Places Visited:

Thursday, June 16: Lady Bird Johnson City Park Fredericksburg, Texas. $20 -- 50-amp FHU including, cable TV; paved interior roads & sites: N30° 14.355' W98° 54.573' --- 830-997-4202

This morning found us east bound and down across more of West Texas. As usual we waited until the sun got high enough in the sky so that it did not make us miserable driving into it. The down side of doing that is we are diddling during the cool part of the day instead of putting miles behind us.

While still around Balmorhea and the water supplied by the springs there are some sights we will not be seeing again for over a hundred miles.

These desert willows are some of the most colorful plants in these desert regions.

Cattle are grazing on relatively lush forage, it is certainly lush for this arid region.

This is a freshly mowed grain field probably wheat, grown with water supplied by the springs at Balmorhea.

This pecan orchard is also made possible with water from the same source as the springs at Balmorhea. Desert pecan orchards is what we call them.

You can only imagine the discussion we had when this mound appeared on the horizon. Don't you wonder what the old timers named this rock. As we got closer Joyce got another pic of the same mound from a different angle as we traversed a nice limestone roadcut.

Everytime we pass this way more plateaus are being utilized to transform wind energy into electricity. Between Ft. Stockton and Bakersfield wind turbines are cropping up like mushrooms on a decaying log. It looks to me like this area may be becoming the new wind-energy capital of the world. California has a lot of wind turbines but so does this area and they seem to be erecting them on every mesa. Everyone we saw was turned into the wind and producing electricity.

Limestone roadcuts are a familiar sight in West Texas.

The limestone roadcut in the pic at left shows the different levels of sediment that make up a typical limestone roadcut. While the pic on the right shows an abnormality in the sedimentary layers. I have no idea what caused this abnormality that is clearly visible in the pic to the right. Was it caused at the time the layers of sediment were being deposited? Is it the location of acidic fumes escaping from within the earth that have interacted with the limestone thus changing the composition? Whatever it is obviously not as hard.

While West Texas along the I-10 corridor is composed of the same limestone bedrock as is found in the Hill Country around Fredericksburg, it has weathered much differently and as such creates a constantly changing landscape between El Paso and San Antonio. West Texas around Bakersfield and Ft. Stockton receives around 14" of rainfall annually compared to around 30" near San Antonio. In the Bakersfield/Ft. Stockton area of west Texas the hard limestone cap rocks of the buttes and mesas are characterized by sharp edges. The edges of those buttes and mesas become "softer" or more rounded the further east we travel. Rainfall has a way of weathering limestone that shapes it into rounded hills characteristic of the Texas "Hill Country" northwest of San Antonio. Fredericksburg, where we are headed today is the quintessential "Texas Hill Country" city.

We stopped for lunch in Junction at the world famous "Coopers Bar-B-Q" located in the northwest corner of the intersection at exit-456. It is the perfect place to stop with an RV since it adjacent to a truck stop with plenty of parking in a paved lot.

The pic to the right shows the big "barrel" used to burn the oak wood down to charcoal that is removed and placed in the three cookers under the shed where the meat is actually cooked. One can only imagine how hot it must be when preparing this Bar-B-Q in the summer when Texas really gets hot.

We both had BBQ brisket sandwiches. It was all I could do to eat mine. Joyce has half of hers in the refrigerator. Truckers carry Coopers BBQ out by the pound and they all seem to know about Coopers.

At exit-477 we left I-10 on US-290 for our destination of Fredericksburg. As soon as we exited I-10 we started seeing deer. It was if they had been planted near the highway and it was 3-oclock in the afternoon. What is with these deer they are everywhere. Just whitetail, no exotics or turkey that can normally be spotted in this area. About 25-miles west of Fredericksburg we passed thorough the small hill country town of Harper and the site of "Exotic Animal Auction" an event that transpires one weekend a month. I am hoping that this weekend will be "the-weekend" but as we pass the auction site we do not see any activity around the auction grounds like I would expect in preparation for an auction. I'll have to make a phone call to make sure if there will be one or not.

On the road leading into Lady Bird Johnson Campground we stopped to get this pic of a scissors tail flycatcher perched in the fence between us and the adjacent airport property. Note how long the tail is. When this fly catcher catches a flying bug this acrobatic bird uses the long tail as a huge rudder to stop and turn on a dime.

Friday, June 17: Lady Bird Johnson City Park Fredericksburg, Texas. $20 -- 50-amp FHU including, cable TV; paved interior roads & sites: N30° 14.355' W98° 54.573'
830-997-4202

Joyce did some reading last night, as a good tour guide will do, and discovered that Sunday is going to be the Waylon Jennings Birthday Bash at Luckenbach, Fredericksburg Trade Days are happening, and Stonewall is having a Peach festival and rodeo Friday and Saturday night plus the Exotic Animal Auction in Harper is Saturday and Sunday. There is more to do than we can possibly do justice to ------ but you can bet we are going to try.

