Our Texas Trip--So Far

We have been to Texas numerous times during our 30 years of traveling by RV.  This trip, so far, we have seen colder weather than usual but just as many interesting sights.  One day we saw a small herd of javelina, some ostriches, an ibex, goats and cattle.  There have also been a few longhorn cattle.

Traveling across West Texas, this sign and the town of Fort Stockton are part of the scenery.

At least 3 former US presidents hailed from Texas, Lyndon B. Johnson, George H.W. Bush and George Bush.  We spent a couple of days in Johnson City and saw the childhood home of LBJ.

There are lots of peaches grown in West Texas and many, many vineyards.  We saw these signs around Johnson City and Fredericksburg.

Of course, the main reason we stopped in Johnson City was to see the Christmas lights.  We happened on them two years ago when we were here and wanted to see them again.

While shopping in Fredericksburg yesterday, we visited the Vereins Kirche (community church) and Christmas pyramid in the center of town.

We also saw this neat old panel truck.

Many of the trees in Texas are large. Some, like the live oak, are evergreen.

Others are bare this time of year but still beautiful. I think this must be a mesquite tree.

Fredericksburg

On our tour of Texas Hill Country we are spending 5 days in Fredericksburg. We first visited the town in 2003 on our first long RV trip after retirement. It was a lot warmer when we came here in early October than this week when most of the country is in a deep freeze. This morning the low was 22 and the high today is supposed to be 33!

First we checked out Marktplatz, the location of the Vereins Kirche, Maibaum and Christmas Pyramid. The hexagonal Vereins Kirche was the first church built by the German immigrant settlers. It also served as a fort, storehouse and meeting hall. Demolished in 1896, locals rebuilt it in 1935.

The Maibaum or Maypole tells the story of the history of Fredericksburg, including negotiations with the local Comanche Indian tribes, cowboys, dancers, grapes and peaches, hunting, transportation and Sunday houses. These houses were built by farmers who came to town to shop on Saturday and stayed overnight to attend church on Sunday morning.

The Christmas Pyramid was made in Germany. It reminds me of small Christmas centerpieces that include candles. The heat from the burning candles makes that centerpiece rotate.

Would you believe they have an outdoor ice skating rink in Marktplatz? The temperature was 79 and it seemed out of place. Today I'll bet not many young people are skating because of the cold and wind.

We roamed through lots of the shops, along with crowds of others. This is a great place to do you Christmas shopping. Thankfully, we completed ours before we left Arizona. We noticed these ceramic flowers in one of the shops. It turns out they are holders for tea lights.

In addition to all the shoppers and their vehicles, main street in Fredericksburg is a through highway with lots of truck traffic. We saw at least 5 of these long wind turbine blades being hauled through town.

In past visits, I don't remember there being as many wine tasting rooms in town and vineyards  in the surrounding area.  Here are just a few of the signs that we saw for wine tasting rooms.

It was a fun excursion but we were glad to get away from the crowds when we were done.

Fredericksburg

Last week we visited Fredericksburg, a fun town in the Texas Hill Country that was originally founded by German immigrants. One purpose of our visit was to eat some German food, so we headed to the Auslander Biergarten Restaurant. The interior is decorated like what I imagine a German hunting lodge would look like.



There was a large number of cuckoo clocks on the wall behind our table. Only two of the clocks went cuckoo on the quarter or half hour, thank goodness.



I ordered jager schnitzel (made with pork, in case you didn't know) and John had chicken schnitzel. Mine came with red cabbage and potato pancakes. John had hot potato salad and green beans with his. The food was very good and we were stuffed by the time we cleaned our plates!





The main street of town has lots of attractive, old buildings.











As you can see, the Palace theater no longer shows movies.



It's hard to find a 5 cent store these days.



Is was easy to see this store sells boots.



These boys and one girl were patiently waiting for the owner to resume his walk. Or were all of them waiting for the owner's wife to finish her shopping?



There is an old water wheel in the center of town.



Nearby is this statue of John A. Meusebach, founder of Fredericksburg, and Penatuka Comanche Chief Santanna. On May 9, 1947, Meusebach and more than 20 Comanche chiefs signed a treaty and shared a peace pipe. This is the only known treaty with Native Americans in the U.S. that was never broken. The statue was dedicated on thee 150th anniversary of the treaty.



This bench might be comfortable for two people, but a third would be very uncomfortable.



We did buy something in Fredericksburg--a pair of place mats to use in our RV home.

It's Hot Here

We are sitting here in Ashland, Virginia, just north of Richmond. Temperatures are in the high 80s during the day, the low 70s overnight. And we only have one air conditioner! We are sitting here, waiting for a new Dometic A/C to be delivered and installed. The good news:it is under warranty. More good news: the Magnolia trees are still in bloom here.



More good news: there is lots to do here. So, we may not be quite as comfortable as we would like, but we do have one working A/C and it is a good place to be, especially if you are interested in the history of the Civil War.

We visited the Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park in Fredericksburg yesterday. The visitor center and Sunken Road Walking Trail were very interesting. The road is the site of the December 13, 1862, defeat of Union General Burnside's troops by those led by Confederate General Robert E. Lee. Here is a section of the original walls along the Sunken Road.



The Confederate troops were between these walls, firing at the Federal troops attacking from the left. Up the hill to the right, Confederate artillery was also firing at the Federal troops. This monument honors Richard Rowland Kirkland, a Confederate soldier that took pity on the injured Federal troops that lay near the wall for two days. He filled several canteens with water and began taking them to the wounded soldiers. Troops on both sides held their fire for two hours to allow him to bring water to the wounded. Kirkland is called the "Angel of Marye's Heights."



At the top of the hill is the Union Cemetery, authorized by Congress in July 1865, three months after the war ended. The bodies of those killed in the Fredericksburg area where battles also were fought in 1863 and 1864, were moved from crude cemetery plots scattered haphazardly across nearby battlefields. The majority of the bodies are unidentified.



Upright stones list the names of identified remains. Small flat markers like this show the cemetery section and the number of unidentified remains buried there (five).



We also explored downtown Fredericksburg. There are lots of shops there in restored old, and I do mean old, buildings. This stone structure was built in 1813 as a dry goods warehouse. Now owned by the City of Fredericksburg, it is rented by a shop selling Civil War artifacts.