Change of Scenery

We knew that we would have to leave Fredericksburg when we arrived to begin our chase of the wildflowers.  The time has come to leave and we have done so.  Prior to leaving, we did take an excursion to Trades Days.  We took advantage of a break between rain showers to visit and discovered a mini-Canton type trades days.  Other than the cool, damp weather it was an interesting and fun experience.  Besides it helped add steps to our daily routine of walking.  Before we left the area we had anticipated a climb up Enchanted Rock but schedules, weather and other things prevented our return.

Before leaving, we made a northern and southern excursion around the area to check on the wildflower progress.  It is still just too cold at night in this part of the Hill Country for the flowers to fully bloom.  There are spots and areas that you can see evidence of initial progress but it is just a bit early for now.  This is why we moved a little to the east and a bit further south to catch the initial wave of blooms.

You might notice we have changed the picture on our main blog page of the Adventurer.  The new picture is our current Adventurer rig and was taken in our new location at Canyon Lake, just outside of New Braunfels.  The other picture was taken in Forest City, Iowa and was our prior Adventurer which had been replaced about a year and half ago.  This is the first time since getting the newer rig we felt like the spot was worthy enough to yield a picture of the new Adventurer for the main blog page.

Former Header Picture

Current Header Picture

On our way to this location we had a very scenic drive and passed through Albert, Texas (AKA Freaking Albert Texas as noted on the side of the trailer parked among the buildings).  What a wonderful place.  Population was only three but it had its own Dance Hall right next to the Church building.  This tells me, you can park your car on Saturday night, dance the night away and attend church services the next morning without giving up your prime parking spot.  Who could ask for anything more?  Well as we got to the park, just outside the entrance we spot a restaurant.  Not just any restaurant but one that is named "D Vine" as in divine.  We did not ask for anything more but we received something more, just when we thought it could not get any better than Albert.

Our first night here was celebrated with the first burger grill of the trip.  It was sort of a farewell tribute to Fredericksburg.  You see there is a special hamburger bun used for a lot of the burgers in the area that make the burgers taste wonderful.  After a trip to the German Bakery in Fredericksburg, we procured eight of these buns and used half of them for the first night’s supper.  Home cooked burgers on the special Jalapeno Cheese buns, what a meal and what a burger. (Sorry Whataburger, I know that sounds almost sacrilegious to you to hear those words used about a burger other than the ones you sell, but mm, mm good!)  Top it off with this kind of sunset right in our backyard and we feel more than satisfied.

Dinner Guests

Picture Perfect End of a Good Day!

It will be cool tomorrow and potentially wet.  We intend to use the day for some indoor shopping by the girls at the outlet center, while David and I check out the local Camping World store to see if we can find something to use our $25 Camping World gift certificates on before they expire on March 31^st.

By the way, what kind of birds are these?  We are having the dickens of the time trying to identify them.  They appear to be some sort of weird cross between a duck, geese or crane.   So for now they are referred to as the duck, geese, crane thingy that hangs around our parking sites.  Any help in figuring out will be appreciated as we need a shorter name we can use.

Where's the flowers????

This week has been a lazy, restful week with a scattering of trips here and there.  Mostly we have stuck pretty close to the RV enjoying the beautiful weather, good company and good food.  We only ate out at a commercial restaurant one time this week.  We decided to eat at Mamacita’s in Fredericksburg and enjoyed the meal very much.  If you go, try the Verde sauce on your chicken enchilada, chicken flautas or whatever.  It is really good.

