Month: April 2024

Maggie Knows Something Is Up

Maggie is pretty tuned into the normal things of every day life and seems to quickly notice when something changes. Our last few days have been a slow-motion packing up and getting ready to go dance. It is easier for us to do it that way. The steps get prioritized by what’s on the critical path to depart. So for example, tire pressures got checked on the coach and pickup several days before we were going to leave. Better to have time to do something than to find out on the morning we are leaving that we have a low tire.

Maggie knows all of this is not part of the everyday routine. She followed me around to every tire on the coach to see what I was doing.

And we think she is eating differently. Her morning breakfast is getting ignored. By dinner time she eats right away. It might be that we have been going out shopping or for coffee or lunch almost every morning, more often than usual. So we think she might just get fed once a day on the way home.

She is more snuggly than normal. We are not complaining.

If Flowers Aren’t Enough

The local newspaper this week summarized the “entertainment” venues in the region within 75 minutes, a short drive in Texas.

125 wineries, 45 breweries, 21 distilleries, and 7 multi-beverage stops

Just 10 years ago there were maybe 10 smaller wineries, only a few breweries, a couple of distilleries, and a multi-beverage stop was a convenience store at the gas station.

These are big businesses, lots of outside investment, a big influence on land and home prices, a big demand for workers, and a big affordable housing crunch. Short-term rentals (AirBnB sorts-of-things) have increased rapidly as have local controls, licensing, and taxes. Fredericksburg and the local area are much more than the small town that it was when we first came. Good or not, things change. But we like it and if all the tourists in town count, so do they.

Our RV park in the middle of town has changed owners three times since we have been coming here, and prices have gone up (they have everywhere to be fair). But it is still a comfortable RV Park, right in the middle of what we want to do.

Last Suppers

Many of our friends in Fredericksburg belong to the “Lunch-a-Lots” crew. They go out to lunch often. We go too.

We went to Woerner’s with Molly and Maureen and Mike and Jackie.

And we took Peggy to Mamacita’s, a nice Mexican place the next day. She likes the food there and they have tamales every day. I like those and they are not commonly on the menus of many Mexican restaurants. Mike and Jackie joined us at the last minute. It wasn’t busy so we had a nice unhurried time to chat.

It is a good way to say goodbye and spend some last time together. We always expect we will see everyone again but you never know.

In a recent article about Tom Sellick, I was reminded of a line from his 1990 western “Quigley Down Under” character who said, “Don’t know where I’m goin’, but there’s no use bein’ late.”

None of us really know where we are going, we can try to keep a hand on the rudder for the journey but the currents take us mostly where they want. There is life to be lived, get busy.

The Brown

Moving North is a time trip, each day moves us backward in the spring season. The landscape gets Browner each day. This year was not much different.

Our first night was in Thackerville, OK. We stayed in an old dreary Mom and Pop RV Park. It was 1/2 the price of the fancy WindStar Casino RV Park but fine for overnight.

And then came the black clouds, lightning, and thunder from every direction. We rolled up and latched the awnings, pulled in the slide, and battened down the hatches. It rained for a while, everything seemed to be some distance away, so we went to bed.

At 11 PM the phones started squawking tornado warnings in the area. A closer read said it was about 10 miles north. The warning expired at 11:45.

We sort of went to sleep again, we had the better part of 8 hrs to drive the next day. At about 2 AM the lightning and thunder were right on top of us, flash – boom. One after another. The thunder sounded almost continuous and the rain was very heavy. All of that was over by about 5 AM. We got some sleep and got up later than we were planning.

We had some breakfast and headed north about 1/4 mile on I35 and traffic came to a dead stop. It took more than 2 hours to go the next 6 miles. They were clearing debris from the interstate.

We were grateful that the tornados missed us. News reports said there were more than a dozen of them in Oklahoma that night. We are sorry for the loss these people and this small town have suffered.

Not much further north and the gray clouds turned to mostly blue skies, at least for us. We still had 8 hrs to go.

By staying on the toll way instead of the freeway we saved an hour and arrived at Lake Melvern Corp of Engineers (COE) Park SW of Kansas City at about 5:30 PM.

We slept well, very quiet here. This is a park we have stayed at before and will again when we come this way again. We should stay for several days, it is that nice. Fishing for seniors is free and the fellow I talked to in the morning already had 4 nice crappies in his creel.

