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.

PEE-can or Puh-KAHN?

How do you pronounce PECAN? Here in the southeastern USA we are obviously in pecan country.  Being from the north and Canada we say PEE-can however we have noticed a bit of a blank stare in these parts with that word. Here it is Puh-KAHN. No matter - we love them and we stop for them!


Priester's Pecans is at exit 142 on I65 just south of Montgomery for your future reference. We highly recommend stopping we sure are glad we did and are still enjoying it now. Priester's has been a family owned pecan supplier since 1935.

The first stop was a trip upstairs to watch the candy making process. Cassia was able to stand on a step and look through the windows at all the activity going on below. A few of the ladies looked up and waved which was fun for us. We then headed back downstairs for a look around and the advertised free samples. Of course this is a smart thing to have because well - you get hooked on the candy and just have to take some home. I dare anyone to eat some samples and then walk away empty handed.

Priester's Pecans - a very popular place.

The prices are fairly steep and so we could only choose a few items. After much debate and going around in circles we purchased a small pecan log - nougat center rolled in caramel and pecans, and the Fiddlesticks - dark chocolate, caramel and pecans. We also got a holiday flavoured coffee - of course.

Derek riding the horse because Cassia wouldn't.

We went back to our trailer for lunch but promised ourselves we would return for a second round of viewing the extensive shop and country store.

Dad and Daughter enjoying the front veranda and rocking chairs.

Of course Cassia liked the larger chairs better.

While strolling around the second time a lady asked us if we had been in Georgiana earlier that morning which of course we had. She had actually recognized us as the 'beautiful dogs owners' ha ha. She with her mother and her mother's friend (who lives next door to Keith from our Georgiana post) had seen us walking around town. We stood out because 'we weren't from around there'. Georgiana is one of those towns where everybody knows everybody and so the four of us walking around on a Monday morning was obviously something to talk about.

We had a nice chat with the three ladies - actually I am sure we could have sat down and visited with them the rest of the day. We didn't get their names unfortunately - hopefully they leave us a note so we can add them here. The two older ladies were in their 80's - but didn't look it - and had lived in Georgiana and area all their lives. So happy to have met them - and there again - we met more wonderful people here in the state of Alabama!

What a great day - we managed to dawdle through the day in a small area making our way north. It was time to find the Grace Bible Church on the north side of Montgomery. Instead of the I65 we took the 31 to the 14 to the 9/331 which brought us up to the 80/82 on the south side of Montgomery. The 80/82 took us to the 80/231 which took us to the 231 which should have taken us to the 80/Atlanta Highway. But we missed that road and ended up on the Wares Ferry Road also the 64 which was ok because it took us back to the 80/Atlanta Highway to Cecil Lane! Got that? Yikes! Thanks to Derek for getting us here safe and sound in the dark, rain and rush hour.

We are now here parked behind the Church enjoying some rest after a week of steady travel. We are here to hear Pastor Jerry Lockhart from the Berean Bible Church in New Braunfels - where we were two weeks ago. For 3 days Jerry is speaking on the book of Acts and we are looking forward to learning that part of the Bible. In the meantime we have enjoyed the hospitality, generousity and fellowship of Steve Gotberg, Pastor of the Grace Bible Church also a rightly dividing Church.

Today's Interesting Link: We will most likely take a trip downtown Montgomery before we leave. It is a very interesting place with a lot of history from the Civil War to Civil Rights. Why not visit Montgomery's Chamber of Commerce Website and take a look around.

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.