Monday -April 14, 2008

Today was a repeat of yesterday’s weather, sure do like it and after hearing from friends who are on their way home and encountering cold, wet weather we are enjoying every bit of this warmth and sunshine.

Today we went to Wildseed Farms and the gardens and flowers were absolutely gorgeous, I will let the pictures tell the story.!


Entrance to Wildseed Farms














We toured the butterfly house and there were hundreds of beautiful butterflies, trying to get a picture of them was very hard as just as they would get in focus they would fly away.








It was a gorgeous place to spend a few hours and there weren’t a lot of people there today like I suspect there was on the weekend.

We decided to take the back way back home and went through Albert and Blanco and can you believe it the Town of Albert is for sale, wonder if whoever owns it thinks someone can make it into another Luckenbach!



I am going to get this posted now then will have to get busy and get supper going. We have nothing planned for tonight other than TV (that is if there is anything worth watching) or else a good book. And so ends another great gift of a day and we look forward to the mystery of tomorrow.

Sunday -April 13, 2008

Today was another beautiful day with the temperatures reaching a high of about 22C (74F), just a perfect day by my reckoning. Last night the low was about 5C (40F) again that is, in my humble opinion, great sleeping temperatures. We had the window open and the electric blanket on to keep us warm, what more could we ask for!! The inside temperature when we woke up this morning was about 10C (50F) so the furnace got turned on and we were toasty warm in no time.

Today we decided to do a scenic route that was in one of the local travel brochures and was it pretty! It was a loop road from Willow City (they call anything a city down here as the population is probably 100 if they are lucky) and was 13 miles until it came out on Hwy. 16. It reminded us of the 40 Hills Road that runs north from Lions Head (in the Bruce Peninsula, Ontario) which is very twisty, turney and narrow, the only thing this road had today to better it was that it was paved – but no shoulders!! We came across “Watch for Water” signs and after the sign there were High Water Gauges,



we saw some Long Horned Cattle



and there was lots of wildlife along the road – a very scenic drive. There are also some really neat ranch signs in this part of the country.



We saw one long line of Bluebonnets but there was only one place to pull over and take a picture and unfortunately that spot was taken so we didn’t get a picture.

There were also a lot of motorcycles taking advantage of this gorgeous day and pretty drive.











We visited the town of Llano and the Courthouse there was beautiful



and it is a very patriotic town – there were statues for the Civil War, the two World Wars a Korean and Viet Nam War Wall and they are working on a Gulf War Memorial, guess the war in Iraq will come at a later date.



From Llano we drove west to Burnett and along the way we came across a pull off with all kinds of people looking off into a field so we stopped to see what they were looking at and lo and behold there was a huge Eagle’s nest in a tree. We know these nests can weigh over 400 lb and I imagine from the looks of this one it was at least that heavy. Unfortunately the Eagle wasn’t in residence so we didn’t get to see it but I did see it flying off in the distance.

The whole trip today the price of diesel was anywhere from $3.999 to $4.009/gallon but I had remembered that last week the price of diesel at Wal Mart in Marble Falls was $3.849 and sure enough we lucked out and it was still that price so we fed our hungry Dodge!

I don’t know if I will get this posted tonight, I am really tired and still have to do my pictures so the posting might just have to wait until tomorrow. And so ends another great gift of a day and we look forward to the mystery of tomorrow.

Saturday - April 12, 2008

Wow, today was a real quiet, down day – we didn’t do a thing! The weather was nice but a bit cooler - still very pleasant. Last night we had to turn on the electric blanket, now that’s my kind of sleeping weather!

This is a real nice park, Judy and Paul bought it last July and apparently it was quite run down but they have done a lot of work and it is really looking nice. Apparently they have added a few sites and all of the sites are long pull thrus except those backing on the Miller River and they are large back ins. There is a nice big park down by the river with a lot of live oak trees – very pretty. During this past week the park has been about half full but now it is pretty well full, apparently they have a small rally here for the weekend, then another one coming in tomorrow for three days so they are getting lots of clients. Here is a picture of our trailer and a couple of the park and one of the cows that go by every evening about 6 p.m.







We have decided to stay here until Wednesday so this afternoon we went for a walk around the park and down by the river, then stopped at the office and paid for 3 more nights. At the office they had a bottle of Lavender Margarita Mix and we were offered a sample of the mix, surprisingly it was very good and probably will make a neat margarita so John bought me a bottle, now I will have to get some tequila to try a margarita. There is a large Lavender farm across the river from the park and apparently they have a huge Lavender Festival in mid June.

