Rainbows and Stars and Bikes and Trains

So, yes, that's a double rainbow on our drive down to Brazos Bend for the weekend....

...where we got to enjoy Rich's new Kawasaki SYSX300 sport bike (surprisingly comfortable!)...

...which we drove over to the Rosenberg Rail Museum... 

...with it's 100 year old still-operational signal box, and fully restored passenger car...

...various accruements and relics from the hey-day of rail travel....

...and miniature trains that speed along their tracks and spark your imagination.

We enjoyed a loooong lunch at Ol' Railroad Cafe...

...and then for dinner used our new tiny Webber grill to cook...

...hotdogs, of course! And enjoyed them with really good ketchup, and a really good movie...

...before riding over to the George Observatory where we saw Mercury before sundown...

...and then returned down the red-lite path to see the rings of Saturn after dark!

Brazos Bend is a great park for wildlife (deer! and aligators!)...

...and for slow days packing to go back home.

Brazos Bend State Park, site #225.  For a few more pics, go here.

Blogging: Behind the Scenes

In case you wondered what it looks like to make a blog post:

I have a very demanding editor...

A Couple of Nuts in the Dog Park

Want to book one more campsite on the way back home? Want to squeeze in just one more night camping at a new park? Want to get a chance to have another great local breakfast and visit the World's Largest Pecan?

Yes, Yes, and but of course!

Want to see one other crazy "toy" hauler? LOL!

It's a long haul back to Houston from Kerrville, so we decided to add one more stop in about halfway - Palmetto State Park right off of I-10.  I'd driven around it before and recalled it being lush and tropical, and so we reserved the only sewer capable spot: #2.  (Yes, really, I'm not joking - the only site that can handle your #2 is #2). Ha!

But when we got there (after a few missed turns) and rode thru the park, we realized that there was a set of large dogs on the site beside #2, which would be in direct view of Diesel.  Rather than deal with the unnecessary stress for Diesel (ok, for me), we decided to switch over to site #13 instead.  Little did we know, once we got back into the campground and settled in, that just about every other site had a dog - from little bitty dachshunds across the way, to big old yellow labs a few sites down. Of course,  Diesel seemed to be the only one wearing a bark collar... and bow tie.

What? You mean they don't wear bark collars? But, its the latest thing in doggie fashion!

It was a lazy afternoon and evening. RDB hung out in the cool of the camper with Diesel, while I took a brief walk around some of the tree covered trails; Palmetto is a wonderful park with some neat features from the CCC.... 

...and then set up the hammock to read a bit outside in the shade.  Palmetto is as lush as I remember - with lots of trees to enjoy hanging around in.

Uncommon Type,  by Tom Hanks.  Yes, that Tom Hanks.

Friday morning we woke up with plans to head back towards San Antonio and visit the little town of Seguin, TX - home of the World's Largest Pecan. But, before we go off searching for random Americana, we made a pit stop for breakfast at the Court Street Coffee Shop.

It was so much fun - both in ambiance and in hospitality.  When the old gentleman with the American flag suspenders and handlebar mustache propositions you that he'll pay for the hotels and gas if you'll let him ride cross country on the back of your Harley,  you know you're in for a treat.  I have  work trip back over to San Antonio on Monday this next week - we just might stop by on the way home and have lunch!

Just a few steps away from the coffee shop, you'll find yourself in the Guadalupe County square, and there you'll find the World's Largest Pecan.

Only, there's a small problem with that claim: there's a bigger pecan just down the road at the Pape Pecan House.

But aside from it being, well, obviously larger and mobile (for parades, of course), the _real_ story of Pape's Pecan House isn't the giant pecan - it's the giant collection of 8,000+ nutcrackers inside:

Um, notice where you put the nut, and how she'll crack it.... hubba hubba

I'm really enjoying the off-beat attractions that RDB's app is revealing us to.  It's like Yelp, but rather than finding great restaurants, you're finding great roadside oddities that add flavor and spice to your camping trips!

We packed up camp and headed for home shortly after that.  The one extra night in Palmetto was the perfect ending to a wonderful week of camping.  We're so glad to be back in this again, and so grateful for the liberty we have to be able to travel from one county to another and enjoy the nutty sites along the way, our precious pup in tow.

