Home is where your Happy

Feb 26/2018  Weather 79 partly sunny, low 58.
Maybe the house you live in says something about your lifestyle, personality, comfort, success or priorities??? 
We say that because across from Sunset Point RV Resort you can see Roger Staubach's previous home for many years.  Captain Comeback, Captain America, Roger the Dodger is a famous Dallas Cowboy quarterback.  5 times to the Superbowl.  Heisman and Super Bowl MVP trophy winner.  Staubach still lives in the Marble Falls area, just not in this mansion anymore.

Staubach's first mansion in Marble Falls

Then if you take a ride along Texas Park Road 4 S you will come across the eye-popping fairy tale castle owned by a developer Terry Young.  Mr. and Mrs. Young visited Barvaria and were enamored with King Ludwig II  Neuschwanstein Castle.  King Ludwig II had been making plans to build another castle, to be named “Falkenstein”. Young's brought the idea home to Hill Country Texas and built the castle in 1996.

the castle - only from a photo

Falkenstein castle - 90 feet tall

King Ludwig II dream plan for Falkenstein in Barvaria

And then there is Rosey and Billy in their home on wheels...... No Gutters, No Grass.

Home on Wheels

Happy Campers

Best Open Pit BBQ in Texas

Feb 26/2018  Weather hit 79 today in Llano!  tonight low of 54.    Every Texas tourist magazine you pick up talks about Old Time Open Pit BBQ.

uuggghhh we had to turn around

We head west on some county back road enjoying the undulating terrain of limestone canyons bristling with prickly pear cactus and shaggy with cedar trees, until we hit a creek overflowing onto the road where we stopped and walked into the mud and water - we had a vote - unanimous to turn around.  If we dump the bike out here, there is no one for miles to help us so it is not worth the risk.

taking the back roads

We head back to a highway, then north to Llano.  A little town 3,350.

don't expect much from the outside

pitman serving up whatever you crave

Cooper's Old Time BBQ burns scads of mesquite branches to embers, then shovels the coals into the pits, where they smolder directly beneath the meats. The method, drawing on the cattle drives of bygone years, is called “cowboy style.”  You walk past several rectangular pits, admire the small mountain of mesquite wood, and line up at an old steel closed pit, salivating as the aroma of smoking meats wafts through the still Texas air. When it is your turn, consider all the choices......the 2 " Big Chop (pork), brisket, beef or pork ribs, sausage, turkey, chicken and cabrito (goat) on the pit’s grate. Tell the pitman exactly what you want, and he will slice it to order. We ordered the brisket and pork rib.  

picnic tables dining area

Then you walk inside and pay by the pound for your meat and have at it on the benches!  Nothing pretentious here just the best BBQ we have ever had.   The brisket had a smoky spicy crusted rub on it and melted in your mouth. Oh yes we are meat eaters!!!

let's dig in

Happy Hour for Pie

Feb 24/2018  Weather  74, low 56.  Often we say "we ride to eat".  This area of Texas is no exception.  Pie is major here.

Bluebonnet Cafe motorcycle parking - PIE UNTIL I DIE

They have happy hour for Pie!  Seriously from 3 to 5 pm Monday to Friday.  omg we are in big trouble.  Well you know when in Rome do as the Romans do.  Haha.  Bluebonnet Cafe has been serving up Pie since 1929, and it is so delicious.  We rode into Marble Falls and stopped at the Visitor Center and guess what; right across the street is the famous Bluebonnet Cafe.    Choices?  Apple, no sugar added Apple, Cherry, Pecan, Fudge, Peanut Butter, Banana Cream, Coconut Cream, Coconut meringue, Chocolate Cream, Chocolate Meringue, German Chocolate, Lemon Cream, Lemon Meringue.   Never ever had Peanut Butter but today is the day, and it is topped with chocolate syrup!

Pie Heaven

Sunset Point

many rver's out watching the sunset

gone but what a glow

Feb 24,25,26/2018  Weather turned nice, 70's with low of 50.  Three lovely days, and now we know why this RV Park is called Sunset Point.  Our friend Les would like this place, he has more sunset pictures than anyone we know...... Wouldn't that make a neat book.  365 days of sunset from where you are standing everyday for a year! 

kayakers out watching the sunset

Look What I Got!!!

Feb 25/18   Stopped at Marble Falls grocery store H.E.B.  and what do we find?
TIM HORTONS COFFEE!!!!  And some Texas Pecan.  Rosey is like a kid in a candy store.

Timmies!!!  or Backyard Texas Pecan........ can't wait till morning for a cup of Joe.

Texas Highland Lakes Area

Feb 23/2018 Weather is "smirren".   As my Scottish in-laws would say!  It rained thru the night and then today it was a fine mist, "smirren" all day.  Not cold - up to 67 and in the night too. The forecast is going to get better , 70's tomorrow and the next week, low of 50 so we are all set.  You have to almost wait till March to come to this part of Texas as up till now it has been very cold. 

Highland Lakes area of Texas, about 60 miles north west of Austin

Good day to get out the rain coat and get some pictures, the mist softens all the shots.  So pretty.

