RV Lifestyle : New Tracks Bed and Breakfast, Kyle Texas

For Sheri's birthday this year we stayed in a very nice little bed and breakfast called the "New Tracks 1840 Cabin" in Kyle Texas. You can find it on several Wimberley Texas Bed and Breakfast web sites.

If you're staying the winter in Texas, Kyle is very close to Austin and San Antonio and makes for a very nice visit.

We didn't get a hot breakfast, but we were left some very good pastries and supplies for a nice continental breakfast. Since the cabin is a very romantic spot that was nice and allowed us to get up and start our morning completely at our own pace.

The cabin itself dates to the 1840's. The owner informed us that the cabin itself was moved from near La Grange Texas to the current site and was specifically to create a bed and breakfast. When you understand what they did in terms of moving the cabin - then looking at the foundation, the fencing, and the timbers for the porch, you realize this was an incredible project with incredible attention to detail.

Of course, cabins were almost always one room buildings, and this one was built-on to make it more palatable space-wise for big ole space hungry Americans. Regardless, even the additions were made with a great deal of care, never losing the sense that you are staying in a little bit of history.

There is also a working (small) llama farm so if you are animal-crazy, you get the chance to pet llama's, donkey's, goats, and several other local farm animals. There is a river a long walk away if you feel inclined to go dip in the water. The sky is very dark at night so bring your star guides. You won't have 3G internet or WiFi, so bring a book and prepare to relax.

Let me know what you think of the video. It is my first shot at pretending I'm a small scale Rick Steve!

RV Lifestyle : College Station Texas : Nebraska versus A&M

[ We'll update this post throughout the weekend of the game. ]

Hello fellow RV'ers. Sheri and I took Puma down to College Station Texas for the 2010 Big 12 regular season game between the Nebraska Cornhuskers and Texas A&M.

This is the first time we've taken Puma off of 'life support'. We don't have a generator so we're going to try to do it all on the battery.

Getting to College Station Friday night with the RV :

From Austin, we took 620 North, then Toll 45 to Toll 130, then Texas 79 to Milano, 36 south, 21 north, 47 south right into College Station.

Keep in mind we did this at quittin' time Friday. There was NO traffic to speak. It was an easy trip. When we got to College Station, we stopped at a convenience store and filled our fresh water tank. No we didn't disinfect, which you should, but we're not going to drink the water from the tank. We brought fresh drinking water separately. When we go back on city water, we'll flush the lines. Feel free to post comments on that concept.

We're setup @ Lot 50 and we're about 500 yards from the stadium. It is a good walk, but not too bad. We get to park in 4 parking spaces. It was a trick getting Puma in. Definitely travel trailers are the hardest rigs to get parked. She isn't perfectly level, but not too bad.

First Night :

Bought a 6 pack of beer, shared 4 of them with friends (guess I'm not a hard core partier like some of the tailgaters).

Had two friends stop by. Then while I was outside a RED suburban pulled up with a travel trailer. It was an old Nebraska friend that I worked with in Austin. Jim and I talked and had some scotch until 12:45 AM. Boy was I tired.

One downside to tailgating : At 4:30AM in the morning some IMBECILES starting playing that moronic game where you throw a beanbag into a board with a hole in it. They were acting like it was the Olympics. Not to mention they were loud and obnoxious. [ Please Lord do not let them be Huskers. ]

Update - They were Aggies [ hee hee ].

Game Day :

Roamed around and met other tailgaters.

Food and drinks were the watchword for the day!

One thing we did notice : The Honda generator stands out in the tailgating crowd. It is amazingly quiet. I also noticed that the Yamaha generator was quiet. Rumor has it that the LP gas generators run you out of LP really quickly and are less convenient to get fuel easily. One more generator note - several people had two Honda 2000's instead of one 4000 which I think is a cost thing.

Having your 'bed' with you (the RV) is really cool. We took a Saturday nap! We're a few hours from game time so things are really starting up! One other thing - we don't even have to worry about bed bugs!

