Happy Easter

April 1/2018  Weather 80, started out cloudy but got quite warm in the afternoon and night was 65. 

Hippity Hop

Early Easter day this year and we are still in Texas.  Sometimes we are already home for the celebration. 

Buckhorn Lake RV Resort - we are parked right on the creek

The morning was spent calling family and friends and the afternoon was a relaxing potluck luncheon outside along the creek in beautiful Buckhorn Lake RV Resort.  What a great day.

Eric and Pam - Eric won best Tshirt EVER!!!!

Ladies - good job on the food

A Treehouse

March 31/2018  Weather sunny, 80's, night 60.  Warm weather for the next week.    On our way we were passed by a pack of racers!  

Around the corner ahead was a Sherriff.... Busted!

There is the best pie in Utopia at the Lost Maple Cafe and we invited our friends Jim and Paulette to meet us there.   Well that didn't quite work out as we found out when we pulled up and it was very quiet.  Hmmm.  Oh oh.... They are closed today; their daughter was getting married.  Ok.  So looking down the street we see lots of cars parked at the LunchBox.  Sounds good to us; and it was.    After we chatted we found out there was a Pete Nelson treehouse past Utopia at Laurel Tree Restaurant.  Cool  !!!  We just watched his show the other day, when he went to visit the fellow in France. 

Laurel Tree Restaurant - Tree house

red poppies ready to burst

another view of the treehouse

We could still not satisfy our need for pie as the restaurant is prebooked; reservation only.  The dining treehouse is in the back of the property and within view so we snapped a couple of pics without disturbing the diners. 

poppies just start to burst

In a couple of weeks the poppy fields out front will be in full bloom; won't that be a magnificent view?   Ahh.   After saying our goodbyes to our Canadian friends,  Billy decided he was still in search of pie.  On our way back to Kerrville we made a detour into Medina to the Apple Store..... and pie with icecream. Everything is apple here.  Apple coffee, pie, strudel, icecream, jams, cookies.  I think you get the idea. 

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My New Nickname is Google

March 29/2018  Weather sunny, high of 82, low of 58.

Bluebonnets in Mason

We have a clear day after the storms and are heading north in search of Spring.  Spring in Texas is Wildflowers, especially the Bluebonnets.  The flower is prolific across the roadsides, the hills, the yards.  When it starts to bloom it is found everywhere.  Up till now we have only seen a few small patches.  Rain and 80's will make them pop.

Historic old barn and bluebonnets

Mason, Texas is an old fort town where the infamous soldier Robert E. Lee held his last post before joining the confederate army.  The Fort sits perched above  the town and leading up to it you see some historic old cabins and barns.  And......and.... and...... BLUEBONNETS!!!

Old Yeller and Travis

Now everyone who ever watched Disney on Sunday back in the sixties (yes that is us) did a big cry to the ending of Old Yeller.   Fred Gipson penned the novel from his home town of Mason back in 1956.  Spoiler alert:  Old Yeller defends the family, but he is bitten in the struggle before Travis(the young boy) can shoot and kill the wolf with the rifle.  After confining Old Yeller the young boy takes his first step to adulthood and is forced to put his dog down.   I want a tissue to mop up my tears just writing this.  What a classic movie.  At the Mason Library there is a statue of Travis and Old Yeller and inside the lobby they have many of Fred's books he wrote and some biography.  He was a country boy. 

Seaquist House

Snooping around town we found a cool old theatre from 1928 that is still showing movies and a beautiful old mansion that started ownership in 1886 with a Reverend and switched hands till the Seaquist's purchased it in 1929.  Since then it has been restored and opened to the public.    There are some good eats in Mason too, Cooper's BBQ and Willow Creek Cafe, little boutique shops where you always find the cutest things.  Billy found a coffee cup he thought he should have.....  Billy?????

My new nickname is Google?

Legendary Father of Hill Country

March 25/2018  Weather 85, low 62. 

