A Delightful Time in Texas…

And so it happened… my last day in Rockport showed up on the calendar. As morning dawned it was time to hit the road… but alas, this time would be different. Why? Well, with Sharon still in North Carolina, this would be first time I'd move without my trusty side-kick and navigator…

My stress level was a bit higher than normal as I embarked upon my checklist. I readied the inside of the RV for travel then it was outside to pull in the sewer and water hookups. With everything nearly ready I fired up the RV and let her run a bit as I pulled in the slides and brought up the jacks.

One final trip outside to pull in the power cord and the wheels were ready to roll. I pulled out of the site a bit so I had room to maneuver our Honda CRV in behind to get it ready to tow. After texting Sharon to verify what needed to be done to prepare the CRV I completed the sequence. Attaching the tow bar was managed by myself without issue so all that was left was checking the lights and turn signals.

It took a while as I had to do a little jiggling to get all the lights to work properly. I guess the salt air took a toll on the electronics so I made a mental note to clean them thoroughly at my next site. With the checklist complete I hopped into the driver's seat, put it in drive and off I went. I did pause to double and triple check the route to ensure there would be no surprises. About two hours later I pulled into the county park in Shiner, Texas!

Disconnecting the CRV and backing in by myself in the empty park with double wide slots was easier than I expected so it wasn’t long before I was all hooked up. After settling in I figured I needed a reward so off I went to the Spoetzel Brewery, home to Texas Shiner Beer. While we have visited the brewery many times before, things sure had changed.

No longer were free samples allowed but for only $5.00 I received two tokens which could be exchanged for two pints of any Shiner beer. My choice was the Black Lager which I carried outside where I found a fellow strumming his guitar and bellowing out some great lyrics. How nice it was to hear live music again!! It was a great way to unwind after a travel day.

The next day I had gone in the CRV for one more quick visit to see my son and his family in San Antonio. Our grandson Cameron wanted to show me his new skateboard. Afterwards, we enjoyed a nice time down in the Pearl District of San Antonio where we took in some people watching and enjoyed a nice craft beer while doing so.My son made a great dinner to finish the day off.

The next morning I left and on the way home I went over to the nearby town of Gonzales to check out the town and play a little disc golf. Gonzales is a town Sharon and I will have to visit again some day to check out its history. Before I got all the way home I stopped in Luling Texas and picked up some of the best BBQ brisket you will ever eat from City Market. Yum!

Once back in Shiner I had to check out a place I heard about called Howard’s. I couldn’t really believe what I had heard about this little dive so I had to see it for myself. I pulled into the front of what appeared to be a run down convenience store. As I walked in and looked around sure enough there were a lot of VHS videos for rent, Blue Bell ice cream for sale and yes beer on tap for sale!

I bought a large draft Shiner Bock for a pittance of $2.75 and sat in a booth by the front door. As I sat I saw one cowboy after another walk into the store, plunk down $2.75 for a draft of their choice then leave the store, get back into their pick-up truck and drive off. Yes, it was true! This little dive sells draft beer to people who plan to buy one for the road!!! It’s as if the clock had turned back in time which made for another entertaining day on this Road of Retirement…

NOTE:  While Sharon is in North Carolina I am now currently at in College Station, Texas until  June 15th…

Magnolia Market and Snake Porn in Waco Texas…

One of the main attractions for many who visit Waco Texas is the Magnolia Market at the Silos, a creation of Chip and Joanna Gaines of the TV show Fixer Upper. As I mentioned before they have really put Waco on the map. At a cost of 1.4 million dollars they opened the Magnolia complex in October of 2015.

The Magnolia complex is basically a large area with a few stores which surround a large courtyard/playground. There are several food trucks parked along the perimeter of the complex offering an assortment of eats. Home decorating and tourist items can be found in the stores but there is also a seed shop selling plants and a fabulous little bakery selling goodies. One tip we can offer is don’t pay for parking. There are signs everywhere offering parking spaces for $5 to $10 yet there is free parking adjacent to the property right off of 8th Street. Another tip is go early during the weekdays as it will be packed with people…

Sharon enjoyed browsing but did not purchase anything since we don’t own a sticks and bricks house. However we could not resist the Silos Baking Co. bakery filled with Joanna's personal recipes and hand-picked favorites. Some of those favorites were "The Prize Pig" bacon and cheddar biscuit and the "Nuts & Bolts" cupcake  which both sounded delightful but it was the large pecan and walnut topped cinnamon roll that won our stomachs over. All I can say it it was very DELISH!!!!

A nice feature at the complex is a free city trolley which takes visitors on a loop of the downtown area. It has a pre-recorded infomercial about Waco playing while driving around and we soon knew all there is to know about what to see or do in Waco. It isn’t a very long tour but the fact that you can hop on and off allows for visitors to easily enjoy other shopping, eating and drinking establishments in downtown Waco.

Since it didn’t take us too long to explore the Magnolia Market at the Silos we found the Lake Waco Wetlands. It is a haven for wetlands critters but also has some hiking trails and boardwalks which gave us an up-close and personal look into the interior of a fresh water marsh. The highlight on this trip was some snakes and crawfish we saw doing some interesting things.

Alongside one of the open water ponds there was a culvert which had water gushing into it as the water source of the pond. Interestingly there were crawfish that appeared to be climbing up a small bank alongside the culvert and then “jumping” off the edge into the swirling waters inside the culvert. It was a mystery we puzzled over and finally figured there could only be two plausible explanations for their behavior.

