Yet Another Week in Kerrville

First of all, I have to give a shout out to one of our readers. Happy belated birthday, Vena!! And Happy Anniversary, Dee & Jim!!

I can't believe another week has gone by. We've done nothing this week except the normal things that everybody else does. Laundry, grocery shopping, cleaning. We've been stocking up on cash too in preparation for our leaving here on Wednesday. We always try to have a good supply of cash when we're traveling. The truck stops give a discount for fuel when you're paying with cash. Back when we were paying over four dollars a gallon for diesel that was a really big deal. Diesel has been creeping up here too. We paid as little as $1.87 when we got here and now it's up to $2.15 in some places. Still not bad but we sure did like paying under two dollars a gallon!

The laundromat in town is really nice. It's one of those with an attendant and they also do dry cleaning. There was a woman there with a whiny kid so after I put the clothes in the dryers we went to Culver's to have lunch. Of course Rod had to have his ice cream. After lunch we went back to the laundromat and the clothes were all done. We got them all folded and put in the truck and decided to venture across the Guadalupe River to find the city park that we had heard about. What a nice park!! I wish we could have spent some time staying there. Most of the sites are water and electric but there are some that also have sewer hookups.

Our weather has been typical of Texas, or so I've heard. Really nice for a few days, then really COLD for a few days. We even had some thunder, lightening and rain. Some places around here got baseball sized hail but thankfully, we didn't get that part.

We've been spending some time just hanging out with Chuck, Kathy, Donna & Nolan. Our Happy Hours don't involve food and our potlucks have been limited to only three dishes and NO dessert. Donna & Nolan left yesterday for some antique thing in east Texas and then home to Missouri. Safe travels guys, we'll miss you.

Thursday we went to the Bank of Albertson's. LOL, it's really just the grocery store but we can use our debit cards to get cash back. We also went looking for a liquor store because since we're leaving Texas soon we wanted to stock up on that too. On the way back from the liquor store Rod spotted a barbecue place called Bill's. They had these huge smokers in the area that I guess used to be their picnic area. We went inside and the guy at the counter let us sample every single thing they had for sale. Well, you know what that meant. Yep, we had to buy everything we sampled. We got a pound each of turkey, brisket, baby back ribs, sausage, pork, beans, pickles, onions (for Rod) and a bottle of their sauce.


The picnic area with the smokers


So, that's all that's been going on this week. Wednesday morning (HA HA) we'll be on the road to Balmorhea, Texas for the night and then on to Carlsbad, New Mexico for a few days of exploring the caverns and Roswell. I'm really excited to see both of those places.

Luckenbach and Fredericksburg, Texas

The day started with Rod finishing up replacing the bathroom fan. He did such a good job on it and it looks pretty good. Better yet, it works!!



Around noon all six of us piled into Chuck & Kathy's truck and headed for Luckenbach where we were meeting up with Bob & Molly for the day. Luckenbach is just a tiny little town that was made famous by Willie Nelson singing about it. Well, yesterday they were having a "festival". They were celebrating the return of the mud dawber. Why they would celebrate the return of a wasp I have no idea. The town consists of a dance hall, a general store with the post office and a bar. The parking lot is bigger than the town. LOL

The sign says population 3 but the guy in the store said it's really only 1 now


The Store & Post Office


The Bar


The Dance Hall


I don't know why but this guy brought his bull to take pictures with


Molly & Bob


Chuck & Kathy


Donna & Nolan

We left the "town loop" and headed for Uptown Luckenbach where we were looking for Monroe. He etches on granite and glass and advertises that he draws the fastest armadillo ever seen. He wasn't there but he leaves his doors unlocked and his gift shop is on the honor system. Unbelievable. He did leave a note saying that he was at the Fredericksburg Trade Days so off we went to find him.


Molly wanted this ornament so she dutifully deposited her money in the pipe. By the way, if you want to see any picture bigger just click on it.


We found the Fredericksburg Trade Days flea market and went on our search for Monroe. We all had brought beer bottles with us for him to etch. We found him!!


This place was a HUGE flea market with LOTS and LOTS of junk! And I do mean junk. There were some barns that had some nice things along with jams, jellies and dips. We sampled quite a few so you know what that means? Yep, we had to buy all the ones that Rod sampled.

Rows and rows of junk


And I do mean JUNK


From there we had to fortify ourselves for the ride home so on to town and the Auslander restaurant for some good German food.



I had jagerschnitzel, spatzel and potato pancakes. I had leftovers for lunch

Thanksgiving in March??

