Texas Hill Country Winery Tour

Roger here.... "You picked a fine time to leave me, Lucille....."

Don't worry, no one is leaving anyone, but the memory of how our day of wine tours ended was highlighted with the refrain of this song by a lonely cowboy playing his guitar in the warm Texas sun. More about that later.

The day began with a three-mile walk with the dogs to the dead-end on the road where our RV resort is located. Our resort, The Buckhorn Lake RV Resort, is located in a quiet area in the Texas Hill Country. There was little to no traffic on the road during the walk through the pastoral rolling hills, other than other walkers and bicyclers from the resort. The topography is like no other place we have been - hills, limestone outcroppings, small streams, scattered live oak trees, and oh that bright, bright sun and beautiful blue sky. It was chilly, actually below freezing, when we left, but by the time we returned we were forced to shed our coats. The "boys" appreciated the long walk since they have been few and far between lately.

After a change of clothes we crated the dogs and headed for the Texas Wine Trail. When we investigated the Hill Country we had heard good things about the wines here. As it turns out, there are fourteen wineries just outside of the town of

Fredericksburg, many of them adjacent to each other. In Texas style, the people who own the wineries consider them to rival and exceed Napa and Sonoma. In fact, they refuse to use anything other than Texas grapes in the wines that they produce, thumbing their noses at California grapes.

In the Hill Country, the people (many of German heritage) celebrate Boxing Day. The result for us was live music, food, and congenial people at each of our stops. Our first stop was at the Becker Vinyards and Lavendar Farm. Becker wines have been served at the White House and have been featured in Wine Spectator and the Food Network. The setting was spectacular in the large limestone building (the one with Dianne standing in the front).

As we were entering a group of people were sitting in a circle doing a "Boxing Day" recitation. Dianne and I wandered to the tasting room (Roger standing by the counter),

where we tasted five wines for $5. (For those of you who have not done a wine tasting, the tastes are just that, a taste - pretty much a couple sips of each selection. We both liked the Syrah, so we bought a bottle to take home and two glasses of wine to enjoy outside with a plate of delicious snacks - the smoked

salmon was s-o-o-o good.

We picked a bench on the porch in a sunny

area where we listened to a live Blues Band and watched other people doing the same. A couple of people brought their dogs (wish we had known it was OK to do this). Dianne had to take pictures of the

Pointer and the very friendly Pit Bull.

By the way, the small cabin

with the windmill in the background is actually part of a bed and breakfast.

Our next stop was the Torre di Pietra Vinyard. (The only picture here was of the front door)

Dianne wanted to sample the Sangiovese Wine that they advertised. Unfortunately, they had sold out, so we did not sample the wines at this vineyard. We needed to pace ourselves, as we planned to make one more stop and did not want to be unsafe. Dianne did sample the apricot jelly and bought a jar. We also bought a string of lighted grape lights that look very festive along the window on the dashboard of our motorhome. A fitting souvineer of our day in the wine country of Texas!

On to our favorite stop, the Grape Creek Vineyards!

The setting, both inside and outside, was along a sprawling replica of a Tuscan Villa.

We did do a tasting here, again for $5, and enjoyed a variety of dry red wines topped off by a small taste of port with chocolate. We both really liked these wines, and though they were more expensive than the wine that we typically buy (in a box :-) ) we purchased six bottles that we only intend to open on special occasions. Our favorites were the Super Tuscan - Bellissimo, and the Mosaic (more expensive) that was a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Cabernet Franc. We are definitely not wine snobs and certainly cannot describe the subtleties of different wines, but we did like these.

We carried our purchase to the car and sauntered back to enjoy a glass of the Bellissimo in the warm Texas sunshine. We picked a spot at one of the picnic tables next to a warm fire

that was blazing in a huge fire pit. A lone musician with his guitar

played his repertoire of cowboy songs as we enjoyed the afternoon. After a short time, two young couples asked if they could join us at the table. (Smoke from the fire was blowing directly at their table). We had a great time talking with them as we enjoyed the atmosphere. They were all graduates of Texas A&M and live near Austin. We kind of hit it off. We talked about Texas, travel, A&M football, Austin, traffic in Austin :( , and other places that we should visit in the Hill Country, for about 45 minutes.