We wandered through the booths at "trade days" and enjoyed ourselves as much as possible on a hot summer day then we purchased some fresh peaches from one of the vendors. Back at the motorhome hiding from the heat of the afternoon we indulged in some Blue Bell Home Made Vanilla with fresh peaches. Sinful, absolutely sinful but --- oh so good. VBG

As it cooled down we headed to the rodeo and dance in Stonewall where we had a blast. When these small Texas towns host a rodeo and dance the entire community turns out to have a good time and this one was no exception. The dance was outdoors on a huge concrete slab surrounded by picnic tables.

Saturday, June 18: Lady Bird Johnson City Park Fredericksburg, Texas. $20 -- 50-amp FHU including, cable TV; paved interior roads & sites: N30° 14.355' W98° 54.573'
830-997-4202

We headed to Harper and the exotic animal auction this morning. That event is always something I enjoy. Today they had American bison, Cape buffalo, zebra, several varieties of antelope, many different exotic deer species, several varieties of oryx, ostriches, emus, rhea, turkeys, quail, guinea fowl, ducks, geese, rabbits, exotic pigs, border collies, peacocks, chukars, pigeons, dove, and about any thing else exotic you might think of.

When we tired of that we spent some time in Fredericksburg wandering through the Shoppe's. When in Fredericksburg that is just part of the ritual.

Always on the lookout for special events Joyce found a place with entertainment for lunch. A young man from North Dakota was playing an acoustic guitar and providing some good vocals. He was performing many of his own songs and they were pretty good. This is the life, it can't get much better.

Fredericksburg has done a wonderful job of preserving its German heritage. This Sunday house is just one example. In the mid-1800's and indeed well into the 1900's area ranchers and farmers maintained "Sunday" homes in Fredericksburg. Families would make the weekly trip to town in order to get supplies and attend church on Sunday. There is a good number of these small homes still here in Fredericksburg with many of them being occupied. This is but one example. Note the native limestone porch and steps. The building is constructed on limestone piers as well.

Our plan was to wait for it to cool off then stop by Luckenbach for a few hours followed by moseying down to the rodeo and dance in Stonewall to finish off the night. It didn't work out that way. When we got to Luckenbach both roads into town were closed off as in barricaded. All traffic to Luckenbach was detoured into a large parking lot that we had never realized was there. Actually, this parking lot is a huge pasture that takes up the majority of the land inside the Luckenbach Loop. We had been to Luckenbach when they had something going on but nothing this big. Horse trailers, horses and pickup trucks were everywhere. The Waylon Jennings Birthday bash is supposed to be tomorrow, could they be starting the Waylon party on Saturday. If so it promised to be big!

As it turned out the Waylon Jennings Birthday Bash was last weekend, this was a trail-ride. The trail-ride group had rented the dance hall in Luckenbach and a band was going to perform from 8:00 until------------------!!! Those in the trail-ride group got in free while the rest of us ponied up $10 each to enter the dance hall and join the fun. Needless to say Joyce and I never made it to the rodeo & dance in Stonewall. We sat with a group of wonderful Texans that made us feel at home. We find good people everywhere we go.

When we passed through here (Luckenbach) in April, on our way to California, we sat around a potbellied stove and listened to freelance pickers perform. There was no need for a potbellied stove tonight. It was Texas hot but those Texans still wear blue jeans and starched cotton shirts. Anyone can easily tell who the Texans & tourist are. Tourists are in shorts and T-shirts or knit shirts. Texans wouldn't be caught dead in shorts or T-shirt no matter how hot.

There was close to 200 participants in the trail-ride utilizing the huge parking facilities here in Luckenbach for the night. Families and friends of the trail-riders joined them for the night's dinner and dancing. They were a good fun loving bunch with pickup trucks, horse trailers, horses, dogs and all the regalia that a good trail ride entails.

All the lights were off when we arrived back at the RV-Park. I wonder why? VBG

Sunday, June 19: KOA East Houston/Baytown in Baytown, Texas (exit 797 eastbound & exit 800 west bound) $26 -- 50-amp FHU paved interior roads & sites: N29° 49.393' W94° 52.193'

Today was the day we chose to "get through San Antonio and Houston" on I-10. It was a good plan. I wouldn't want to traverse either of those cities on I-10 on a normal weekday. It was bad enough on Sunday. Traffic flowed nicely through both but the flow was thick. It wouldn't take much more traffic through either city to create major problems. Both cities had large sections of I-10 under construction with the attendant small lanes squeezed between menacing concrete barriers. Even on Sunday it was obvious more traffic volume was utilizing the roadway than designers ever anticipated.

We made it through both cities and stopped for the night in Baytown, Texas about 20-miles east of Houston.

Texas continues to be abnormally green. They have received a lot of rain this year and everything looks so good. Ranchers have to be ecstatic.

Tomorrow we are heading east again on I-10.

Until next week just remember how good life is

Mike & Joyce Hendrix