2025-8-13 First Stop, Medina and the Apple Store

 Wednesday morning. First the half mile walk around the RV park, then on to planning. Carolyn had heard about the Three Twisted Sisters road so dear to motorcyclists hearts and wondered if we could possibly do that. Of course. Wednesday will be divided into a number of different blog posts because we did a lot. Our trip started with heading west along  Hwy 16 to Medina TX.

Medina is a small town with many different restaurants, coffee shop, a fabulous quilting shop, and of course, the famous Apple Store. No this store has absolutely nothing to do with computers. It's a gift store and a place with everything related to apples. They grow a lot of apples in this area. Having taken the kids when younger to pick apples when we lived in Spokane WA, I thought it would be a fun thing to do when we were visiting friends in San Antonio in the fall. She laughed and said, yes, next year. The apples ripen here in early summer.

Carolyn and I were early so there were no crowds here yet. There are cute things to see outside.

But the real attraction is what they do with the apples. These pies aren't cheap but they are 6 inches deep in the middle.

But my favorite are the apple strudel and the apple turnovers. Did I mention that they have apple ice cream, apple cider, apple jelly, apple..........

They also have a restaurant with very good sandwiches. No one was there for lunch yet and we were not ready for lunch either so we got a strudel and a turnover to eat later on. Of course, we did have to try the apple ice cream too.

Lots to choose from in the gift shop. Sorry this should have come before the apples. Carolyn took many pictures in the gift shop.

Buy one of the many delicious sandwiches and eat here or outside at one of the many picnic tables. 

You can feel like the apple queen on the thrown.

Moving on down the road. This is just the beginning of our day.

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!

Sunday Farewells and Medina Apple Store

Sunday morning we all gathered for coffee, some final chat, and goodbyes to several of our group members who had to head home.  As you can see, it was beautiful out and warm.

After those who had to hit the road home, we relaxed for a while longer.  Several of the ladies who didn't go with us to Lost Maples wanted to go to the Apple Store in Medina.  Now, the Apple Store doesn't sell Ipads or Iphones or Macs, and their official name is Love Creek Orchard Bakery....not the Apple Store.  Of course, the rest of us were happy to oblige. I remember when I moved to San Antonio, it was October or November and I told some friends it would be fun to drive up to Medina and pick some apples.  I grew up in the north and that is apple time.  Well, apple picking time in Texas is June.  lol.

The Apple Store has amazing apple struedel and apple turnovers and cookies.

This is in addition to their famous apple pies.

Of course, we were all good and had lunch first.  I had an amazing BLT, others had fantastic hamburgers, Carolyn had a plate of different kinds of salad.  Everything was fantastic.

Of course, we had to try the desserts too.  I bought some apple struedel coffee to bring home.

Once we got back to the RV park, we took a stroll back through the back of the park again.  It is such a lovely peaceful place.

Everyone but Birdie and I headed home Monday morning.  We headed out but we went to Kerrville so that Birdie could have her Class A wheels aligned and then we came back to Skyline Ranch for one more night.  Tuesday morning we both headed home ending a fantastic week.