Sunday, May 23, 2021 - We drove from Sonora, Texas for two hours to the Johnson Creek RV Park near Ingram, Texas. This is also very close to the town of Kerrville which is larger that Ingram. It is also located in the heart of the Texas Hill Country. We are looking at real estate possibilities in this area. We are also having some rain in the area, primarily in the afternoons.
On Sunday afternoon, we drove to Kerrville to visit with the cousin of Lisa's sister-in-law Christine Mosier. Mark and Darcie Mosier have resided in Kerrville for the past nine years and they are quite active in the community. Mark is a dentist with a massive love of aviation. He has an aircraft and has, in the past, flown to Central America to provide free dental services to people in the region. Darcie also had an extremely active career as the regional manager for the ServiceMasters Company. Her region include Arizona, Texas, New Mexico and more. They extended that Texas hospitality towards us and invited us to their home. They own 30 acres of land in the Hill Country with a gorgeous home and workshop/garage area which they refuse to sell (lol). Mark and Darcie have three children who are now going to college. We spoke with them for about three hours and had a great visit learning all about their family, activities, and local area. They are so active in the community and have accomplished so much in their lives that I wish I could relate all of it here in the blog, but it would take me a week. Mark and Darcie did give us insight into the region and recommendations for several things to do while here; including several "don't miss" activities that we will cover as we do them. We hope to get together again with Mark and Darcie later in the week and report back on the all the things we have done.
Monday, May 24, 2021 - We started the day working on the final payments to beneficiaries for the Richard Baker 1995 Trust of Chris Baker. We will send out the final checks today and, basically, be done with the trust activities. I am also working to bring this blog up-to-date by updating this post and loading photographs from the Carlsbad Caverns area. We then traveled to the local kayak shop to get some info. It was closed, but Corey, the owner, was there and he opened the store to give us maps and talk about the area. Great hospitality! We then went to Great Clips for haircuts; a little overdue. After the haircuts, it was off to Starbuck's to use their WiFi was we upload photos to the blog. Our RV park does not have a very good WiFi.
Tuesday, May 25, 2021 - Started out the day with a trip to the Museum of Western Art located in Kerrville, Texas. We spent about two hours looking at beautiful paintings, saddles, tack, and other memorabilia from the late 1800s. It is a very nice museum and some of the art is absolutely amazing; so realistic. We also talked with the curators and they were super nice. They had lots of information about the state and the area. We stopped by a bicycle shop and the owner gave us some great, color maps of road bike routes in the area. We made plans to drive one of the routes later in the day. Afterwards, we drove to Fredericksburg, Texas. Fredericksburg is a "touristy" town with lots of little shops and restaurants on the main street (it is actually called Main Street). We found the shops to be very pricey and containing lots of items from China. We decided to go for lunch and a very nice lady recommended The Old German Bakery & Restaurant on Main Street. What a great recommendation. Fredericksburg is an area with a rich German history. It is brought out in it food. I ordered roast pork with mashed potatoes and veggies. Wow! Was it good. Lisa went with the grilled chicken with mashed potatoes and veggies. It was great too. The pork literally fell off the fork and it tasted amazingly good. So, a great lunch was had. We then walked about town more and looked at other shops. We stopped into the Vereins Kirche Museum to explore. This is a scale replica of a church that is actually found in Germany. This was an early church, meeting hall, and public building that was located in the middle of the town between Main Street and a nearby street. The streets were being modernized so the building was, essentially, destroyed. Afterwards, the community realized that they had just eliminated a local piece of their history. They raised funds to have the building rebuilt as a museum in the middle of the adjacent park. You can discover the history of the town in this museum. After leaving the museum, we drove 20 miles north of Fredericksburg to what is called the Willow City Loop. This is a single lane road that goes for about 16 miles with tons of beautiful flowers all along the way. It was an absolutely gorgeous drive. We can't wait to go back and ride this course. There were occasional cattleguards and dips in the road with small streams crossing the road. You have to be careful at these obstacles, but it is not a big deal. Absolutely pretty road, rolling hills, and occasional open range animals. There are lots of routes like this in the area. We could ride a new route here every day for several weeks. After the drive, we returned home to the RV. We then returned to the RV to relax.
