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!
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