Bandera TX

      On the Monday the 21^st we left New Braunfels and went to  Holiday Villages of Medina in Bandera TX.  www.banderacowboycapital.com  We went to the Frontier Times Museum. A great small museum.  The curator ask us if we where on vacation. When we told her we where full time Rv’ers she was really excited to talk with us. She took us around the museum, for several hours, and showed us a lot of things we probably would have just passed by. She also suggested  several places to have lunch.  We then visited ST. Stanislaus Catholic Church, the second oldest Polish church in the US. See photo's below.

     Lake Medina is down somewhere between 15 and 25 feet, depends on who you talk with. In the area around the park they are using the lakebed to graze cattle. It’s going to take a lot of rain to fill the lake back up.

     On Wednesday night at the 11^th Street open air   Saloon they have steak night. They set up 4 large grills. You bring your own meat and for $4.00 they provide the tools to cook with, salad, bread, beans and all types of seasonings.  This starts at 6, then at 7 you get live music and dancing. What a great time. It was crowded because there where about 200 members of the Casita travel trailer club there. They where having a rally and wildflower tour in Bandera. We where invited to sit with a super couple from Colorado.  The couple that invited us to join them saw we where looking for a table and wanted to share theirs since it was so crowed.  .

     We went to Tarpley TX to Mac and Ernie’s to eat dinner.  I guess we would describe it as a drive in.  They where featured on “Dinners, Drive ins and Dives on the Food Network. They are also featured in a Travel Channel special about TX to air around the 20^th of May, and the Dinners, Drive ins and Dives cookbook coming out in Oct. See photo’s as a picture is worth a 1000 words.  They are located out in the middle of nowhere. Their “T” shirts tell it all, as they say “Centrally Isolated”.  The food was great. While we were eating about 20 Porsches pulled in. They were on a tour of the Hill Country

      After a very filling dinner we went to the Twin Elms Rodeo. This is a local small time rodeo with the local cowboys.   It seems like almost everybody knew one another, and it was guest ranch against guest ranch and local ranchers. Not a lot of big prize money, just the bragging rights till next Friday night.

      On sat. we went to the “Ranch Heritage  Weekend” at the Hill Country State Natural Area.  They said it was a BYOH. What’s that?  Well it’s” bring your own horse” partner.  It was a fun day of dude ranch wrangler rodeo, trick ropers, drill team horse events, cowboy songs and  poetry.  A very different type of rodeo. The wranglers competed in ranch type events.  We really enjoyed  the day.  On Monday we leave for Ingram TX and Johnson Creek RV Resort. We spent 4 months there in 06.   If you ask a cowboy what time it is, he may reply its “beerthirty”.  SEE all the photo’s below. 12 new post below. Also Check in some of the older post, they did not load at the same time and went to the archives.

Ranch Heritage

Saddle up, drill team, hill country
Cowboy songs and peotry

Linda's new pet

This guy is really big and tame.

The Rodeo on friday night

Mac and Earnie's of Food Network fame

Place your order and choose your seating area. The car club arrived.

Casita trailers

140 of these at a rally in Bandera.

Texas Longhorns

My horns are bigger then yours.

Eleventh Street Saloon steak night

      

Cooking the steaks. The couple we had dinner with. The band and dance floor.

Tied the record

Did I mention how the weather seems to go to extremes for us. Tied the record for April 22nd.

Wildlife

Jack rabbit. Unusual flower. Many Cardinals at the Catholic Church.

ST Stanislaus Catholic church

Bandera Frontier Museum 4-2009

This is the great little Frontier Museum

Park in Bandera TX 4-2009

The lonely road to our RV Park. The site with pool in background. We had the place to ourselves. The dried up lake bed, cattle way in the back of photo. Very Very dark at night, a super night sky with no light pollution. 

Summit Vecation Resort

The bridge over the river to the resort. Our site. We usually see yellow cactus, this is our first orange one.