Note: We have been in Kerrville for five days now and have stopped at Culver's fast food restaurant three times. Once for a burger meal and all three times for their custard dessert. Yum-Yum, but we need to get some bicycle miles.
Note: We have had considerable cloudiness in the area and some rain. The humidity is rather high, but this is not the norm for this area. Looks like 30-40% chance of rain for the next week. We will see.
Wednesday, May 26, 2021 - A busy and fun day. Started out by going to the laundromat in Kerrville and doing our laundry. Well, may that was not that fun?? It is nice to have the laundry done. We then went to the Thai Ocha restaurant to meet Mark and Darcie Mosier for lunch. It is so much fun to get together with Mark and Darcie. They are so positive about life and doing so many exciting things. We had a great conversation and they have been so helpful in giving us activities that we can do while in the area. Their suggestions have been great and we have been having a ball traveling the area looking at way they recommend. After lunch, we drove to a local used book store that Lisa really likes. Well organized with tons of titles by the authors that she enjoys reading. She is a "happy RV camper." We then drove to a state natural area about 15 miles north of Fredericksburg called Enchanted Rock State Natural Area. This is a series of domed rocks with trails for hiking throughout the area. We started out with a hike to the top of the Enchanted Rock which has a vertical rise of about 450 feet. It is very rough rock, so the traction was great all the way. On top, the views of the region were outstanding. (See the gallery photos) There were small pools of water on the solid rock dome that had little minnows and water bugs. Pretty weird? We then came back down the rock and hiked a trail that goes all the way around the dome. We had a map and just got lost a little bit. We were able to find our way and return to the main trail. We hiked all the way around the domed peak. We saw lizards, birds, and one non-poisonous snake. We hiked for four miles with about 650 total feet of climbing. We were tired when we got back to our vehicle. We had a picnic dinner and then waited for the sunset, since the rocky mountain is supposed to turn pink when the late afternoon Sun lights it. We waited and it did turn "pinkish," but not a lot. Still fun. After that it was off to the old RV homestead.
Thursday, May 27, 2021 - We had a full day scheduled at the National Museum of the Pacific War located in Fredericksburg, Texas. Turns out the we had a 9:00 AM appointment, so we had to leave about and hour early just to get there. We decided to leave an hour and a half early and stop for a breakfast sandwich on the way. The Pacific War Museum is affiliated with the Smithsonian Museum in Washington and is a fantastic museum. You can go through the entire museum in one day if you hustle and do not read all the material at each exhibit. Two days would be much better. This great museum will lead you through a meticulous, well-though-out history of World War II in the Pacific, and what led up to the conflict with Japan. It also relays, in detail, the events occurring in China and North Korea that lead up to the rise of Japan as a nationalistic, military power. Lots of great artifacts, videos, and display boards with info about each individual action of the war in the order in which they occurred. You learn about the leaders and the decisions that they had to make to get the most out of each battle of the war. You also get to see the soldiers, sailors, and airman in battle action during the engagements. The sacrifice is simply amazing. The leadership made the tough decisions and the troops carried out the tasks. (See the photo gallery on this museum)
At noon, we took a little walk to Main Street and ate lunch at the Cultures Bar and Grill. This restaurant has outdoor seating and a menu that has food from American, Mexican, and German cultures. The food was great. After lunch, we went back to the museum to continue the tour.
We spent the rest of the day (until 4:30) walking through the museum and checking out the exhibits. Lisa and I would recommend this museum to any travel looking for something to do in the area and especially if you have any interest in World War II history. It is very thorough and very well done.