It was surprisingly green in this area, much greener than last year.

We set out in the morning for Saylorville COE Park, just north of Des Moines.

The trees are leafing out, many still in the bud stage. Further along it seems than last year.

Driving towards the Minnesota border with Iowa, the trees were less leafed out, the fields definitely brown but many had been tilled and planted. Sooner than last year.

Towbar

We had a mishap just as we were getting to Minnesota. Our towbar connecting the coach to the F150 suddenly broke. The safety cables did their job keeping the pickup from careening across the highway. The brakes on the pickup did an amazing job of slowing the coach down. We were able to pull off the interstate at an exit and come to a stop.

With no rigid attachment, the pickup bumped into the right rear corner of the coach as we came to a stop.

And some scrapes and dents to the pickup.

Unfortunate, stuff happens. We disconnected the pickup and Susan drove it home following along behind me. We stopped once to double-check, and all seemed OK. Susan got some gas and away we went.

All is repairable, just more things on our summer to-do list.

We got home in the mid-afternoon.

Home Feels Good

We started up the house, the heat was turned up, the water pump turned on, and the water heater on. All three of us are wandering around in a much bigger space.

The moving from the coach to the house happens over several days. The medical appointments start in just a day or two, the list of summer projects is long and will keep us busy. Yes, home feels good.

We leave in just three months for the Oregon coast and the Tetons for August and September. And then in November, off again for the winter.

More Later, Much Love,

Maggie, Susan, and Roger

Wildflowers

Springtime in the Hill Country is famous for its great weather and wildflowers. This year was a bumper crop for the wildflowers with a dry and cooler early season which made the wildflower’s competition do poorly and then timely rain and warm sun got the season off to an early start.

Here are some pictures of some of the flowers I found on the internet which are in approximate order of their bloom sequence. It is only a small sample of the wildflowers found in the Hill Country.

And there are several white flower varieties sprinkled through the bloom as well. The wildflower season is late March into May, April mostly. I think I got this pretty close to right. Some Texas folk might think otherwise but it is close enough to appreciate. Come and see them for yourself and enjoy the Hill Country Spring.

Chicken Fried Steak

As long as we have been coming to Texas, the topic of Chicken Fried Steak (CFS) keeps coming up. Mostly about eating it. For some of our friends down here this is a staple food, it is what they eat when they go out. It is the measure of a restaurant – how good is the Chicken Fried Steak?

Now I think it is probably pretty subjective, sort of like where is the best Bar B Que. It depends. The best places have what you like. And since we have never had CFS, what do we know?

And just what is it? I was imagining it like a rib eye steak dipped in whatever they coat extra crispy KFC chicken with and chucked into a deep fryer. Maybe in some places, it is. You can get CFS at the local DQ. This is not quite fine dining, most likely something that comes out of the freezer and cooks in a deep fryer for 6 minutes.

Well, my local knowledgeable friends say it is a tenderized beef cutlet, dipped in all manner of coatings equal to the number of grandmothers wherever these are served, and maybe twice dipped or three times (ask grandma) and fried in a cast iron skillet. In lard for those who remember back far enough or something healthier more recently.

And served covered in a white gravy so that all that is apparent is a bit of the fried-up crusty edge sticking out here and there.

The meat, the varieties of spiced-up breaded coatings, the method of frying, the oil or lard used, and of course the gravy make up the almost limitless varieties of the best CFS ever.

So we gathered the CFS experts along with the never-had-CFS victims (Susan and me) and went to the Backwoods BBQ for Thursday night only Chicken Fried Steak. The owner cooks these up one at a time to order and brings them to the table herself. The mystery meat (not identified) was coated lightly much as we might do walleye at home, and fried one at a time in cast iron skillets for the appropriate time.

Our CFS was plated (a Food Network term for putting it on a plate) with white peppery gravy, scalloped potatoes, and green beans. And of course, just in case there weren’t enough carbs, two slabs of grilled Texas Toast. As white as it was, if it had been meatballs it could have been a gourmet Swedish supper.

Fork and knife in hand I eagerly sliced off a chunk. This is when I discovered it wasn’t “steak” at all like I imagined it might be but a tenderized (by some unknown means) slab of beef about 5”x8”, maybe a half-inch thick. And then another chunk, one after another.