We stayed at Palmetto State Park, site #13.  Only a little side to side leveling required, but a very wooded and large site.  The park ranger was playing a movie soundtrack playlist when we checked in and we all laughed thinking that it would be funny if Jurassic Park started playing.  It was a quick trip, just to check out the park, and this time RDB was saying it: we'll be back again!

For just a few more camping photos, go here.

America the Beautiful (Goin' Up Around the Bend)

We pulled into Kerrville-Schreiner Park the evening of July 2nd, after spending the weekend over at Somerville State Park, about mid-way between Houston to Kerrville. The first thing we noticed about the campground was the magnitude of wildlife - deer, jack rabbits, birds, buffalo.... 

Ok, maybe not live buffaloes... but there was a scorpion in the bathhouse shower the first time I stepped in there - NOT really the kind of wildlife I was excited about!

When we started posting on Facebook that we were camping again, one of our friends, JSP (former Big Kahuna of the All Camper's Welcome Club) reached out to say how excited and happy she was that we were back in the game.  She mentioned that they head out to K/S each July, and since I had taken the week off work, and we didn't have a campsite planned  yet, we decided to crash their party!  It was wonderful to be hugged by her and see the family again; Happy Camper was there, too, as well as a few new friends.  It's so refreshing to be with people who love you and care about your happiness.  JSP, if you're reading this, know that we love you and your family so much - and the kindness that you show us is unconditional and genuine.  Thanks for being who you are!

RDB and I were amazed at how dark and clear the night sky was the first evening there in Kerrville.  I have an app (Night Sky) that does an incredible job of overlaying the stars with information and layouts of their namesakes.  It was the first time RDB had seen the Milky Way with his bare eyes. The app also helped me to see the constellations like I had never imagined before.  I honestly didn't realize that the Big Dipper was actually Ursa Major (the Great Bear)! 

Just a little foreshadowing that I happen to have captured Scorpio on this evening... 

I love camping.

There are so many things to learn and appreciate; that are right above us, and around us, unseen until we take the time to stop and look.  The moments that I take to _pause_ and reflect and realize that there is so much more to life than the grind for money, make me really wonder why we get so caught up (as a society) in the need to accumulate.  RDB's Mom posted this to our Facebook pages this week, and it's simply so true:

We planned to have breakfast out in town, and thanks again to Yelp, found an incredible hole-in-the-wall breakfast place called the Save Inn Resturant.  Much like the Chess Club Cafe in Blanco, this local spot was sooo good, we went back the next morning to enjoy the exact same breakfast.  Have the Lisa's Tacos and you won't be disappointed.

With the summer temps in the high 90*s, we spent the better part of Tuesday hanging out in the camper.  I'll be honest when I say that's about all I remember... but pics and texts to Bestie tell a slightly different story.... #trainingforthecruise

Wednesday morning, July 4th,  after a hangover fix breakfast at Save Inn Cafe again, RDB and I did a little wandering around town.  JSP told us about Gibson's  - this crazy home-town hardware general store that pretty much touts: If we don't have it, you don't need it!  We laughed at the yard vultures and I picked up a new dice game, LCR, for us to play in the camper on rainy days (came in handy later in the afternoon when it did start raining).

We also stopped by the H-E-B - for ice, coffee, and stuff - but made it a point to drop by the Original H-E-B.  The company was founded there in Kerrville and has a pretty neat origin story.  I was impressed with their efforts after Hurricane Harvey and the substantial flooding that we recovered from.  I like to shop local and small when I can, and though H-E-B isn't small by any means, it certainly has my business.

We spent a portion of the afternoon avoiding the heat (again) by touring the Museum of Western Art.  They had a special exhibit of quilts in the entry hall - the handiwork and craftsmanship was outstanding!  They have a sizable collection of paintings - some of which were so magnificently painted that you would have thought they were photographs - and saddles from across the southwest along with the stories behind them.  I was captivated by the collection of Kachina Dolls as well - some of them were so tiny and yet so detailed. 

My favorite Kachina there on the left is Kwahu - the Eagle Kachina.   Seems fitting, seeing that it's not only the Fourth of July, but that the Eagle is a symbol of America's independence. 