There is also a separate museum on the site dedicated to the life of Admiral of the Fleet (five stars) Chester Nimitz, who was in charge of all of the naval forces in the Pacific Theater. He happens to have been born in Fredericksburg and the museum building is and old hotel that was built by his grandfather and passed down to his father. Nimitz had quite a life and you learn all about it at his personal museum. We went through his museum in about 45 minutes.
Friday, May 28, 2021 - We decided to run some errands in the local area. We purchased four new tires for the duellys on the truck. The ones we had on the truck we had purchased before we left Rocklin for the first time, so we ended up with over 85,000 miles on them. The new ones cost over $1300 for four with replacement and road hazard warranty. The truck runs noticeably smoother with the new tires. We then checked out The King is Coming Prayer and Meditation site which is also called the Empty Cross Prayer Garden located right off I-10 in Kerrville. This is a beautiful place for meditation and prayer; the cross is 77 feet tall. The cross is highly visible for miles around since it is located right on top of a hill. The scriptures are provided in the English, Spanish, and German for people to read as they walk the grounds. Darcie Mosier is the volunteer treasurer of this non-profit facility. That is quite a generous dedication of her time to this facility. I talked to Bill at the visitor center and he could not say enough nice things about Darcie and her contribution to this place of worship and faith. The prayer garden is awesome. There are small, flat rocks provided for people to right their prayer on and then these rocks are placed in the garden. It is cool to see so many prayers on the thousands of rocks in the garden.
Saturday, May 29, 2021 - We went out to drive a possible cycling road recommended by Mark and Darcie Mosier that starts right near their home. In fact, we would park our truck in their driveway. The road was called Fall River Road and it was seven miles long and beautiful. We hope to ride this road this coming week. It is a very narrow road, but there is virtually no traffic. After checking out Fall River Road, we drove to Kerrville for lunch at a Mexican restaurant called Mamacita's. It is a big fancy building with a strong Mexican artwork façade. We had driven by it several times so we decided to give it a try. We had to wait for 30-minutes to get a seat. As it turns out, we should have gone somewhere else. The service was very slow and our server disappeared for quite a while. The food was below average with very dry carnitas. The only good news was that, since we shared a meal, it was only $22 for our meal. Sharing a meal (which is the right thing to do for our waistlines) and drinking water only can really cut down the cost of a meal. After Mamacita's, we stopped by the local radio control flying field near Kerrville. It is tucked away right next to a landfill. Seems that most RC fields are associated with dumps. I guess it makes it easier to dispose of the debris after you crash your plane. It can handle 40% scale large models, but I would still be concerned about flying too far to the left or right of the center so as to not create any noise problems. It was Saturday afternoon at about 4:00 pm, so the field was closed and the gate was locked. It is a potentially possible flying field if we were to reside in the area. After visiting the RC field, we drove to a road just north of Kerrville that is recommended as a good road for bicycles riding. Again, it is one lane with very little traffic called McCulloch Road. Open hill country with farms and ranches. It is an excellent road for cycling. Again, we would ride the road out and then turn around and head back to our starting point.
Sunday, May 30, 2021 - We stayed around the RV for the day. We completed some general house cleaning since we had company coming over for a visit at 4:00 in the afternoon. We went for a short walk around the campground after our naps. At 4:00, Howard and Joanie stopped by to visit. They lived in a town called Dripping Springs near Austin, but are now full-time residents of this RV Park. They own their parking spot for the entire year, but will be traveling and just come back for the winter months. They, graciously, allowed the RV park owners to rent out their slot while they are gone; a very generous gesture. We met them at the camp and they are just starting out as full-time RVers, so they wanted to tap our minds on where to go and how to plan routes. They are super-nice and very excited about getting out on the road. They are heading for Wyoming and South Dakota with potential stops in southern Utah too. They have a beautiful Discovery Class-A RV that pulls their full size pickup truck; a super setup. Howard is a retired attorney who spent some time in the military as a Judge Advocate General (JAG) attorney. Joanie is a teacher. She taught Spanish since she was born in Puerto Rico and grew up in Mexico. She also is an excellent Salsa dancer. She taught her students to dance and they loved it.