At the Y.O. Ranch Road entrance

When you are in downtown Kerrville you will see the Schreiner name everywhere.  University.  Mansion.  Bank.  Y.O. Ranch.  Mercantile General Store.  Captain Charles Schreiner immigrated from Alsace-Lorraine in 1852.  Well isn't that interesting;  he was an Alsatian.  Never heard of that part of the world till this winter.   Alsace is in the eastern border of France adjacent to Germany and Switzerland.   Funny.  We have friends staying in Castroville which is an hour south of here and it is an old Texas Alsatian community....
With Captain Schreiner we could not get the connection of the ranch/cattle brand.  What did the Y.O. stand for???  The Y.O. brand was first used on the Texas gulf coast in the 1840’s by Youngs O. Coleman of the Fulton Family Ranching Empire near Rockport. The brand changed hands and made its way to hill country near Kerrville.
In 1880, The “Captain” purchased the Y.O. Ranch, its brand, and its cattle from Taylor and Clements with profits he made by driving more than 300,000 head of Texas longhorns “up the trail” to Dodge City.

Historical Monument to Captain Schreiner

Exquisite Yucca

What started in 1880 as 27,000 acres emerged 20 years later to almost 600,000 acres by 1900.   Five generations have split and divided the land since then.  Today the headquarters have been sold off away from the 132 years of legendary family land ownership and leave 5,784 acres.  We pulled into the road and gated ranch to see how far down we could ride.  The Y.O. Ranch Road shows on the county map as a thorough fare but it only goes so far and is fenced and gated with a lockout code.  Currently the ranch is known for exotics.  You can make a reservation to tour the exotic animals, stay and hunt, overnight in the lodge, go horse back riding and much more.    Well maybe another day we might get in for a tour or horseback riding.  Keep that on the list of things to do in Hill Country.

As far as we can go without having a reservation and get coded inside

That's crazy

Do you see what I'm talking about?  That's crazy.  Really, don't you think it is crazy?
Take a good look.
Bare bread as in "crustless".  No Crust.........    
It never ceases to amaze me what I will find in the grocery store in the USA. 

Thunder, Thunder, Thunder

March 24/2018 Weather 86, night 60.   A hot day with hot bikes!

Bev and Dave on 337

Friday, Saturday, Sunday is Thunder in the Hills weekend; a motorcycle rally in Hill Country.   We hooked up with Dave and Bev from the park and took a ride on old Medina highway and then turned onto one of the "twisted sisters/337" to the tiny town of Leakey.   There is not much in Leakey but even on a quiet Saturday afternoon there are usually at least 20 to 30 bikes at the Bent Rim Bar and Grill.  So wonder how many are there today???

back parking lot at Bent Rim

eye candy

What a pretty ride it was; through the low hills and rocky cream coloured  outcroppings.  Bike, after bike after bike purring by.  During the day the motorcycles were making good use of the warm day and curvy roads.
Well it appears we will not be getting a burger and beer at the Bent Rim today,,, but lots of eye candy for the guys.  No - not the girls, CHROME !  Well maybe a couple of girls.  Haha.  

more bikes, cool Indian

It's funny how we always get to this bar/grill in Leakey and have never stopped anywhere else.  Today being so busy forced us to find some food somewhere.  There are just a few places and we stopped at Mama Chole's restaurant which was super delicious home cooked Mexican.  My guacamole jalapeno cheeseburger was yummy.  So good things happen when you change up your routine. 

crossing the river

Guadalupe River and creamy limestone cliffs

We made a loop back to Kerrville, heading north and then east along the Guadalupe river.   The water crisscrosses the road every few miles and it is like blue turquoise.    As you get closer to the village of Hunt (yup everyone here hunts, like animals)  there is a ranch with wooden fence posts and each has an old cowboy boot.   Dave was so pissed off with his cowboy boots the other day; as in they were killing his feet he drove out here and put his boots on the posts.  He thought they could finish out their miserable life out here upside down!!!  Hilarious.  As we drove by Bev pointed out the boots.  Oh my gosh, what a laugh.  You know some look pretty good, hey maybe we should stop and get Billy a used pair?

There is one of the boots, may he stay upside down forever!

Going to the Bat Cave for a Bat Burger

March 22/2018  Weather cloudy but warm enough 77, night 52. 

No fast food here

Our fearless leader Dan the Man was craving for the big burger.

5 in the ride today

A scenic ride through ranches, creeks, quiet sloping roads pretty much to the middle of nowhere.  Here you will find Alamo Springs Cafe.  Right next door is the Old Tunnel State Park which is an abandoned railway tunnel;  now home to thousands of bats from May to October.  Thus the Bat Cave.......

hungry?

