Our RV Adventures

Today was our Fredericksburg road trip, so I was up at about 8:30am and we were out the door at 9. And after a quick stop at the park dumpster to drop off some garbage, we were on the road west.

Our first stop was the Buc-ee’s at the Luling exit about 60 miles away for a potty stop, a breakfast kolache, and coffee.

And friends.

Our next-door neighbors, Vance and Bonnie Clegg, had left out for the Lake Medina Thousand Trails about 15 minutes before we also headed out, and we both got to Buc-ee’s about the same time. This was their first time to stop at one, so we got to show them around a bit before we said goodbye again.

Hopefully we’ll cross paths again soon.

Our next potty stop was the Love’s at the Comfort exit for US 87 about 110 miles later. Then we only had about 20 miles to Fredericksburg and our lunch.

So our first stop was Der Lindenbaum, a German restaurant right on Main St. We’ve eaten here for years, and it’s always been great, probably the best German food we’ve ever eaten.

Jan always gets her favorite Jager Schnitzel, which is a breaded pork cutlet covered in a mushroom wine sauce, along with red cabbage and German potatoes.

Over the years I’ve worked my way around their menu, this time settling on the Zwiebel Schnitzel, which is also a breaded pork cutlet, but with a pan-fried onion sauce, as well as the red cabbage and potatoes.

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Although we didn’t get there until about 1pm, the place stayed pretty full the entire time. Then after a great lunch, we headed out to check out the many shops up and down the streets.

Jan checked out quite a few stores, but didn’t really find anything that caught her eye.

Finally on the other side of the street, we came to Rustlin’ Rob’s Texas Gourmet Foods, a long-time family favorite.

Rob’s has pretty much every sauce, butter, rub, jam, jelly, salsa, preserve,  and dip you can think of. And even better they’re all available to sample.

Every little alcove has something different. One has just a large number of ‘butters’.

Amaretto Pecan Honey Butter, Honey Chipotle Butter, Chocolate Banana Peanut Butter, Praline Pecan Honey Butter, Jalapeno Honey Peanut Butter, etc. In fact they have over 40 different flavors.

As I said, every flavor of every type are available to taste-test.

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And they have either wheat thins, or pretzels available for your tasting pleasure

It’s very easy to just ‘graze’ from one item to the next, which is why we never come here before Der Lindenbaum. We would be too full afterwards.

And another thing to note about Rustlin’ Rob’s is that it’s the original home of Jan’s Moose Footstool that I mentioned last week.

But no more moose are in stock now.

After checking out the rest of Main St, along with some bench-sitting and people-watching, we made our way back to the truck, and drove about 5 miles east to visit Wildseed Farms, another place we always check out when we’re in the area.

Billed as the largest wildflower farm in the country, it’s a fun place to visit with a lot of paths and walkways through trees, bushes, and flowers.

Inside is a lot of other stuff that makes Jan happy.

In fact, this was the only place where Jan found something she just had to have.

Finally heading back into Fredericksburg, we made a quick Wal-Mart stop and then another one at the Fredericksburg Pecans store for a big bag of shelled ones.

This was another place that had samples, four different varieties of pecans that are suppose to taste different, but neither Jan nor I could tell the difference. Maybe it’s just us.

Then we were back on the road toward home, again stopping at the Love’s right before got back on I-10E.

We had kind of thought about stopping off at one of our two favorite San Antonio restaurant’s, either La Fonda on Main, called the best Mexican Restaurant in San Antonio, or the Magic Time Machine. But as we got closer, we both realized we were still just too full from Der Lindenbaum and ‘grazin’.

So we headed on around San Antonio to our last stop, again at the Buc-ee’s at the Luling exit. Besides our potty break, we got a couple of their BBQ Brisket Sandwiches for dinner after we got home, and also a couple of their great kolaches, and a couple of cranberry muffins for breakfast the next couple of days.

Leaving Buc-ee’s, we checked in with our daughter Brandi and her Strep Throat. She’s feeling a little better, and neither Lowell nor Landon have come down with it so far.

And neither have we.

Knock on wood.

Thought for the Day:

“The problem is not the problem. The problem is your attitude about the problem.” – Jack Sparrow, from Pirates of the Caribbean

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We did get our first 1 mile walk in this morning, but like the other day’s walk, we called the second loop on account of wind. Very high winds. But at least we got a mile in.

Just as we got back, I got a call from our daughter Brandi giving us a heads up because she had come down with Strep Throat. For us the incubation period is 2 to 5 days with an average of 3.

We haven’t seen Brandi since Super Bowl Sunday so we’re coming up on the middle of the period with no symptoms so far. But we’ll know more in the next couple of days, I guess.

Getting back to the rig, we had a breakfast with our leftover omelet on leftover biscuits from our recent Schobel’s visits. Along with our coffee, a really good breakfast.

Later, about 2pm, I put in a call to Schneider Welding to see if my screen door hinge was done. ‘Henry’ said it was not finished yet.

I assume that this meant he hadn’t even started it yet, since I figure it shouldn’t take more than 30 minutes at the most. Just clamp it into a vise, grind down the old welds, bend it back to a 90° angle, and weld it up.

I reminded him I needed it by Friday since we were leaving Sunday, the 14th, and he said he’d have it ready.

We’ll see.

We’re getting our usual Texas winter weather about now, with a low of 33 degrees last night, and then today, with the bright sun, the AC’s were coming on in the rig.

Could be much worse of course, with multi-feet of snow, or even down in Florida with Nick where it’s raining everyday.

Tomorrow we’re going on a roadtrip over to Fredericksburg, about 190 miles away. It’s not exactly close, but of course, closer than if  we did from Lake Conroe. Normally we’ll visit on our way out west, but since we’re going east this year, this may be our only chance.

One thing we definitely want to do while we’re there is to have lunch at Der Lindenbaum, a really good German restaurant, and a must-eat on every visit. Then we’ll wander the streets for awhile, checking out all the shops.

Then at some point we’ll take a side trip out to Wildseed Farms, about 5 miles east of Fredericksburg. We always enjoy walking the grounds and checking out all the cats that live there.

My National General insurance policy through our agent’s Chris and Charles Yust of C and C RV Insurance  renews next month, and I was kind of antsy anticipating what my new rate was going to be. After our $20,000+ repair bill last summer resulting from our blowout in Arizona, I could see my rate going through the roof. But it only went up about $30 a month. Not bad at all.

Great agents and a great company.

“Necessity is the plea of every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants, it is the creed of slaves.” ~William Pitt, 1783

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