Dec 2nd - Lampasas Tx

Dec 2nd    - Lampasas Tx                                                 Weather – Clear 22 C

Total Kilometers this trip -  9027.0                                     Km’s today – 0

Today we went viewing homes.  “Tour of Homes” is hosted by the museum each year and different homes are picked, generally they have 4 to 6 to view, this year there were 4.  The homes ranged in years from 1884 to mid 1950’s.

Our friend and fellow BBer’s, Joe and Mary Hankin, own the home built in 1884.  Each home had its own special attributes which can be seen in the pics below.

 Home built – 1950’s ??

 top operates the gate, and bottom Talk-a-Phone throughout the house

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 unique chandelier

 hearth decorated for the Christmas season

Home built 1884 - Joe and Mary Hankin

 note pillars - ceiling is 12 ft

 large closets in master bedroom

 getting into the Christmas festive mood

almost 12 foot Christmas tree

Home built in 1911 - not many pics were taken, rooms were all very small, but tastfully refurbished and decorated.  Hard to take pics when people were coming and going as well.

Home built in 1936

 Large limestone built home on very large double lot

 garage with one bedroom suite over

 outdoor eating area

Pics of our coach at Boone RV campground.

In the evening, Joe and Mary hosted a get-together for a number of people, fun was had by all, also the food was delicious.

An unfortunate happening today, we were leaving from the first home, and I wanted to take a pic of the entrance gate, so Vadie stopped, I got out and was taking the pic, a car was approaching the entry gate so she moved the car over, running over three of my toes on my right foot - OUCH, no broken bones though, although it is kinda tender.  Of course this happened at the beginning of the tour Hmmm.

November 29 & 30th, Dec 1st - Mathis to Boerne, then onto Lampasas Tx

November 29 & 30^th, Dec 1st    - Mathis to Boerne, then onto Lampasas Tx                                             Weather – Mixed bag, yet the temperature remains above 18 C with highs of 27 C

Total Kilometers this trip -  9027.0            

November 29^th – today Vadie continued with a general cleanup of the coach, as well as doing the laundry.  I also helped where I could and got the coach ready for travel the next day.  In the afternoon, I washed both coaches, the weather was perfect, overcast yet still warm.  Powell was going to help but he had to take care of things for the farm, always something happening.  

 Our coach in sunset

 sister coaches, both look good when washed

In the evening we played cards as we have since we arrived, and tonight was the men’s night to beat the ladies, ahhh the ladies had numerous nights where they gave us a pounding LOL.

November 30^th – again the hardest part, having to say our goodbyes.  We had such a wonderful time, I got to learn so many things, do so many things – just terrific.  Vadie and Char seemed to have a wonderful time here as well, but it was hard to keep up to Vadie during her shopping sprees.  Vadie tagged along with Char to a number of different happenings, and we both went to watch the grandchildren  play a few different sports.

We left Mathis and headed to Boerne TX a total of 237.1 Km.  We stayed at the Alamo Fiesta RV park.  There we met numerous ladies – “Sisters on the Fly” mostly travelling in smaller, older travel trailers.  We got to see inside many of them, they had dressed them up, wow, well in ways that only a woman could do it. The group of “Sisters” numbers approx 3300 and their aim is being in the outdoors.

 1976 Boler

 1968 Shasta

above pics show some personalization of the coaches

 

In the evening, we headed into Boerne and went to the festival they were having.  We had dinner at the Hungry Horse Restaurant, an excellent restaurant.  After dinner we went browsing through the displays as well as all the stores which were open, many of them which were closed the last time we were here.

 1947 Airstream - portable store - very nicely done

 totally restored 

December 1^st – We travelled from Boerne to Lampasas Tx – total of 182.4 km.

Before leaving the campsite, the ladies wanted to see what a Wanderlodge looked like inside.  I told them how old it was, they were surprised, but they were even more surprised of what they saw inside.  The oohs and aahs, were both very vocal and expressive.  They could not believe how big it was, and all of the things the coach had to offer.  One of the ladies mentioned that our bathroom is larger than their travel trailer LOL.

These ladies do not travel with any pets, dogs, cats or husbands .  It is time for themselves to do things with their group.

Once we left we watched for a place called the “Pottery Ranch”.  Vadie was very interested in stopping there, but since we did not know how big an area they had for parking etc, we stopped at the closest Walmart, and went by car.  Well, to our surprise, there was very little pottery but many other things for sale, woodwork, fancy metalwork, artistic statues of nuts, bolts, springs etc.

 Clippers for sale

 Packards for sale

 Vadie with Rooster

 wooden furniture

 furniture made from antlers

 metal cactus

 metal flowers

 and tractors

 and many little metal ants

 this animal made from springs, nuts, bolts and numerous other things

 metal mexican

 butterfly chair

 dolphins

 and hundreds of other things - but very little pottery

We finally landed in Lampasas and staying at the Boone RV park.  Joe Hankin mentioned to us that many shops are open late tonight, as well as they have their Christmas parade, so again we headed to see different things again.  Now lets see, the last time we watched a Christmas parade was in Terrace, it was snowing and the temp was about -12C.  Here, I am in shorts and a Tshirt still.  

 And including Santa himself

 Old car we saw in parking lot on the way home - is that A/C on the passenger side?

Nov 26th - 28th - Mustang Island/Mathis , Texas

Nov 26th - 28th - Mustang Island/Mathis , Texas                 Weather – 

Total Kilometers this trip -  8607.5                                       Kilometers today – 100.3

As it has been for the past weeks, the weather continues to stay very nice, sometimes warmer than others, and also very humid at times, but it is nice.

On Nov. 26th we drove back from Mustang Island to Mathis Tx, the time although short on Mustang Island, this is definitely a place where we would like to stay for a week or so.

As typical with these Bluebirds, always something seems to go wrong with them.  On the island, Powell's surge protector quit, he will have to send it back for repair.

Over the next few days, Powell had to do a few more jobs of his own, while he was gone I tinkered with the coach.

One thing which Powell had to do was milk a cow, because her tits were too large and the calf could not suck on them.  This was very interesting, as the cow is not used to getting milked by humans and she was really ornery.  We managed though, and got milk, put it into a bottle and fed the calf.  Another first LOL.

On the 27th, Vadie took Char on an all day shopping exursion - both were very sore at the end of the day, but Char moreso.  They went into thrift stores, hobby stores, electronic stores and had a really good time.  Oh yes, she did spend some money.  Christmas presents were bought as well as more items for the pottery.

On the 28th, it was generally a quiet day, Powell was caught up on his chores, although he had one worker getting hay out of a field, and he had some problems which Powell had to rectify.

I purchased a storage pod for on top of the coach, so Vadie can purchase some more items LOL.

It was installed and things went easy.

Powell's mechanic, Richard, also removed and reinstalled a new hose on the transmission which was leaking.

Powell and I also completed installing the cup holder drawer in the front of the coach.

For supper, we went to Odem, met John and Jackie and had a wonderful supper - forget the name of the restaurant though LOL.