Potter’s Creek, Canyon Lake, TX and San Antonio April 15 – 29, 2013

Yummy restaurant in Giddings

We left Rocky Creek early enough to get to Giddings in time to have breakfast burritos in Giddings at a local Tex-Mex place Trish told us about – Taqueria Chihuahua.  She told us we couldn’t miss it – between being painted a bright goldenrod yellow and the busy parking lot – and she was right - with good reason, as it turned out.  Rich brought out cheese, egg, and chorizo burritos and extra green sauce and we ate in the parking lot, enjoying the bright flavors of good chorizo and green sauce.  I’m such a fan of good Tex-Mex – something we didn’t have in Florida!

Our Home

Potter’s Creek is another Army Corps of Engineers park and we once again lucked into a nice site for most of our stay. In fact, we enjoyed the location so much we extended our stay a week.  We saw a jackrabbit (my first), lots of deer, and some interesting scenery – a crazy combination of huge houses, restaurants in double wide trailers, lots of cactus, mesquite, juniper, and a marl-like soil.

The Alamo

We visited the Alamo, which was an experience - everyone was strangely subdued in going through the buildings and grounds, which were beautiful yet heartbreaking. It is definitely a location you don’t want to miss.

After the Alamo, we wandered down the River Walk, which is a beautifully landscaped walk along the banks of the San Antonio River, one level below the town. Apparently, instead of paving over an eyesore, one far-sighted city official felt making it a lush, restful shopping and restaurant experience would be more productive. What a good choice! While our meal was far from the best we’ve had thus far, the peaceful walk along the river more than made up for it.

Riverrwalk

After leaving the River Walk, we picked up some groceries and met our friend Ray, who was a post doc at UF while I was there. We arranged to have him out to the park on Saturday so we could catch up.  It was a great visit and we enjoyed seeing him again.

Monday we ended up in New Braunfels where I had to visit the urgent care center – my cold had come back with a vengeance and I was in full-blown asthma/bronchitis. I have to admit, I wasn’t particularly happy with the doctor I saw – he mainly lectured me about not taking antibiotics, then he gave me antibiotics. Rich began getting sick again as well, so we opted to stick at Potter’s Creek for the second week. 

We took a drive around the Devil’s Backbone, which is a drive around an area of canyons where legend has it Confederate soldiers and monks haunt the area. It a rugged terrain with flora that is different than any I’ve known.

Devil's Backbone

The Devil’s Backbone drive included the town of Blanco, which has a number of old, Western-style buildings, a café in the bowling alley that gets 4 ½ stars on TripAdvisor, and the court house is in a small old house.

Old building in Blanco

As with so many of our other campgrounds on this trip, since we were right on a lake, the sunsets were beautiful.

The last weekend we were there had a large group of folks come in just before the campground closed for the night (10 PM). They were noisy setting up, then got quiet, but shortly the noise level was excessive again. That kept up until nearly 4 AM.  Come to find out, one of the rangers had gone by around 10:30 and told them to quiet down and put out their fire (there is a burn ban on due to the drought and high fire risk). They had a ranger in their site on Saturday for some other problem, and Sunday when they left, they just piled up a lot of trash in two campsites, left bottles, cans, and food  and scattered around and took off.  I have to confess, when we found out that there would be steep Federal fines levied against them for the fire, two sites left a mess, and the cost of cleanup, I felt much better! The feds are dead serious about their regulations.  The total in fines and cleanup will be over 1k and there’s no way of getting out of paying. Their file will also be flagged for the next time they try to get in this park.  What goes around comes around.

Next up is Lakeview Park in Coleman, Texas.

Rocky Creek Campground, Sommerville, TX April 10 – 15, 2013

Rocky Creek was an interesting combination of sites – there were a couple of big loops that were wide open and crowded, a couple of tents only loops, and one loop that I suspect was an “overflow” loop – only a half-dozen sites. We were pleased to find ourselves in that one – curmudgeons that we are! For the most part, it was peaceful during our stay.

I was delighted to see bluebonnets  - the iconic Texas wildflower - in bloom as we pulled in. In addition, the area included my first sightings of the wildflowers Indian Paintbrush and winecups as well as Scissor-Tailed Flycatcher birds.

I think I forgot to mention one of the things we noticed in Waco that was repeated here which are covered picnic tables. Presumably due to the high temperatures during the summer, these and the rest of the campgrounds we visited had roofs over the tables.  We have gotten to love it, especially since the spring here has been so windy we’ve not felt comfortable leaving the awning out all the time.

We saw rabbits and deer each day – the deer came across the meadow around 5 PM, then went back the other way around 7 PM. We got so we moved our chairs out about 30 minutes before so we could watch them feed. Typically, rabbits fed among the deer in the evening.

