The Longdogs

The Longdogs
Harley takes his role as navigator seriously!

Cam's 1st Christmas Concert

We started our Christmas off with a Christmas concert. Four hour drive from San Antonio to Brownwood to see my Grandson Cameron play in his first concert. He just started playing the trumpet this fall so we had no idea what to expect. We arrived early and heard one trumpet section rehearsing. Ouch. Then we heard more trumpets practicing in another room. Hmmmm....that's better. Cameron's face lit up when he saw us as he didn't know we were coming. That look was enough to make the drive worthwhile.

Cameron is the first chair for the 6th grade band. We are so proud of him.

The choir sang two songs to start the event. It was less than stellar as some of the kids didn't even seem to know the words. Then the band played. They were absolutely amazing. I didn't hear one wrong note during all their songs.

It was even more amazing when we found out that the different sections all practiced quite a bit BUT they only got to play together three times before the concert. Cam's mom was called upon to come up and play the jingle bells during the performance of the song. It was a surprise to everyone including her but she was a good sport about it. We are really proud of Cameron. After the concert, we got Morgan out of school a few minutes early and the four of us headed to Cameron's favorite Chinese restaurant for a very, very early dinner and some time together.
 
Sure glad we made that 4 hour drive each way. It was a wonderful way to start Christmas. This year the grandkids are with their mother for Christmas Day so we won't see them in San Antonio until the 28th. Steve and Helen went to Maryland to have Christmas Day with Helen's mother. Dave and I joined our long time friends Bob and Loretta and all their kids and grandkids for Christmas dinner. We've been friends for about 35 years so, until Steve and Helen moved to San Antonio, we spent a lot of holiday dinners together.  Military families are like that, we gather each other up.
 
Merry Christmas, we'll be celebrating again the 28th.

GTG Lunch and Sunsets

Diana had to leave us when we finished touring Wimberley on Tuesday but Wednesday, Mary Jane and Vicki came out to join us for lunch. We had lasagna and salad for deviled eggs/olives for an appetizer and cookies for dessert. Vicki brought us each a neat pink flamingo wine glass that lights up and flashes. No losing the wine glass for us. lol

Thistle joined Harley and Gretchen in the playpen. They all got along just fine. Willy stayed home this trip and got lots of laptime with DH and a walk with Steve and Angus.
 

These deer are not shy.

 
These gorgeous sunset photos were all taken by Liz Lamphere Crussell. Liz takes some amazing pictures wherever she goes.


 
The end of the GTG and a lovely day.

Wandering Around A Christmasy Wimberley Texas

These two look like they are sharing secrets right out my big back window.

The lake is really calm this morning.

I don't think these are dinosaur tracks...there are plenty of them around here though. Maybe someone will be looking at them encased in stone some day.

Presents for the Pink FlaminGoes are under the tree in the RV.

And then we were off to Wimberley for lunch and a bit of wandering around.

This little "garden" is just behind some of the buildings around the main square. Some very artistic whimsical metal sculptures.  There is an alligator family and numerous other animals scattered around.

On the other side of the square, there were dachshunds and lizards guarding the storefront.

And then there are the boots. There are dozens of boots scattered all over town. This one is pretty glitzy.

A shop with a European accent.

The Lane House is just around the corner in the square. When I was here the last time, they were working on it.

It's hidden behind this pretty gate. Unfortunately, the shrubbery is pretty thick so you can't see it all that well.

This is the fence around the courtyard. The rock house is off to the left...not the yellow one. I don't think anyone would want to climb over this fence with the sharpe rock on top.

Another house in front of Queen Be.

Kiss the Cook always draws in the crowds. If they don't have it, you probably will never need it for cooking. Lots of really neat stuff inside.


A Gourmet Popcorn Shoppe.

Another beautiful boot.

Hat anyone?

Cypress Creek has more water in it than I have ever seen. Downtown Wimberley seems unaffected by the May and October floods although INOZ does have a brand new patio.


Lots of good places to eat in Wimberley.

It's Bootiful!


