Home on the Range

It was a little sad to leave Louisiana - there was something I loved about it there.  But as we crossed the Texas border, the first sign I saw was "Welcome to Texas...We hope you are hungry."  At that point I knew I would love Texas just as much.

Our first stop was just outside of Houston.  It was supposed to be a quick couple of days because we wanted to head further west, but when we got there, the park was beautiful..one of the nicest we've been in..so we were a bit sorry that we hadn't booked longer.  But then Mother Nature made her presence known and winter arrived.  Pretty much everybody in the RV world was gonna stay where they were for a few days until the ice subsided.  So, while it was cold, we delayed our travels and hunkered down for a few days.  I am not a "foodie" and we don't spend a lot of time searching out a lot of food places, but we lucked  into one of the best meals we have had yet.  Texas knows how to cook and this place knew how to do it right.  It was a great welcome to the Lone Star State. It's awesome to go into Texas supermarkets too.  Where other states have a meat aisle, a produce aisle, a canned goods aisle, etc. Texas has beef aisles, and pork aisles and exotic meat aisles.  They sell parts of animals that I didn't even know you could eat.

The view out our back window

Once the freezing weather subsided we headed west to Ingram, about an hour west of San Antonio.  The Park is a little farther off the beaten path, but it didn't take us long to get used to waking up to the sound of birds singing and the deer hanging around the property.  It is more of a "snowbird" park where people come to stay for the winter, so there are a lot less people going in and out.  Our first day out was a trip to Fredericksburg.  We are in the hill country of Texas, so the motorcycle roads are awesome and we wanted to get out riding right away.  Fredericksburg is a great little town - a little touristy, but with a very German heritage, so the biergartens are not hard to find.  We had been here before, but it did not disappoint the second time.  We also had another great day of hiking/geocaching in a beautiful park, not far away.


Over the next few days we followed The Three Sisters - which are 3 top motorcycle roads that we hadn't even known about.  They loop around, up, over and through the hills and they cater to motorcycles - with a few awesome bike stops along the way for food, drinks, pool tables ... all the things necessary to rest your "seat" from riding all day.  We both decided that we could stay here for a long time before we got sick of riding these roads.

Texas Pride

Texas is big...really, really big!  When they say everything is bigger in Texas..they mean it.  But again, like most of the other states we have been in..it has a feel all its own.  While the land is vast, there is always something to look at.  One of the most noticeable things to me is the Texas pride.  When you talk to the locals you know that they are who they are, they work their ranches and they live their lives the way they see fit...with no excuses.  They are hard workers and they are proud of it.  Riding the back roads, you are riding through acres and acres of land full of cattle, horses and lots of other animals that I never imagined seeing in Texas.   The fences around the properties and the gates leading to their homes are meticulous and so much fun to look at.  And you can always tell when you are coming up to a new ranch, because, almost invariably, there will be a huge American Flag right next to a Texas Flag, just as huge.  There are probably so many people in the country who don't even know what their state flag looks like - but down here that Lone Star Flag is waving everywhere for all the world to see.

I love scraggly trees

Something on my Texas list of things to do was to go to a rodeo.  While we have been to some over the years, I really wanted to say I went to one in rodeo country.  We were so lucky to find the San Antonio Livestock Show and Rodeo.  They know how to do it right.   It started out with a livestock show with a full carnival, although it was a bit chilly to walk around.  We got to hear some great music then went inside to the full, professional rodeo.  And the best part of the night...it was concluded with an Alan Jackson concert right there in the arena. All for $15.  I have been spoiled for all other rodeos from here on.

Our other new adventure in these past weeks was Cliff and I being away from each other for several days.  As I mentioned before, our son is getting married in October and there are a lot of "girl" things that need to be done in preparation for that.  So I flew to Philadelphia where our daughter picked me up so I could spend the night and see their new apartment, then we drove down to Ocean City to do wedding planning.  I couldn't have asked for a better time - it was so much fun to be with all of the kids and to start feeling the excitement of the wedding.  And Cliff did quite well without me - although, hopefully, not too well.  He did lots of riding and lots of maintenance on all of our various vehicles.  But while we were apart this is what I learned.  As sappy and as gushy as it sounds, for us, this travelling lifestyle has truly taught us that home is where the heart is.  It took so much courage..guts...insanity.. whatever you want to call it...for us to sell our home and let go of the majority of our possessions to be able to live this way.
I truly understand that it would not be for everyone, and to be honest, I wasn't sure how it would be for us.  But we have everything we need - all the comforts of home, just with a different backyard every few weeks.  After being with the kids, with their families, in their homes, as weird as it sounded to me...I couldn't wait to get home to Texas.  Being apart from Cliff I realized all we really need is to be with each other...as Billy Joel so aptly put it.."Wherever we're together..that's my home."