Rosey in her raincoat looking down the coast line from Sunset Point RV

We have landed in Marble Falls at Sunset Point RV Resort.  Lovely, lovely, lovely rv park.  Water is on 3 sides of the park, and the sites are long and concrete and clean.  Some very high end rigs in here.

Parrots, palm trees, feet in the sand painted on the back of this high end rig

It is a hard park to get into as it is quite popular and we had heard wonderful reviews, so it will be our spot for the next 10 days and we can explore the ranch and county roads in this area.
Today we walked around the park and out into the rocky mound point.  At first we thought the pod of birds were swans then we realized they were even bigger and had a huge beak.... American White Pelicans with a wing span of 9 feet!  The flock will winter in Texas and go home as far north as the top of Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba.  Wow.  They are huge!!!

stalking the white pelicans

much bigger than the brown ones you see in florida

What a wonderful spot for an RV Park.   Billy was checking out the premium lake front sites with outdoor kitchens and seating for a mere $97 + tax per night.  Haha, oh no not this time...... Now let me have that credit card Billy!!!

Billy quite liked this lake front spot

So we see a big granite quarry right beside us and then wondered if there is a marble quarry; thus the name Marble Falls.  No, you will not find it as the upper layer of limestone, brownish on the exterior but a deep blue inside, was so hard and cherty it was mistaken for marble.  Cherty is a fine grained sedimentary rock composed of microcrystalline or cryptocrystalline silica.  Phew had to look that one up.  Is there ever a day you don't learn something???

we walked out to the point on the rock mound and looked back towards the campground

Rollin, Rollin, Rollin

Feb 20, 21/2018  Weather  in Las Cruces is sunny and warm 75 (warmer than we were in Tuscon - go figure?) cool at night 38.  Drive had a constant NE breeze at us.  A favourite spot of ours to overnight is Hacienda RV Resort.   Very nice park, long pull thrus and from the park we can walk to supper at Luna Rossa Winery and Restaurant (with 10% off too) and also to the Harley Davidson shop.  A walk after being on the road for the day is a good thing and we always need a new tshirt!

some dinner in Las Cruces at Luna Rossa 

Hacienda RV Resort Las Cruces

Next day Weather for the drive to Fort Stockton RV Park   (an old KOA but quite decent for an overnight stop) is sunny but cool especially on the high plain elevations, the night is going to clear and downright cold.  4 hours of 31 to 26..... bbbbbbrrrr.  We will crank on the heat and electric blanket tonight and not put out the water hose.

Fort Stockton RV Park

So enjoy the little Roadrunner Cafe here, do yourself a favour and have some down home cooking.  When we woke up in the morning the cars had frost all over them and the guy beside us closed his slide and the ice chips landed all over the ground.  Haha.  Oh we know, this is not Arizona anymore.  Humidity for one thing.   We will be at Marble Falls after this day and it is a place we have always wanted to see and camp at since coming out to Hill Country.  So many campers at Buckhorn Lake RV have come from Marble Falls and our curiosity will not rest till we stay there.  Plus it is still in Hill Country and there is motorcycle roads that we do not get to from Kerrville, makes too long a day from there. 

Tip:  During February both Las Cruces and Fort Stockton campgrounds were full - they said many many travellers coming and going.  So Rosey must book ahead and she did about 4 days ago.  Good thing....  (Calverley's would be proud of us - we finally did some reservations)

Heading East to Texas

Feb 18\19 2018.  Weather cooler in Arizona and windy. 60s, a bit overcast and a day of high winds.  We started our trek back to Texas.  Just a short ride south to Tucson to visit fellow campers from our Wildwood park in Ontario.  Kem and Nancy are going in the opposite direction to us - they are headed west! 

 They are staying in Voyager RV Resort which is a mega resort but actually the area we are in is all motorhome and trailers so feels normal.  Mega because there are + 1500 sites, mostly park models, the camper section is about 300 sites.  Quite a good spot as our pull thru is 100 feet long.  It has everything onsite plus a restaurant and 36 room hotel ; which is really smart if you have company coming for a bit.  The activities calendar looks great - 5 different kinds of yoga!  Dance classes for beginners and even a country 2 step.  Giddyup.   3 pools.  courts for pickleball and tennis.  Looks like you could be very busy and the location would be great for riding.   We will be back.

What is that?

Feb 13 & 14/2018  Weather 60's and rain.  Huh?  You forget what it looks like.  It took 2 days to get about 1/2 of an inch.  It just doesn't know how to rain in the desert in the winter apparently.   Funny.   Then you will notice that it will not soak into the ground at all.  Sand...which is basically glass so it just runs off into the streets.  It drizzled all night and this morning the streets in the campground were semi-covered.  So different than home.  But good for Arizona, they need the rain desperately.  Hope this helps the community.  Looks like a good day for reading, writing and napping; or maybe a little quilting in there too.

water pooling in the park

a little rain goes a long way

Adventures in Parrotdise

Feb 12/2018 Weather 72 cloudy, low 52 - rain is hoped for in the next couple of days.  It would be the first sprinkle we have seen since December.   Tonight we are finding ourselves up at the clubhouse for a Jimmy Buffett tribute band.  Well we cannot pass that up.  Margaritaville is still the only channel on our XM Sirius radio that Billy will listen to and you get the look if you change it!  Haha.    Adventures in Parrotdise by Barry Cunningham and the band, was ok.  What we found extremely uncanny is that he even looks like Jimmy and pretends to be Jimmy.   That was a bit bizarre.  Only thing is that he does not miss too many notes or tunes;  yes you know if you are a Parrothead what we are talking about.   Sometimes Buffett will be off tune or off key and he just carries on have a grand time with his music.   That's the best part about him, his music is real. 
It was fun and entertaining - Get Your Fins Up!!!