Monday, May31 -2021 (Memorial Day) - We worked around the trailer in the early part of the day and then went to Starbuck's to use their WiFi for upload of blog materials and to upload photos and videos to the OneDrive (MicroSoft Cloud). Seems like even the Starbuck's WiFi is pretty slow.
We then drove to Luckenback, Texas to check out the city. We had heard the Willie Nelson song so many times that we thought we should see the town. When we arrived in Luckenback, we saw a dirt parking lot on our left with a whole lot of cars and motorcycles, so we decided to drive into the lot to see what was going on? We thought it might be a flea market. Turns out that this was the entirety of Luckenback, Texas. Luckenback consists of a small post office, dance hall, beer hall, performance stage, food service building, and a bunch of picnic tables out in the open for seating. Luckenback is not really a town. It is a destination. I would say that the entire area covers about 20 acres. They had lots of people eating, live music, and people visiting the gift shop. It really turned out to be a fun location with lots of friendly people out for the Memorial Day holiday.
After we left Luckenback, we headed for the incredibly small town of Albert where Karen Alley lives. Karen is my daughters mother-in-law and her son is Shaun Alley. Karen mentioned that I should inform Shaun that the lawn needs mowing at the house, so he needs to make another trip to the hill country (lol). Shaun takes Ella, Tyler, and Ava to the ranch fairly frequently. They love to fish in the lake and hunt on the land. Ty shot a deer on his last trip to Albert. Karen lives on a beautiful, 400-acre ranch out in the middle of the Texas Hill Country. It is about 30 miles east of Fredericksburg. Be sure to see the photo gallery and video that we created about Karen and her ranch. Here home sets on the top of a hill, so she has fantastic 360 degree views of the hill country. Her cousin Ken was there and he took us on a drive through the ranch in their Kawasaki Mule off road vehicle. We saw the entire ranch including lakes and hunting blinds. Ken is a wonderful, friendly person who lost his wife of over forty years a few years back. He has just recently remarried and is extremely happy. He, too, has a ranch north of Kerrville and he rebuilds and sells vintage cars. We also had a chance to take some drone photos and videos of Karen's ranch. Karen drove us down the hell a ways to the north to the old home where she was raised. It has been remodeled and is an awesome house. We saw where she grew up and learned about the history of the home. At one time, it was a stagecoach stop and part of the home is the original post office of the stagecoach stop that was built in 1883. It has a small but cozy cellar that was at one time use to put up annual preserves for food. Outside are the original barns and corrals for the stagecoach stop. You can even see the troughs where the horses that pulled the stages were fed. While there, we also met a gentleman name Matt who is Karen's nephew. He has just graduated from college and is preparing for a religious mission that sounds exciting. Good luck to Matt. We then returned to Karen's home where she provided a great BBQ pork dinner that was totally awesome. Pork, bread, fruit, vegetables, and more. It was great and there was still coconut-cream pie for dessert. While we were eating dinner, Matt texted Karen with a photo of a cotton-mouth snake that he had just killed near the stream beside her old home. It was a pretty large one. We have a photo on the blog. I must credit Matt too; he killed the snake with a handgun and the shot was perfectly placed. Well done. After a great dinner, we headed back to our rig to avoid some potential thunderstorms in the area.
Tuesday, June 1, 2021 - A down day. We relax around the RV in the morning and then head to town for a couple activities. We went to Bishop's Hardware which is a store with just about everything you could imagine in the store; even lots of "old-fashioned" stuff. We then took another drive to look at a couple possible biking roads in the local area. Nice roads, but short.
Wednesday, June 2, 2021 - We have an appointment to get a front-end alignment for the F-350. We arrived at 10:30, but it was an hour before they put the truck on the rack. They did a great job on the alignment. It is interesting how much cheaper it is to get work done in Texas than in California. Cost of an alignment for the F-350 in Kerrville is $59. In El Paso, Texas; $89. In Roseville, California; $199.
