A Rose Among The Thorns

This morning the sun came out once again, along with the 30mph winds, so we headed off 16 miles out of town to the Hidden Springs golf course.  We assumed this course never gets played because there are never any cars in the parking lot.  Today they showed up.  We were behind a threesome, who were behind a fivesome, who were behind another fivesome (all very old, slow women).  Since we kept catching up with the 3 guys, and they kept inviting us to join then, we finally did on the 4th hole.  Steve, Alan, and Jeff are friends from Dallas on one of their many golf trips. 

I'm always leary of joining with guys because lots of them just don't like golfing with women.  Steve and Jeff were ok (20 & 30 somethings) while Alan (probably mid-50s) didn't seem real pleased that Jeff had asked us to play along.  Our golf games were much better than Friday's round, and we ended up wow-ing them.  Of course, in their defense, they had never played this course before.  Friday's round took 5 hours, and so did today's.  Way too long, and I'm beat. 

We headed back to the Fredericksburg Brewery for an early dinner.  Pam and Dennis had raved about the burger so I ordered it which Mark ordered some German pork chop schnitzel dinner.  Both were delicious.  Mine was gigantic!

I took off the bottom bun, along with the tomatoes, lettuce, and onion to make it manageable to eat. 

Tomorrow we're going to start packing up the trailer to start making our way home.  We're tired of the never-ending wind.  God willing, we'll be back some time on Friday.  It's been a wonderful winter, but we're ready to get home to family and friends - we miss everyone.

Open Range

This park is really different, or maybe it's because we're here when all the Winter Texans have already left.  No one is out and about, even though the weather has been wonderful (until today).  People are either out and about looking at all the spectacular wildflowers, or inside their RVs.  It's really kinda boring here, so we're not sure how long we'll be staying.

Yesterday we lounged about for quite a while before heading onto Main Street.  It was mobbed, but we managed to find our way to Ramblin' Robs to sample a few things.  Around 1:00pm John and Pat, friends from Victoria, showed up for a couple of hours.  It was great seeing them as they left Victoria several weeks before us, and are now staying about 25 miles away. 

We then spent the rest of the day, like the rest of the park, watching the Masters. 

Today it was cool, dreary, and finally misty, especially when I was trying to grill dinner.  We headed to the Willow City Loop which showcases all the wonderful wildflowers.  Since the road goes through numerous ranches on private property, signs are posted everywhere to keep on the road, no trespassing, "we don't call 911, we just shoot you", everyone stops to take pictures.  Pictures just don't do it justice.

The blue ones are bluebonnets, the white ones are white prickly poppies, and the yellow ones are groundsel.

There are acres and acres of these flowers.

Hill Country at its finest.  You can't tell from this picture, but these bluebonnets are everywhere on all of these hills.  No wonder people come from all over the country to see.

                                    

Since we've been driving around this city, we come across cattle gates in the middle of the roads with signs, "caution - roaming cattle".  Today for the first time, we finally came across some of these cattle, right next to the road.  The ranch roads are just that - public roads going through private ranches that don't want to put up fences.

Again, like everyone else in the park, we watched the Masters this afternoon, finally leaving the trailer at 6pm to walk around the park.

A River Runs Through It

Thursday we had to go back to Luckenbach.  The tee shirt I bought on Wednesday was too small, plus now Mark wanted one as well.  We waited until noon before heading to this bizarre town.  There were 20 people there this time.

We decided to drive 20 miles out of town to the Double B Ranch which houses the Hidden Springs golf course, as well as one of those hunting lodges where you pay to hunt big game. 

How strange - yet another stonehenge wannabe in the middle of a field.  The guy in the pro shop told us the owner was bored while he was recovering from some surgery, so he made this with the help of his tractor while recovering.

There were only 2 golfers on the course when we arrived, and the guy working inside told us to take a cart and drive around to see if we liked what we saw.  It was very cold outside so we only saw the first four holes before making a 10:30a tee time for Monday morning; surely that would give the sore elbow the needed rest. 

We got back to the park in time to do some laundry and watch most of the golf.  I'm so happy Tiger's back! 

This morning we woke up with no plans, not really wanting to go back into town as it's getting crowded again for the weekend.  Mark deemed the elbow ok to golf, so he called the same course we visited yesterday, and we headed off to try it out.

A different man in the pro shop today told us to plan on hitting in the 100s, and to plan on losing LOTS of balls - "you must stay in the fairway at all times."  Yeah, right - not even the pros can do that.  The fairways are very narrow, and once you get off the fairway, it's nothing but rocks, cacti, trees, trees,trees (and I suspect, a bunch of snakes).  