They highly recommended that we visit the town of Luckenbach, which boasts a post office, a famous dance hall, and nothing else other than a famous country song. We'll probably do that tomorrow. We took each other's pictures before they took off for the next winery. Nice kids - friendly people in Texas.

After our young friends left, Dianne took a picture of the beautiful

tile roof and the singing cowboy. I took a picture of the very bright afternoon moon through one of the live oak trees.

Then, it was time to go home to the refrain of the lonely cowboy singing, "You picked a fine time to leave me, Lucille....."

We truly love this place. There is a lot to see and do here, and we are falling far behind on posting blogs about our explorations. We intend to do blogs about the resort where we are staying, as well as a blog on "Texasisms."

In addition, we still have a lot to see and do here before we leave. We may be posting every other day for a while, so be sure to scroll back in case you miss one.

Johnson City Texas Lights - Merry Christmas!!

Hi all -- Dianne here:

Here's just a quick blog post showing the terrific Christmas light displays we saw last night. It's our way of wishing each and every one of you a very Merry Christmas!! These photos are worthy of a click to make them larger to get the true effect!

On Wednesday, Roger and I drove from Austin to our holiday destination, Buckhorn Lake RV Resort in Kerrville, Texas, in the Texas Hill Country. We plan to stay here until New Year's Day, then drive to Mission, TX for January and February. Buckhorn Lake RV Resort is a little nicer place than we normally stay on a day-to-day basis, but since it's Christmas week and we deserve a little R & R, we decided to go for it. We'll describe the RV resort in more detail in our next blog.

The resort has its own bus and takes tours now and then around the area. Last evening we joined the tour, which went to

Mamacita's in Fredericksburg for an early dinner, then on to Johnson City to view the town's Christmas light displays. We met some nice people and really enjoyed the evening.

At Mamacita's,

Roger had chicken enchiladas with "Mamacita sauce," and of course a margarita. I had a Corona and a lighter entree (chicken salad with walnuts, etc.)

The lights in Johnson City were incredible! The court house, as you can see, was just covered in lights.

Then we went to the electric company property where they had enveloped each of the live oak

trees on their large property in thousands of lights. The overall effect was surreal! There were children romping under the trees and adults standing around staring in wonderment.

There were carriage rides with Percheron horse teams

all lit up with jingling sleigh bells giving folks rides through town.

It was a nice evening weather-wise, and a perfect way to get into the Christmas spirit!

Chaplin (Toto) - I don't think we are in Kansas anymore!

Roger here.... We are DEFINITELY not in Kansas anymore, as you can see from the picture of Chaplin and me standing next to a tree that actually had green leaves and some kind of purple fruit. We have traveled to Arlington, Texas (between Dallas and Ft. Worth) where the daytime temperatures are in the 60s and the sky is sunny. (By the way, do you notice how skinny Dianne has become?)

Doesn't she look great! She lost eleven pounds working at Amazon and is determined to keep off the weight. I lost ten pounds. We are both stronger, more flexible, and feel great.

The restart to our adventures started very early Sunday morning, as we began an eight-hour drive from Coffeyville, KS to Arlington via Tulsa (impressive skyline) and Oklahoma City. The highlight of the drive was a stop at the Texas welcome center, where I picked up so many brochures and maps that the friendly Texas lady at the counter insisted on giving me a bag to carry them. (It was a really cool rest park). Sacajawea, our GPS, successfully (sometimes she DOES make mistakes) directed us through the congested Fort Worth traffic to our campground for the next two nights. We are staying at the Treetops Carefree RV Resort,

a beautiful wooded park in the middle of Arlington's hectic shopping area. (Dianne here: For our Indiana friends, think of Castleton Square on steroids, and that will give you an idea of the area surrounding this RV park!)