Gourds, Amazing Gourds and more Gourds!

Feb 9/2018 Weather 82 sunny, low 47.

 Down the road from Casa Grande is the very active Pinal County Fairgrounds.  A few weeks ago we stopped in for a Bluegrass Music Festival and this weekend we went in for a Gourd Festival.  Now a Gourd you say... huh, sounds a little dull.  Oh boy were we in for a shocker.  Amazing. Yes Amazing Artwork.

 Unbelievably talented artists from all over the country enter the festival with their artistic Gourds to be judged.  If this is your thing you can buy supplies, dried Gourds, take classes, listen to live music, eat and enjoy the crowd.  It was so worth the day. 

The Gourds come in all different shapes and sizes. The Wuertz Gourd Farm nearby sponsors the festival and supplies a plethora of dried gourds for purchase.  They also have classes at the farm regularly. 

Gourds grow on a vine like a squash or pumpkin, and then harvested they have to be properly cleaned inside and out to get rid of a fungus, and then they are dried before you can start your artistic magic on them.

Some painted, beaded, bejewelled, carved and all mixed in between.  Lamps, pots, bowls, jewelry, art forms, figurines, animals, masks, you name it let your imagine run wild!  The Native Americans originated the use of gourds for vessels to serve food and carry water.  

Cotton Farming in Arizona

Feb 1/2018  Weather 80, low 47. 
One thing really great about Fiesta Grande RV Resort is the activity calendar.  They have the regular daily things to do plus trips someplace every week.  This week the trip was to an Arizona Cotton Farm -4th generation.  Nancy Caywood shown playing the fiddle puts on a very informative presentation about cotton farming in Arizona  as well as her family farm history and the struggles to keep the farm viable.  Cotton has low return due to high expenses in the desert.  Water is a huge problem Yes the “Lack” of water.  This year the natural water source is dry and the allowance provided to the farm will not be enough to grow the crop.  All elements of the crop are regulated - who you buy the seeds from,  water allowance, chemicals, pesticides, cotton grading, cotton market, timetable for plowing under.  USA is the 3rd largest producer in the world, China number 1 and then  Middle East then USA.  

After the presentation we took a hayride out to the field and walked into the cotton.  It has a strong woody stalk.  The dried boles that hold the cotton are very sharp, what a terrible job it would have been years ago to hand pick.  Not to mention the heat.   In Arizona the heat is good for the cotton, during growing season the plant thrives on it and produces higher yields here in the desert as compared to the southern plantations that we have seen in Mississippi. 

Beyond the crop is the cotton gin that processes the raw cotton, removing the seeds.  The Gin is a co-op of seven farms.    When the seeds are separated from the lint they have a market and are sold to help pay for the ginning costs.  Cotton seeds have all kinds of use.  What shocked us was cottonseed oil is the 3rd leading vegetable oil in the USA.  Crisco shortening is cottonseed oil!  We never  knew that.  Seeds are also used for numerous other things such as animal feed, fertilizer, currency, glycerin for explosives, cosmetics,  and more.    Amazing,,,, we learned a lot from what we thought was just blue jeans and more quilting material for Rosey!

The Man in The Moon is he Blue or Red?

Jan 31/2018  Weather is hot, and is going to be for the next 10 days. 80, 80, 79, 81, 81, 81, 84, 86, 86, 83, 84, 85.  Nights 47 to 57.

blue blood moon in Arizona

Sky gazers from 5:50 a.m. to 6:50 am was the best time in Arizona to view a rare celestial convergence dubbed a "super blue blood moon."
The cosmic event -- a combination of lunar eclipse, blood moon and super moon -- will be visible in the western hemisphere for the first time in 152 years.
A "super moon" occurs when a full moon falls at the same time as its perigee, which is the closest point of the moon's orbit with the Earth. This makes the moon larger and brighter by 14%, according to NASA. The first super moon of 2018 took place on New Year's Day and was previously described by NASA as the "biggest and brightest" one expected for the entire year.
As the popular idiom suggests, blue moons are rare and refer to when there is a second full moon in one calendar month.  To complete the "lunar trifecta," the blood element is not a sign that the end is nigh, but occurs during a lunar eclipse when faint red sunbeams peek out around the edges of the Earth, giving it a reddish copper color.

Blue Blood Moon

We remember seeing in  November 2016 we saw a gorgeous Super moon here in Casa Grande.   Seems the night skys in Arizona are quite amazing.