Day Trips From Canyon Lake in Texas…

With Katie and Brooks back in North Carolina and our grandkids back in school we went back home to Cranes Mill COEPark to chill at the RV for a while. However, since our son Jason and his bride Kelly had a few more days off they drove out to the RV park so we could show them a few of our Texas Hill Country favorites..

No trip to the hill country would be complete without a stop to Luckenbach Texas. Since Kelly hadn’t been to this cool place nor the town of Fredericksburg we made a long loop drive to include them both.

The first stop was Fredericksburg where we found a free paring spot on a side road off the main drag. From there we walked the blocks of downtown first up one side and then back down the other so Kelly could take in all the sights. We of course stopped in at one of my favorite stores. This particular store sells all kinds of sauces, relishes, jelly and pickled products but best of all encourages visitors to sample dang near every one of them.

We made our way through tasting the products that appealed to each of us and for me that meant heading back to where the hottest of the hot sauces were located. Man I love some of these hot sauces but they are so hot they would probably sit in my refrigerator for years taking up very valuable cooling space. So sampling once a year is what satisfies my need for a hotter than hell sauce. Jason saw me trying one that was over 500,000 scoville units. To put this in perspective a jalapeno is about 2000 scoville units so this sauce was 2500 times hotter that a jalapeno! He tried it too and we had a laugh about the burn.

After Fredericksburg we stopped at Luckenbach for happy hour beers and to listen to some music. We apparently chose a poor day to do so as there were workers reroofing the bathrooms and making a lot of noise so the music was inside the small bar rather than out on the back porch area. We still opted to relax outside with our beers to point out to Kelly the resident rooster and cat who were both mingling with the small crowd. Although it wasn’t ideal, I think Kelly still was able to enjoy spending an afternoon at this legendary place she'd always wanted to visit.

Another day we took a loop drive over to Pedernales Falls for a hike. Pedernales Falls, or P-falls, as we used to call it in our younger days is a gem of the Texas Hill Country. Both Jason and Kelly had never been there so it was a treat to show them the trails to P-Falls. As always the scenery of the Pedernales River cutting through the limestone and reshaping it was a feast for the eyes.

We sure have been having a great time in the Texas Hill Country enjoying beautiful weather, brilliant wildflowers and making memories with our family…

NOTE: We left Cranes Mill Park on Canyon Lake in the hill country of Texas and moved just about 35 miles north to Blanco State Park for three nights. We are now in Waco Texas…

A Family Reunion in San Antonio, Texas…

With our bellies full of BBQ it was time to head out of Lockhart State Park. Our next stop was off to Canyon Lake in the hill country of Texas where we will visit our grandkids.We will also be having a small family reunion as Katie and her fiancé Brooks will be flying into San Antonio for a long weekend. Since we will be spending more time at their house than ours we chose a new park to stay at this year.

We drove smaller backroads in the RV over to Canyon Lake and it was raining lightly the whole time as we pulled into Cranes Mill COE Park on the southwest side of Canyon Lake. The rain was coming down pretty hard by then so we just plugged in the RV and set up the inside before leaving for the San Antonio airport to pick up Katie and Brooks.

We were  about an hour early to avoid traffic so we stopped in to check out a brewery called Weathered Souls/ We pulled in to enjoy a cold beer and struck up a conversation with an employee who was enjoying a beer of her own at the bar. She later introduced us to the owner who was a nice fellow and also, by the way, makes some pretty good beer. Check it out if you are in town!

We ambled over to the airport and timed it nearly perfectly for the pickup. From the airport we made our way over to our son Jason and Kelly’s house.We were all excited to see the grandkids Cameron and Adriane again!  We were also introduced to Jason’s new boxer pup Barley.

We spent the weekend enjoying our kids and grandkids. One day Jason had borrowed some cornhole and washer boards so we spent the day mostly playing games while we were smoking a beef brisket and few racks of ribs for dinner. Man were they good…

Another day we went downtown to walk along the San Antonio Riverwalk. This is a fabulous developed area along the San Antonio River as it is meticulously landscaped. There are many choices for refreshments and dining all along the river as well as several hotels and shops. We ended the day at Laundry's for some happy hour beverages and a light snack.  It was great seeing all the family together again and we certainly enjoyed the togetherness but alas, the time came all too quickly for Katie and Brooks to head back home to North Carolina.

We volunteered to take them to the airport as we wanted to go back to the RV. at Canyon Lake.  After three nights away RV it was great to be back home. We will be in Canyon Lake for another week and Jason and Kelly have a few more days off this week so while the kids are in school we will do some hill country touring with them…

NOTE: We are now at Cranes Mill Park on Canyon Lake in the hill country of Texas…