2026-9-15 Caprock Canyon Day 3 TRR RR Stop 2

 On Day 3 at Caprock Canyon, I was able to arrange a special event. Ranger Natalie invited us to the Ranger's Office for morning coffee and a demonstration on how to  prepare and weave Yucca leaves.

This is the Yucca plant. Ranger Natalie collected the leaves outside the park and had already soaked them down. The native Indians used the Yucca for many things. They braided the fibers and then wove them into baskets or rope for example.

This was fun but hard work to beat the leaves with a rock to remove all the pulpy part and leave only the fibers. Then you braid the fibers. Ultimately you could then weave the braids into a basket or make rope. It was fun but I don't think I would have been very good at processing enough to make a basket or rope.

The view from the Ranger's station is beautiful.

Next we headed back to my campsite where our very own Olivia Dyer demonstrated how to stencil your chairs or, for those that had already done their chairs, she brought cloth bags for them to stencil. there is a little creative artist in everyone.

Olivia has a large collection of stencils and the right paint to stencil with. Everyone had to be reminded that less paint on the sponge was best so it wouldn't run.

Elaine had done the back of her chair at a previous event but it turns out that doing the front is a good idea so you can recognize your chair from any direction.

Next we headed into Quitaque for lunch. No we did not go to the country club. I think this may be a joke as Quitaque is very small.

Remember when we had lunch at the Bison Cafe as Plan B. Well, today we were supposed have lunch at the Bison Cafe but we went with Plan B again which was to have lunch at the Coffee Mill and Mercantile.

You order your sandwich and drink up front and then have time to look around at all the merchandize they have. Many items are made by locals.

The shopping is fun and the food is great. They have a huge variety of sandwiches and drinks to choose from and they bring it out to your table.

Later in the evening we got a little rain.

Bur fortunately no storms. I made sure that everyone knew to head for the bathroom if the ranger drove through the camping area with a bullhorn. It happened the last time we had a rally there.

 

Another great day with friends old and new.

2026-9-14 Caprock Canyon Day 2 TRR RR Stop 2

 Everyone on their way to Kathy's for morning coffee. Just kidding but they do stroll through the campground.

This morning we had a demonstration planned at Kathy's site. She was getting the parts ready.....

Jimmie was her assistant in the demonstration of how to install a folding handrail to an RV.

 First you have to drill some holes. Putting holes in your RV can be a scary event but these ladies know what they are doing.

Jimmie checks out the finished product. It makes a nice sturdy handrail for those RVs that are pretty high off the ground with three folding steps.

Everyone was so impressed with our illustrious RV Techs that they mentioned wanting a screen door bar added to their RV.

It just so happened that Jimmie had recently added one to her RV and Kathy had one that she planned to add to her screen door so Jimmie demonstrated how to add that feature while Elaine helped to hold the door steady.

Fran brought along her pack of cinnamon gum that she forgot on her picnic table. We weren't sure that the raccoons enjoyed them all that much as they left most of the pack instead of making off with them.

Our plan was to have lunch at the Quitaque Coffee Mill and Mercantile but it turns out they were closed on Mondays so we went to the Bison Cafe instead. Always have a Plan B to fall back on.

It's a small but popular place in a very small town so we took up three of the tables.

Our number at this stop on the rally swelled to 20 women. There were a number of ladies that came to the first two stops but didn't plan on going on to the Convention.

Whoops, I think I said Honeycreek in the last post.

Just a lone bull out for a stroll and a view of the spectacular scenery at this park.

2026-9-13 Arrival at Caprock Canyon TRR RR Stop 2

We all left Hords Creek COE at different times, sometimes traveling in groups of two or three. Lengthy caravans of RVs are not usually wise as most of us travel slower than the 75 mile an hour speed limit. On the road into the park we noticed that the bicycle parade along the fence has grown quite a bit since the last trip here.

And then we arrived at the entrance. There is a cattle grate but we found out later that the wily bison have learned to wait for no one entering and then cross the guard.

They have been found up to 20 miles away! There was a big crowd awaiting our arrival.

An important sign, not always easy to comply as they were not that far away after I exited the Ranger's office so I walked around the passenger side of the motorhome and made a quick entrance into the driver's seat.

