The west side of Texas Hill Country

Although sad to leave Jerry and Barbara and the rest of our friends at the Berean Bible Church in New Braunfels - we headed out today at just about noon. Taking the 46 west is the best way to get around San Antoinio. It circles this large city to the north; it is a very nice and scenic drive through the Texas Hill Country.

We traveled to Boerne (Bernie) about 40 miles from NB. The 46 takes you through the downtown and west to Interstate 10. Derek and I reminisced as we drove through town. We visited here back in 2008. We were staying at the Guadalupe River State Park and came into town for dinner and a stroll around. It is a well kept and tourism friendly place similar to Fredericksburg. We highly recommend Guadalupe River SP by the way if you are ever looking for a camping spot in these parts. 

The Interstate heading west is actually a really nice drive - very scenic and not to busy - today anyway. We sat back and got comfortable glad to be on the road - again. Boy we sure love seeing new terrain. On our last trip through western Texas we took route 90 along the Rio Grande and so we haven't been on the I10 through Texas before - all new to us.

We decided to drive through Kerrville just off the highway to take a look around. We then decided to follow the 27 until it met back up with the Interstate.

Sure glad we did! WoW!

LOVED IT!

Ok - so NOW we have found our most favourite place in the whole world!

YES, THE WHOLE WORLD!

You know how there are places you like to visit and then places you would like to live. Well I would have to say that everything so far on this trip - and yes even Micanopy and Apalachicola - are places we love to visit. But the Hill Country of Texas and specifically the area to the west of Kerrville says

♥ home ♥

No - we won't ever live here (I don't think) - but boy we wish could. We talked about our 20 acre piece of land out in the boonies, our small but cozy limestone house and all of our animals - goats, sheep, maybe a cow, chickens and I guess a pig. We have been watching WAY to many pig movies - Babe and Charlotte's Webb - we would need a pig - as a pet only. Ahhhhhh dare to dream!

The pictures of this area didn't really turn out - think ranch country.

Back on the Interstate once reaching Mountain Home we continued our trek west. Stopping here and there at a few rest areas.

Cassia travels really really well! All smiles!

One of the rest areas we stopped at to stretch our legs - very quiet.

Out for a stroll.

What is that! Clear sky! We were pretty pleased to see the end of cloud. It feels like we have had clouds over us fairly consistently for a few weeks now.

Hello Sun - are we EVER glad to see you!

I was attempting to take a picture of the dark clouds to the east - you can see them a bit in the mirror.

With all of our roaming about we didn't make all that much progress - probably not even 200 miles today. No matter - we are hardly on a schedule. We could have kept going but we prefer not to night drive. And so we are stopped for the night at a rest area just west of Sonora. 

We are actually on the east bound side because it is much nicer then the west bound. For some reason the west bound rest areas are much larger. Also, we couldn't get a wifi signal over on the other side.

While I was making dinner, Derek and Cassia took a walk around - brrrrrrrr - cool wind in these parts.

These last photos were all taken by Derek. 

An amazing shot!

And so a good travel day for us.

We didn't get far but we had fun.

And saw some really beautiful country here in Texas.

That will just make our leaving this fine State that much more difficult.



Thanks for visiting!

Teresa

Today's Interesting Link: We highly recommend a visit to the Texas Hill Country. I just did a search and found out that the area has it's own website! If you have a moment you can take a look around yourselves and drool over all the beautiful pictures. One day if you can't find us - come look here.

New Braunfels, Texas .... again

 I should first step up to the plate and admit that this post is wayyyyyyy behind schedule - it is Friday today but we have been nicely set up here in New Braunfels since Monday.

Hi, my name is Teresa and sometimes I am too lazy lacking energy to post on our blog.

Admittedly it did take me a few days just to get up to date with the events over the weekend.

PLUS!

Monday night, Tuesday night and Wednesday night were filled with bible studies and since I USUALLY do my posts in the evening, once the one with all the energy is nicely sleeping, time has just not been on my side this week.

But never fear - the birds are tweeting, the rest of the family is napping and here sit I in oh 73F degree temps coming to you live.