We were amazed to find such a restful place in the middle of suburbia. More good news, surprisingly, through all the trees, our satellite found a hole to the southern sky, so we have internet and Direct TV.

The purpose of our stop here was to see my first cousin, Beth, and her husband, Russ, and their daughter, Becca.

Beth and I were in the same grade and in the same school from kindergarten to high school graduation. She was like a sister to me. Her husband, Russ, was one of my good friends. We last saw them at their home in Chattanooga last spring, and were surprised to learn that Russ had been transferred to the Dallas/Ft. Worth area. Since we were driving straight through Ft. Worth, we had to stop to see them.

Sunday night, after we got settled at the campsite, we went to their house to watch the finale of Survivor while we enjoyed Beth's delicious homemade beef-vegetable soup. Dianne and I have watched every edition of Survivor since its outset many years ago. It was fun to watch it and share views about the characters with friends.

Today, we spent the afternoon in Ft. Worth, one of the prettiest cities I have seen, and traveled a few blocks to the historic Ft. Worth Stockyards.

What a neat place! It is filled with shops,

restaurants, honky tonk saloons, cowboys, horses, and more Texas atmosphere than you can imagine. The sidewalks have stars imbedded in the concrete every few feet with the names of famous Texans. The first indoor rodeo arena in the country dominates one side of the street.

We walked inside to take a peek - really cool

(sorry for the dark picture).

We missed the twice-a-day driving of longhorns down the main street, but we did get to pose next to a neat car with long horns on the front grill.

We also got a great shot of Beth in the cheesy, but fun, jail,

and Dianne in front of the water tower.

The cowboys and tourists riding horses down the street added to the atmosphere,

as did the cowboy music coming from the restaurants and bars.

We were all hungry after all the walking, so we stopped for lunch at one of the Texas barbecue restaurants, Riscky's. I was drawn to this particular restaurant because it advertised Texas Deep-Fried Pickles. We shared an order as an appetizer and they were as good as I thought they would be.

Notice all the grease in the picture - good thing I took my cholesterol meds this morning. The place had a great atmosphere and the food was delicious. Russ had a cheeseburger. The rest of us had a BBQ chopped brisket sandwich with Texas fries - yummy.

The funniest moment of the day happened as we were driving out of the parking area onto the brick street. One of the cowboys waved to us. Russ and I smiled and waved back. Then he waved again and pointed. We both thought he was trying to get us to notice an attraction or a business. Then he waved, smiled, and pointed again. A jolt of reality helped us to realize that we were turning the wrong way on a one-way street. After a roll of the eyes and yet another wave to the cowboy, our third one, we turned the car around and waved to the cowboy one last time.

The rest of the day went quickly. We stopped by the motor home to give the dogs some exercise, went back to Beth and Russ' house, ate some delicious lasagna for dinner, and said goodbye until the next trip through Texas.

On to Austin tomorrow.

Short note from Dianne: I couldn't resist including a photo of the back of my commemorative T-shirt that I EARNED through sweat and exertion from working at Amazon these past few months. I actually wore shorts and a t-shirt all the way through December at work. Walking 6+ miles a day carrying a 3-pound scanner, heavy lifting, stooping, squatting, climbing stairs for 11 hour shifts with no place to sit (except break room) all helped me to shed the pounds I wanted to lose. My goal now is to KEEP THEM OFF!

All in all, it was a good experience for me, and Roger and I made some really good friends that we hope to cross paths with again someday. The good thing about that is, we all live on wheels and can keep track of each other through travel blogs, e-mail, etc., so we'll know when we're in the same area of the country.