There are about 300 bison in the state herd. 

There was a bit of a traffic jam when several bison decided they would rather walk down the middle of the road. A ranger came along and mosied them on across waving a flag on a long fiberglass pole out his window.

It is their park and I think they are well aware of that and just share it with us.

Now it's on to the Honeycreek campground to set up.

 

026-9-12 TRR Rolling Rally Stop 1 Hords Creek

 The first stop on the Texas Rolling Rally to the RVW Convention was at Hords's Creek. Some of us arrived early on Wednesday or Thursday to do a little chapter business but mostly just because we love this park. 

Friday everyone arrived and we started off the event with a hot dog grill. I say grill rather than roast because summer in west Texas so fires are pretty much always banned unless they are in a grill. As host, I provided the hot dogs and buns and Myrt provided condiments and chips. There were other contributions that were not expected but always welcome.

The weather was perfect and we all relaxed.

Some of the ladies had made reservations on the far side of the Lakeside area but the campground hosts switched things around until we were all in the first two areas of the very large camping area. I think the lady at the gate was as excited to have us there as we were there to be there.

Saturday most of us headed into Coleman where the Owl Drug is always a big draw with it's old fashioned soda fountain and mountains of Elvis memorabilia.

Some of us spent some time in the Coleman Olive Oil Company. They have so many different kinds of olive oil and vinegars with samples of each.

We all carried out bags. 

Later that evening we went back to town for dinner at the Cattle Drive Cafe.

Dinner entertainment was "entertaining" as it must have been homecoming night and the high school kids were out on the town in some wild outfits. Surely we didn't wear dresses that short did we? Our waiter told us he offered to confiscate ID cards whenever they asked for alcohol so that fun got shut down pretty fast.

We did get a couple of young ladies on their own to take our group photo. There were a total of 12 women from all across Texas at this first stop on the rolling rally.

2026-7-18 Blanco Buggy Museum

The other day a Facebook group about a film location showed up in my feed. It wasn't that far away and my granddaughter is a film major at UTAustin so I thought it might make a nice little trip. 

Blanco is about an hour away. We are going to the Buggy Barn Museum but we are most interested in the fact that it is a film location. Unfortunately, no one was filming while we were there.

There is a whole fictional town called Pine-Moore. As you can see, it is an old western town so this is the kind of film that would be made here.

The Buggy Barn part of the place is located inside of several of the buildings but we wanted to see how the actual town was set up. The hotel is the first thing you can see.

On the right, you can see outbuildings like a tool storage area and blacksmith.

You can see all the typical blacksmith tools out front with the blacksmith hard at work in the background. He actually makes things for sale right there.

This horse replica is all decked out in a very fancy outfit.

This is the hotel on the left. The front definitely looks like a typical western hotel but it is actually a very large building that stores a huge buggy museum but more on that later.

Next up is the barber shop with the inside set up just as you would expect it to be.

On the right is the Texas Rangers headquarters.

As you turn left, you can see the rest of a whole western town laid out with all the typical businesses you would expect. It is very easy to picture filming a western movie here.

Here is the general store.

The town saloon.

The inside of the saloon is already to serve customers or at least fictional town customers.

Just what you would expect to see in front of a general store.

Lots of goods inside too.

Another less fancy hotel.

At the end of the street stands the church.

It is all ready for services to begin.

The last view of the fictional town before we head back to check out the Buggy Museum.

If you were headed west to a town like this, you would probably be traveling in one of these wagons.

I've never seen a curved wagon like this before.

This was more of a buggy.

Next up are some buggies from a TV series. I think some of the series was filmed here but I can't remember seeing it.

These buggies were very unique.

Now this is something we are more familiar with....a stage coach.

A medicine wagon.

Some more unique buggies

There were a lof tf very unique funeral type wagons on display......some extremely elaborate.

This place was packed with memorabilia. The owner has actually been in a number of movies himself and he has purchased and brought in different types of buggies from all over the world. 

We had a very talkative guide that attached himself to us inside the museum. I think he was a little lonely as it wasn't very busy that day. I was only able to take pictures of a relatively small number of the buggies on display. This would make an interesting stop for anyone interested in the old west.