Vacation Fall 2018, unexpected destination.

Friday night we got the camper all loaded and ready to close down and the motor quit halfway down. It would go up, just not more than halfway down.

So much for getting an early start Saturday.

Rain was coming so Brian went to Harbor Freight and got a big tarp to cover it that turned out to be big enough to cover half the house. Brian took the cover off the motor and fiddled with it and it still wouldn’t go down. We finally found the manual crank Saturday and got it the rest of the way down, I called the RV place we bought it at and they said they couldn’t see it until Monday. So I made an appointment for Monday at 10.

So, two days wasted we could have been somewhere else.

The original plan was to go to Lake Greeson in Arkansas but cold nasty weather looked like it was going to be too cold and wet to think about fishing out of our kayaks so we decided to go south instead. Goal: Lake Amistad on the Rio Grande. No kayaks because it’s still going to be cold. Fishing poles because who knows, we might take the opportunity for some bank fishing.

We finally get to the RV place and it turns out, the service department is at another location. We get there and they tell us because of the rain, the tech isn’t there but they’ll call him and get him to come in. Be nice if they called us and told us this!

The tech finally got there and looked at things and found the limit sensor was broken free of the track it rides on. It was riding too far on the side and when it hit the side, the motor stopped. Of course they didn’t have the part and he showed us how to work around it so that’s probably what we will do until time to trade it if we can.

By that time, it was nearly noon and we wouldn’t be rolling into the park we planned on until after dark and be setting up in the rain.

Time to rethink the destination.

We settled on Pedernales Falls State Park just west of Austin.

It rained all the way there but let up just a little for us to get set up. Then find out there’s no propane. Take that in to town and get it exchanged for a full one, back to camp and hot soup for supper.

Cold and rainy all night, gray day in the morning. It’s a light rain and if you’re waterproofed, not bad for walking so we do. There’s a trail from the campground to Twin Falls so we take it. We walk maybe half a mile in and see two small waterfalls pouring into a creek, lots of water moving. Being cold and cloudy, nothing much moving or making sounds. We saw a group of deer that weren’t too alarmed by us and saw 3 cardinals.

After that walk is over, we drive down to the falls the park is named after. Instead of being a flow of blue green water, it’s a raging mass of water the color of chocolate milk. You feel the sound of pounding water as well as hear it. It’s so loud we can actually hear it at the campground. There is a lot of power there.

Then we drive in to Johnson City and visit the President Johnson Historical Park. There we watch a short film about President Johnson and look at exhibits at the museum there. We are told the LBJ Ranch is closed because the bridge over the Pedernales River is closed due to the rains.

We have lunch at a Mexican place and on the tv is the local station reporting on the floods, the Llano River is well past flood stage and they are worried about the lake system that goes through Austin. As we sit there and eat, Lake Travis rises a foot.

On the way back to the campground we stop at a winery for a tasting. Pleasant hostess and nice wines. I bought a bottle.

We drive down an interesting road that goes past the state park until it comes to a low water crossing that turns out not to be that low. We decide not to cross. Back to camp, we take a couple more walks around the campground have a light supper. We both read a while and then to bed.

There were deer everywhere. One herd kept wandering through the campground and we saw them in many places in the fields and among the trees by the roads. There are also many fields with goats, they seem to be popular livestock here along with exotic deer from overseas.

After a toasty night in my heated bed, we get up, have coffee, shower. Neither of us wants to cook breakfast so we drive into town to the Mexican place to eat. After a good breakfast, we head for Fredericksburg. We park and walk up and back a couple of blocks. Most of the shops all have the same stuff but there’s a couple of them that have interesting things.

Lunch time so we eat at an Amish deli. Or that’s what they call themselves. They sell Amish furniture too.

We took a little side trip on the way back to see Luchenbach, just because.

On the way back, we take Ranch road 1 which goes close to the Pedernales River. We can see the debris line where the water was up to yesterday. There are a couple of bridges across the river which have flood debris across them where they were covered yesterday. We cross one of them to visit the LBJ Ranch.

There are huge old oaks over beautiful green grass going down to the river. The family cemetery has the biggest trees with a stone and iron fence going around it. Very peaceful.

There is a driving tour around the part of the ranch that is open to the public with placards telling things about the ranch. Descendants of his prize winning Hereford cattle roam around parts of the ranch. The driving tour ends at the main house. It is closed to tours inside the house today but we can walk around outside it. The area is beautiful and peaceful and you can see why President Johnson drew so much strength from it.

Back to camp and it’s chili dogs for supper. I had bought Hormel chili dog sauce and don’t recommend it, it was weirdly viscous and didn’t have that much flavor.

We’ve chatted a bit with one of our neighbors and they had a fire going so we went over and talked a while then it was bedtime.

Breakfast again at the Mexican place. Then we decide to drive to San Antonio and visit the old Spanish missions.

That takes about 3 hours then we have a light picnic lunch and call a friend of mine who lives there. She’s home and we go visit for a few hours. She already has plans for the evening so we don’t stay too long. For dinner, she recommends a place called The Cove which is part laundromat, part car wash and part diner. The food is good and much of it is locally sourced or from individual farms.

Driving home, it gets misty and foggy on the hilltops. We get back to camp about 8 and not too much later it’s bedtime.

It’s a noisy night in the campground, the neighbors on one side are listening to music, not loud enough to hear the words or recognize the song but loud enough to hear. And behind us somewhere someone is watching a horror flick. It’s not loud enough to keep us awake, but it’s loud enough to remind us there are people nearby.

We’ve had a break in the rain a bit yesterday and today but it seems to be coming back now.

Today is our anniversary, 27 years ago, we got married.

After a slow start we head for Gruene. We take the scenic route and get there about 11. Lunch at a Mexican place and then roam around the shops. This time I find more things I want to buy. When we get through with that, it’s only 2:30 so I remember a nice cave we visited before and think it would be nice to see again. We get there and it has turned into a major commercial operation. Tickets are $34 a piece and we decide we don’t need to see it again that badly.

On the way back to camp, we stop in Blanco to see the state park there. It’s old and shows it, some of the main buildings were built by the CCC. It’s a pretty park on a nice stretch of the Blanco River. It would be a nice place to camp and fish or do a little kayaking.

Nearly back to camp, we stop by the grocery store in Johnson City and I get a can of soup since neither of us are very hungry. Back at camp I cut up some potato and add some seasoning to it and turn it into chicken adobo soup with potato and rice. It was good and just enough for the two of us. It’s not actively raining so we sit outside for a while then we straighten up inside the camper because it’s time to go home in the morning.

Got up, no rain. Of course the rain would stop the day we go home. We nearly see the sun at sunrise.

We get camp closed up and packed away, including trouble with the winch getting the camper top down. We took the cover off it and used the work-around they showed us.

Breakfast at the Mexican place again then hit the road north. We stopped on the way through Cleburn at the RV repair place to check on a quote for the winch repair. They tell us it’s covered by warranty and they have the part ordered so there will be no charge on it. Yippee!!

Home and Lucky has an extreme case of wrong side of the door-itis that hopefully will be worn off by tomorrow. Now laundry is going and tv is on catching up on the news.

I give great kudos to Texas Parks and Wildlife department for the bathroom at the campground. It was new and was heated, well lit, and had two gender-neutral bathrooms that were entirety handicap accessible with shower, sink and toilet in one huge room. I just wish they would splurge a little on paper products…no paper towels and the toilet paper was thin enough to almost see through.