The Cafe is famous for burgers and onion rings.  So, you may have to go over the hills, cross the river, and through the woods, but in the end, you’ll find Alamo Springs Café is well worth a stop on The Texas Bucket List.

you have to chuckle at some of the signs inside the Cafe

Alamo Springs Cafe

Get our Cowgirl On

March 21/2018  Weather sunny, 77, low 52. 

Couple of Cowgirls Stepping Out (Rosey & Pam)

Tonight we get our "cowgirl" on.  Blue Jeans.  Cowboy Boots.  Cowboy Hat. 
A night of country music, cold beer, slab of beef on the BBQ and fun.  The 11th Street Cowboy Bar and Grill is so much fun.   You just have to go; and you never know who will show up.  Lots of wanna be cowboys and cowgirls and then the  real thing.  Tonight did not disappoint.

Ingram Grocery & Market

For the BBQ tonight we had to get two nice ribeye steaks from a small grocery with a butcher shop in the back, just like when we were kids.   I remember my Mom taking me to Merlin where she would get the weeks groceries at Shirley Campbell"s or Cedar Springs to the Red & White.  Both had butcher shops and a few aisles of groceries.   Tonight is a Bring Your Own Meat!

Our table, bellies full, cold beers in hand, people watching

Billy and the guys took the meat to the communal BBQ grills while the girls got the side fixings.  The sun went down and the band started playing the Texas two step and the night was in full swing.   The dance floor was full and then we spotted a fellow that was undeniably the real deal.

having a good time on the outdoor dance floor

During intermission Billy says "see that guy over there with the neck bandana, beard, mustache, cowboy hat & boots - now he looks like a real cowboy".  Turns out he is somewhat of a local celebrity cowboy.   Sitting across the dance floor was Trail Boss James E. “Hoot” Gibson.  In 2004; Hoot rode his horse along with two partners from Bandera, Texas all the way to Calgary, Alberta, Canada.  About 2500 miles.   The journey took almost 5 months;  through the heart of Texas, across a corner of New Mexico, skirted the eastern edge of the Colorado Rocky Mountains, over the windy flats of Wyoming, into the spectacular and well named Bear Tooth Mountains of Montana, and finally across the border and up the “Cowboy Trail” of Alberta (Highway 22) into The Calgary Stampede.  The partner along on the adventure has it recorded in a novel called “The Eye Reckon Freedom Ride Trail.” 

James E. "Hoot" Gibson

To end the night somebody just had to get on the Long Horn......

Rosey wants to be a cowgirl.....

Spring Time in Hill Country

March 18/2018  Weather 87 today,,,, Hot.  But we couldn't resist poking around again on some more back roads today.

Live Oaks framing the old highway

The heat is really bring out the flowers now.  Not sure what these red ones are they are as big as bushes sometimes, and the Texas Mountain Laurel are full out; but don't get too close the bees are loving the blooms right now.

so pretty, no idea what it is called

Mountain Laurel

We are surprised how every ranch has a water windmill and most are still working.  This may be a bitter pill for some Texans to swallow, but it was not invented in this State, nor the Colt Revolver.   Nope to barbed wire.   All three are Texas icons credited with taming the wild west.  The windmill and the revolver were both invented in Connecticut and barbed wire in Illinois, allegedly by a farmer trying to keep chickens out of his wife's garden!

this windmill looks new

definitely been here awhile, along with the fence and the old pickup

this is ranch we ride by on White Oak, looks like it hasn't changed in a 100 years

Favorite Little Texas Town called Comfort

March 17/2018  Weather hot today, 84 and the night a low of 50.  Bit humid.  

back road into Comfort, looks like a laneway doesn't it?

We have been several times to the town of Comfort but it is so darn cute and the ride to it is so relaxing on the Harley we just have to go again. 

beautiful old iron work scrolls on High Street

boutique Hotel Faust on High Street

These Crows on the Roof are they Real or not Real? 

We take the back roads and then walk around downtown, in and out of little antique shops, the old Bank which is now the visitor center, a bistro for some great lunch,

Inside the Tinsmith's Wife shop = Look closely,,,, see the cat sound asleep hahaha

pretty cool - the owner took my skein and wound it into a usable ball of yarn

my ball of yarn

Wow, she has all kinds of funky knitted scarves

and the Tinsmith;s Wife shop for a ball of yarn.... and did we ever spot the "Clown Jabbers" today walking around the block; this big old guy was just watching us~!~.  I guess it's just a normal day in Hill Country Texas.  Ahhh.

And no one is going to argue with you!