And it was the best Chicken Fried Steak (and the only one) I had ever had. The thick white gravy was well peppered, the coating, lightly spiced, flaked off when the CFS was sliced, and all combined with the tender meat was quite tasty.

So our CFS experience was pretty good. We may order it again someday depending on what else is on the menu. This is definitely not something we saw on Alabama menus or at home.

Planning The Way Home

Every trip to elsewhere finally turns towards our Minnesota home. Susan says she will miss the warmer weather, green trees, and the feel of spring. Me too, but neither of us (and Maggie) will miss the bloom of stickers and burrs that she attracts on every walk. It must be that they are in season too. They seem to be much more abundant in just the last couple of weeks compared to early March when we arrived. Maggie is getting much more tolerant of us picking them out of her hair.

Maggie looks for the bullfrogs along the pond’s edge but when they jump into the pond she always seems startled. They are very hard to see until they move.

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This year we are aiming at getting home by May 1 at the latest. There are always choices for which way to go. This year will be pretty direct.

Someone in a car might do the return trip in just a couple of long days. We will do it in four days averaging about 325 miles per day. Most of the way home is on the interstate. Our second day will be a bit longer making the third and fourth days shorter.

After an overnight in Thackerville, OK, we are staying at Melvern Lake Army Corps of Engineers (COE) in Kansas and Saylorville Lake COE near Des Moines. These are nice parks, 50 amp hookups, and water. We have stayed at both of them. Corp parks are a preferred stop for us. And with our Senior Interagency Lifetime Pass (the Official Geezer Pass) they are only $12 – 14 per day.

On the last day, we will stop in Albert Lea, MN for a full tank of diesel fuel. We will get home, head for the barn, and plug the coach into power. Then we will go into the house, turn up the heat, turn on the water heater, turn on the water, and check everything out. Then back to the coach for our last night of this trip, a light supper, and early to bed. In the morning the water will be hot, the house will have warmed up to a comfortable temperature, and life will seem very busy.

Moving from one home to the other can wait until the next day. And we will spread it out over a couple of days.

Maggie is ready to head home too. Her best buddy, Scooter, has been waiting for her.

Scooter’s Mom, Luann, mentioned “Maggie” to Scooter and he ran to his favorite chair to see if she was coming.

We showed this picture to Maggie and said “Scooter” and she started barking.

We will get up to Scooter’s in just a day or two as soon as we get home.

In the meantime, we have a lunch scheduled with friends, some packing up to do, some last-minute shopping, and will try to get in a couple of good nights’ sleep. That never seems hard to do.

More Later, Much Love,

Roger, Susan, and Maggie.

Eclipse

Maybe you heard about the total solar eclipse on April 8, 2024. It is hard to imagine anyone missed it. The totality of the eclipse went right over Fredericksburg. And we were there.

Fredericksburg started planning for the massive influx of people coming to see the “Big Blink” almost two years ago. There were planning committees to organize, public services to rally, special rules to make for short-term rentals, and lots of suggestions to landowners on how to protect their property against unwanted hoards. Fences, No Trespassing signage, and more. Texas is a very strong property rights state.

This seems extreme but it was not uncommon.

We made our reservations at the Fredericksburg RV Park two years ago.

Ten days or more before the day of the eclipse the local weather prognosticators from Austin started in with dire warnings for significant cloud cover. Each day closer their bets were hedged with more certainty on one hand and more wishful thinking on the other. The day before the eclipse the sky was stunningly blue, temperatures comfortable, and a light breeze blew from a westerly direction. Hope springs eternal.

The day of the eclipse dawned with high thin clouds, maybe, just maybe, we would see it. The RV park was packed with people from almost every state on either side of the path of totality, most paying twice the daily rate with a four-night minimum. They were from Alaska to California, and Nova Scotia to Florida. Many from Colorado, Utah, Oregon, and Louisiana

There were tripods, cameras, and telescopes in many sites, many with more than one. And some really big ones.

These guys seemed pretty serious the day before getting everything aligned just so.

We got out the lawn chairs and our 3 for $1 eclipse glasses from 2017 and sat with Peggy from across the lane.