As the day progressed, we got a little tired so we went back to Puma and took a nap. How cool was that.

We headed for the game later that day and enjoyed a wonderful football game. Would have loved to see the beloved Cornhuskers win, but that was not in the cards.

Heading Home on Sunday : Since we had a travel trailer, there was NO WAY (in my opinion) to get our of our parking spot without other folks moving first. We just didn't have enough turning radius.

The good thing is that even though pull out deadline was 2pm, most people were out by 10am. We pulled our fresh water drain so we could be lighter. I don't think we used more than about 15-20 gallons which are now in the gray/black tanks. We elected to drive home with the 20 gallon load (about 160 extra pounds).

We were worried about battery capacity, but we got the slide in just fine and found we had only took the battery down about a 1/3 (third). Not sure how accurate the gauges are, but I do think we had plenty of battery.

All in all a great first trip for dry camping. So, even if you don't have a generator, don't be afraid to go camping on your battery. You can do lots - you just can't have air/heat or TV. But those are survivable. Happy tailgating!

RV Destinations : Syracuse Nebraska German Fest

I'm not actually going to claim that Syracuse Nebraska's German Fest is a RV destination like Niagara, Disneyworld, Grand Canyon, or Yellowstone.

But I can tell you what it is to me! (I was born and raised in Nebraska). It is a nice little town, celebrating its heritage [ Nebraska was settled by the railroad companies basically sending settlers, primarily ethnically, but that was because of how the ships came into New York, out to the midwest to make little towns ]. Syracuse was created by a small group of German settlers. Nearly 200 years later, they try to retain their heritage, have a little fun, and they do it in a real family way. Maybe this isn't an immensely memorable location to visit (compared to famous places), but it truly is a piece of Americana. We had a great time, the kids had fun, and I was proud to be an American and take part in a little community making a go of it in this big brave world!

So if you are nearby, perhaps on I-80, 20 miles to the north, maybe you can stop by and spend the afternoon and meet some small town folk.

RV Destinations : Bluebonnets in Marble Falls

Earlier I provided a Bluebonnet Alert and had mentioned I would upload video. Again, I do not claim to be the world's best videographer, but hopefully this video will get across the idea on the bluebonnets this year (2010). There were actually BETTER patches than the ones I have here (they were near Mason Texas).

We videoed this while we were staying at Millers Creek RV Park in Johnson City.

A comment worth mentioning... the bluebonnets were so thick and if you were by a lake that you would see them from a distance and could mistake them for water. Sheri did this at least once and she has outstanding vision...

RV Destinations : Johnson City

Johnson City is on the road between Fredericksburg and Austin Texas and is located in heart of the Texas Hill Country.

It is a very small place and while you might enjoy a Johnson City market days on an occasional saturday you might not find a great deal to do there. As Sheri and I passed through one day while we were staying in our RV out at Millers Creek RV Park, we shot a little video in Johnson City at this most curious building. A better videographer could probably capture the colors and shapes of this very artistic place, but I gave it my best try. Isn't this the most curious place?

RV Destinations : Marble Falls Main Street Market Days

While we had our RV (named Puma) out at Millers Creek, we had the opportunity to visit the Marble Falls Main Street Market Days.

First we have to say that Marble Falls is just a neat place even without the Market Days. For example, you can have lunch or dinner right on the Colorado River.  Marble Falls is located nearby Austin, Kerrville, San Antonio, and Fredericksburg in the Texas Hill country. It is located in a region called the Texas Highland Lakes area (Buchanon, LBJ, Inks).

Anyway, this is one of the classier Market Days and as usual, I found some great hot sauce. I never claimed to be great at video, but hopefully after viewing this video you'll have a better idea if you want to go and that you WILL. Sheri and I recommend it.