If you have been with us from the beginning you may recall that we have been here at the Berean Bible Church, with Pastor Jerry Lockhart and his wife Barbara, New Braunfels before - at the end of November to be precise. You can read about our visit here, here and here oh and here.

First, another tour of the place is probably in order. We are parked in behind the church by the way....

Flowers in Januray - for our northern folk!

hmmm - 'tie a yellow ribbon round the old - live - oak tree....'

I just love all the garden swings common to the south...

ahhh - sure do love sittin' here listening to the fountain. Sorta helps with the blasting horn of the train across the street!

This is Scooter.....

and this is Buddy - VERY camera shy - it took me awhile to take this shot. Great dogs...

And so I can say with pride that other than attending the bible studies with Jerry and speaking with him on and off - we have done absolutely 

nothing

not nothing really - just not traveling. The truck has not moved in 5 days! and we are soooooo good with that. We stocked up with groceries on the way and and so we have - again - been content with just sitting. Our timing was great because although it has been warm - in the 70sF - it has been overcast and even raining this week.

Cassia has been just fine though.....

She has a GREAT playroom all to herself.....

oh so many books to read....

and this morning..... puddles to jump in .....

or ...... put her head in! What's up with that?

It's a good week - a lot of resting and a lot of learning. The Berean Bible Church is a Rightly Dividing the Word church - as have all the others we have been visiting this trip. If you have any questions about that I am sure we could answer or provide you with links and resources - so don't be afraid to ask. Our email address is on the right.

Over the next few days I will be planning the third leg of our trip. Once I get to that I will fill you in on some of my findings and our intended route home. 

Oh and tomorrow we are going back to the New Braunfels Farmer's Market - we had a swell time there last visit and bought a ton of stuff - can't wait to revisit!

Thanks for visiting!

Teresa

Today's Interesting Link: Here is the link to the New Braunfels Farmer's Market just so you don't have to go searching our past posts for it. I really really like the art work - don't you?

Derek and I love farmer's markets - we used to sell our ornamental grasses at the one in Duncan on Vancouver Island - another great market.

Rightly Dividing the Word of Truth

As we mentioned, we are here in Montgomery Alabama at the Grace Bible Church. Coming here this weekend came to be because of our visit with Pastor Jerry Lockhart in New Braunfels, Texas at the Berean Bible Church. We were coming east anyway - Montgomery was only a few hundred mile detour. Coming to rightly dividing grace churches was inspired by our YouTube and Facebook connections. When we decided to visit Texas this winter Derek said "...I think Jerry Lockhart is in Texas..."

Connecting with one rightly dividing Pastor (Jerry) in person has led to what we are now calling our  winter pilgrimage. We are so happy and edified to meet with others that believe as we do and to learn along the way that we are including Rightly Dividing - Grace teaching - Pauline Churches in our travels. We are learning so much more from listening to sermons and meeting and talking with others in person rather just over the internet.

For the last three days, Pastor Jerry taught on the Book of Acts "transitionally." Most people don't realize that this book took place over a period of 34 years and is the key to understanding the transition from law to grace. We believe in Rightly Dividing the Word of Truth - II Timothy 2:15.

If you are interested in learning more about Pauline right division we have compiled a list of great links under What We Believe.

Pastor Jerry Lockhart teaching on Acts.

Pastor Steve Gotberg and his wife Kim (picture by Derek.. taken without warning, surprise!)

We had a great time - great fellowship and great food in the Grace Cafe. On Friday lunch was provided courtesy of Jim Berdeaux - owner of Berdeaux's Vintage Sauces. With pulled pork sandwiches we could sample his steak and bbq sauces. Jim generously gave Derek and I a complimentary 2 bottle box of his sauces to take with us on the road. He also mentioned a meat loaf consisting of garlic croutons softened in the bbq sauce. I think I will try that soon. I have never made meat loaf - I loved my mom's but I didn't think it was something Derek would like. But he is up to trying it so we will. I will post the results in the future. In the meantime please check out Jim's site and consider trying his sauces - they really are very good!

The ladies of the Church were so great is providing the rest of the meals and ..... desserts - lots and lots of desserts!

Visiting in the Grace Cafe.

If you are interested....here is a video from Brother Scott Foust of Ohio on the topic of Salvation. It is clear, precise and easy to understand.