After the alignment, Lisa and I drove to Mark and Darcie's house to spend some time with them. We have been so blessed to meet Mark and Darcie. They are active in the community as volunteers in so many things. They travel around the world to help people in need with dental work as an independent dentist in programs similar to Dentists Without Borders, but Mark works primarily through contacts in the countries or through church-based ministries. What a fantastic gift to the people in those countries. Mark owns a small airplane and offers his services to help people through the "Angel Flight" program. Nearly every other day he flies people around the country to obtain needed medical assistance. Again, a labor of love. They drove us all around the community to look at homes and gave us tremendous insight into what it is like to live in the Hill Country near Kerrville. We then went to dinner in the small town of Comfort, Texas. The drive was beautiful with open fields and lot of animals. We went for a short hike along an old railroad track right-of-way. There is a train tunnel that is no longer used but is full of bats. They come out in the evening and it is fun to watch. We then went to a popular restaurant in Comfort and had a great dinner and conversation. We then went for a walk around the town. Lots of history in this town. Comfort is a beautiful small town with great dining options. It is also the home to the only Civil War monument in Texas dedicated to those persons who supported the Union (North) during the war. These German-Texans were massacred at the 1862 battle of Nueces. Thirty-four were killed and several more were executed. Most of the dead are buried at the site of the monument. This was the first monument authorized to fly the Stars-and-Stripes at half-mast in perpetuity. Interesting history. Mark and Darcie are wonderful, friendly people who we are blessed to have met. Thanks to Christine Mosier for putting us together.
Thursday, June 3, 2021 - This is the day we planned to ride bikes regardless of the threat of bad weather. Unfortunately, at about 6:00 am, it began to pour down rain. Rained hard until 10:00 and we decided to change plans. I am now at Starbuck's uploading media to the cloud so that I can finish all the videos that I have started. Sort of a fun "labor of love" on a rainy day like this.
Friday, June 4, 2021 - We went on a four-mile hike at a nice park that is just on the outskirts of Kerrville. This was a great recommendation from Mark and Darcie Mosier. Trails were flat and what I would classify as easy. There was a little climbing here and there. Turns out the Mark and Darcie have worked in this park as volunteers to make sure that the trails are clean and properly marked.
Saturday, June 5, 2021 - The day started out cloudy, but the threat of rain was low. At about 10:00 the clouds began to separate and sunlight began to shine through. We decided to take a chance and drive to the Willow City Loop bicycle ride and ride our bikes. We drove to Fredericksburg which was having a bid farmer's market in the central park. There were people everywhere and we decided to take a little bypass around the traffic. We then drove to Willow City. We left our truck parked along the road in front of their local hardware store. The ride was awesome. The clouds were gorgeous and there were not that many cars on the road. The first five miles was more downhill than uphill; that meant a climb to get back. At one point we crested a ridge and looked down into a very pretty river valley. We dropped down into the valley and continued the drive. We crossed one section where the road dipped down into a ravine and the river crossed the road. The water flowed over the road at a depth of about four inches. After we crossed, we talked to an extremely nice young man who was parked on the other side. As we did this we noticed a large snake playing in the water on the top of the bridge. We think it was a cotton-mouth; it was black and liked the water. Since we had a dinner engagement at 5:00 pm, we had to turn around at the ten-mile point and head back. As it turned out, the return trip had a fairly long section of 14% grade as we climbed out of the canyon. That kind of hurt, but I made it. Lisa zipped right up the hill and she was nice to wait for me at the top.
When we arrive home, we prepped for our dinner engagement with Norman and Joni Jones. The are relatively new full-time RVers who have become great friends. They are preparing for a trip of several months on the road. We went to a highly recommended restaurant called Bridget's Pantry. The food was awesome and the ambiance was excellent too. We had a great meal and great conversation for a couple hours. Norman and Joni are heading back to their home in Dripping Springs, Texas before they head out on their trip. We hope to see them on the road during our journeys this year.