Back at the campground, dark clouds were looming.  JSP had been watching the radar and predicted that we'd see rainfall before the fireworks on Wednesday.  Sure enough, early afternoon the drizzle started and continued on for several hours.  We passed the time playing LCR (the game I picked up at Gibson's) and watching DVDs in the camper. 

You can rent a tepee if you want to feel like you're really in the wild west....

The rain cleared off in time that, had we wanted to, we could have gone into town to watch the fireworks.  We opted instead to take Diesel for a walk around the campgrounds and ended up at JSP's front porch.  Spent a bit of time there chatting and talking about the day, and Gibson's, and just generally enjoying the company until the booms from fireworks began - our cue to take Diesel back to his "house" and tuck him in for the night with a nice dose of Benadryl.

I started writing this post with "America the Beautiful" in mind and thought I'd tie it in somehow to the lyrics about 'beautiful spacious skies,' but here I am ending it and the CCR song "Up Around the Bend" is pounding out of the little Bose speaker that sits on the bar here in the house, and it feels about as all-American-summer as cheese balls and beer on the Fourth of July.

 "Catch a ride to the end of the highway

And we'll meet by the big red tree,

There's a place up ahead and I'm goin'

Come along, come along with me

Come on the risin' wind,

We're goin' up around the bend "

We were in site #235 at Kerrville-Schreiner Park, in the heart of the Hill Country. The sites will need a bit of side to side leveling, and unfortunately this one was near the dumpster (not a big deal except in the heat of the day and if the wind was blowing.)  The bathhouse showers left much to be desired - minimal privacy, poor water pressure, oh - and the scorpion that decided he wanted to clean up next to me.  (A moment of silence for the dearly departed resting in his watery grave.)  Being 4+ hours out from Houston, the humidity had dropped noticeably, and for the most part it was a very enjoyable - though still hot - stay. 

For more camping photos, click here.

Summer days in Somerville

Ah, summer.  Hot, sticky, wonderful Texas summer. Remind me again why we leave our air conditioned house to go hang out in a travel trailer in the park?

Well, for a lot of reasons, actually:

You can play Greed on the bed in the camper Saturday night after you realize you've left the bike keys at home and will have to spend the better part of Sunday heading back home again to pick them up. 

You can stay at a state park that really needs your support after flooding damaged two of the camping loops back in 2015.  We really enjoyed the way they had the sites set up in the Old Hickory loop where we were - each site was set back into the trees and the park kept the underbrush intact, so that you had nearly complete privacy from the other campers nearby you.  

You *might* be lucky enough to find a local hole in the wall place, because their outdoor decor (Mater!!) catches your eye on the way into the campground.  Freedom Ranch Cafe is on Park Road 57 and is absolutely worth the drive back out to enjoy for dinner.  I wrote up a quick review for them out on Yelp - definitely 5 stars all the way around!

You can hang out with your puppy - who can't seem to get enough of rolling in the grass, chasing and chomping after bees, and basically just being a blur of activity until he's exhausted himself.  

You can ride your Harley over to the Blue Bell Creamery in Brenham, TX.  It was the first time I've been able to make it over to the Creamery during the week while they were actually in production.  They wouldn't let you take photos from the observation deck, but it was soo cool to watch the ice cream being packaged into various cartons.  BTW, you can follow our motorcycle adventures real-time over on Instagram: @twowheelthrills 

You can also enjoy a giant scoop of ice cream, fresh from the Creamery, for just $1.  Rich and I shared one that neither of us had had before: Sea Salt Caramel.  It was the perfect combination of sweet creaminess and salty savoriness.  And the giant flag of ice cream cartons there in the parlor was pretty cool, too.

And finally, you can travel across the southern parts of Texas, from Houston to Somerville, to Kerrville and really enjoy the back road beauty that our state has to offer.  More reasons to come in a bit as I blog about our Fourth of July week at former state-park-turned-city-park: Kerrville-Schreiner Park.  

We stayed in Site #88 at Lake Somerville State Park Birch Creek Unit.  As I mentioned, two of the other loops were closed for maintenance while we were there.  Close walk to the bath house, mostly level sites. The privacy from one site to the next was a BIG hit with us. It was enjoyable and close to the town of Brenham, where there's  fair bit of small country charm to enjoy as well.  I know I've said it a lot, but we could certainly see ourselves coming right back here again.... just this time, we'll make sure we have the keys with us!

For more camping photos, go here.