Tonight Derek was strumming a guitar - wishing he could play a tune, especially Appalachian roots. Derek and I are big fans of the guitar - well any string instrument really. I love the fiddle! We have been talking for years now about learning to play. Derek would really really like to learn and we would also like to teach Cassia. So if you know how or have any tips on where on our travels to learn, please let us know! 

Today's Interesting Link: While browsing other travel blogs the other night I stumbled upon To Simplify on another site. Obviously the name struck a cord with me. After searching around a bit and looking at the photos of Glenn's rig I realized that this was the guy in the article I shared on facebook back in October - they guy that lives on $11,000 a year. So glad to have found his site - funny enough he was in Dothan Alabama a few days ago when I was reading - just south of us. Last night he passed the 1,000,000th hit on his blog - amazing! Seems like many people are as addicted to his site as I am.

let's go to Luckenbach Texas....

Here we are in New Braunfels Texas - but first! let me just say that we went through Luckenback Texas! No big deal you say - I even had to explain - and sing - the song to Derek - and he likes country music! "Let's go to Luckenbach Texas..." is a line in the song by Waylon and Willie - click to listen - loveeeeee it!

Along the many roads we travel I try to make it a point - if we can - to go through the town/cities made famous by songs. To date I have been disappointed - Winslow Arizona (Eagles) was a scary place and El Paso (Marty Robbins) is just a HUGE city. We still have Galveston on our itinerary for this trip - but at least I can now tick off Luckenbach. Hard to be disappointed with this place since there really isn't anything there. But Sunday night on our way from Fredricksburg to New Braunfels we drove through just so I could at least take a picture. It wasn't ideal since the sun was setting but I did get this picture of the old post office - not a post office anymore - now it is the general store that sells all sorts of souvenirs. We saw a large grass parking lot on our way in and so I asked if we could park there for the night. It is $15 to dry camp so we moved on - but glad to have seen it - not much there - a large area with seating - seems that they have music events going on most days/evenings.

The Luckenbach General Store

We carried on along a back country road which wasn't the best idea since it was getting dark. Blanco was the best we could do - so we pulled up to the parking in the deserted downtown square and spent the night.

Monday morning we were up early and after a quick walk through Blanco's park we headed down the 281 to catch the 46 over to New Braunfels. A beautiful drive through rolling hills and lots of trees.

Once in New Braunfels we headed to our destination the Berean Bible Church. We have been reading and listening to and are fb friends with Pastor Jerry Lockhart and so decided that we should stop in as we travel through Texas. At home we don't have a Rightly Dividing the Word Church to go to and so thought it would be nice to meet some of our brethern. We are now parked in behind with a very beautiful and restful garden to enjoy.

While here - in addition to the fellowship, sermons and bible studies - we would also like to see a bit of New Braunfels which is just over 30 miles north east of San Antonio. There is the Gruene Historic District, downtown New Braunfels and Landa Park - where they have a miniature train we would like to take Cassia on. We are big train buffs and would love to take a trip on the real thing but the mini kind will have to do for now. Ideally we would like to visit downtown San Antonio and the River Walk while we are here. We were hoping that they had a bus for us to take since we would rather not take on the interstate and traffic - sadly that is not an option - so for the second time I think we may miss San Antonio.

This morning we awoke to a thunderstorm. It rained for the next few hours so we decided to stay around the Church for the day. Once the rain slowed down we were able to get out of our trailer that gets really small with a 2 1/2 year old for any length of time. It wasn't long before Cassia found a huge puddle to run around in. While Derek had a conversation with Jerry, Cassia and I spent some time in the Church's toddler room which of course was the next thing to heaven for Cassia.

Yes, she got very wet - but that doesn't matter - does it! She had fun!

The weather is supposed to be pretty nice for the rest of the week so we are going to get out and do some exploring plus get some laundry done.

Pictures of New Braunfels Texas coming soon!

Today's Interesting Link: For something different - in addition to following other road warrior blogs I also enjoy following world traveler blogs. I have several listed on my blogroll on the right - why not visit Bacon is Magic. A strange name I will admit but I have been enjoying traveling along with Ayngelina - a single Canadian who started out traveling to Central and South America but has since headed further afield.