We were joined by Gail, a lady from New Mexico staying in the spot next to Peggy. Maggie was more interested in each and every blade of grass or whatever was growing next to Peggie’s RV. And especially the rabbit living under Peggy’s RV. She chased it out a couple of times and tried crawling in after it. Both survived the encounter.

The eclipse started right on time. There are no countdown delays or built-in holds for celestial events. And somehow those science guys have it down to the second.

The pictures from my iPhone with the lens covered with the solar glasses didn’t really show the moon crossing the sun from right to left but the moon did what it was supposed to do. Clouds moved by, opening up to see it quite well and hiding it too, just as often.

It was daytime.

And then nighttime. The nighttime solar lights came on. Maggie behaved. Nothing odd from the birds.

The entire event was pretty fun to see again. 2017 in the Tetons seemed much more dramatic. Not much hoopla here. Some cheering. I think it was a group of several RVs from Louisiana.

The local newspaper reported later in the week that the expected crowd numbers were much overinflated. Plenty of folks did come, RV parks, hotels, and short-term rentals were full. There were no significant issues, life moved on. They compared the crowds and economic impact to any summer weekend when a festival (wine or music) event was happening. Oktober Fest has a bigger local impact.

There were theories that the potential for clouds, always a significant possibility here, made people change their plans. We had friends coming to FBG from Minnesota for the eclipse event. They were going to be here for a week or so. After two years of planning and getting halfway here, they went to Indianapolis instead because of cloud concerns. We hope they got to see what they wanted to see. We never heard.

And we got down to see our friends Keith and Jo who were in an RV park in Kerrville for the eclipse along with several other Foretravel folk.

Keith recently retired, but Jo has not yet. They are eagerly anticipating more RV time.

Shore Lunch

Susan and I brought a couple of Haralson Apple pies (frozen and uncooked) from home as well as wild line caught flash frozen walleye (Minnesota’s State Fish) to have a shore lunch with friends here in Fredericksburg. We thought we would do it here but it worked out better for Mike and Jackie to host lunch at their nearby home. He has a good gas grill, I have a cast iron griddle. Everything that we needed to cook the fish. We cooked the pie in the morning and then we all met over there.

I managed to not get Mike in these pictures. Another great time with friends.

Dog Wash

There is a dog wash station in town which is part of the nearby car wash. $10. 10 minutes. It is like the you-do-it car wash. Soap, rinse, conditioner, rinse, blow dry. It worked pretty well. The first time we washed Maggie we used their shampoo and conditioner. The next time we used our own. It smells better to us. No idea what Maggie thinks. She does not like the blow-dry part, it is the noise, I think.

She gets mostly dried off and then some finishing up at home. A nice walk in the sun works well.

National Museum of the Pacific War

Chester Nimitz was born and raised in Fredericksburg and was a Fleet Admiral in the US Navy during World War II and was the Commander in Chief of the Pacific Fleet commanding all air, land, and sea forces. The National Museum of the Pacific War is located in Fredericksburg, TX.

https://www.pacificwarmuseum.org

While we were in Fredericksburg there was a re-enactment of a battle where a Medal of Honor was awarded for heroism. I went to see one honoring Sgt Darrell Cole.

https://www.cmohs.org/recipients/darrell-s-cole

It was a cold day, not even 40 degrees, but the amphitheater was full. I am sure on Iwo Jima it was much warmer.

There were many veterans in the audience who stood and were recognized for their service. Most of us have no idea of the noise and ferocity of the fighting in war. We give thanks and gratitude for all they gave and for all we have.

Interesting RVs

One day this pulled in. It is a camper from Germany built on a MAN 4×4 military truck. Giant wheels and a very high cab.

There was a motorcycle rack that went up and down on the back end, not many windows, and few of the creature comforts we are used to. We have seen these before in Utah. Off-road capable but that comes with a top speed of 50 or maybe 55 MPH. This was a German couple traveling in North America. They had not been to Minnesota yet.

Birthdays

At the end of March and the beginning of April, our friend Mike and I celebrate birthdays. We have both had some health challenges in the past couple of years so we are especially grateful to be celebrating another birthday with each other.

We went to the Camp Verde General Store for lunch and the fellowship of good friends.

That is plenty for now and the month is only half over.

More Later, Much Love

Susan, Maggie, and Roger