 

A couple of alpacas watching us at the end of the first fairway.  I hope they weren't part of the wildgame hunting on the property.

This was the most bizarre course we have ever played on.  The first nine was all these ups and downs, strange layouts, blind shots, etc. The greens were very hard and fast. However, the surroundings were spectacular.  The Pedernales River runs through the course, and you are either crossing it or playing along side it for most of the holes.

The river is crystal clear, and is dammed up every so often - I guess you could never float this one.

I'm happy to report that even though we each lost four balls, we also found at least 15.  We threw them into the bags so we have them for Monday's game.  Our scores also weren't as bad as we had been warned - Mark 93; me 113.  Here's hoping for improvement on Monday.

More of the scenic Pedernales River on our way out of the compound.

Rocking The Day Away

Today we're giving Mark's sore elbow a rest.  No trips into town for fear that someone would bump into him.  Instead we spent the day driving around to different tourist sights.  Our first stop this morning was to Luckenbach.  It was nothing like what we expected, considering they always advertise as the place for concerts all year long, plus it's where "Waylon, Willie, and the boys play".  It's out in the middle of nowhere and quite small. In fact, the population is 3. 

The post office is actually a small saloon and a souvenir shop.  As it was 10:00 this morning, we opted for no alcohol but I did get a tee shirt. 

We were the only tourists here even though they had been open for an hour.  They have parking for thousands and probably fill up on the weekends when big groups come in.  The only other building is an old barn with a stage and lots of benches.    

Our next stop was the Wildseed Farm which is just a very large garden shop with lots of very expensive items -- $100 squirrel proof bird feeder, $250 ceramic flower pots, etc.  There was even a rack of "sale" clothing, advertising "the most comfortable jeans you will ever find" for women.  A mere $189 would have gotten me one of those.  The shop also sells lots of different wildflower seeds, unfortunately none were suited for the midwest.

Our next destination was the Enchanted Rock to see what the excitement about the place was all about.  It was located about 20 miles down a "Ranch Road".  Texas has Farm roads, Farm to Market roads, and now we've seen a Ranch road. 

This view is from the bottom of the Summit Trail. 

It didn't look too high, so armed with Chapstick, camera, and one bottle of Diet Coke, we headed up the rock.  It's really only .6 miles up to the summit, and took us a mere 25 minutes to get there, stopping 4 times along the way.  

The view was breathtaking once we got to the top.

It was very windy so we only stayed on top the rock for a few minutes.  The trek down the hill was much harder than going up.  We had to take baby steps so we wouldn't fall and just keep rolling off the darn thing. 

It's hard to believe we paid $12 to try to have a heart attack climbing something that was very steep to us. 

To treat ourselves for such a cardio workout, we headed to Mr. Gatti's - an all you can eat pizza joint!  Can't lose too much weight in a day.

Maybe It's Bursitus?

Monday morning we headed to town to visit the National Museum of the Pacific War.  Mark had been looking forward to this visit for the past couple of months and wasn't disappointed.  When we arrived the guy who took our money told us it would take from 4 to 6 hours to go through it.  I was never big on history, but this was very interesting.  Unfortunately, we decided it was way too much info to cram in, and we were only there for 3 hours.

We were starving by the time we left so we headed right to Ramblin Robs to sample more of our favorites.  I think the fudge lady recognized me from the previous 4 times we had been there.  We didn't want to fill up since we knew we were joining our friends for a going away happy hour at Pat and Mervs at 4pm with lots of snacks.  Jane and Don started their long trip back to Custer, SD this morning. 

After visiting the Stetson store 3 days in a row, he finally got it.  (Thanks Duke for winning!)

Today Mike and Pam and Pam's mom Angie drove up so we could golf with Mike.  It was a perfect day for golf, even with the 35mph winds.  It's always interesting playing a course we've never seen.  Mark had a rough time - he woke up at 4am with his left elbow swollen and full of fluid.  He iced it down and loaded up with Tylenol before heading to the Lady Bird Johnson golf course.

Mark and Mike on one of the tee boxes.  We could see for miles on this course.  The grass was actually green and growing also; something we haven't seen all winter.

The five of us headed to the Fredericksburg Brewing Company for dinner.  Since it's a German town, I had to do the rueben while Mark had the meatloaf with sauerkraut and mashed potatoes.  It was delicious!

