Catching Up

Ah, these are the days!

Blessed with a day of bright sunshine and 80-ish degrees, we spent the day taking care of some loose ends before we travel tomorrow.

First things first, Paul did laundry (Yeah, Paul!) while I caught up the other blog with posts about our dinner at Po Po, geocaching adventures, wildflower hunt and our day in Fredericksburg.

Whew!

After that, we wandered to the park office to pick up our mail, make a reservation here for a month in December and purchase our very own copy of the Big Rigs Best Bets Campground Directory. It's always a treat to get mail, of course. And, we are so delighted at the prospect of spending December here. We first spotted this nifty campground directory in Whittington, IL and were eager to have a copy. Now we do. When you're big, like us, it definitely helps to know where to park.

We made a last trip to Kerrville for a quick haircut for me while Paul scouted out the bank and post office. Then, we picked up essentials at Walmart and the nearby liquor store. Back at our lovely park, Paul did some heavy duty vacuuming while I made a mad dash to the spotless bathrooms here to do a quick hair color.

We did other stuff to get ready to roll, too. But, it's not nearly as exciting. With only 120 miles or so to go tomorrow we won't be in a big hurry. It'll be our kind of travel day. Plus, we've packed it with a special treat in the middle. Then, we'll be back in Austin to wrap up our service issues, see some family and then, finally, head west.

We hear it's windy out there.

Stay tuned.

Eating Our Way

We love Texas Hill Country! The weather is awesome, and it's spacious, scenic and has lots of good stuff to eat. Check Bullwinkle's Travels for our first taste of Cabrito burger. And, there will be a post soon about today's trip to Cooper's BBQ in Llano and Saturday's visit to PoPo's in Boerne.

This place is fun.

It might sound like we're eating our way across Texas, and we might be! But, more importantly, we have indeed found a part of Texas that we like. We geocached our way across part of Hill Country yesterday. And today, after our day trip to Llano, I drove into Kerrville to visit an outstanding quilt shop and a very friendly ranch and feed store where they happily loaded my big bag of cat food into the Jeep.

We like it here.

A lot.

There's so much to do here, and we just aren't going to be able to do it all in the remaining days we have here. So, it's simple. We've decided.

We're coming back.

Instead of December in Kansas City, we're thinking December in Kerrville.

Sounds good, doesn't it?

Breathing Room

We didn't notice it until this afternoon, but we've been straightjacket camping for the last couple of months. We've been squeezing this big ol' moose into tight little spots for far too long. Today we changed all that and treated ourselves to some breathing room.

With a short travel day ahead of us, we took our time loading up and unwedging ourselves out of our spot next to the nudist. It was closing in on 11:00 when we left Buda and began our 120-mile trek back toward San Antonio then northwest into a fierce headwind. With the metroplex behind us the Texas terrain began to change. Actually, it became down right scenic!

Since we arrived in Texas on New Year's Eve we've been in search of a part of it that we actually like. Hill Country might just be it! The rolling tree-covered hills are just beginning to show signs of Spring. And the breeze (It's Texas. Of course, there's a breeze!) is strong but somehow softened in protected spots amongst the hills. One such spot is just off I-10 in north Kerrville. There you'll find Buckhorn Lake Resort, a gorgeous RV park with trees, grass, a creek, level sites and plenty of space.

We've called Buckhorn home since 1:30 this afternoon. And, so it will be for a week. It feels really good! We've shed that straightjacket and are loving the room. The people are friendly and we don't have to lie about our age. There's lots to see in these parts, and we are looking forward to exploring it all.

More later from Hill Country. For now, we're gonna take some time to get out and s-t-r-e-t-c-h!!!!!!!!!

Budists

Our day in Buda (pronounced "bewda") was a day of hurry up and wait. But, it was mostly about waiting.

First thing this morning, Paul walked over to the service counter at the dealer just steps from our campground. Our appointment was confirmed for 9:30. Just before the appointed time, we unplugged the moose, pulled in the slides and loaded our crated cats in the back of our Jeep. We rolled up to the dealer and got things underway. We have a list of minor issues that we need to get taken care of before we get too much farther down the road, and this seemed like the place to work on that.

Entrusting your home to total strangers takes a leap of faith. We didn't pick this dealer for its stellar reputation. Heck, we don't even know anything about its reputation. It's a Winnie dealer on our route. And, they have their own campground. How's that for selection criteria? Like so many decisions we've made since we started fulltiming, we just trusted our gut on this.

With the moose in hopefully good hands, the family trundled off to a very nearby Cracker Barrel for a late breakfast. With temperatures in the low 60s and cloudy skies, today's weather was perfect for letting the cats hang in the Jeep. They napped comfortably while we had a long and very leisurely meal. After all, we had nothing else to do! After brunch, we wandered over to the Cabela's next door. We continue to be amazed at how this store can captivate two non-sportsmen like us. We spent at least an hour entertaining ourselves in the store, and didn't buy a thing. Next, we wandered next door to Walmart. And, as fellow fulltimers know, if you've seen one Walmart, you've seen them all. We walked the store, killed more time and picked up a couple of things. By early afternoon we'd hung with the Budists long enough. A steady rain began to pour, so we cut our time killing short and headed back to the dealership. There, we waited.