Mostly we ate home cooked meals via Sophie and Bibi.  Things such as Mexican Stack, Oven Fried Chicken, grilled pork chops, grilled ribeye steaks with all the trimmings such as Red Lobster style biscuits, Olive Garden style salad and veggies galore.  Thank you ladies for keeping us fed so well.  We have not even grilled a burger or a hot dog yet.  Of course with all the feasts and the great weather comes the desire to be outside.  We have apps on the phones to measure how many steps taken daily so we are comparing notes every day as to our progress.   Two rounds of the RV park equal approximately one mile.  My personal goal daily is 10,000 steps.  That is equivalent to about 7 or 8 rounds of the park.  Slowly working up to it and got close one day at about 6,600 steps.  (I stopped in the middle of this writing to get in about 3,645 steps.  J )

Weather for the most part has been wonderful with high temps around 70 to 75 and low temps 50 to 60.  We have had a couple of days of rain showers but until this weekend, nothing major.  We are seeing evidence of wildflower progress and have gotten some live reports from folks indicating just south and east of Austin there are some sightings around LaGrange.  We will make a foray into the countryside next week before we leave this area to see what progress has occurred.  We are planning on a move closer to the recent sighting so we can be in-between where we are now and LaGrange.

In the meantime, the ladies took advantage of mine and David’s trip to the Pacific War Museum to do a little shopping and window shopping in downtown Fredericksburg.  They were inside a boutique shop on Main street in Fredericksburg when the lady owner came up to them and told them they looked like T-shirt people and would like the T-shirt shop just down the way a bit.  Of course, Sophie and Bibi were a bit taken back by the comment and were not quite sure how to take it at first.  Wanting to avoid any kind of a confrontation, they politely said “Thank You” and exited the boutique.  Now you do know that was the subject of conversation the rest of the day as they discussed voice inflection, facial expression, etc. from their memories in an effort to discern the intent of the shop owner.  Just sayin’.

All this time David and I were enjoying the museum which is in multiple parts, including the hotel Admiral Chester Nimitz’s grandfather built and owned where the admiral worked growing up.  Also there are outdoor displays along with an area that has re-enactments during the year.  The main displays are inside and trace the reasons for growing Japanese aggression prior to WWII leading to the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, the campaigns in the Pacific theater during the war to the unconditional surrender finally in late 1945.

Both of our fathers were in the military during WWII.  It was interesting for both of us to learn more about David’s father’s service while in the museum.  He was on Leyte and Okinawa during the war.  I had only heard about Leyte in terms of the Japanese Navy being all but destroyed during the Leyte campaign and found out there is a lot more to the story than just that piece.  We counted 13 Medal of Honor recipients that received the medal for their actions during the October to December 1944 campaign on Leyte.

This led me to do some research and I found out that Leyte is where General Douglas MacArthur stepped foot onshore returning to the Philippines making his famous speech where he announced, “People of the Philippines, I have returned!”  It is also the first time in the war the desperate Japanese resorted to Kamikaze airplane attacks.  The Japanese fully committed naval and land forces in the defense of Leyte and suffered huge defeats.  So much so that their navy was all but nonexistent the rest of the war, land based planes were essentially controlled by American air power and the land forces were constantly fighting from defensive positions as they were driven from the Philippines.  David’s dad took part in this effort as he drove a LVT (Landing Vehicle Tracked) and we saw a picture of some exactly like he drove on a huge wall in the museum as they headed toward the beach during a landing.  These experiences really bring history to life.

Well that is all for now but come back next week as we report on our return to Enchanted Rock, wildflower foraging and the upcoming move.  Until then, don’t miss out of your own adventures.

On The Road Again.....

After a long winter’s nap we are on the road again seeking sunshine and flowers.  We are happy to report we have found both.  There is a picture below to prove we have located the first bluebonnet bloom and are awaiting a full carpet of these beautiful Texas state flowers in just a few weeks.  The central purpose of our trip is to catch some rays and observe the wildflowers as they announce spring is here.  Admittedly, you may say this is not much proof, but for anyone weary of the cold and wet this is enough to provide the soul with inspiration to hang in there a little while longer.  We have definitely located the sunshine and are reveling in it.

We ran into a couple of travelers from Indiana and Kentucky that are experiencing sunshine for the first time in a couple of months.  They wintered down south around South Padre Island and told us they haven’t seen the sun because it was either raining or the fog was too dense to let the rays of the sun penetrate.  It was fun to see their excitement and glee as they headed off to the golf course for a day in the sun before continuing their trip back to their respective homes.