This appears to be a very busy part of Texas on weekends so we decided to just stay home today and avoid the crowds, with staying a few more days we can do some more exploring on Monday and Tuesday. As well as the spring wildflowers there are about 20 wineries in the area, these attractions plus the lakes and the Town of Fredericksburg with its German heritage are a real drawing card and make this a very popular tourist destination.

Not an exciting day but a very enjoyable one nonetheless; and so ends another great gift of a day and we look forward to the mystery of tomorrow.

Friday - April 11, 2008

Last night a cold (?) front came through and we woke up to very pleasant temperatures this morning. We decided to do a bit of touring today so headed for Luckenbach ,Texas to join Willy, Waylon and the boys.

The population sign approaching Luckenbach states population 3, don’t know who the 3 are but I doubt they are any of the ones we saw today. In addition to the restroom, there are only three buildings of note there, the combination post office, general store, bar;





Snail Creek Hat Co. and the dance hall with adjoining food shack (note – there didn’t appear to be any mail service at the PO). At the hat store, there are a good number of great western hats for sale, in addition to hand made leather belts, and other stuff to appeal to the inner cowboy in all of us; and although it may appeal to the cowboy in all of us it didn’t appeal to my wallet. The post office/general store/bar has some unique items for sale, but again out of my price range. We did enjoy seeing Luckenbach and it was worth the drive off the main highway.


From there we drove into Fredericksburg, and after finding a parking spot we decided to have lunch at Der Lindenbaum which is supposed to be a good, authentic German restaurant. The food was good but our waitress left something to be desired, she didn’t tell us what the specials of the day were but fortunately we heard another waitress tell her clients. Anyways we had a good lunch and after that we walked up and down the main street. It reminded us of places like Bayfield, nice stuff but expensive and way over priced.

After that we stopped at the Visitor Centre then H.E.B. and Wal Mart , from there it was back home. The park has gotten pretty busy, probably a lot of weekenders but everything seems quiet so we aren’t complaining.

After our big lunch we decided to have a light dinner so ended up having nachos and salsa…very good. Tonight is the end of Lonesome Dove; and so ends another great gift of a day and we look forward to the mystery of tomorrow.

Thursday - April 10

I woke up about 5 a.m. to hear the lovely sound of rain on the roof, not that we like rain but we do love the sound of it on the roof, it is so soothing. By the time we got up the rain had stopped but the forecast was for heavy rain during the day so we decided to have a quiet day at home. Wouldn’t you know it, it turned into a gorgeous day, oh well, a day at home is always nice.

We didn’t do a lot, we got the insurance sorted out for our new park model trailer, made the decision on how and when we are heading north and made reservations at Betty’s park in Abbeville, Louisiana, so I did accomplish a few things. This afternoon I did laundry so that is another dirty job out of the way for a while, the laundromat here is nice and $1 a load to wash or dry so the price was right.

This is a real nice little park so we have decided to stay here until next Wednesday, then go to Galveston for a few days, then Abbeville, Louisiana then start heading north. We are planning on doing the Natchez Trace from Jackson Mississippi to Nashville so it should be a nice drive.

Tonight we are going to start watching Lonesome Dove, it seems to be an appropriate movie to watch in this part of the country. And so ends another great gift of a day and we look forward to the mystery of tomorrow.

Wednesday - April 9, 2008

Today we woke up to this funny stuff falling from the sky, I think they call it rain, oh well life without rain couldn’t continue and on the bright side (no pun intended!) the rain will make the wildflowers grow. Actually it didn’t rain all day, just off and on but enough to make it a day where we didn’t want to plan any extended outdoors activity as it was one of those days where you didn’t know when it would rain again. The high temperature on the truck today was 75F (24C) but most of the day the temperature seemed to be stuck on 71F (22C) but high humidity made it seem much hotter than it was.

Spring is my favourite season and this area of Texas is just nicely into spring, the trees are still that pretty light green colour they are when the leaves have just come out and everywhere you look it is green and the wildflowers, although not out in full bloom yet, make a beautiful sparse carpet of colour along the side of the road. Forgive me, I don’t often wax poetic but spring makes my heart sing it is so beautiful and I am just drinking it in here. And just think, I will get to enjoy spring twice as we will watch everything bud when we get back to Kincardine – how lucky can we get.