And, we waited.

Days like this come with the territory when you decide to live in a house on wheels. Every so often you find yourself sitting on an uncomfortable chair playing games on your phone while a you-hope-skilled technician works through your service issues. Even with a long, boring wait, we told ourselves more than once that this was better than a day at the office. So true!

About 4:30 we were ready to go and so was the moose. Several items were successfully checked off the list. As we suspected, parts needed to be ordered for a couple of issues. So, we decided to head out tomorrow and spend a week in Kerrville. Then, we'll head back here late next week and finish the job. Such is life lived on the fly!

With the moose checked out, we made the short trip back to the campground to the same narrow site we squeezed into yesterday. With a big metal electrical panel hanging off a pole on the right and a sewer connection sticking up on the left edge of the site, it's a tight fit for a 40-foot moose. Just as we were setting up to make the turn, our next door neighbor popped his head out of the door of his fiver and yelled to me "Watch out for that pole!" To which I replied, "Thanks, yeah, we know!" He closed the door and no doubt enjoyed his front-row seat for the parking festivities as we worked carefully to park the moose without a scratch.

When it was done he popped his head back out and complemented us on our stellar parking job. (We are quite a team!) We chatted for a bit and were struck by how all we saw was his head. When I say he popped his head out, I wasn't kidding. That was all we could see!

After we wished each other a good evening, we started to wonder. Could it be that our neighbor is a Budist Nudist?

We won't touch that one!

Free Fuel

Greetings from Buda, TX, just south of Austin. Our 300-mile day was uneventful, if you don't count the wasp that attacked the cabin somewhere around Falfurrias. (All I can say is, from now on you can call me "deadeye". Turns out my weapon of mastery is a flyswatter in a rolling home!) Add to that the fact that our departure from Mission was later than planned, so we spent the last 50 miles of our journey navigating the freeway between San Antonio and Austin after 3:00 PM.

No, it wasn't fun.

The best part of the day was earlier, when we made our well-planned stop at the Flying J just north of Edinburg. After we had glided easily into one of the two easy access RV islands, we decided to fill up for the first time in two months. And, we did it for free.

Yes, free!

You see, when we bought our new moose back in November, one of the enticements to buy was a "free" fuel card offered by the good folks at Freightliner. Truth be told, it didn't weigh heavily in our negotiations. But, when the card arrived in the mail loaded with 1,250 bucks, we didn't complain. Of course, we could have used the card for anything. But, we decided to use it for that which it was intended: fuel. Paul activated the card this morning before our departure. And, when we pulled into the Flying J it was ready. He pumped $120 or so worth of diesel into the moose and happily charged the card. It was a bit like Christmas.

Sure, we spent a lot of money to get that free fuel. But, believe me, we're gonna enjoy every single gallon of it.

Google Maps and Street View

It's our last night in the RGV.

Yee HAAAHHHH!!!!

The moose is just about ready to roll, and so are we. The cats, on the other hand, are clueless. It's been so long since they've been on the road they've surely forgotten what that's all about. But, they'll be reminded first thing tomorrow.

After spending more than a month here, we know there's a certain stretch of freeway we'd like to avoid on our way out, if we can. It's out of our way, for one reason. And, if we need another, all we can say is it's CRAZY! When we picked up our licenses the other day, we tested out a possible alternate route out and it looked good, except for one weird little four-point turn around a courthouse in the middle of the road. With that trial route behind us we loaded our starting and ending point in Google Maps once again and tweaked it just a little, and it found a way to avoid the courthouse in the middle of the road. Woo hoo!

When you're driving 50-plus feet of really tall vehicles that you can't back up, you learn early not to trust Google Maps or any other GPS routing program. After all, most of them are designed to find the shortest route from Point A to Point B for your basic sedan, and not a tall, wide and long rolling billboard. Thankfully, there's Street View.

By clicking on the cute little yellow man on Google Maps you can virtually cruise along any route and check for low clearances, narrow shoulders and the like. In just a few short minutes I gave the Google-suggested route out of here a big thumbs up.

It's been a couple of months since we've bought fuel. And, we're gonna need some tomorrow. I remembered seeing a Flying J on the way here a month or so ago. But, of course, its exact location is a mystery. With a quick check of the Flying J website I found the location of the travel plaza. And, with Google Maps I checked out the satellite view and spotted the two easy-access RV-friendly islands. It looks good and should be an easy in and out. With a quick point and click I adjusted our route to include a quick fuel stop. I mailed the route to myself so it'll be easily accessible from my phone as I sit in the navigator/safety director seat tomorrow morning.

We have 301 miles to travel tomorrow. It's a bit more than we like to do. But, with the help of all this technology we sure hope it's a breeze. At the very least we'll get to avoid that crazy RGV freeway.

Crap

First, this morning the winds blew and the rains came...and poured all over our freshly washed motorhome.

Second, there were clouds everywhere and the temperature dropped about 20 degrees in 5 minutes. What happened to Summer?

Third, our beloved #1 seeded Jayhawks lost. In the second round.

Tomorrow has to be a better day.