Yesterday we loaded up the truck with Chuck & Kathy, chairs, food and jackets for our trip down to Boerne to have Thanksgiving dinner with Bob & Molly. They are with a group of people who are all members of the Escapees RV Club and sold their houses and went on the road fulltime in 2007. Since that also includes us we became official members too!

Bob deep fried 3 whole turkeys and 5 turkey "boobs" (as Molly calls them). Boy were they tasty. Of course all the Thanksgiving sides were there too. I wrote in a previous blog that this is not my favorites of holiday foods (except for the turkey)but there were plenty of things to choose from.

The Spread


I made a big batch of ceviche for Happy Hour and when I got there I found out they were actually having a competition for the best appetizer. Guess what?? I won!! WOOO HOOO. Since it was a vote by everybody there that really made me feel very proud of my dish. A lot of people had put the recipes for their dishes on the table. I didn't know they were going to do that either so they made me stand up and recite my recipe. LOL In case your interested, here's the recipe:

Ceviche

1 pound firm white fish cut into bite sized pieces
1 medium sweet onion, diced
The juice of about 6 limes
3 roma tomatoes diced
1/2 bunch of cilantro chopped fine
Salt & pepper to taste
Hot sauce (I use Texas Pete since I'm in Texas but you can use Tobasco too)

Combine fish and onion with lime juice to cover completely and refrigerate overnight. After marinating overnight add tomatoes, cilantro and hot sauce. I like to serve with Tostitos Scoops because they are like a little bowl. Enjoy


There were a lot of choices for appetizers


After dinner we had a brown bag auction. Everybody brings something from their rig valued at $5 or more that they no longer want in a brown paper bag. Everybody picks a number and when it's called you go up and claim a bag. After looking at your "prize" you can either keep it or trade it for something else that has already been chosen. Your "prize" becomes protected after being traded twice. I ended up with number 33, which was the last number. Not so good since if mine is taken I end up with whatever I get. I ended up with some sort of Rubick's cube and Rod got a beer cheese assortment on a dart board. It's okay and it was a lot of fun watching people trading their "prizes".

Rod's cheese assortment dart board

11th Street Cowboy Bar

Yesterday Chuck and Kathy picked us up at 2:00 for our trip to Bandera. They have some friends who are staying in a RV Park there called Lake Medina RV Resort. He wasn't quite sure where it was and he had told them we would be there around 3:00. The campground was quite a ways away and we ended up getting there at 3:30. We really loved the campground and are thinking that maybe we'll be spending a month there next year. The road getting there is pretty iffy though. Lots of steep grades and twisting roads. Oh well, lots of other people have made it in. The lake is really low though due to the severe drought Texas is having right now.

We were all planning on going to the 11th Street Cowboy Bar for dinner. On Wednesday nights between 6:00 and 10:00 they have charcoal grills that you cook whatever meat you bring with you. For $4.00 you can purchase your sides. The sides included salad, mashed potatoes, beans and bread. The only bad thing is that they don't tell you to bring your own steak knives. The flatwear was plastic! Luckily our steaks were pretty well marinated and easy to cut. There was also a Country & Western band playing but it wasn't too loud. Some people were even out dancing. I'm not into C&W at all but it was fun being around all the cowboy people. Everybody calls you "ma'am" and they tip their hat.

Another interesting thing about this bar is the bras that are attached to the walls and ceiling. Yes, I did say BRAS! Big ones, little ones, medium sized ones. LOTS of bras! I really don't know what the significance of it is. Must just be a "guy thing".

The guys are discussing the correct way to cook a steak


Jimmy's got some pretty big steaks there


The ceiling inside the bar


One of the bigger ones


Part of the dining area


The band


A "real" cowboy? This one is for Janet


People dancing


Today we're heading to Boerne with Chuck & Kathy again to visit Bob & Molly for the Thanksgiving dinner. Should be another really fun day!

Another Week in Kerrville

Well, most of our friends have left us here in Kerrville. The only ones left are Chuck & Kathy, Donna & Nolan and us. We sure do miss everybody but we've been having a good time anyway. We're having warm weather, people we like are still around and we're still in our RV so what's not to like?

Before everybody left we went to Mr Gatti's for a pizza buffet. The food was okay but the restaurant itself wasn't all that clean. The tables were really sticky and when I picked up my purse which I had stowed under the table the bottom was all wet. Ewwwwwww


The "Gang"


We also had a get together at John & Brenda's motorhome one night but I neglected to take any pictures. That was after another one of our potlucks where we finally got to sample Brenda's AWESOME peanut butter pie. Boy was that yummy! We got together with Rollie & Gina on their last night as Gina has been know to also make some awesome pies. We got to sample her strawberry pie one night and she mentioned she makes a chocolate pie. Well, we had no shame in asking her to make that either.