Today, because of the weather, we decided to check out the lakes around Marble Falls, the main one being Lake LBJ and oh man did we find where the richie rich hang out. We turned down a little side road, went by a huge power plant along the Colorado River which is a blight on the landscape, then ended up in a subdivision along Horseshoe Bay – the houses were amazing but what really surprised us was that although they are multi million dollar homes they are right on top of each other as they have very small lots (actually I don’t know if it is because the lots are small or the houses so big!!). Oh well, I guess we will never have to worry about living in one of them and having a neighbour breathing down our necks – LOL!!! I was reading in the Visitors Magazine that even though you might own a house in this area membership in one of the three local PGA level golf courses does not come with the territory, you have to apply for a membership and be accepted. Kinda snobby don’t you think!


Looking Across Horseshoe Bay


Part of A Pretty House


Another Nice One


Love the Setting

We drove along the lakes as much as we could and at one point just as John turned a corner I told him to stop and back up, I had seen an empty lot with deer on it. We got to the lot and there were over 2 dozen deer just hanging out, the truck didn’t faze them at all and what a beautiful sight they were.





We stopped at one of four dams around the lakes but couldn’t get near the dam, there was a fellow there who said after 9/11 all the dams in Texas were closed off to the public so we didn’t bother trying to see any of the other ones in the area.

On the way back we stopped in Marble Falls and picked up a few groceries, then came on home. It was a nice day with lots of beautiful scenery. The wind has really picked up and it is quite gusty, tomorrow they are calling for thunder storms so it might be a good laundry day.

And so ends another great gift of a day and we look forward to the mystery of tomorrow.

Tuesday -April 8, 2008

Today was another hot muggy one, the high in the truck was 88F (31C) so we were thankful to have the air conditioning which kept us comfortable.

Today we headed down to Blanco to see what was there, not much, so then we headed east to San Marcos and what a pretty drive it was, you can certainly see why this area is called the Hill Country! We saw some wild flowers along the side of the road but they just aren’t fully out yet which is quite disappointing.

A gal at our park in Yuma had told me there was an outlet mall in San Marcos so I wanted to go there and check out the Corning store for dishes for our new place. Well, I have never seen such a huge outlet mall before, there had to be well over 300 stores there – where do you start? We found the Corning store and I got my dishes then I saw there was a Sag Harbour store (hell of a name for a ladies clothing store!) a couple of doors down so checked it out – I got a nice pair of shorts for $8, regular $30 so was happy with that purchase. I thought I had subjected John to enough waiting around (he found a bench and parked himself on it) as he is NOT a shopper so that was the extent of my outlet mall shopping.

From there we drove through the country to a town north of where we are camped called Marble Falls, at one point we could see Austin but we will save going there for another day. We saw a lot of beautiful, huge homes and could just imagine what lay at the end of the roads to ranches that had huge, gorgeous entrance gates by the highway. Marble Falls is a pretty town and we ended up having dinner at the River Side Grill before heading for home.

Tonight is a bit of reading or TV and an early night to bed. Last night was brutally warm for sleeping so I am hoping tonight will be better, I certainly DO NOT like these warm nights! And so ends another great gift of a day and we look forward to the mystery of tomorrow.

Monday -April 7, 2008

Boy, we have to get used to this weather – last night was very warm for sleeping, it is the first time since we left home in November that we have been hot at night, we do prefer the cooler nights and sleep better when it is cooler. This morning it was very overcast, hot and humid, again not something we have experienced in a long time so it will take some adjusting to.

Johnson City is where Lyndon B. Johnson grew up but the town was named for one of his forebears, not him, it is not a large town – only about 1200 population and it is located in the heart of Texas Hill Country. We went to the LBJ Tourist Information Centre in town, it had a large interesting display on his time as president then we watched a film about Lady Bird. We then toured the house in town where he grew up, this tour was free which was surprising, then we drove 14 miles west to the LBJ Ranch and did a bus tour of the ranch - $3 each for the tour. The ranch was known as the Texas White House and was a working ranch (still is) and we saw some long horned steers – and the horns were long, and a herd of bison as well as a lot of other cattle etc. The house where LBJ was born had been torn down many years but he and Lady Bird had a replica of the original house built so we toured that, then the cemetery where the family is buried, then on to the main ranch which was not as huge as I had expected but looked nice. The main house is not yet open for tours, the Johnsons donated the land to the National Park Service many years ago with the stipulation that the main house could not be toured as long as they lived. Lady Bird passed away last year so they are now getting the house ready for tours. He was born on land that is now part of the ranch not far from his grandparents house but his family moved into town when he was a young boy.