One is that they were simply having fun – like a water themed park ride and they were riding the wave! A more likely explanation was that there were lots of small fish inside the culvert and this behavior was more likely an elaborate hunting technique with the crawfish hoping to snag a fish as it swirled around the current. Either way it was absolute fun watching them…

Even cooler than seeing the crawfish was the fact that there were also about three to five Water Snakes who were there also hunting the schooling fish. We saw several small fish meet their demise as a Yellow Bellied Water Snake would spear one in its mouth and then swim off so it could secure it better to finish swallowing it. Very cool!

What could top these fun sightings? Well while watching the snakes hunt fish two of them started coiling up together and before we knew it, they were doing the dirty. Yep that's right – snake porn before our very eyes. Check out videos I linked here to see them doing the dirty as well as one that shows one of the snakes spearing a small fish. Sharon caught the fish spearing on video and if you watch it you will hear her excitement at capturing it on film… 

NOTE: We left Waco Texas and went to Jacksboro Texas to hide out for part of the Memorial Day weekend but are now in Wichita Falls, Texas…

Last Day in Little Rock Then Off to Alabama…

Our last day in Little Rock we experienced a few scattered rain showers so we made no real plans to explore the area any more than we already had. However when the rain let up we decided to take a long walk into the downtown area. From the campground we walked across the Clinton Bridge and hung a right walking along the Arkansas River.

We came across a Natural Science Center and strolled in finding lots of critters being held captive in their little ecosystems. Snakes, fish, lizards and more were on display. Outside the museum the grounds had a fantastic display of local wild flora with identifications making it not only a sight for the eyes but one for the brain as well…

Further along the trail we came across the Old State House Museum which had been previously pointed out to us on our trolley ride. Our trolley driver explained that this was the site of President Clinton’s campaign headquarters and the scene of an epic party after his presidential win! As we walked by we noticed their entry sign so we were enticed  to explore its confines. We found it to be a super cool historical building.  We wandered the exhibits downstairs then made our way up and down dark stained wooden staircases which creaked with age as we climbed.  Around every corner we found interesting artifacts and historical photographs to explore.

Afterward we moved on along the the roads parallel to the river and found the Arts bldg. where the symphonies in Little Rock are held. Heading south from the river we walked along a road littered with small stores and eclectic restaurants. Some looked quite interesting but it was way too early for a quick meal. After about a half mile walking south we made the turn back toward the downtown area.

The city of Little Rock has a bit of a bad image as they are known for being a high crime area. However, the crime areas are mostly outside of where we walked. Most of the people we encountered were very friendly. Even the one lady in her  mobility scooter who asked if we would buy her a cheeseburger was mostly harmless. We thoroughly enjoyed our stroll in downtown Little Rock and hope to return to enjoy it again one day…

As we were heading back we came across the Flying Saucer a regional chain with banners boasting  their having a hundred taps of craft beer and a hefty food menu. It once again beckoned us to enter so we moseyed up to the bar and ordered a nice craft beer to cheer our wonderful stay in Little Rock. A perfect way to end our stay!

The next morning we broke camp and prepared for what would be an abnormally long drive for us of 281 miles to Red Bay Alabama…

Note: We are still in Red Bay Alabama getting some work done on our RV…

Como Park, Maze Trail, Dakota City and more…

After our initial appointments for our annual checkups at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester we both discovered that we needed further tests. I had two punch biopsies of moles taken off my body both of which had to be sent for testing.  Sharon also had a polyp to be biopsied after her colonoscopy. It seemed to take forever to hear the results but we finally got good news we were hoping for and were cleared to leave….

While awaiting our results we stayed at Dakota County Fairgrounds in Farmington, MN which was the perfect location. Not only was there plenty of space at our water and 50 amp electric site (for $25/night) there also was a cool historical village called the Dakota City to explore adjacent to the RV park.

We took many strolls around Dakota City checking out each of the restored buildings and marveled at how well they were displayed to project the time era in which they were built. Some from the late 1800’s and others from the early 1900’s made for some whimsical walks. They do give tours, for a small fee, two days a week and the tour guides dress in era appropriate clothing.

My favorite building was a early 1890’s house that was meticulously landscaped and had an exquisite garden outback with beautiful ripening heirloom tomatoes. Eggplants were fruiting and lettuce, cucumbers and pumpkins were in the ground waiting for their turn. It was very, very tempting to pick some of their tomatoes but we fought the temptation and left them for others to enjoy..

Lastly, in the park, there was also a rather nice hiking trail or maybe a better wording would be a hiking maze in the prairie beside the park. These mowed trails through the neck high grass and wildflowers interconnected allowing one to wander around for hours taking in the sights of the prairie. A few garter snakes and a leopard frog were spotted as well as some sparrows and goldfinches. It really was relaxing and pleasant to wander through the maze of trails…

   

We did make one last excursion back up to St. Paul to see the Como Park Zoo and Conservatory. This was another free, donations accepted facility.  It is interesting how many of the communities in the northern states have set aside land to take care of injured wildlife by providing homes for them in these community zoos. In these zoos we noticed there were regular “zoo animals” as well. This one was nice and well attended.

Our favorite exhibits were the monkeys and apes as many of them were carrying their babies around with them. After leaving the zoo we drove over to see the Minniehaha Falls. It really was quite a beautiful waterfall right in the middle of town. We had to pay to park to see it but the money spent was well worth the attraction.

Another day while waiting for our results a blog reader, Jim Stein drove over to meet us.  He and his wife have a new Winnebago Motorhome and are excited about traveling full time in August.  It was really fun getting to know Jim and we hope to meet again perhaps this winter in Arizona.  What a treat it was to have this nice visit.

We needed all these distractions until we finally received our release from the Mayo. We were so relieved and more than ready to get back to traveling. Now we plan to head further west and see what adventures lie in wake for us On the Road of Retirement…

NOTE: We are now sitting for a few days in the Mel Rieman COE Campground in North Dakota…