Redneck Prom

March 23/2018  Weather 72/59

best purse at the prom was a double D

Did you go to your high school prom ?  Do you remember your Prom?  That's a good question.  Well we have a chance to make new memories at our "Redneck Prom" tonight.   Dinner and drinks and a dance at Buckhorn Lake RV Resort.  And oh boy a whole bunch of rednecks!!!!  We laughed so hard our faces hurt the next day.

Going to the Prom

yes those are 1 piece red long underwear - Eric is so dapper; Pam what a lucky girl

King and Queen of the Prom

 

is that Minnie Pearl?

here kitty kitty

Pig in a Blanket??? or Kolache

strawberry and cream filled kolaches

March 18/2018  This morning we are in search of a Kolache.  (Ko-lah-chee)
Sometimes you have to sacrifice your diet to do this kind of research!  Every town, every city and definitely everywhere you go in Hill Country Texas there are Kolaches!  But what are they?
The Lone Star State has definitely embraced this Czech donut style pastry.  The kolache came to Texas with settlers from Europe around the mid-1800s. They made central and south-central Texas their new home, settling into the foothills and prairies of the region. At that time, more than 200 different Czech communities were established, and with them, the kolache-traditions remained strong.   The pillowy pastry originated as a semi-sweet or savory dessert served at weddings and dates as far back as the 1700s.  In a nod to their shape, the Old Slavic language word “kolo” meaning circle or wheel.   It is designed to be fluffy enough to hold a dollop of fruit or other cream filling.  We saw a whole window display of  sausage, ham, cheese or mixed.  At home we might even call these Pig in a Blanket.

pigs in blanket kolaches

Not our Jeep..... Haha

Rollin On

March 18/2019  Weather 68 sunny, low 38.  
We are out and about getting the bike fueled up to ride.  This fellow beside us was telling us he just rebuilt the cage on his Jeep after he rolled it for a second time!  He takes it off roading out on a ranch, rock climbing, hill climbing, river running, whatever he can find.  What a ride in Hill Country, Texas.

Giving Back

March 15/2019  Weather 59/42  a bit chilly.
Downtown Kerrville has a special quilt shop in a beautiful old home called Creations.
Last fall the shop started selling a small bundle for the purpose of organizing a show and quilt challenge.

It was a challenge to received 2 yards of fabric and 9 inspirational sayings that had to go in the quilt.  After that you decide what to create.  This is opposite to what I am used to; usually I have a design then go looking for fabric.

my challenge quilt bundle

  Since last fall Billy was giving me ideas and sketches that he thought would look good on the final quilt.

Fish appliqued on the back with bubbles and the inspirational saying

The finished quilt had to be handed in by March 11.  The ladies were so appreciative they even put a special note on my quilt "Hand delivered from Canada".  Nice!!!

Rosey laughing at the caption "hand delivered from Canada"

This year all donated quilts will go to CASA of Kerrville.  When a child enters the foster care system because their home is no longer safe, a judge may appoint a “Court Appointed Special Advocate”, or CASA, volunteer to advocate for the child’s best interest.
CASA will take charge of the quilts and distribute them to the children under their supervision as well as enable smaller groups such as K’Star and Women’s Job Corp to have quilts for their clients’ children. 
Friday a group of ladies from Buckhorn Lake RV went off to the quilt show and we did enjoy ourselves looking at 134 quilts and of course finishing off with lots of shopping in the store!!!  Saturday Billy went up to see my quilt hanging in the show.  While we were there a social worker was telling the Creations staff how this touches a child.  Many come in with only the clothes on their backs and this might be the first thing that is truly theirs to keep for a long time.  Gosh, we felt touched by her words and glad that we could "pay it forward" in a small way.  

Behind that ladies shoulder is our donated quilt !!!

What do you call 20 women with scissors?

March 13/19  Weather 80/49 great day to ride but first.....

someone is getting a Firetruck pillowcase!

Julie is our "Plant Manager"

Julie has organized a sewing assembly line in the rec center this morning.  Everyone brought a couple yards of fun fabric and the production began.  There were ladies sewing, ladies cutting, ladies assembling, ladies pressing and smiles everywhere.  At the end of the morning we had over 40 pillowcases made for the Kids for Cancer.  What a great morning and what a good cause.  