House On Ranch Where LBJ Was Born


Johnson Family Cemetery - Lady Bird is Buried Where the Flowers Are and LBJ is Large Stone to the Right


Front Yard of Texas White House - The Live Oak Tree is Well Over 500 Years Old

It was interesting reading and hearing about them and what they did, they were great believers in saving the environment and they had more land dedicated as National Parks than was developed during his term of office. Lady Bird spent her life as an advocate for beautifying the nations cities and highways and conservation of natural resources

Although it was very overcast when we started out today the sky cleared off and it turned hot and sunny, a nice day. The wildflowers are starting to come out along the side of the road and are very pretty. We got fuel today at $3.899, which is way too high, but better than the $4.089 we paid at Fort Stockton.


A Pretty Primrose

And so ends another great gift of a day and we look forward to the mystery of tomorrow.

Sunday -April 6, 2008

Today was another gorgeous day and a good driving day. We drove through southwest Texas, a very boring drive with nothing but stunted grassland and trees. We counted 25 dead deer along the side of the road, saw lots of cattle, sheep, some emus and a herd of javellinas – as I say a real exciting drive.

When we turned off I-10 we finally got some scenery, decent sized trees and some hills, quite a change. We are at Miller Creek RV Park just south of Johnson City a good jumping off point for touring Fredericksburg, Johnson City, Austin etc. so it should be an interesting week here. Spring has just sprung here, all the trees have the pretty green new leaves and we have seen some wildflowers but hope we see a lot more before the end of the week.

Today was a very uninteresting day as far as writing my blog but nonetheless it was a nice day for us. And so ends another great gift of a day and we look forward to the mystery of tomorrow.

Saturday - April 5, 2008

Today was another sunny hot day, sure hope this weather continues and we don’t start getting rain – we forget what rain is and we aren’t real eager to get reacquainted with it again – lol!

We decided to make it a short drive today as it is quite a long ways to where we want to go in Texas and we knew we would lose an hour coming out of Mountain Time so we opted to do about 240 km and stop at Fort Stockton, TX. We stopped at a nice park here in December 2006 and they have a little restaurant, the Roadrunner Café, at the park and serve a delicious rib dinner for $7.95 so we decided that we would stop here again and enjoy another dinner. It was just as good as we remembered!

The drive today was pretty boring, flat desert with lots of working oil wells and drilling rigs – great scenery! It was also very windy and we saw a lot of dust spouts off in the distance. When we got to Fort Stockton we stopped for fuel and just as John got out of the car the wind really gusted and I almost couldn’t see him for the dirt. When we arrived here it was too windy to open windows so again the air conditioning went on.

After dinner we sat out for a bit as the wind had died down and it was really nice, and we wanted to enjoy some of the warm weather. On the way back from dinner we had noticed that the towed on the motor home beside us had Parkway Ford on it so the lady came out and we asked where they were from. Turns out they are from Brantford but had lived in Waterloo for many years, funny her name is also Carolyn. Her husband Dave came out and we visited for about an hour, a very nice couple.

Tonight we are watching the Bourne Ultimatum, lots of action! And so ends another great gift of a day and we look forward to the mystery of tomorrow.

Friday - April 4, 2008

Today was another beautiful day – sunny and warm, it would sure be nice if we could have this weather all the way home!

We headed off to the Carlsbad Cavern this morning, unfortunately we were delayed by about 45 minutes due to an accident, it looked like a van was passing on a hill in a “No Passing” zone. Two ambulances headed into Carlsbad while we were waiting so there were injuries, hopefully though they weren’t real serious. It always makes me feel sick when we come upon something like that.

When we got to the caverns we were totally blown away by the size and beauty of the “Big Room”, it is the size of 14 football fields and absolutely gorgeous. We have toured 3 other caves over the years but today was the most spectacular, it leaves you feeling very humble and knowing that there has to be a greater being to create something so beautiful and inspiring. The “Big Room” is a self guided tour and we rented an audio tape which explained the major sites along the 1.5 mile walk through the cave.

We took an elevator down 750’ to start our tour; we could have entered by the natural entrance and taken about 1 hour to walk down 800’ to start the tour, but passed on that one and took the easy way down! The cave is decorated with stalactites, stalagmites and thousands of other formations that began over 500,000 years ago. Where water dripped slowly from the ceiling, soda straws and larger stalactites appeared, water falling onto the floor created stalagmites. Sometimes a stalactite and stalagmite met and formed into a column, then there are draperies which were hung where water ran down a slanted ceiling.