RV Destinations : Bluebonnet ALERT

Today is April 11, 2010. If you are anywhere NEAR Marble Falls and want to see the Texas Bluebonnets then I highly recommend that you locate Horseshoe Bay on the map (about 10 min from Marble Falls) and drive to Horseshoe Bay. I've lived in Texas since 1993 and never, even in my life have I seen Bluebonnets like I have ever seen at Horseshoe Bay.

I'll be very specific. Once you get to Horseshoe Bay, drive on "Fergeson Drive" towards the power plant. Complete fields are full of bluebonnets. It is absolutely stunning and the best display I've ever seen. I have taken some video, which I'll post in the next few days (video is very time consuming).

To put in perspective, I live in Austin and have driven the 290 between Austin and Houston. Everyone knows that is a 'nice' bluebonnet drive. Well, folks, this PALES, in comparison to the Horseshoe Bay.

Enjoy everyone.

RV Destinations : Great Short Article about Roswell New Mexico

This is a nice RV destination article about Roswell New Mexico and Area 51. It caught my eye and had a few nice pointers about the area and a few dates to mark on your calendar.

For example, in Roswell on July 4, the article states that you probably need to get a reservation even for RV parks due to "Alien Conventions".

Just the term "Alien Convention" gets my curiosity going full tilt. I'll let you decide for yourself. I've never been to Roswell personally and I think I have about 50 places on the list ahead of it, but it would on the way for a Western US trip.

RV Destinations : The Texas Bluebonnet Wildflower Expo

One of the best times to be in Texas is during the spring when all of the Texas Bluebonnets (the state flower) are in bloom. This year (2010), might be better than usual for the display. If you're going to be in Texas with your RV, then perhaps you can plan your trip around the Bluebonnets and get a little bit of their understated majesty.

The best areas, according an article from the University of Texas is : Wildflower Center conservationists have reported Texas bluebonnets prepping to bloom in granite along roadways between Marble Falls and Llano, Engelmann's daisy along Interstate 10 heading toward El Paso, and Big Bend bluebonnet in and around its namesake parks.


I've also personally witnessed copious amounts of the flowers on Route 290 from Austin to Houston, particularly in and around the Brenham area.

Destinations : Wimberley Texas : Market Days

Last fall, when Sheri and I had the RV ( recreational vehicle ) in Wimberley, we attended Market Days. In our earlier post, we discussed Market Days a bit, but a picture is worth a 1000 words. Attached are scenes from a typical Texas fall day in a fantastic little artistic town in the Texas Hill country. We set the scenes to a little music and attached some notes to each slide.

Destinations : Wimberley Texas : Pioneer Town

One of the neat things we did last fall when we stayed in Wimberley Texas with our RV was to visit Pioneer Town. We were the only people there and it looked closed so we just walked through, but I believe that several times a year they have a nice crowd and very interesting live exhibits.

So you can get a sense of it, we stood on the middle intersection and took a 360 degree view :

Destinations : The Teague Texas Library

This might not seem like a destination, but I thought this was very, very cool. The public library, which is small, in Teague Texas was built in an old bank.

I thought it was funny that the romance novels were in the vault! Anyway, I captured a few pictures and post them here. I'm guessing that unless I write about this little fascinating oddity, no one might even hear about it.

Enjoy.

Destinations : The Fairfield Texas Flea Market

Ok. So maybe this isn't quite a 'destination', but if you are halfway between Dallas and Houston (ok closer to Dallas) on IH45, there are a number of RV ( recreational vehicle ) parks in that area and some little fun activities you can do to enjoy your time a little bit more.

Not far from Fairfield there is an incredibly HUGE tree farm on highway 84 (just Southwest of Fairview). We didn't tour it, but it would be super neat to visit. Trees as far as you can see. For all I know, you may have bought a tree from there (via Lowes or Home Depot) already.

If you have wayward family members, you might be in the area to visit them in prison. I actually DID that. I won't go into that in detail here - but that was a new first for me.

We did visit the Flea Market, and I just can't say much about it. I'll let you see our video and YOU decide.



