Visit with a Sister and a Visit to Sisterdale, TX

Wednesday, Birdie and I headed cross-country to meet up with our friend Sharon.  Sharon has had a rough year healthwise but she is now on the road to recovery.  We left about 9:30 AM for Kerrville.  Sharon is a full-timer but she stayed with a another RVing friend while she was undergoing treatment.  She just moved back into her RV so there was lots to celebrate.  Birdie and Sharon were laughing at TedE, Sharon's little dog.

After visiting for a while, we headed to the Kerrville Cracker Barrel where Sharon and I had breakfast for brunch while Birdie had vegetables.  I didn't manage to get photos of all the great food but Sharon had some huge blueberry pancakes with blueberry syrup along with eggs and sausage, juice, and coffee.  I only mention this because it is so wonderful to see her appetite has returned and she is gaining back a little of the weight she lost.   She is looking good and enjoying a new lease on life.  She's still doing physical therapy and it is definitely paying off.

After brunch, we returned to Sharon's RV park where we visited and Birdie and I put together a new barbeque grill Sharon had gotten.  She took a picture of that and shared on FB so we don't need to reshare that butt shot here.  lol.

Soon it was time for us to head back to Canyon Lake and our own RV's but......we got a little distracted when we drove through Sisterdale.  Now I have driven through there before and even stopped at the winery but it seems that they have spruced things up and have more going on in this small stop on the road. It's located on FM473 (north of Boerne and east of Comfort).  The farm and ranch community was established in 1847 and had 25 residents in 2010.

They have a dancehall built in the late 1800's.

There is also a Dancehall Bed and Breakfast next door.

The Trading Center and Saloon was busy.

This is also the location of the Sister Creek Winery.

The winery is housed in the old Cotton Gin which was built in 1885.

You are invited to wander through the winery using the self-guided tour sheet.

This is the first room with a few barrels.

We were lucky enough to arrive when wine was being bottled.  It's a down home operation with friendly staff that are happy to answer your questions.

Sorry for the blurry picture but this gentleman was fast as he loaded newly filled bottles into cartons.

The man in the green shirt is filling several bottles at a time from different spigots.  The gray machine puts in the cork.  The fancy gold covers over the corks will be added another day.

In addition to wine tasting, selling, and producing, there are also some handcrafted items for sale.

After a tour of the winery, next up was some wine tasting....I bet you already guessed that.

The man up front was very friendly and engaging so we enjoyed the experience.  I guess I should have added convincing since we each purchased a bottle.

Our next stop was the Sisterdale Market right across the street.

It's an eclectic little market with several rooms to wander through.

We each bought some homegrown tomatoes and she threw in some peaches as a bonus.  They were a couple of days old but she didn't want to have to make another batch of cobbler that night after work.  She said they were delicious and she was absolutely right as we sliced them up with a dab of ice cream for dinner.  Mmmmmm.

All in all, it was a wonderful day.  The best part, of course, was visiting with Sharon and getting to see how well she is progressing.  Birdie (earlier in the year) and Karen (through the final treatment process) were both the kind of friends everyone should be lucky enough to be blessed with during rough times.  And Sharon is a tough lady who will be traveling again.  The trip to Sisterdale was just icing on the cake.

Vintage Motorcycles and Fredericksburg TX Views

Saturday morning we set out for the Texas Hill Country.  Dave was interested in going to the Harvest Classic European and Vintage Motorcycle Rally at Luckenbach, TX.  He went a couple of years ago and thoroughly enjoyed it.  An added benefit in his mind was the fact that they were adding a swap market this year.

We headed out across San Antonio on 1604.  Major mistake on our part.  They have been working on the interchange with 281 for a while now and, generally, there isn’t a problem getting through.  San Antonio does a lot of road work at night in order to disrupt traffic as little as possible.  This weekend they doing something that required funneling down to one lane going west and then a job onto the access road.  We wasted over an hour there just to get through.  Had we known, I would have gone cross country on 46.  Once we got through, sailing was smooth.

