The Rambler

Kristin and I both traveled "Up North" during the past 5 weeks, for about a week each, so we each had a week alone in the camper. Kristin's trip was to go stay with Laura for a few days after her knee surgery to help her out. My trip was to go back to Iowa City for my heart surgery - which went well - and a week of recovery. During our respective trips neither of us took very many pictures, so my presentation here is really only 3 about weeks' worth. So be it... 🙂.

We were in Lockhart for about a week beyond the date of my last post, and this group of pictures are from that time. Except the armadillo, which I saw at Lockhart State Park, this first bunch is from downtown Lockhart. The Caldwell County Courthouse is a beautiful building. One of our Friday outings was at Old Pal Bar, where I had a yummy fried chicken dinner. As to the armadillo, I was able to observe this one for a long time, as it ignored me while busily snuffling and rooting under the leaves. It is a funny animal, with rabbit ears, a pig snout, mole claws, the obvious armored shell and tail, and with the skittish behavior of a squirrel.

From Lockhart we took a trip one day up to Austin to tour the Texas State Capitol building. This was a fun trip, since the Texas legislature was in session and there were many suits milling around the building. There were also many groups of school kids touring the building. As we have found at all the other Capitol buildings we've visited, this was very interesting, with both fantastic architecture and lots of historical material spread about. We also walked down to 6th Street, which is famous for its bars and music scene - many famous musicians got their start there. We found the hotel I stayed at during a business trip I took many years ago; back then I thought the 6th Street scene was super cool and that I'd want to return - but on seeing it again I'm not so enamored, as it is rather seedy and run down. I'd say it's worth a visit though.

I have more pictures of the Capitol, but decided to just post these. Somehow we managed to forget to get a picture of the capitol from the outside.

While in Lockhart, and continuing in Fredericksburg after I got there, I spent more time advancing our boondocking capability. This involved splicing in the wire that I installed while we were at Cooper Lake State Park, putting in some terminal blocks in the front compartment, and mounting the Victron inverter/charger. This doesn't yet get us to being able to operate off the battery, but we're closer. I've been working on the final steps, and should be done before the end of March. I'll report back!

The dog and the camper and I moved to Fredericksburg, TX without Kristin since she was with Laura at that time. I mostly stayed around the RV park until Kristin came back, after which we made a few outings. We had decided to visit Fredericksburg for a couple reasons; first, it was highly rated as a "good place to visit", and second, I wanted to see if I would recognize anything I remember from having been there during a family trip in 1978.

We found that Fredericksburg is super touristy, with the downtown containing many shops offering knick-knacks, upscale clothing, fancy foods, locally produced liquors and beers, and more. I would describe it as upscale tackiness. Fun enough for a couple days' visit, especially if you like spending your money on overpriced kitsch - but otherwise not terribly interesting. None of the downtown triggered memories for me. We walked past the Pacific War Museum, which had been called the Admiral Nimitz Museum in 1978, and it didn't look familiar to me at all. Much in Fredericksburg has changed in the past 47 years.

We had dinner one night at Alstadt, and lunch one day at Fredericksburg Brewing Company. We visited Pioneer Memorial Library, a very beautiful building originally built to house the Gillespie County courthouse. We found outdoor beauty north of Fredericksburg at the Enchanted Rock State Natural Area, where I hiked 440 vertical feet to the top of the dome and found amazing views and many water-collecting pools in the rock, many of which were sporting desert growth of grasses, lichens and cacti.

After our lunch at Fredericksburg Brewing Company we hopped in the truck for a 15-minute trip out to Luckenbach, TX. I was particularly anticipating this, as I remember being there during our family trip back in 1978 and wanted to see what it looks like now. My memories from 1978 are of the song, a tiny town with an old building housing a trinket shop, a couple houses, and a street light. The reality of today is a bit different, as you can see in the pictures below. The town is now a music mecca, retaining the original post office, now a trinket shop and bar; and a barn, now a souvenir and clothing store. In addition, the town has grown an RV park and a large parking lot, a cowboy hat shop, an outdoor music stage, and modern restrooms. In short, Luckenbach is a commercialized tourist draw. It did look similar to what I remembered though, and I was tickled to be there.

After we visited, I called Mom and asked if she'd dig out some pictures from that trip in 1978. Below on the right are scans of those old pictures, lined up with my pictures in a now-vs-then. One thing I discovered in seeing those old pictures is that what I remembered as a street light was actually a parking meter - just as incongruous, but different from my memory. Fun!

For our move from Fredericksburg to Roswell, NM we had initially planned to do an overnight stay in Big Spring, TX, halfway to Roswell, and stay at a Walmart overnight. But the weather forecast was showing a low of 20 degrees, and without having heat (due to not setting up the camper) we would be very cold in the camper. So we decided to push straight through in a 10-hour trip - much longer than anything we've done before. It turned out to be a pretty easy drive though, as the route was mostly light traffic over good-quality US highways.

We got to Roswell on a Saturday, did a quick downtown visit on Sunday (though many shops were closed), and then I flew out on Monday for my surgery. I got to Iowa City during a cold snap with sub-zero temperatures, and Kristin was left to deal with below-freezing overnights in Roswell, cold enough that one night the camper water line froze. We resolved the issue without the need for repairs, but it was unsettling nevertheless. I returned a week later, and since then we've gone out a few times.

One day we went downtown to walk around when the shops were open, and went to the Chaves County Courthouse, a striking green-domed building that drew us inside out of curiosity. After passing through security, we were let into a small museum, and while looking at stuff a tall white-bearded guy with a white cowboy hat approached and introduced himself as Eddie Ellis, a court bailiff and part-time tour guide. He offered to give us a tour and we eagerly accepted. Eddie proceeded with a grand tour, and was very entertaining and answered our questions. He eventually took us into one of the courtrooms where a hearing had just concluded, and introduced us to Judge Jared Kallunki. The judge was very cordial and led us to his office to look around, and while there I grabbed a picture of the four of us (with their permission!). It was a great tour.

Yesterday we went to Bottomless Lakes State Park. This is a park of unique geology, austere and beautiful in the desert setting of New Mexico, having crystal gypsum rock and deposits of salt, which I tasted. The pictures below show a bit of the park, as well as a view of Capitan Peak some 50 miles to the west. After returning from the park we went out for dinner at Peppers Grill & Bar and had some really good hamburgers and cheerful service.