2021-12-5 Bandera TRR Annual Meeting Rally

 December is always a big month for rallying with the Texas Ramblin' Roses. It is the time we always have our annual business meeting and it always turns out to be the biggest rally of the year. We cancelled last year due to covid but we have successfully had a number of rallies since then with no problems. Everyone was notified in advance that masks would be required inside just as they were for all our rallies in 2021 and we spent lots of time outside. Skyline Ranch has a great rally room which is very large and Bandera is always a fun place to visit.

Mary Jane and I arrived a day early so we took advantage of that time to take a drive along the river in Bandera and found this great Christmas trail in the park.

Each display was sponsored by a business or organization.

Bandera is a popular place for RVing so it was not surprising to find an "RV" on display.

The Texas flag is not backwards......I was just on the back side of the display.

We had some great presentations at the rally. Mary Ann gave a great demonstration of how to use and care for a stand-alone generator. She has two that she hooks together to power her big 5th wheel when she doesn't have hookups.

Olivia gave a fantastic cooking demonstration illustrating how there is no reason not to eat well when traveling in your RV.

Although she did the demonstration in the rally room, she set everything up on a small table to show that this can easily be done even in a small RV.

She used an induction burner with a cast iron frying pan.

Pasta was cooked separately and added at the end. Looks good and tastes even better.

And here is the recipe. I think a lot of women decided they could do a lot better at cooking in their RVs.

Next up, Brenda and Marla talked about what you should include in your RV First Aid Kit.

They demonstrated how you could use the items in addition to other common items.

Finally, Lisa showed us how to make some very cute Christmas items and easily create a water color painting.

She left all the supplies out so anyone could try them out.

Next up, the four Texas Ramblin' Roses officers prepared dinner on the grill for everyone.

They had fun and so did we. There were some songs and jokes during the process.

Everyone had a great time including the cooks.

Nancy gave us all a preview of what we might expect to see at the RVW Convention in September.

Saturday night after another dinner provided by the chapter, we were treated to a performance by the Banjoys, an all girl group that performs every week in Fredricksburg. They entertained us once before at another rally and everyone loved it. They play guitar, banjos, mandolins, drums, and sing too.

Sunday afternoon, a few of us drove up to Medina and had lunch at the Apple Store, always a good time.

All good times must come to an end and it certainly was a great way to end our RVing rallies for the year. there is another rally coming up in January but I didn't make a reservation because I thought I would be recovering from hip surgery. Unfortunately, they scheduled me for February!

2021-11-20 Choke Canyon State Park Rally

 Our November Texas Ramblin' Roses Rally was scheduled for Choke Canyon State Park. Now, in Texas, that means you better be on the Texas State Park website at 8 AM exactly 5 months to the day before the 1st day you want to reserve if you want to get a site. The host deliberately scheduled the rally for Sunday through Thursday to make it slightly easier to get a site but you still have to be quick in reserving. That is one of the main reasons we don't have many of our rallies at Texas State Parks. They also tie up all your reservation money immediately so there is that too.

I've never been to Choke Canyon State Park so wasn't totally sure what to expect. It's only about two hours or less south of San Antonio and check in time is about two so that means it wasn't necessary to get on the road until later in the morning. My friend Mary Jane had to cancel at the last minute because she wasn't feeling well. So Harley and I headed down the road alone. I had a nice site about midway in the camping area.

I was actually right next to the birding blind. It didn't look like anyone was doing much to take care of it like filling feeders, etc. It was nice with benches and even a picnic table set up nearby. It definitely wasn't busy while I was there.

There were plenty of birds in the park. A whole flock of wild turkeys paraded around frequently.

The park has trees but it is still rather an arid area.

I'm not sure whether these were feral hogs or javelinas (peccaries) but I am leaning more to the javelinas. Feral hogs create a lot of destruction for ranchers and farmers while javelinas are herbivores and only about half the size of feral hogs. The deer followed right along behind the javelinas.

We took a little drive around the park to check out other areas. Although there are alligators, we didn't see any.

We did, however, frequently see the javelinas and deer meandering around the campground.

Mary brought her electric assist trike and very generously let everyone give it a try. It was really fun and that trike can move right along.

We also had a number of new or new to someone rigs so president Jimmie christened them.

It was a fun rally meeting up with longtime and new friends. The weather was great until departure day when it cooled off quite a bit. Until next time.

2021-10-20 A Look at Blanco TX

 I had a post about Blanco in September but it was really mostly about the Blanco State Park. It's a nice small park but one of the big draws is it's close proximity to Blanco. You can walk to the downtown area.

As with most Texas towns, the town square is anchored by the courthouse. You might want to check to see if they still have the free Hill Country Passport boooks which work just like a National Park Passport books.

One side of the square is anchored by Cranberries Antiques.

City Hall is on another side of the square.

And right next store is the City Council Chambers.

There are several other stores along this side as well. Lots of Fall and Halloween decorations.

This store has lots of outside decor items for sale but the inside items are more along the lines of clothes and jewelry.

Across the street is the Old 300 BBQ place.

It's very popular. The food was good but not inexpensive. I missed a picture of the Redbud Cafe which is the anchor on another side of the courthouse. It has great sandwiches and also has music on the weekends. There is a forth side of the square but I didn't get a photo there. I know it would be well worth another look. I think there is another restaurant and possibly a textile store there. It is always nicely decorated but there is no parking right in front.

There is also a hat shop.

Give Blanco a look the next time you head up Hwy 281 from San Antonio.