On Wednesday, my cousin, Trish, brought out her two children – Maddie, who is almost 5 and Braydon who is 3. It is the first time I’ve seen the kids and has been years since I’ve seen Trish. It was great to see her – I saw so much of her grandmother in many of her facial expressions and hand gestures, and her mom lives on in her children. We had good talks and I’m looking forward to seeing her next time we’re in the area.

While we were in the area, we couldn’t pass up the opportunity to visit the Bluebell Creamery where  our favorite ice cream is made. We learned that although Bluebell is not distributed throughout the US, it is the third best-selling ice cream nationwide.  After the tour, we had bowls of ice cream and in spite of trying some new flavors, still stick with our three favorites – homemade vanilla, Dutch chocolate, and butter pecan.

Next stop is Potter’s Creek, just north of San Antonio – the Alamo here we come!

MIDWAY PARK, WACO, TEXAS April 1-8, 2013

Rich and Dickens at the covered table

Midway Park was in the middle of town, on the edge of Waco Lake. One loop of the campground had full hookups, but was along a very busy road.  The other loop was along the lake and looped back into an area that was forested with juniper trees, which is where we were. It is the first campground we’ve been to that has covered picnic tables – presumably because of the very hot summers here.  We had some beautiful sunsets over the water and for the most part, beautiful weather. The juniper made a wonderful aroma when burned – I’m a real fan!  

We managed to get to the Texas Ranger Museum, and, in spite of feeling miserable with our colds, we enjoyed all the memorabilia. There was a wonderful film that documented the Texas Rangers, famous captures,  and other high points in their history. There were some wonderful old guns, typical clothes from the period, and Indian artifacts along with sculptures and paintings. In reading about the West, I had read about “batwing” style chaps” and they had a pair here so I could see just how they were different from standard chaps. Standard chaps are leather protection for the cowboy’s legs and are usually laced up along the outside length, covering up the legs of the jeans. This was time consuming and in order to speed the process up, the lacing was removed and instead, the chaps were held together in several places by ties. To add protection to the side of the leg, where the chaps gapped open because of the ties, an extra five or six inches of leather was added to the length of the front part of the chaps. This piece would drape over the ties and cover the gaps to increase protection. The mesquite, which seems to be all over this area, and through which cowboys would have ridden, has three inch long spines which can puncture sneaker soles and even tires. Mesquite is an invasive plant and can survive drought, taking water away from less hardy but more welcome shrubs and trees. 

After our trip through the museum, we drove along the Brazos River (all the western books I read are coming alive here!) and I saw the prettiest house I’ve ever seen. Of course, the setting didn’t hurt! We even turned around and drove past it again so I could get pictures. 

Nolan, Anna, and Kevin

Notice the Texas-shaped sink in the wet bar?

We were camped only about 5 minutes away from our friends, Kevin and Anna’s home, so were lucky enough to spend quite a bit of time with them and their three beautiful children. Nolan is nearly 5 and the twin girls, Emmy and Livy, are 3. Kevin came by camp shortly after we arrived and we slid right back into our friendship as though it had been last week rather than more than ten years since he was a grad student and a regular at our home. After catching up for a while, we followed Kevin to his home and got the tour of their newly purchased home, which is wonderful – lots of unexpected, cool features including a wet bar with a Texas-shaped sink!  We had dinner, reminisced, and caught up for hours, then headed back to camp. The next evening we met Kevin and Anna at their favorite Mexican restaurant for a great dinner. The next day we were planning on having them all out to camp, but the weather was cold, windy, and rainy, and Rich was sick, so it didn’t happen. Kevin left for Dallas for a lecture and got back Friday evening, just in time to pack for a meeting in New Orleans.  We ended up going by to spend some time with Anna and the kids, meet Anna’s mom and brother, and have dinner. We hated to add to the confusion the night before Kevin and Anna were to leave on their trip, but Anna insisted and we had a great time with them.  Kevin was a grad student at UF, where I worked, and he was the first of several students Rich and I “adopted” during their time there.  

Emmy and Dickens

Thanks to Anna as our local fount of information, we had a couple of breakfasts and lunch from a little family-owned Mexican restaurant called Leal’s. Some of the best burritos we’ve ever eaten. For lunch, Rich picked up burritos - a chicken fajita and a beef fajita – and while both were good, the beef was fantastic. The meat had been beautifully seasoned and braised so it was juicy and bursting with flavor. Makes me hungry just thinking about it!

Anna also directed us to our first super HEB store – similar to a super WalMart or our favorite Meijer store from Michigan – and we became fans. Although the bakery isn’t as good as Publix, it is far better than other similar stores. 

Waco has a population of about 125,000 – roughly the same as Gainesville – and at least three times the shopping venues. We liked Waco and enjoyed our time there, in spite of our colds!