Enjoy.

Corpus Christi - USS Lexington

This weekend (January 2010) Sheri, myself and the family took a family trip to visit the USS Lexington down in Corpus Christi, Texas.

While this wasn't strictly related to our RV, it is related to ideas about travel and this is a neat destination. From Austin Texas, the Lexington is about 3.5 hours south on I-35/I-37 via San Antonio. There is an alternate route that is really just about as easy which is Texas 181/123 and goes between San Marco and Corpus.

RV Route Recommendation : I would recommend Texas 123/181 over I-35/I-37 in a heartbeat. Very little difference in time, but lots less traffic, wide open roads and would really be an easy drive.

There is a very large bridge right next to the Lex. You can park your car underneath that bridge. From there it is about a three block walk to the Lex. You'll walk up a very long walkway (about 250 yards) and that will get you to the entrance. The pay booth is literally right in the hangar bay of the great carrier.

On board there are five different tours (or routes) you can explore. My favorite is the engine room. You get an idea of BIG when you see the GEARSHIFT for an aircraft carrier and it is the size of two full size Chevy van's right next to each other.

There is a gift shop and cafeteria. Many exhibits are low tech and very simple, but if you are willing, you will learn a great deal. We DID get to view a really good movie which detailed the Red Flag 'competition' at Nellis Air force base in Las Vegas. Very touching and a recommended view for young people interested in working to be a pilot.

We did not have good luck with the kids as they wanted to ROAR through the exhibits. Assess your child or grandchild and decide if they'll go at your pace. There were a great deal of stairs that were very, very steep so call and see how accessible it is if you have moving around.

Here is my LINK to the video of the bridge of the USS Lexington.
Here is my LINK to the video of the flight deck of the USS Lexington.
Here is my LINK to a video of a big ship (ok I think it was kind of cool) leaving the Corpus Christi port.

Hope this helps! Send questions or post a comment! Thanks.

RV Park Review : Llano River RV Park (Mason, TX)

Over Thanksgiving 2009, Sheri and I took our recreational vehicle (RV) which we call Puma up to Mason, TX. Of course we pulled the trailer using Mr. Big, which you can read about earlier.

We stayed at the Llano River RV Park, which is about 5 or 6 miles south of Mason and it is located on route 87 directly on the Llano River.

We pulled Puma up on Tuesday and stayed through Saturday, leaving Saturday and pulling Puma into dry storage in Johnson City, TX. We're so busy in December we decided to just park her.

For those 5 days, we paid $114. We got full hook-ups (Puma is 30Amp), septic/sewer, cable TV (about 15 channels) and WiFi. The WiFi was a little slow, but workable. Our cell phones worked OK outside, but not inside the RV. We have GSM service, so expect your T-Mobile/ATT phones to work but you may have to be outside for good reception.

Probably the most important part our our writeups that we could possibly record for you is the answer to the question : Is the park's web site accurate?

The answer to that is a resounding YES! In fact, the web site really cannot capture the peace and quiet of this wonderful remote location.

Since we were located right by highway 87, we did get a little road noise, but really, it was nothing to even think about.

Here are some of our Thanksgiving notes.

First, it is in the Texas Hill Country and even though that is not South Dakota it still gets chilly. Several nights were wonderfully crisp - getting to about 40 degrees.

Since the nearest Texas city (Austin) is about 2 hours away, it is DARK, DARK, DARK at night. In the summer, star gazing would be wonderful. For us, it was a bit chilly, although we're seriously thinking about a chiminea now! Make sure you brush up on your constellations since you'll get a chance to see the stars - including the milky way from this park.

Next, since it is about 3 hours from San Antonio, but a simple and straight shot, there were several families that come to this park on weekends as a get-a-way, just like Sheri and I are using good old Puma right now. One very kind couple were like honorary park owners (but they rent a spot) and knew everyone and it was very personable. They even invited us to Thanksgiving dinner at the park rec center which is a GREAT place to have a reunion or family dinner. It could easily host about 30-50 people so that is big enough for most reunions. If you ever get there ask Trey and Lela if they ever met a couple from Nebraska that had trouble loving UT! They might remember us.