How come Arlene keeps showing up in my pictures?? LOL


We're SO glad we got to meet all these great people but we sure were sad to see everybody leave. I'm glad everybody made it home or wherever else they were going.

We've been having problems with our TV in the bedroom lately. Sometimes it would work and other times not at all. It finally quit altogether. We headed out to Walmart to pick up a new one but they didn't have anything that we liked so we decided to head to San Antonio to Best Buy. First we had to drop off our propane tank back at our rig. On our way back to the rig Bob (of Bob & Molly) called. They had moved to another park in Boerne and had invited us to Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday. I have no idea why their group was having Thanksgiving in March but, hey, it's another potluck, right? We had mentioned we still had a 12 pound turkey in our freezer and would happily contribute it. Bob was wanting to come by and pick it up but we told him we were going to be passing right by and would drop it off. He then invited us to a baked potato potluck later that evening. Well, we certainly couldn't pass that up and it would give us a chance to see them again. What fun!

Here's my potato


Our Hosts Molly & Bob (they have this thing about wearing name tags)



We found the TV we wanted and also a DVD player for Ashton & Reilly when they come over.

Tonight we're going to dinner with Chuck & Kathy in Bandera. There's this place there called the 11th Street Cowboy Bar. On Wednesdays you bring your own meat to grill and pay $4 for your sides. Sounds really fun and I'll let you know another day how it was.

Still in Kerrville, Texas

Okay, okay I know it's time for an update. We've been in Kerrville for almost two weeks and I've only updated once. We've just been so busy with all the people who are here. Some of our friends have already left and we sure do miss them but I know they're having a good time wherever they are. In fact, next week we're going to invade Bob & Molly's campground for a visit. They left us on Monday to join their group of friends down the road in Boerne. Keith & Donna left us last week as did Jim & Ellie and Glenn & Sylvia. If you click on any of those names you can read their versions of the time we've been having. Some people update every single day but not me. I need to be in the mood to write and it doesn't come easy for me. In fact, as I'm writing this I need to go and fix breakfast. I thought it would be nice to have a hot breakfast today since it's only 38 degrees outside right now. Pancakes, eggs & bacon are on the menu this morning.

Okay, back to the update. Last Wednesday we went to a German restaurant in Fredricksburg called Altdorf. The owner of the restaurant looked at the name and came up with a new one when he scrambled the letters. This is what he came up with. That's Bob, Keith, Chuck, Kevin, Mac & Rod. I think the name fits.


Here's the whole gang that went to lunch


After that we headed to Opa's Smokehouse where we purchased some German sausages. Rod can NEVER say no to something once he gets to sample it so we came home with four packages of a variety of sausages.



The next pictures are of the various potlucks and Happy Hours that we've had every single day since we've been here.




Mac on the "barbie"


Turnabout is fair play, Bob


Tuesday was Brenda's birthday and she had mentioned she has NEVER had a birthday party before. Well, we certainly didn't need a reason to go out and party but it was really great to be able to help her celebrate. We all met at Mamacita's Mexican Restaurant. Apparently Brenda "celebrated" a little too much the day before and wasn't in the mood for anymore alcohol. That's okay, a good time was had by the rest of us.


Well, except for Dortha & Mark who didn't get their food. Don't they look sad?


Since Brenda wasn't drinking she wasn't real excited about wearing the obligatory Birthday Hat


But she did love her cake


And Joe (Speedy) was very happy to wear it


Brenda is Canadian and has had issues with Canadian Customs about the amount of butter she brings back so we gave her all the butter on the table to take home


John & Brenda

Yesterday Mac & Netters were going to Camping World in New Braunfels so we tagged along to see if we could find a fan for the bathroom. Not only did we find a fan but we found a much better fan. Now we'll just have to wait and see how long it takes Rod to install it. Actually, I think he and Mac are going to tackle it on Friday if it doesn't rain. (Boy did we get the rain yesterday.) Since Mac & Netters had never been to San Antonio we stopped there on the way back home for a stroll down the Riverwalk, some barbecue and a side trip to the Alamo. We didn't do the river cruise as it was only in the 40's. We had a great time and couldn't believe it when we got back to the truck and found out it was after 6:00!! We got back to the campground at about 7:30 last night.

Today is another day out to dinner. This time we're doing Italian at Mr Gatti's. It's supposed to be cold here for the rest of the week so I guess we won't be going out doing a whole lot. Maybe we'll take this time to go visiting our friends who are here and also stuck inside because of the cold.