did. Another time if we are in this area we would check here first.   Another bonus is that we get to watch small planes take off at the county airstrip next door.  

 

 

 

Tuesday our first stop was at the Fredericksburg visitor information centre.   After picking up a plethora of info and maps we walked down main street, browsing through a lot of interesting shops and stopping at the Marktplatz to look at the Christmas tree and German Christmas decorations.  

 

 

On our way back to the truck we stopped at the Fredericksburg Brewery for lunch. The food the very nice and the beer even nicer. On our way back to the trailer we stopped at H.E.B. for groceries. The weather has improved and it is warm and sunny.

 

Wednesday was another bright sunny warm day, perfect for a hike.  We made lunch and headed out to Enchanted Rock State Park.  There are number of trails in the park but the one we chose to do this trip was  the hike to the summit of the rock and then the short loop. We will leave the 4 mile loop for another day.  On our way up to the top we had an interesting chat with a couple of interns who were from the Netherlands and had just completed their residency in a hospital in Surinam.  They were vacationing before heading back to the Netherlands in a couple of days to become real people.   The back side of Enchanted Rock has some technical climbing routes, and we were fortunate enough to see a few groups half-way up the rock. 

 

 

 

 

Thursday afternoon, we enjoyed another sunny day by walking around the nature loop in the Lady Bird Johnson Municipal Park.   The interpretive trail goes along Live Oak Creek through a variety of habitat for birds, butterflies, dragonflies, snakes and beavers.   They have set up a few bird feeders in the area, which has attracted a variety of birds.   We got some snaps of what we think is a northern cardinal.

 

 

Week ending December 5, 2013

Black Friday was not nearly as hectic as we thought it might be. In the morning we went for a walk around the "Gun Club Road” next to the campground.   It had a fairly well worn sign that said NO SHOOTING. We didn't ask any questions as to why the gun club area didn't allow shooting, but there must be  good reason. The walk took us along the edge of Nasworthy Lake. What a pretty lake and certainly more water than we have seen since we have been in Texas.  

We thought we would brave the "Black Friday" sales in the afternoon. We stopped at a little strip mall, us and 3 other vehicles, not exactly busy.   We then headed to the only mall in town.  It didn't appear to be any busier than we would have expected on a weekend day.  While John  made a few purchases, Joan didn't find anything to her liking.    Back at the trailer, in the storage area under the trailer John found the part we needed to repair the door handle  (good thing the rv shop didn't have the part) so we reattached the door handle.   Early in the evening, there was an incredibly long line of black birds that flew into the RV park, and settled on the trees in the area for a while before continuing on their way.

Saturday morning as we were packing for our move to San Angelo State Park we chatted to our next door neighbours, who had come for Thanksgiving with their family.   They raise goats for meat.  Meat goats are white with reddish heads.    They were leaving as they had to make a goat delivery the next day. Their thanksgiving meal was turkey and roast goat.   When they were packaging up the leftovers, the left the turkey with the family and kept the goat, since they think it is much better than turkey.   We have been keeping an eye out for goat meat, and although we have seen many farms with the meat goats, we haven’t seen any goat meat in the grocery stores.     After getting the trailer ready to leave, we drove to Fort Concho to see what they had at the farmers market.  Nobody was there, so we hooked up the trailer and headed for the state park.   When we arrived  at the park we discovered we have 4 discounts included in our park pass. We can only use one per stay. We also found out that this park has wi-fi. Now it's not the greatest, but it is wi-fi.  Apparently most state park camp grounds have wi-fi now, as most campers are now insisting on having it.   I guess if they want to have the campgrounds used they need to compete with the the private parks. After lunch we sat in the sun for a while.  It’s nice to be able to sit outside without a coat on. Our pre-dinner  walk took us through some of the areas we wanted to explore in more detail later in the week. The park seems to be teaming with deer, but they are very skittish, maybe because at certain times of the year the park is closed to the public to allow hunting.

Sunday morning found us doing a quick run back to San Angelo (only a half hour drive) to pick up groceries we forgot to get before we came out to the park. After returning to the trailer we went for a walk, looking for the longhorn cattle exhibit herd that are housed at this park. We found the plains buffalo herd they have here instead.  After our walk we spent the afternoon watching the first draw of the Roar of the Ring. The rest of our time in San Angelo State was spent watching the curling and taking 2 hour walks between draws.   During our walks we saw glimpses of many deer just before they dashed out of sight, the buffalo, a skunk, an armadillo and part of the herd of Texas Longhorns that this park is known for.  

 We also saw the occasional golf ball in a tree along one trail.  It looked like someone must be leaving 'crumbs' to mark their path. 

  

The other thing we found was sunburn, since each afternoon was in the mid to high 20's, with a blue sky. Feels like summer.

Thursday we headed for Kerrville to the Triple T RV resort. Nice place, good wi-fi, hot tub, (the pool is closed), laundry room and a games room. On our drive here we were surprised to see that the trees are splendid in their fall colours, reds, oranges and dark greens.

The weather has taken a turn for the worse today with a high of 5 instead of 26, but the low is predicted to be above freezing.   Another arctic low is pushing as far south as Texas.  So far there have been stretches of weather with temperatures significantly lower than the seasonal averages.