In Mason, there is a little grocery store, several gas stations and a place to get propane, right on route 87. We'll do a separate little writeup on Mason.

So this park is a KEEPER. Unless of course you don't like peace and quiet. I'm guessing the river has pretty good fishing, but do not know.

I hope these pictures do it justice. Cheers.

The Second Pull - Wimberley to Mason

Thanksgiving 2009 : Sheri and I decided we would tow Puma (our recreational vehicle) from our very first RV park in Wimberley Texas to Mason Texas. I put a Google (thanks Google) map at the bottom of this post so you can see the route we took. We made a little video of some sights and sounds of Wimberley Market Days and Wimberley Pioneer Town.

We did NOT take the route Google suggested, but instead went through Dripping Springs so we had better roads - two lanes each direction mostly. You may not know this, but when displaying a Google map, you can click on the blue line and MOVE the route and Google will completely re-route the map and re-calculate the distances for you. We think our change is a better rv route.

Dripping Springs is a nice place to live, mostly because it is more like a region than a community. But it is not a destination - it is just a place to pass through. That being said, there is a nice RV park close by (we'll try it out and report on it) and it would be great for quiet country living close to Austin. But it is just a place to live, not really close to anything interesting.

One town we passed through is Johnson City Texas. It prides itself on being the birthplace of Lyndon B Johnson. It also looks like a pleasant little town to spend some time as well. We've got an RV park targeted close by Johnson City ( Millers Creek RV Park ) so that is on the radar map too. More on that later. Here is a video of downtown Johnson City. It is a quiet, pleasant little town.

After Johnson City the next little town along the way is Fredericksburg Texas. Fredericksburg is a real gem of Central Texas. It has vineyards, winery's and a wonderful heritage. I believe (based on observation - no measured facts) that the city derives most of its economic activity from tourism. So you'll see it is very touristy. Some Texan's might think that is selling out. Nonetheless, it is a fun, fun place to spend some time.

After Fredericksburg, We pointed Mr Big and Puma up highway 87. If you adore simple countryside - what you might call "an austere beauty" then this drive is a wonderful drive.

I took a few pictures with my cell phone (we forgot the regular digital) of some amazing landscape cut right into the rock alongside the road. I hope you enjoy these pictures. The camera cannot capture their beauty. IT would be an awesome thing to capture with paint and oils.

As far as pulling the trailer it was uneventful EXCEPT we weren't sure if the backup gas tank was full and our main tank was empty!

We will probably consider getting sway bars and we're not sure if our trailer brakes are working so that is a huge concern but these things take quite a bit of expertise.

Cheers for now.

All about Wimberley

When you get to Wimberley with your recreational vehicle, you'll want to know just a few short notes for getting around and getting started that will save you some time.

Note : This is a blog post that we'll update every now and then...

* There is a grocery store called Brookshire's. It is just north of the very little downtown area on Ranch Road 12. (Ranch Road is a Texas terminology, but it is just a highway and that is the name).

* I've found WiFi in the little Wimberley downtown area so you can get emergency WiFi.

* Our cell phones are T-Mobile, which utilize the same radio types as AT&T so we feel pretty confident that both those will work. There is Verizon store in the town so you should have at least those three phone types working.

* Wimberley does not stay up late. You can go out for dinner, but be prepared for your nightlife to be your own - TV, reading, chiminea, campfires, working on computer projects, and visiting with neighbors or yourselves. We've seen where there might be a place open until 10 or midnight that serves a beer or two, but so far, we've not tried it.

* If you are on Wimberley on the first weekend of the month, traffic will surprise you. Plan accordingly.

Here are some very useful links...

