April 1: Fredericksburg

We have arrived in the heart of hill country. It is a total change from the lands we have been in. We've gone from camping at about 20' above sea level in Corpus Christi, to 680 ft. in San Antonio, to around 1175 ft. here. It is cooler too. We've had the a/c system on for the past week. May have to run the furnace tonight.

The camp ground here is beautiful. It is the Lady Bird Johnson Municipal Park. We are within walking distance to a kite flying field, a small creek for fishing which has been dammed so Larry can sail his boat. There is a golf course here and a swimming pool (not open yet). If they play any ball games, there is a ball diamond within site of camp. The municipal airport is right next door (not sure that's a plus but nothing very big is going in or out of this airport). Our lot is very spacious and we just feel right at home here. This is more like the camp grounds of Kansas lakes.

This camp is also filled with Winter Texans. The gentleman parked behind us said he'd gone down to the valley for 19 years and decided there was more to life than illegals swimming across the river and machine gun fire in the middle of the night. May have been an exaggeration but I did hear gun fire while we were at Chimney Park. He's been coming here for several years now. The winter rate is $250/mo. Starting April 1st the rates go to summer rates - $20/day. Lucky us.

We have gone from all the seafood we could eat, to all the Mexican food we could eat, to all the German food we may not want to eat. The restaurant we ate at tonight was the Auslander Bier Garten. I didn't really think that a German cuisine restaurant would serve a good margarita so I joined the atmosphere and had a beer. I don't like dark beers but I've been wanting to try a Shiner Bock. Found out that Shiner makes a light colored beer called Shiner Blonde. Really a very good beer. I'll probably try other beers but they'll be light colored--unless I get a sampling. We both had Kasewurst (not sure that's spelled right). It was a German sausage, hot and spicy, pork and beef, filled with sharp cheese. I don't normally like German sausages but this was really very good. We both also got the potato cakes and the German Potato Salad. The potato cakes were served almost like a thick, soft potato chip. They are dipped in applesauce. Tried it and liked it. There is definitely something to this "try it, you might like it" stuff. The potato salad was great (I've had that before); however, Larry wasn't real fond of it. Several more German restaurants to go and we'll be here two weeks.

Here is my Margarita wind catcher that I got at South Padre Island. Isn't she cute.

German roots go deep in this county that Fredericksburg sits in, Gillespie County. It was founded in 1946 by a group of 120 settlers. They arrived here in 20 two-wheeled Mexican-made carts drawn by oxen. Each family received a 100 foot by 200 foot townlot and a 10 acre "Outlot", to be used as farm land. Their leader and founder, John Meusebach, negotiated a peace treaty with the Indians and that agreement is special because it has never been broken.

Here are some fun facts that were published in the local visitor's guide newpaper.

All of the streets crossing Main to the east were named so that their first letters would spell out "All Welcome" - Adams, Llano, Lincoln, Washington, Elk, Lee, Columbus, Olive, Mesquite and Eagle.

Traveling west from the Courthouse Square, the strees spell out "Come Back" - Crockett, Orange, Milam, Edison, Bowie, Acorn, Cherry and Kay.

Main street is known as one of the widest in the state and was designed this way by the settlers so that a team of oxen, pulling a wagon, could make a u-turn.

The county has 1/3 of the state's total acres of peaches. Over 200 acres are planted with grapes which is home to seven commercial wineries.

And, our favorite, there are 72 restaurants in this county - and so little time.

I just watched my Lady Tennessee Vols win their game against Texas A&M and now I'm trying to watch UConn and Rutgers play. Looking forward to watching KU beat UNC next Saturday and to the Lady Vols winning another NCAA championship. Larry has gone off to find some far off music that he was hearing while sitting outside with Buster.

Time to fix a cup of hot tea and kick back.