Chef Kevin

6 - HICKORY CREEK CAMPGROUND – U.S. ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS – LEWISVILLE, TX March 27 – April 1

We stayed at Hickory Creek because it was close to our friend, Ryan’s home in Frisco and he was going to spend some time with us during our stay.  We pulled in mid-afternoon and had a site on the side of a hill that backed up to a mostly dried up finger of the lake. Just as well, after our last experience! 

One of the interchanges outside Dallas - glad I wasn't driving

Campground

Ryan came out on Thursday mid-morning, spent some time catching up and went to lunch at Rudy’s – the place Rudy’s Rub (yummy stuff!) comes from. It was a real kick – kind of like an old country store with drinks iced down in huge coolers, big rolls of butcher paper for plates, and the best BBQ you’d ever want to eat. We got two kinds of brisket, some spicy sausage, creamed corn, baked beans, and Cole slaw. When you get the meat by the ½ pound, you get several slices of bread, pick your own condiments from pickled Jalapeno and cherry peppers, sliced onions, to pickles, then you build your sandwich and use one of their two sauces – one has lots of black pepper and the other, called sissy sauce, with a small amount of pepper. We loved the full pepper one! 

After lunch, Ryan ferried us around to do some errands, then showed us his new home.  It’s beautiful, but while we were in the garage, I missed a step down  and turned my ankle. Talk about feeling like a dope! We spent some time at the house (me with an ice pack) and then headed back to camp to have dinner. The next morning Ryan came back out and hooked up our new wireless printer and got it to work with the iPad as well as my laptop! We stopped for lunch at Cyclone Anaya’s Mexican Restaurant (marvelous food there as well), then went back to camp for naps.   

Saturday, we fixed eggs Benedict and Ryan showed us his office, took us around to do a couple more errands, and came back to camp. Ryan had commitments that evening and Sunday, so he took his leave. It was great to see him, and we had a great time, but it seemed awfully empty when he left.

Sunday was quiet and we did the usual cleaning up and putting away to get ready to travel the following day.  It’s on to Waco to see Kevin and his family.

5 – Wright Patman Dam, Rocky Point Camp Ground, Texarkana, TX March 20-27, 2013

This campground is one of several developed and owned by the US Army Corps of Engineers around the lake. It is a large campground – more than 120 sites, but unlike the newer campgrounds, the sites are close together and very uneven. One site was so bad, the folks used two four-foot pieces of pine trunk to stabilize the back. The campground was only about one-third capacity during our stay, and it looked as though many of the campers were locals who spend a good amount of time here. I was told that this is the lowest money-maker for the Corps of Engineers of all their Texas parks because it is rarely very full. Unlike many parks, here you are allowed to stay for 40 days at a time between March and September or 120 days from October through February. The extended stays are probably a result of the lack of usage. Most public campgrounds we have stayed at have a maximum stay of two weeks at a time.

Nice view

There’s not much around here to do, and for the three days we’ve been here it has been cold and rainy, so we’ve spent the time tweaking some of the storage in the closets. Rich is headed to the store to get a loaf of bread to use for stuffing  we’ll have tonight with the sage and garlic tenderloin we’re fixing. Maybe tomorrow will be sunny and we can get outside and do some hiking. The nights have been in the 40’s and yesterday the temp didn’t get above 56! This is one of the blessings of having an RV instead of our pop-up or tent – much more comfortable during bad weather! 

Rich is always teasing me about the never ending list of “stuff” I want to bring, which I admit to, but we have a list of “Stuff I’d never Dream of Taking Camping” and are adding to it all the time. We have made another addition to the list here – a full-size chiminea. Other items on our list include a projection TV to use outdoors, cats, birds, hydroponic tomato plants, full-size, free-standing gas grills, a 5-gallon water bottle & water dispenser, and an apartment-sized refrigerator.  To each to his own!

Interesting technique a neighbor had for stabilizing their RV

Sunday, March 24, 2013

Hundreds of white pelicans showed up one day and were gone the next

We’ve had an interesting night and it promises to be the same all day long. A cold front has passed through and the result of that has brought high winds that have been blowing off-and-on since 1 AM and are supposed to increase during the day before decreasing by 8 PM tonight.  As a result, a lake wind advisory that predicts winds of 15-25 mph with gusts 35 to 40 mph. Our site, being right on the lake, has been buffeted by those same winds. 

We’ve had the same thing happen before, but we were in our old pop-up. Neither is particularly fun! This will be a good day to finish up on the blackout curtains I’m making for the bedroom, as long as we don’t get blown into the lake!

The lake was full of white caps for a couple of days

As it turned out, we didn’t do much but hunker down. The winds blew for three days, with gusts up over 45 mph.  We had to pull the slides in because the wind was threatening to tear the slide covers.  Note to self: don’t get sites on a river or lake unless the long range forecast is pleasant! 

Nice sunset

Moonset one morning around 7

We ended up staying an extra day at Rocky Point, but went on to Hickory Creek in Lewisville, TX which is near Dallas, to spend time with our friend, Ryan.