Liz did a whole FB posting on boots.

The Hog Pound was quiet when we walked by. I looked for your horse Carolyn but couldn't find it anywhere.

The Zipliners have a boot too.

We just had a passing glance at the Wimberley Pie House.


A boot for a Boot Store.

Quiet down this little alley today.

Wimberley is truly "A Little Bit of Heaven".

The Ice Cream Shop called but we couldn't answer after the lunch we had.

Some cute little owls keeping watch over a wintery looking Christmas tree. Never fear....the snow is not cold.

 
It's always nice to visit Wimberley and show it off to friends. There is always something new to see.

Dinosaurs....When San Antonio was Beach Front Property

As I mentioned yesterday, this group of ladies hiked the Canyon Lake Gorge yesterday. You can read about it in Liz's blog. Their guide (you cannot hike without a guide to preserve the area...$10/person) told them that there were other dinosaur tracks nearby so we decided to check that out.

Mary Jane was coming out from town to join us but was a little delayed so we decided to head out and meet her. We were looking for a place for coffee in Sattler.

We found this place and thought that we would have to sit outside but they also have inside seating as we soon discovered.

It turned out to be a great find and we had lunch instead of coffee. We were lured in by their Adult Grilled Cheese Sandwiches among others as well as their burgers. Everything was delicious and reasonable priced. We arrived early and soon found out that they were very popular for good reason.

Next stop....The Heritage Museum of the Texas Hill Country. In addition to the dinosaur tracks, they have other very interesting items on display inside the museum. You'll find them on FM2673 between Sattler and Startzville. I should have mentioned that we decided to have lunch earlier because we arrived at the museum before the 1:00PM opening. It opens at 10:00AM in the summer.


First we were given an introduction to the museum by the woman on duty. She had lots of information on the history of the area. Did you know that the San Antonio area used to be ocean front property?  Of course that was a really really long time ago when the dinosaurs were around.  Then we toured the rooms inside. Unfortunately, photos are not allowed inside but they had a lot of historical memorabilia from the area.

Once we headed outside to see the dinosaur tracks, photos were allowed. There were some good informational signs telling more about the dinosaurs that roamed this area. The footprints were preserved because the dinosaurs were walking through a slightly marshy area near the water. The impressions were covered over by different material which hardened into rock.

The tracks were discovered in 1982 when the area was being developed for an RV park. Ironic right? As they landscaped the ground in preparation for the park, they dug down to the rock and found the tracks.

This is a hoola hoop around this track so if you can remember them, you know just how large the track is.

Here you can see them as they walked along.


Most of the tracks are under a very large multi-layered roof.

The main dinosaur tracks were in rows running parallel to the water front. If you look closely, you can see a couple of lines that run perpendicular to the other tracks.  In other words, directly to and from where the water would have been. They look like they were made by some really enormous snail-type creature.

This picture shows the snail trail more clearly.

You can go up a set of stairs to a walkway that allows you to look down at the tracks.

There is also a amphitheater seating area here. They have a lot of Scout groups and school groups that come and they give presentations for the kids. I believe the docent also said the local Scouts have a badge they can earn here.

Directly across the road from the museum, there are some big hills and houses with fantastic views. Canyon Lake is just on the other side of the hills.

There is another area that they are still developing where you can see more tracks.

They had some water in them from dew that really made them stand out.



Out in front of the museum. they had a neat place set up where kids can "discover" fossils and use brushes to expose them.

It is under a cover and there is a large chart showing all the different types of dinosaurs.

This is an antique group of chicken nests.

There is also a path leading from the area that has signs marking various trees and plants.

A rock garden type area is also set up displaying lots of antique farming equipment.






There is a large stone marker dedicating this as the Burney Parker Heritage Site.
 
 
It was a very interesting day. Later on we all got together in Liz's rig for a delicious Cranberry Glazed Chicken dinner that was wonderful. Then we had a "Shinerbock" toast to our good Pink FlaminGoes friend Sharon Souter who passed away this summer and now watches over all of us as we travel in our RVs.