Wow! Did you hear that. There they are. They are 2 to 3 foot tall and run on 2 legs and make loud noises. Get your camera. Woo partner. They are kids and that’s me yelling get your camera. We haven’t seen any in a RV Park for a very long time. Sure brings back memories of 30-40 years ago.  Never really bothered me then. A few years sure makes a difference.                                     On Friday we had a visit from Bud and Ginger Sly. They where park host at Pine Hill RV Park (what we call our home park when in back in PA) for 4 years. They where in Huston and paid us a visit. We talked about old times and had a nice dinner. Then they had to get back to Sassy, their cute dog.                                                                                                                                                Arrived at Summit Vacation Resort at New Braunfels TX. on the 13^th.  Friends and fellow  Escapees  Taree and Victor Schrubb where in the area.  Small world.  We had a super dinner that they prepared for us, at their RV Park in San Marcos. Two days latter we had dinner at our park. On Saturday night we went with them to a super Chuck wagon supper and Cowboy Music show.   A great chuck wagon dinner of Texas BBQ smoked beef brisket and cowboy vittles.  The show was the English Brothers.  What a SUPER show.  They played many of the old west songs like Ghost Riders In The Sky. Did I say super. Maybe sitting in the front row helped.  www.canyontrailchuckwagon.com                                                                                                                      On Sunday we went to Gruene. Famous for  the oldest dance hall in TX. The town was full of weekend tourist. The dance hall was bopping. Had a Shinner Bock for our friend Ed, who with his wife Vivian spent time here with us 3 years ago, and enjoyed the beer and the town.  See photos below.

April 19 Gruene TX

Gruene TX, the oldest dance hall. Note the impressive decor.

April 2009-Elk Ranch

Some big elk at an "Elk Ranch" in TX

April 2009-Chuck Wagon Dinner Show

The super English brothers at the chuck wagon dinner show.

April 2009

A gathering of Corbras at a 50's stlyle dinner at the Brenham Airport. The girls all wore poodle skirts. The dinner had an old jutbox and chorme chairs and tables motif of the 50's.

Happy Easter from Texas

Happy Easter from Texas. Hope you enjoy the flowers.

A few things we skipped in our last update. We met David and Penne Morton. They sat at our table at the 4 o’clock social. Linda recognized then from one of the rallies we attended in Wooster Ohio 2 years previous. It so happens they are going to Alaska this year. So we exchanged emails and phone numbers and hope to meet up on the road. We also met Mark and Nancy Vojtek our adopted kids from Chapter 36. They where working serving dinner at the C.A.R.E Center. They volunteered for a month at C.A.R.E. We also met Lee and Marsha Squires who volunteered when we did. What a small world. Received a few emails asking what C.A.R.E. stands for. It is Continuing Assistance's for Retired Escapees. See at http://www.escapeescare.org/


On the 6th we left Livingston and arrived at Somerville Lake and the Corp of Engineers Yegua Creek RV Park. We got a waterfront site. It was the only non- reserveable site left. It turned out to be a super site. But as usual bad weather follows us. We had 20-30 mph winds The Lake looked like the ocean with white-capped waves. They that night they set a record low of 26. The next day it was 78. Its been 75-85 the passed couple of days.

On Tuesday we toured the Blue Bell Creameries in Brenham. http://www.bluebell.com/ It was a great tour and we did get to sample ice cream at the end. They are the number 3 producer of ice cream in the US. Next we went to the Burton Cotton Gin and Museum, http://www.cottonginmuseum.org/ . It is the oldest operating Gin in America. What a fascinating and educational presentation. The US is number 3 in cotton production and Texas is the number one state for growing cotton. China and India are 1 and 2. So much of the cotton grown here is shipped over seas to make the shirts and jeans we wear. Dosen’t that make you fell all warm and fuzzy about buying imports? The motor was build in PA. Thats a 500 pound bale. See what can be made from that bale.

The Cotton Gin

The Wildflowers are just spectacular. Everywhere you drive in the area they are at their height of bloom. This is the second time we saw the wildflowers of TX and its great.
On Wednesday we went to College Station TX to tour the George Bush Presidential Library and Museum. http://bushlibrary.tamu.edu/ That’s George H.. It is at Texas A&M University.
The campus of TX A&M is over 5000 acres, plus many acres of research outside of town. They have about 48000 students and 2800 faculty members. Its a large college.




George Bushes office at Camp David. The situation room.













Kyle Stadium at Texas A&M

We then went to Independence. http://www.independencetx.com/ This is the original site of Baylor College, now Baylor University in Waco TX. It’s also the site of Sam Houston’s home site. We also toured the Independence Baptist Church, the oldest continuously active Baptist church in TX. There is also a Bethlehem Lutheran Church here.

Original lighting.Columns are ruins of Baylor Female Building.

A couple of neat trees. Click on pictures to enlarge.