Saturday, April 29, 2017

Here is a video I made about my receiver hitch so I can use a locking hitch pin.


Day 6, still in Texas!

Being in this part of Texas and not stopping by Luckenbach would be crazy, especially for me!  It was a really unusual place to see, kind of what I expected but at the same time not really what I expected.

On one of the door frames bar/post office/general store were a bunch of law enforcement shoulder patches, one of them really caught me attention.















From there we headed to Johnson City to see Lyndon B Johnson's childhood home.  We had a guided tour of the home that was very informative.  It was nice to see the home restored to how it would have looked when LBJ lived there.





This is an interesting print, look really close and what do you see?




I like the chamber pot under the bed, that is how it really was for
many people in our country not that long ago. 



From here we visited Lyndon B Johnson's ranch.  Here is Debra standing next to what they call "Air Force One-Half", it's very small compared to what the president flies in today.  But then again, those were much different times.




Our Roadtrek looks a wee bit tiny when sitting next to a bus.




We left the ranch and started westward again, we were in the hill section of Texas and started seeing many wineries and garden stores.  We stopped at Wildseed Farms and stretched our legs some.

We parked next to another Class B that was in the lot,.  We met them a little later on, nice folks.



This cat was extremely happy resting in a bed of Catnip!






We returned to I-10 and drove until dark, not many choices to park for the night.  We saw on one of our apps, RVParky, the Senora TX Safety Rest Area around mile marker 393.  We pulled in for a safe nights sleep along with several other RV's
 and a bunch of 18 wheelers.

Day 5 On our way through Texas

We stopped at Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center in Austin.  Debra walked through the gardens as I stayed in the Roadtrek with Spike.  It was a bit warm and I wanted to stay with him and keep him company.  I  was also keeping an eye for people leaving that had shaded parking spaces to possibly move to.







We left Austin and continued our path westward and came upon a interesting looking BBQ joint with a recognizable name, Stubb's BBQ at Graceland Grocery.  We actually drove past and had to turn around, much easier in the Roadtrek than if we were still pulling our earlier travel trailer.  

After I parked our RV I went in to order dinner and Debra stayed behind with Spike as he stretched his little legs, a little. After getting his dinner prepared and getting him settled in, she started through the parking lot to join me.   A group of dinners leaving walked by and a man asked her  about her Roadtrek.  He also mentioned that although he had enjoyed his Stubbs BBQ that there is another joint nearby that we should do ourselves the favor of tasting. It is The Salt Lick in Driftwood, TX. not too far away.  So, as we were enjoying our Stubbs BBQ, Debra tells me about the rave review that The Salt Lick BBQ had just received, something about the Food Network.









As we left Stubb's we laughed and said we must stop by the The Salt Lick and get some BBQ for tomorrow's lunch.  And we did just that,  drove out of the way 30 minutes for even more BBQ!

Along the way I saw this and had to do a turn around and look at it up close.  A beautiful specimen of early train traveling days.






Wow, so glad we were told about The Salt Lick!  Pulling into the parking lot was like pulling into a fairground, room for many cars and motor homes.  They even have a place for helicopters to land bringing people such as those taking the Alamo Helicopter Tours.  The aroma in the air was fabulous!  We parked and went inside to order, this place is huge and can handle large crowds.  We ordered a pound of beef brisket and a side of peach cobbler to go.  Tomorrow's lunch is going to be great!





After leaving Driftwood, TX we headed to Fredericksburg, TX and parked for the night at the Walmart Supercenter.  Thanks to Walmart we had another great nights sleep.





Thursday, April 27, 2017

Day 4 - the trip out west continues.

After a great night's sleep we woke up early and ready to hit the road, the weather looks bad and we wanted to try and beat it.  Taking US 165 south from Monroe our first stop was in Columbia. LA.  We stopped because we saw a beautiful green Gothic church and had to see it more closely.   We then spotted another little church, turns out it was a meditation chapel.  Our stop was well worth it to see these two wonderful churches.  Back in the 1800's Columbia was a busy port on the Ouachita River, a lot of cotton passed through the tiny town.






From Columbia we continued south to Lake Charles, LA and drove pass some of the old homes there.  The weather was still stormy and I want to make it to at least a good bit into Texas before night fall.





After a short drive around Lake Charles I pointed the Roadtrek west and Texas soon appeared in the windshield.  We stopped In Conroe, TX for dinner at Manny's BBQ, it was not the best choice, I was looking forward to some great Texas BBQ and this was not it.  Some people probably love it, after all, food is very subjective to being liked or not by everyone.   It was not for me, we still have to find us some of the great BBQ that is created in Texas!  We are hoping that some West Texas BBQ will satisfy our cravings.

This being our our fourth night on our trip I thought it be best to spend the night at a campground so we could fill our freshwater tank, dump our black and gray tanks and enjoy a nice "hotel" shower.  Pulling into Brenham we settled in at the Artesian Park RV Campground.  With our Passport America membership we paid $20 for the night, a great deal.