Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Texas Hill Country ~ Bandera


Saturday evening we spent in Stoney Creek RV Resort near San Antonio.    It is a very nice Passport America RV Park that is quite convenient to all the sites in San Antonio.    Nearly everybody waved  or said hello as they passed by.   We even scored an ice cream cone at their weekly ice cream social for .75 cents with all the toppings…Nice!  Unfortunately, the cell service is very poor in the park due to the fact it is down in a valley.   We  stayed only the one night and then decided we had better move on out where we have an electronic  connection with the world.   Under normal circumstances cell service would be a non issue however, with Bob’s health condition it becomes very high priority  with me.  


Yesterday morning after unhooking all the utilities we headed west out Texas Scenic Highway 16 towards the Hill Country.   I lived in Texas nearly 15 years ago and always loved what I had seen of the Hill Country so a return visit tugged at my heart strings.     A very short drive and we found ourselves in Bandera,  coined the cowboy capital of the world.   Luckily we found another Passport America park to remain in for the next week.   There is  much to see in this area and it seems like a good base camp.    Last night was an absolutely beautiful night…60’s and clear skies.  


I am beginning to think that we bring weather changes   wherever we go.  It seems as though we hear folks say ….you should have been here last week….   Sure enough this morning we woke up to rain and an all around  dreary day.   With the drought conditions as they are here, I am certain the local folks are thrilled with the rain.  Many of the creek beds are dry and no water remains in the stock tanks.     We headed into town today in order to pick up a few things and do a little site seeing but didn’t get far before the skies opened up so we ducked into a Mexican Restaurant that had lots of  cars parked in their lot...almost always a good sign of a great meal.


As we entered the front door a young man was playing his guitar and singing Country Songs for the folks having lunch.  It was great fun.  This fellow makes his living singing and has a great voice and wonderful demeanor.  There is something special about being a cowboy…they seem to always have a smile for you and  are wonderfully polite.  
 
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                                          DEAN STRICKLAND


                          Click to listen to demo songs on YouTube.com 


                      The Hitchhiking Guitarman                        




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Dean has a website www.deanstrickland.com.  It was such great fun and a  surprise to have entertainment with lunch.   I recorded him singing a Marty Robbins song "El Paso" on my cell phone  in hopes of loading it onto the Blog as background music for your reading pleasure, however it resulted in a very distorted recording  with background noise in the restaurant  and I felt he deserved much better publicity than I would be able to give him with my recording attempt.  So with that being said ...check out his website for yourselves.  He has quite a story.   Traveling opens such great doors.  Thanks Dean for the fun visit!






We made one quick stop on our way back to the coach to check out another RV Park for a months stay.   ....and look what we found...hiding the in brush.









A couple of very lazy Texas Longhorn's that could care less about us two old Yankee's.    I had to chuckle as we left..they probably were snickering at us and telling jokes like that commercial on TV for California Dairy.     You can see how dreary the day was by the haze, but I sure enjoyed our little outing.


Bandera is a great little Texas town with lots of western storefronts and I hope to get some quality pictures to post in the next few days....stay tuned.   


Thanks for checking up on us.  Have a great day.





6 comments:

  1. Great cow pictures. I liked my time in Texas, had it not been so darn cold last year when i was there!! Those Missions are great history!

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  2. Definitely wouldn't want to get in the way of those two big boys.

    It's about time.

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  3. Sure glad those longhorns appear to be mellow...wouldn't want to have one mad at me!! I read some about Dean Strickland - very moving. Nice that you got to hear him.

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  5. Oops. Fat fingers. Wish we could just edit our comments.

    Glad you were able to find a spot with cell access. It is important to us too. Safe Travels.

    Mike and Dee
    gonerving.blogspot.com

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  6. Great pics! We just got home from the dr and she said it would be the 3rd week in Feb before we could take a trip. Maybe we can catch up with you then. Ronnie and Bill

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