We've been blogging for a little over a year now, and our visitor map has just re-set for the next 12 months. Here's a photo of what it looked like for Dec. 2008-Dec. 2009.

file:///Users/diannenorris/Pictures/2009%20ClustrMap.webarchive

I'm including this link mainly for myself, as we also use our blog as kind of a scrapbook of our adventure. (A perfect scrapbook that takes up no space or weight in the motorhome!) I was astonished to see where some of the people were who read (or at least clicked on) the blog -- even Iran! The Hawaii spot was of course our daughter. The spots get larger upon repeated clicks. It's really fun for me to see where our readers are!! Thanks to you all, and I hope you continue to follow our journey with us!

Getting Ready to Leave + Old Photos of a Memorable Trip

Roger here... No pictures this time - really nothing interesting to photograph. We just wanted to let everyone know what we are doing, and more importantly, WHAT WE WILL BE DOING.

Dianne here: Since we don't have any recent photos to add, I added some photos from

the trip that Roger describes in the blog.

You'll note we look younger

in these photos, because it was about ten years ago. Of all the trips over the past 37 years of our marriage, I have to say this trip to several parks in Utah and the Grand Canyon was my absolute favorite! We were just getting back into camping after having sold our pop-up in the late 80s. We cooked over a fire with a dutch oven. Roger's secretary at the time quipped that we'd probably be snapping at each other before we hit the state line, but we spent three glorious weeks and had the time of our lives! I still think Bryce Canyon is the most beautiful place on earth,

and I can't wait to go back. And, yes, the sky was really that blue!!

On that same trip, we were also able to free-camp RIGHT ON THE NORTH RIM OF THE GRAND CANYON.

We set up our chairs and watched the sunrise and sunset each night. It had taken us an hour to get to this spot down a gravel road. There was no one around for MILES. The last shot shows me cooking at our campsite with our dutch oven.

Roger again: Our only other visit to Texas, other than an educational conference that I attended, was a glorious one-day trip to the Alamo Bowl. At that time we belonged to a travel club that specialized in one-day trips, flying out extremely early in the morning and returning late at night. We spent the day wandering along the River Walk in San Antonio and had a great time as Purdue upset 4th-ranked Kansas State at the Alamo Bowl. It was the beginning of the Joe Tiller era at Purdue. Kansas State was unhappy to not be in a more prestigious bowl. It was a sweet win that even Dianne enjoyed. (She has been known to read books at football games, much to my chagrin).

This time we will be spending most of the winter in Texas. We will start in the Hill Country, near Austin, where we will spend Christmas and New Year's Eve. The next stop will be a two-month stop at Bentsen Palms Village RV Resort in Mission, in the Rio Grande Valley, with visits to South Padre Island and the gulf. In early March we will travel along the gulf (TX, LA, MS, Al, FL) on our way to see our daughter and granddaughter in Ft. Myers, FL.

So, after a long time in Kansas, we are hoping to have a long stretch of interesting things to see and do IN A WARMER CLIMATE.

Things are winding down at Amazon. Dianne's last work day is one week from today - none too soon. Our jobs at Amazon have been interesting, and I must say, educational. The compensation, free camping sites as well as a decent wage (including lots of overtime hours), have been good. BUT, we have been here since early October. It is cold (9 degrees one night - we stayed warm inside). It is time to spend the money that we, mostly Dianne, earned. And... the boys do not like peeing and pooping in the freezing weather. The walks have been short and purposeful.

Next stop - Texas, pretty much a new state for us.

Our first visit was about 10 years ago. We were in Amarillo on the way back from a memorable trip to southern Utah. We were camping in a mini-van with a tent extension - no air conditioning. It must have been 90 degrees that night and the campground was noisily located between a railroad track and an airport. To make matters worse, there was a serial killer in Texas at the time, whose victims were all located near railroad tracks. I got up in the middle of the night to take a cool shower to rinse off all the sweat and had just fallen asleep when Dianne elbowed me in the ribs and said, "I can't stand this, WE ARE LEAVING, NOW!" I complained that I had just fallen asleep and that it was 2:00 a.m., to no avail. No reason to argue when Dianne's mind is made up. Her mind WAS made up, so we broke camp in the middle of the night and headed for Missouri.