One Happy worker bee

All for the kids

We haven't been lost for at least a week

March 13/2019  Weather is sunny and outstanding today. 80/58  There is a back road to Comfort; which is a cute little town about 20 miles away.  Away we go.  We have been down this road many times and we always catch the way in along the cypress trees.  Just before we caught the road  we saw another biker ahead of us about a mile and we thought.... hmmmm.... Wonder where he is going?  Billy decided lets turn here and follow him.  A few miles farther and the road changed names and a few miles farther and the road changed names and then a few miles farther and the biker is heading back the other way past us!  But the road looks pretty neat so we just keep heading out as long as it stays pavement.  Now it is a bit narrower and then freerange livestock blocking our road.

Mmmmmmoooooooo!!!!

Very Slowly we sneak along.  By now we are quite a bit longer than we normally should be to Comfort and we really had no idea what direction we were driving in.   So stopped to ask a couple of ranchers by the road way if we were close to Comfort?  Haha they laughed..... No your going the wrong way.  They were great, they told us another ranch road to turn onto and then take a right for about 15 miles on a main highway.  

Comfort homestead

pretty old Comfort home

Once in Comfort we found a new bistro to try and then snooped around town, taking the side streets and enjoying the architecture.  It is has many historic homes from the 1850's as the German immigrants were the Freethinker movement that settled here.  
On our return trip we took the Cypress Creek Road and didn't take any sidetrips down the ranch roads.  The fun rides are definitely the ones we get lost on! 

we found it......Cypress Creek Road

Things that make your day

March 10/2019  weather 74/51  - forecast has a storm building to hit Tuesday so we are popping out for groceries on the motorcycle.  Since it is our only transportation we are weather watchers.  We may not plan ahead and book campsites but we do plan our bike rides.
The local grocery store is H.E.B.  Since we are not from here we always call it heb.  The locals look at us like "what?  oh you mean H E B".  Even the little things give you away as being a visitor.  
Today I found a neat little package of all the things we need to make a pot of chili.  No more looking in the spice section, the tomato sauce section, the bean section, the diced tomato section.  How smart is that?

what a great idea - all in one box

And what super inventive appliance will I put this in?  Instant Pot.  That gadget is amazing, it will do everything but wash your dishes.  The kids got me one for christmas and it will empty your already crowded motorhome cupboards.  Out goes my rice cooker, my crockpot.  In goes my Instant Cooker.  I am currently obsessed with making homemade yogurt since I got this gift.  There are 10 different settings on it, including pressure cooker so you can make something like Beef Stew in about 20 minutes!   Make sure if you get one to measure the size - this ones fits perfect in my cupboard.

Instant Pot

Old Friends

Texas Sandstone cliffs on the Guadalope River

March 8/2019   Weather beautiful, 79/59.   Now that's better temps. 
Just a short drive back up north to Kerrville, Texas to Buckhorn Lake RV Resort.  
It's a beautiful park and obviously everyone else knows it is too - it is packed!!!  This place is becoming a "spring habit".  This will be our 4th year in a row to stop for the spring month.  It does feel heartwarming when you pull in to get lots of hugs from old friends.  Old is a figure of speech...  the people are young but 4 years running makes them long term friends to us.  It took us a few hours just to hook up our rig since everyone kept coming to say hello, welcome back.  Nice.

Buckhorn Lake Recreation Barn and Windmill where the bikes meet to ride

riding out towards Tarpley

March 9/2019  Weather beautiful, 82/51 sunnnnny.  Guess what?  7:25 am we got a text from Dan "Let's Ride Today".    You bet.   On the Harley's at 11 am we went for a big ride to Leakey and back.  Billy loves riding these roads. 

Dan in the lead

The Best Way to Ride is Just Get Lost

Red Poppies

March 7/2019 Weather 71/52 but the last 3 days have been cold.  42/52/59 high and lows 32/28/29  so we definitely were not out on the bike.   Thanks to our friends we survived, they took us with them in their pickup wherever they went!  This is our last day and we are headed out to ride.  