Speaking of Indiana, the last time we were there we saw and wrote about our encounter with the golf cart community.  If you recall, we were amazed at the folks “taking their constitutional” daily by riding in their golf carts throughout the RV park instead of walking.  Well, we have now experienced a situation that is close to just as amazing.  There is a fellow here in this park that takes his cats for a walk daily.  Now you may say, that is not that amazing and you may even conjure up a picture of cats on a leash or something but you would be wrong.  This guy has a pet stroller into which he loads his cats and then pushes them around the RV park.  This stroller has a zippered compartment with screen mesh openings so the cats can sit and observe the many sights around them as they are pushed along by their owner.  The cats are not receiving much exercise but have the owner trained pretty well to give them a view of the world outside the RV every single day.  Not much physical stimulation for the cats but I suspect mentally they are fully engaged in all the sights and sounds as they are merrily pushed along in their stroller.  Oh well, it takes all kinds and that is part of what makes our journeys so interesting!

Rolling along....

singing a song--Side by Side

When we left it was cool and evidence of rain from the day before was everywhere.  As we drove further south and west, this gradually changed.  When we arrived in Fredericksburg, we could see there had been rain (which is good for the flowers) but not the frog strangling kind we experienced in East Texas.  Our first full day in Fredericksburg allowed us to experience the sun rising while turning the sky from a dark azure blue to gradually lighter and lighter shades of blue accented by striations of pink, white and wispy clouds until the sun was fully up and the sky a pure baby blue color dotted with white puffy clouds.  It was marvelous and allowed us to sit outside just enjoying and relaxing while soaking up the warmth as we mentally prepared ourselves for exploring.

These first few days we have done some exploring.  Our first adventure was to set out to experience and climb the Enchanted Rock.  Just a warning to all, if the lights are flashing on the sign (about 15 miles away) on the side of the road heading towards Enchanted Rock which reads ‘Park is Closed when Lights are Flashing’; then it really means the park is closed.  We pushed on past this sign as if it was meaningless and soon found out that was not the case.  There is limited parking and the park attendants do not want any accidents from overcrowded hikers/climbers so the park is closed periodically to allow some of the overcrowding conditions to dissipate.  We have put this on our list to try again later during the trip but for now, we have not climbed the rock although we have a nice picture that shows a lot of folks that are since we were obliged to keep on driving past the park as it was closed to new arrivals.

On another day, we have made a trip to Kerrville to eat catfish at the Lake House located on the Guadalupe River.  Here we encountered a woodpecker that was either crazy or highly territorial.  This bird would hang from a tree branch upside down swinging back and forth in front of a big picture window.  Eventually the bird would leap from the branch to run into the window with its beak only to fall to the window sill looking around for something.  Then he would jump back up to the branch to repeat this process all over again.  Our conclusion, the bird was seeing a reflection of himself in the window and attacking to run the ‘other bird’ off.  We did see another bird feeding on some berries in the same tree and since our crazy bird left this one alone, it probably was his mate. 

First one side

and then the other

Finally the attack that leaves him stunned for a moment

From the restaurant, we meandered around exploring Kerrville and then found our way to Luckenbach, TX.  None of us had ever been and since they are having the Mud Dauber Festival there next weekend we wanted the opportunity to look it over without a crowd of folks obscuring the view and to pay homage to the title of this post.  We can now say we have been to Luckenbach just like Willie and Waylon and all the boys.  Oh and we probably will pass on the Mud Dauber Festival since this was interesting place to say we have been but it does not make our top ten list of places to see again.

This must be the place

...and it is!

After leaving Luckenbach and making a quick stop at the local Sonic during Happy Hour to get our half-price drinks, we made our way to the Willow City Loop to see if there were any indications of wildflowers making their appearance yet.  This trip was mainly a very nice drive in the country with David and Beverly wanting to see what the plants look like so they could get a sense of when we might begin to see the flowers.  After stopping the car so Sophie could point out the plants, Beverly spotted this one flower that had just poked its head out early and we just happened to stop and find it among these many acres and acres of countryside.  So we designated it the first ‘official’ bluebonnet of the year.  Come back again for future reports as we know there will be a great wildflower season this year.

First "official" Bluebonnet bloom - can't wait for more