South Llano River State Park

We got a late start today when Jim took his truck to the Ford dealership in Kerrville. He thought there may have been a recall that hadn't been taken care of on his truck. The dealership checked it out and everything was fine. Fortunately, we only had a hour drive to our next destination, South Llano River State Park in Junction.

We arrived about 3:00 and were surprised at how many people were here early in the week. It is a big birding destination this time of the year.

We got set up in a large, shady spot.






It's so nice we didn't want to go inside and finish setting up in there. We put out the hummingbird feeders and immediately had guests.






I think it will be a nice place to spend a week. :)

Location:Junction, TX

RV-Dreams Rally

We arrived at the

for the

Rally.

We'll be here all week having fun, making new friends, and learning more about the rv lifestyle.

Spending Time With Family

Today, our daughter, Lisa, met us in San Marcos along with our three grandgirls. We'll be heading west and won't be back in Texas until October.  This would be the last time to see the girls until then.  They enjoyed hamming it up in the restaurant.

 I had just purchased a Livescribe pen and they were taking turns talking to it.

Next, we were off to Aquarena Springs for a glass-bottom boat ride.

There has been more rain recently and the springs are flowing again throughout the San Marcos River.

It was a fun afternoon and we are going to miss all of them while we are gone.

More San Antonio Sightseeing

Today we continued our San Antonio sightseeing.  We drove downtown parking in the Rivercenter Parking Garage.  We had purchased a GroupOn for the double decker bus tour.  It took us awhile to find the place to redeem our tickets since streets were closed down for Fiesta.

We finally found they were selling the tickets from the bus itself.

The next bus would not be there for another 45 minutes so we went over to

We went through the exhibits in both the Buckhorn Museum and the Texas Ranger Museum.

The bus had returned and we loaded up for our 45 minute tour through San Antonio, We sat on the top deck for a unique perspective of downtown.

We had a great time seeing the sights of the city!

Chuck Wagon Races

We planned to go to the Chuck Wagon Races at the Twin Elm Guest Ranch in Bandera.  We parked the car and then waited to be taken to the racing area. The tractor came, we piled on to the hay bales.

Before the races began, we were entertained by a professional roper

and there was another kind of professional ;)

Then, it was the national anthem as a rider rode around with the flag.

The races began.  Each team consists of a driver, cook, and outrider (the person on the horse).  In order to qualify, the outrider must finish before the wagon.  There were different size wagons ranging from small customized 

to full size.

All of the wagons went all out to win.

There was one moment when one of the horses came around in front of us not quite making the corner.  The horse veered right before he hit the fence in front of us, but the cowboy fell off and into the fence.  The cowboy got up, but appeared hurt.  He walked for awhile and then got back on another horse and was an outrider for the next race.  The horse was o.k., thank goodness.  

We left after a couple of hours and met Patricia and Phillip for dinner.  They're leaving Monday to head back to Washington. We went to Busbee's Bar B Que which was really good.  Then, we went to the Chickn' Coop for more visiting and to listen to the band.  It was another great day!

Steak Night

Today, we went in to San Antonio again.  Jim played golf at Silverhorn Golf Course and I spent the day hanging out with my parents and sponging off their internet.  I had some things that needed to be downloaded, but it was too much for a 10gb monthly allotment.

Last night, we drove to Bandera to the 11th Street Cowboy Bar's Steak Night.  It's pretty neat, you bring your own meat, steak, chicken, pork chops, you name it, then you grill your own meat on their grills.

There are all kinds of seasonings and grilling utensils for you to use as well.  At another section, you can buy baked potato and salad set ups to go with your meat.

And of course, there was music!

The band began at 6:00 and played until 10:00.  We ran into Phillip and Patricia who had stayed near us when we were at the Holiday Villages RV Park.  They started full timing about the same time we did, so we had a great time sharing our stories and getting to know them better. We ended up staying there the whole time and closing down the place.  It was a great time!

Playing Tourist In Our Hometown

We lived in San Antonio, Texas for almost 20 years before we began fulltiming this past October.  We didn't go downtown to the tourist attractions very much for all of the reasons people give - wanted to avoid crowds,  we've seen it before, but mostly life just gets in the way of doing it.

So, we decided to be sure and see the downtown sites before we leave Texas the end of April.

Today, our first stop was the Tower of the Americas. It was built for Hemisfair in 1968 and growing up in San Antonio, it was a very big deal as it was being built.  It has recently undergone a complete renovation and we had not been there since it had been completed.

We parked at the  tower parking lot and took the walkway leading to it.

We walked around the base getting our bearings and looking at the pictures of San Antonio during the time the tower was built.  We took the elevator up to the observation deck to see the view.  It was a beautiful, clear day.


Here's a view of the Alamodome.

Next, the other side of downtown. La Villita is where the trees are and the La Villita auditorium is the round building with the sunflower on top.

Here's Jim with the obligatory, "I was there," shot.  :)

We then thought if we were this close to the river, we would walk on over to the Riverwalk.  It was lunchtime, so we ate at the Republic of Texas.

We had a nice, leisurely lunch

while enjoying watching the mama duck keep up with all of her peeps.

Next, the Alamo, we hadn't been inside for probably 25 years.

Finally, we took the river barge ride.

We wanted to take the trolley ride around downtown,

but, it was getting late, we'll leave that for another day.

It was a beautiful Texas spring day!

Happy Easter

Happy Easter

To

All Our Family and Friends!

The hills are full of all of God's splendor!

Landmark Inn

We headed to Castroville this morning to go through the Landmark Inn and see the other historic homes in the town.  Castroville was settled in the 1840's by mostly farmers from the Alsace region of France.  The Landmark Inn went through several changes.

First, a general store providing goods to travelers between San Antonio and El Paso was built.  It was originally a one story structure, but another story was added to make a hotel.

In the 1860's, a bathhouse was added. It was the only place for a man-made bath between San Antonio and Eagle Pass.

In the 1850's, land was purchased by the Medina River and a dam was built to divert water through an underground mill race to power a grist mill.

We then took the tour around town to see the other historic homes.

We had a great time touring this beautiful little town!