Castroville's Alsatian Tourist House

We stopped at the Castroville Tourist house and the red poppies were so pretty around the place.  Off we go to the west taking a farm to ranch road and then looking for the next one  when we think we missed the road ......... oh oh.   Further down the highway Billy pulled over and asked "do you know where we are"?  haha  "no idea" which means technically we were lost!  We thought let's put Bandera in our GPS and use the adventure route and see what happens.  The map came up pretty squiggly which looked like the route for us. 

Lake Medina is a squiggly lake so taking the roads around it are perfect

A view of Lake Medina as we crest to the top of the road

It took us all along Lake Medina through some canyon river roads and then wound us along a damn and more river roads then popped us out in Bandera.

coming down along the river and through the wash

I wish I could tell you what the roads were, we can only find them when we are lost:) 
 The best things happen when you don't plan them. 

driving into Bandera

A little French German in Hill Country

Mar 1/2019  Weather 60/47  Grey day.  The sun just never made it out......    We moved to Castroville which is 20 miles west of San Antonio.  Technically we are south from Fredericksburg and it might be a good thing as there is an extreme cold front coming on the weekend.  Frost warnings are up for the next 3 nights(we should get maybe 5 degrees warmer down here).  Yikes!   Ok enough about the crazy weather.

Full blooming Redbud tree at Alsatian RV

Our friends Paulette and Jim winter in Alsatian RV Resort & Golf every year and we are giving them a surprise visit for the week!   They love it here since they can play golf as much as they want.  The park is nestled in the countryside so its nice and quiet, very clean and concrete sites.  
Till our friends started coming here we had never heard of an "Alsatian" village.  Alsace is the north eastern region of France on the Rhine River bordering Germany and Switzerland.   A fact that most people forget is that the German Shepard Dog was known as an "Alsatian" till 1977 in Britain.  As in most of Hill Country Texas the European immigrants came over in the 1840's to populate this area, about 2500 persons. (Specifically Alsace is in France).  The towns architecture is very unique for United States.  There is a historic downtown area preserved with the stucco/timber style cottages. 
Our first trip out was for some supplies that are touted as the best in the area.  First to Haby's Alsatian Bakery and then to Dzuiks Butcher Shop.  There is nothing better than finding local old established food shops. 

Haby's Alsatian Bakery

The Bakery was a delight.  Fresh baked breads, pastries, doughnuts, pies, cakes,  cookies - We stopped after asking for about 8 different things!!!  At the butcher shop you could get homemade jerky, wildgame and some different cuts of fresh meat.  One thing I saw as a heap of Parisa.  No idea what it was?  Unfortunately there was no sampling.  Made fresh everyday it is cheese, black pepper, onion, jalapeno and ground raw beef.  It is eaten raw by itself or on crackers..... Huh!  It reminded me of when I was a kid; my mum would pop a raw meatball in our mouths when she was making supper with ground beef.  Never thought anything of it.    I passed on the purchase knowing Billy would definitely "not" eat it. 

parisi

Hill Country Riding

Feb 27/2019 Weather 80/53  Sunny, beautiful day for riding.  
We headed out of town past Luckenbach, on our way to find some backroads to Blanco.  Our farm to ranch road followed the Blanco River.  Neat old ranches.  Rolling hills. 

old road to Blanco

Sometimes you would be high enough to see vistas for miles.  Pretty area.    At the Blanco Quilt Shop which is an old bank building we stop and snoop around.  You have to love a shop that has cowboy boots sitting just inside the door.  The fabric is stacked in rows of old wooden shelves.  Just a pretty picture.  The old theatre is next door and the bathrooms are shared with the quilt shop.  The movie reels adorn the top of the walls and the black and white tiles are very old school.   Billy talked to the ladies and we found out where everyone eats in town; which will be our next stop.  

washrooms have movie film reels adorned at the top of the walls

beautiful floor to ceiling wooden shelves and drawers

After Blanco we head south to Canyon Lake.  Since coming out west in the last 8 years there have been several occasions when we met people who were camping at Canyon Lake.  There are about 4 COE(The Corps of Engineers) parks on the lake.   Our curiousity is taking us to one of the RV parks on Canyon Lake called  Potters Creek.  Nice RV sites with views across the lake for $26 !  What a bargain. 

rv site on Canyon Lake - Potters Creek