Giving It A Scratch

Saturday we once again headed into town.  It was absolutely mobbed!  Hopefully the crowds will thin out tomorrow.  We went to the far end of Main Street to the Pioneer Museum.  There were 7 buildings - a house which  reminded me a lot of my grandparents' house in Des Peres, especially the basement, a blacksmith shop, and a few other miscellaneous buildings.  One had this collection:

Who knew there were so many different kinds of barbed wire.

                        

         This reminded us of the old welding shop on Manchester Road.

This plaque was on a building farther into town.  Missouri native Albert Patton constructed the two story building that housed Citizen Bank from 1897 to 1932. Maybe Mark had a relative we didn't know about.

Even though it was crowded, we headed to Rustler Bob's Goumet TX Food to try more of the dips, etc.  I hope they don't start recognizing us.

We later had happy hour at Don & Jane's trailer.  I can feel the Ard ounces being piled on after all the wonderful snacks we bring to these happy hours.  Sherl brought puff pastry pinwheels stuffed with brie and carmelized onions, and are served warm.  Way too fancy for me to make, but we'll eat them if she brings them.

Happy Easter to all!  We headed into town around 11:00 this morning but at least 90% of the stores were closed on Sunday and/or Easter so we headed back to the park to research how to get to the city of Hunt for the Stonehenge replica.

The drive was very scenic while we drove along the Guadalupe River for several miles.  What a different view of the Guadalupe in Hunt vs. Victoria where it was very muddy.  It was bright greenish/bluish and deep up north.  We weren't sure exactly where we would find this stonehenge - we just knew is was 2 miles down a farm road.  You cross a bridge, round a corner, and there it is, in the middle of an empty field.

It's about two-thirds the size of the original Stonehenge in England, but still quite impressive.

Farther out in the field there are two Easter Island statues.

He had a itch!

Fredericksburg the First Day

Mark had planned on leaving Victoria around 8:30 yesterday morning, even though we only had about a 180-mile drive ahead of us.  Our friends started gathering at our trailer around 8:00a.  We finally got away at 9:05.  At one point there were 14 people gathered - this is why we like this place - all the good friends we've made. 

The drive north was spectacular.  The wildflowers are in full bloom in Texas for the first time in over two years.  You round a corner, or come up to the top of a hill and just see fields of blooming flowers; unfortunately, nowhere to take a picture.  We arrived in Fredericksburg at 1:00pm and got set up in a hurry.  Monte arrived shortly after our arrival to tell us that he and Marlene, Don and Jane, and Norm and Sherl were making dinner for us and Merv and Pat who arrived a couple of hours after we did.  What a nice surprise!  They planned on an outdoor happy hour and dinner but the 40mph winds caused us to move inside the rec room.  It was nice to catch up with these guys since they left the park in Victoria a month ago.

It was raining this morning when we got up so we weren't really in a big hurry to go explore the town.  Around 11:00 we headed into town with maps in hand.  Our first stop was the visitor's center for more maps and brochures to see what we can do during our month's stay.  There are some really cool shops.  It's hard to explain this historic downtown area, about a mile long and two blocks wide, there is just one shop/restaurant after another.  All unique and different from anything we had ever seen before.  Since it's a holiday weekend, the town is crammed full with visitors so we just did a quick run down three or four blocks.  My favorite thus far - and I can't find the name of it, but you go through and sample every single thing they sell - dips, marinades, toppings for cream cheese, pickled veggies, fudge, etc.  I could go back every day and just eat there.

These ladies, plus about 10 more, were handing out candy to every walking along Main Street.

After lunch we decided to find the golf course where we will be playing on Tuesday with Mike from Victoria.  It's in the middle of the Lady Bird Johnson State Park.  I had hooked up the GPS while driving around and wanted to find all the golf in the area.  The closest one said it was 8 miles from the Lady Bird course.  We followed the directions and NEVER found a golf course.  We got on three different roads, and it finally wanted us to turn into someone's dirt driveway.  This is why we don't trust that thing.

We came upon this guy while trying to find the golf.

The first longhorn we've found since being in Texas.

There is one small field right next to this RV park that has these wonderful wildflowers.

One the way back to the park this afternoon we found this great yard art and strange (to us) furniture.  

Mark liked this anatomically correct art work. The asking price was $2500. Too bad we have no where to put it in either the house or RV.

Other than at the grocery store, we spent no money today, except to fill up the gas tank.  Oh my gosh!  We filled up for $2.91 a gallon for diesel.  Just two days ago I filled up for $2.71 in Victoria.  I guess with the holiday, a touristy town, and the stock market, the prices are just going to keep going up.  Hope we have enough $$ to get home!