Waco

Our original plan was to spend a week helping with a Samaritans Purse hurricane rebuild in South Texas. We applied but turns out we were too old! Well we really aren’t to old to do it, but they reserve the end of February and beginning of March for college students on spring break to serve. That’s a great idea! So then we tried to do something similar through the Evangelical Free Church of America’s but that ended up not working either. Guess it wasn’t meant to be. But that meant we needed to kill a week before going on to New Orleans. So we headed towards Waco. So what’s in Waco? If you are a gal, you probably know. Magnolia Market is not something on my bucket list and I could take it or leave it but here we go.

Most of the scenery leaving Austin was just lots of flat ranch land. But here’s one pic I took. Gotta love some cows!


We are spending a few days at Mother Neff State Park on our way to Waco. It’s fine but nothing special. Except for the noise and vibration coming from the SpaceX rocket testing facility that’s 7 miles away. It shakes the trailer.

Because it’s winter, the trees are pretty bare and the water levels are low due to a drought. But here’s a few pics from our hike at the campground.

Driving through the Texas countryside, came across this cemetery. No fence, no sign. I wonder how it started.
A beautiful old windmill and the beautiful Texas sky.

I set my expectations low for Magnolia. But I had read that Wednesday was the least crowded day and the 43 degree temperature and the brisk breeze probably helped to keep the crowds to a minimum. It was delightful!

No line for the bakery! I’ve seen pictures where the line snaked around the block.
My bag of goodies. We ate the orange cranberry scone right away. It was delicious!
The tulips were in bloom.
Food trucks. Too early for us to eat.
Me and the silos.
Bacon cheddar biscuits for dinner and cupcakes for desert. So much for my low carb diet.

Because I dragged John to Magnolia (he was a good sport), he got to go to the Texas Ranger Museum in Waco.. He really enjoyed that. Thanks Shirley Dacko for the suggestion.

It will be below freezing tonight. Hoping for warmer weather tomorrow as we head towards the Gulf tomorrow.

We are in Austin, y’all

After a long uneventful drive through Texas, we arrived in Austin to spend a few days sightseeing with our old friend, Kim Kostka. Of course, meaning that we’ve been friends for a LONG time, not that she’s old.

There are interesting murals painted on walls and buildings all over the city.
Beautiful view entering downtown.
When you are in Austin, eating Queso is a must. And it’s nothing like the Queso you might find in California.
A trip to Austin would not be complete without a visit to the Broken Spoke. Many famous country music stars have performed here. The only music we heard was from the juke box.
Another must when in Austin is eating Texas bbq. This is at Salt Lick in Driftwood.
Kim said we had to go to Cosmic Coffee and Beer Garden. Amazing food truck fare and great vibe.
One day we took a little hike to a place called Jacob’s Well. It’s an artisan well that goes down over 300’. They’ve never been able to measure all the way to the bottom. During the summer this place is crowded with swimmers.
Another view of the river by the well.
Next visit was to the town of Gruene. Gruene Hall was built in 1878 and has continually hosted live music events since then.
Another beautiful old building.
Man by the men’s room.
We went for a lovely drive along the Blanco River in the town of Wimberley. Kim had just happened upon this drive on a previous visit and said we had to go there. It did not disappoint!

We did have an interesting thing happen to us as we were driving to meet Kim for our last day of adventure with her. We stopped at a gas station and John and I were standing out by the pumps. A guy approached us and asked John if he played guitar. Yes. Then he asked if he had played at open mic at Java Joes in Yorba Linda! Turns out Sam was a friend of Chuck, the owner of Java Joes, and had been there many times and saw John play. Then we remembered who he was. What a small world!

We will miss the fabulous food and unique vibe in Austin but it’s time to move on. We are leaving today and on to the next adventure. See y’all next time.

We Are Back!

We are back on the road after almost two years. This trip will probably only be about three months long but we are going to some new states so I thought I’d continue the blog. Our itinerary is a long weekend in Austin, Texas with our friend Kim Kostka who recently moved to Austin from Orange County. After that we will be meandering to New Orleans. Travis and his friend, Nic, will be flying down from Nashville to join us. Then we will travel to Santa Rosa Beach on the Florida Panhandle to join Travis and Jessica and the kids for their spring break. From there we will travel north to Nashville and camp in their back yard until they are sick of us. After that we will travel around the western part of Kentucky which we missed in 2016, and then enjoy Arkansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Missouri, the four states in the middle of the country that we missed.

We are trying to figure out how to do the blog (of course they have updated the software and changed everything) and John is trying to figure out the Roku, trying soooo hard not to ask our kids for help. I know. First world problems.

The first part of our journey was a little different since we’ve moved to San Clemente and google maps sent us to San Diego and then across on the 8.

We are not in California!

Camping for the night in a Walmart parking lot. We have all we need!
This is an image from 4 years ago driving through Texas.. It was beautiful and exciting even though it took us 10 hours to drive 220 miles.
This was today. Not as beautiful and a pretty boring drive!

We are spending the night in a Walmart parking lot in Fredericksburg, Texas and then on to Austin tomorrow!

And, I messed up my weather widget on the blog so waiting for my internet guru (Travis) to get back from a business trip to fix it for me! So much for trying to be technology independent.