A Stalagmite


One of the Views


Stalactites and Stalagmites


Neat Formations


Love the Shapes

Some of the features we saw were the Bottomless Pit, Giant Dome, Rock of Ages, Caveman, Totem Pole and the Painted Grotto – all fascinating structures. We took a lot of pictures but it is very hard to get good photos and do justice to the majestic beauty of this cave. There is a Ranger guided tour of the “Scenic Rooms” which is on our to-do list for another time when we visit this area.

On the way home we picked up a few groceries and fed the truck, then when we got home I did laundry. Needless to say we dined at the fashionable hour tonight! What is left of this evening will be spent doing my bog and seeing if I got any pictures worth posting. And so ends another great gift of a day and we look forward to the mystery of tomorrow.

Thursday - April 3, 2008

What another beautiful warm day it was in Alamogordo when we were getting ready to leave this morning. John, the fellow in the Airstream across from us came over as soon as he saw John out this morning and helped him hook up. After I finished up inside I went out and Judith came over so we ended up chatting for a couple of hours, fortunately we were only going about 150 miles today so we had time to visit. They are a lovely couple and hopefully we will meet on the road again sometime, but we wish them a great trip to St. Louis

Our drive today was interesting, the road was good and the trip over the Sacremento Mountain range was nice and very scenic. We then hit a long drive along the mountain plateau where there was very little vegetation or civilization, but it was pretty anyways.. At one point we stopped at a picnic area and my sandals got full of burrs – I WAS NOT impressed when I had to get John to pull a couple out of the sole of my foot. At Artesia we turned south and the landscape changed again, we saw a number of orchards and green fields, (we couldn’t tell what they were growing there). We also saw numerous oil wells working away, reminded us of around Sarnia.

When we arrived at Carlsbad RV Park we were surprised at the wind, we hadn’t noticed how bad it was when we were driving but when we got here I felt that if I could get my feet off the ground I would be able to fly away – wondering if John was wishing that could happen – lol!

This is a Passport America Park and the price is right - $15.50/night with full hook-ups, an indoor pool, cable TV and free wi-fi – sure can’t beat that! The wind was so bad when we arrived that there was no way I was opening the windows as along with the breeze there would be a TON of dust blowing in – instead I reverted to the hated air conditioning! It did the trick and cooled down the trailer, now the wind has died down and we have a couple of windows open and a beautiful cool breeze is coming in, hopefully it will stay like this overnight!

Tonight was a night of left over chicken and salads for dinner, real easy and now it is the wind down period of the day. I will get this posted and then pick up my book for a while until my eyes won’t stay open and I can’t absorb what I have read, at which point I know the bed will be beckoning. And so ends another great gift of a day and we look forward to the mystery of tomorrow.

Wednesday - April 2, 2008

Today was another beautiful day but it is not as hot here as Arizona, again the temperature was in the mid 70’s – perfect.

Today we toured the Space Museum and it was very interesting, some of it was too technical for me but on the whole it was enjoyable. Most of the missile trials take place in the White Sands because of the weather and terrain, it is mainly sunny, flat and there is little rain here.


V2 Missile Used in the Bombing of London, England During WW11


Blooms on Cow Tongue Prickly Pear


Sonic Sled Used for Trials in the Desert


Cacti In Bloom


Looking Out Over Alamogordo to White Sands In Distance


Okay, So How Does A Rock Like This Hang Up There!


We Will Drive Through This TUnnel Tomorrow On Our Way to Carlsbad

After that we drove over the Sacremento Mountain Range to see what it will be like tomorrow, the road is good and the steep descent is driving west from Cloudcroft so it will be an okay drive with the trailer going east. We went south of Cloudcroft for about 17 miles then picked up another road that looped back up to Cloudcroft – a very pretty drive through the mountains and valleys. The drive west back to Alamogordo was very scenic and we could see the white sand blowinng around off in the distance, guess that is pretty normal for here as that is how the dunes are formed and move – from the constant wind.

We again stopped at Hastings so I could check the e-mail and post my blog, sure do hope we have wi-fi tomorrow night, I checked out a park at Carlsbad and they advertised wi-fi so here’s hoping it is working.

Tonight we went to Applebee’s for dinner so John got the barbecue put away so that we are pretty well ready to go in the morning. And so ends another great gift of a day and we look forward to the mystery of tomorrow.