* [ Web link for Wimberley Chamber of Commerce ]

* [ Nice web site for Wimberley - not sure who sponsors it. ]

* [ City of Wimberley web site ]

* [ Wikipedia on Wimberley ]

Wimberley Market Days

Wimberley holds a superb event the first weekend of every month (except Jan and Feb).

It is called Market Days.

It is a really a great reason to have your recreational vehicle down in Wimberley for a weekend.

It would be very hard to describe except to say it is one of the most amazing collection of artistic vendors I have ever seen.

A person can find just about anything to personalize a living space under the sun. You can find bottle caps with custom decor that can be made into necklaces as well as ice coolers that really look like great wooden pieces. The ice coolers can even have custom logos of anything you want carved into them.

There are some food vendors, but artistic creations is the watchword.

Some notes we took from our FIRST visit to market days.

* Wear

walking shoes.

* Bring cash. Some folks accept Visa, but cash seems to be king.

* Parking is reasonable, anywhere from $3-$5.

* Start early. Most booths were packing up by 3pm!

* Prepare for heat. Bring a hat.

* Bring a little shopping cart - like a two wheel cart. A bag would work too.

* Food and drinks were reasonable for a festival setting.

* Be prepared to stop and visit with people.

* Leave your dog at home.

* Be mentally prepared for sometimes narrow paths.

[ link to market days here ]

There are other notes about Market Days. When we spoke with the Lions Club (Market Days sponsors) they said people decide not to attend to their booths on a regular basis and you could rent one time in a random spot for $60. You can rent for the whole year (they prefer a 1 year lease) for $500 which is 10 Market Day events.

If you have an artistic 'bent' at all, this is a great venue. One artisan we spoke with

commented that in one day at Market Days he was able to match 3 days at any other event. People are very friendly in Wimberley so it looks like a great place and for $60 to try, that isn't a big risk.

Our First RV Park : Green Acres RV Park

For our first RV park experience, we picked a place in Wimberley Texas called Green Acres RV Park.

[ I tried to get a little video to get an idea of the pleasant LITTLE park. It is at the bottom of this post. ]

The name seems a little bit hokey, but you learn that it is on a street named

Green Acres so really they just adopted the name of the street.

We picked Wimberley because anywhere WEST of Austin is very nice - you will hear it referred to as the Texas Hill Country. There are so many wonderful little towns in the Texas Hill Country that you might want to spend time in each one - that is our plan. Wimberley is located South West of Austin and its only about 45 minutes away.

Also, we liked Wimberley because it is small, friendly and has lots of shops, artsy things, and a very eclectic set of people. You can't really afford real estate in Wimberley, but you can actually find an RV spot near the downtown, and near the river. Surprisingly, even though you could consider a wonderful destination, there were only really three RV parks that Google would point out to us.

Green Acres is one of them. If you are an RV park and you can't be found in Google, I just somehow have to suspect it is hurting your business. Maybe not, but...

We liked this little park because it looked very quiet, was about 75 yards from the Blanco river, has a little hotel within 30 yards of it, it was very, very clean, and was very small.

When we called we did not have to pay to make a reservation. The proprietor was a very nice lady named Lou Vaughn. She doesn't accept credit cards but does accept that funny green stuff and those wierd things called checks! She was so personable that we think that we made a wonderful choice.

We got there in the evening and Lou Vaughn was not around, but she told us just pull on up and hook up and she would catch us in the morning. Within 45 minutes we had water, electric, sewer, cable tv and WiFi. Lou Vaughn wasn't sure the WiFi was working well, but we had wonderful luck with it.

We paid for a month and told her we would be there on weekends whenever we could. So now we have our weekend getaway.

On our first night, when it got very dark, you would be amazed at all the stars you could see. I personally enjoy Austin - my wife - not so much. But in Austin, I have a downtown lights view and overlook a beautiful pool. All that aside, seeing the stars and breathing the fresh country air with almost no traffic noise. That was very peaceful. And needed. Amen.



Green Acres RV Park Wimberley Texas