After we hit I-10 and made it to Boerne, I did head cross country to Luckenbach.  The roads are great although they don’t have shoulders if that bothers you.  The curves and hills plus the view make it a wonderful drive.  We went through Sisterdale but didn’t stop at the winery there.  There were more motorcycles on the road (we were in the car) as we got closer but then, the Hill Country is a big draw for motorcycle riders at any time.

Click on Harvest Classic European and Vintage Motorcycle Rally Flyer to learn more about the Rally and Harvest Classic Rally Map to see the layout at Luckenbach.  The plan was to drop Dave off and then head on to Fredericksburg for a little site seeing and people watching for me.  I only got one picture as I went past the Rally site and Dave doesn’t take pictures.  There were a ton of people at the rally; many of them camping in tents and RVs in the big meadow in front.



Finding a place to park in Fredericksburg was a real challenge as I don’t think I have ever seen as many people there.  I finally ended up in the city parking lot.  It is free, convenient, and there is a rest room there as well.  If you have never been to Fredericksburg, you may be interested in the Nimitz Museum but don’t think you will be through it in an hour.  There is a lot to see so plan plenty of time.



This is the original building but there are now several other buildings on the grounds.  Notice the widow’s walk on the top front?


Charles Nimitz purchased the building for a hotel and home for his family.  After being sold by the family, it was eventually turned into a museum honoring Admiral Chester Nimitz and his crew from WWII. 


Beautiful building, isn’t it?  Fredericksburg has a lot of interesting old buildings but most of them are stone.


By now it was mid-afternoon, and I found myself in front of Tootie Pie Gourmet Café.  This company is headquartered in Boerne, TX but they have quite a few locations across Texas.  It all began when Don Merrill read an article about Ruby Lorraine “Tootie” Feagan in the newspaper. The article was about Tootie’s many awards and how she had been featured in numerous publications; singing the praises of her wonderful pies. The article also said that Tootie wanted to sell her little Medina, Texas bakery and retire.

Seeing an opportunity, Mr. Merrill contacted Tootie and arranged a meeting, where he tasted for the first time, Tootie’s famous six pound “Original Apple” Pie. Tootie Pie Company, Inc. was incorporated on June 16, 2005 and in September the Company purchased all of Tootie’s pie recipes, customer lists, the right to the “Tootie Pie” name, and the related baking equipment, and building located in Medina, TX.

Now that you know about Tootie Pie, let me introduce you to Pie Shots.  It is an afternoon special.  You get four “shots” of pie (of your choice) and a coffee for $4.99.  Here you see (l to r) Heavenly Chocolate, Pecan, Lemon, and Pumpkin Pie.  Every restaurant in town had a waiting line so I offered to share my table with another couple.  Nice way to meet someone.


Then off to see the sights and do some people watching.  Lots of gourmet goodies here along with bagged pecans and interesting metal signs inside.


This shop was new since my last visit.  I’m not sure he is getting the message. lol


I love the flowers and plants all along the street.


And there are places to sit along the sidewalk.  This is in front of the “General Store” not to be confused with the "Five and Dime" just up the street.  Dave's favorite place is "Rustlin Rob's" but I have it a pass since he was not with me.  They have samples of hundreds of jams, jellies, relishes, etc.


I didn’t get as many pictures as I would have liked but with all the cars and people traffic, they just wouldn’t have been as good.  I did take a turn down around the far end of Main St.  This is one of the places everyone goes to have German food.


It was just about time to head back to Luckenbach to pick Dave up from the Rally.  I found this interesting historical marker along the road.  I had never heard about the Easter fires.  It seems that when the whites and the Comanches signed a major peace treaty in 1847,  the Comanches lit huge signal fires around the hills.  One of the German mothers, in order to calm her frightened children, told them that the smoke was from the pots where the Easter bunny was using flowers to dye the eggs.


I picked Dave up out by the road.  The Rally was in full swing so going in was not an option.  Since it was such a beautiful day, I decided to take several small roads cross country to Blanco, and then go south on 281 until I hit 318, which is a short cut I use to cut some mileage off when I intend to go on 46.  What a great drive, one I had not taken before, and traffic was minimal.  That’s why I keep a Texas map in the car.