Gone To The Park Side

Fort Davis, Texas May 15 – May 17, 2024

Wow – is this the middle of nowhere!. Actually, I think this is a 100 miles from the middle of nowhere! Fort Davis is located up Davis Mountain about 40 miles from Interstate 10 in West Texas. Our attraction was to visit the McDonald Observatory and The National Historic Site of Fort Davis.

We had a great site at Davis Mountain State Park and Ziva enjoyed investigating.

Fort Davis was a key post in the defense system of west Texas. Fort Davis was one of several forts along the trail that protected travelers from San Antonio – El Paso Road. The Fort Davis National historic Site is one of the best examples of a frontier military post. The visitors center had a short film narrated by Kareem Abdul Jabbar. Unfortunately, he spoke very quickly and the audio was not in sync with the video. The fort is partially restored and the parts that are restored are fantastic. I really enjoyed our visit.

Because we were in the middle of nowhere, we spent quite a bit of time at the local library to make phone calls and use the internet. Upon the recommendation of the librarian, we visited the botanical garden. The Chihuahuan Desert Nature Center and Botanical Garden was just what you might expect for a botanical garden in the desert. But it was an enjoyable way to spend a couple of hours in the middle of nowhere.

The highlight of our trip was the McDonald Observatory. The Observatory boasts the largest telescope in North America. We toured the small museum in the visitor’s center and went on a two hour guided tour of the facilities including the two largest telescopes at the facility. The best part of our tour was the nighttime sky party where we were entertained by a talk on the constellations and then viewed the moon and various stars from different telescopes. This was awesome!

Next our travels take us into New Mexico.

“Sky Full of Stars” by Coldplay

Fredericksburg, Texas May 5 – May 15, 2024

The Texas Hill Country is know mostly for the wineries, but there are lots of other things to do in the area.

We went to the LBJ Library and Museum in Austin, but he is from the Texas Hill Country. We visited his ranch where he lived before, during and after his presidency which is located in Stonewall, Texas about 10 miles from Fredericksburg. We also visited his childhood home and a small museum in Johnson City, which is about 20 miles from Fredericksburg. Both are run by the National Park Service. Unfortunately, his ranch was under renovation, so we did not get to see the ranch or tour the inside. The museum in Johnson City was great and the Park Ranger tour of the childhood home was great. After all of that, I think we have learned plenty about LBJ!

We visited Wildseed Farms, where you can buy any type of wildflower seeds known to man.

We visited a couple of restaurants – these were not attached to a winery. We went to a Altstadt Brewery for German beer and food. The food was great, the beer was just OK. The building was spectacular, but the indoor decor was a little disappointing. We had great Barbeque at Backwoods BBQ. I thought this food rivaled the barbeque at Terry Black’s in Austin.

One of the top ten things recommenced to do in Fredericksburg is to hike Enchanted Rock – which we did. The hike is about 425 feet of elevation and about a mile long. The rock rises above the greenery of the Texas Hill Country and is a beautiful peach color (although I do not think my pictures really captured the color all that well).

One day we drove over to Luckenbach Texas which includes a General Store, a Post Office, a Dance Hall and an outdoor stage. Luckenbach has been around and making music since 1849 and was made more famous by the song of the same name by Waylon Jennings.

We dropped by a couple of distilleries while in Fredericksburg. I liked both for different reasons. Garrison Brothers Distillery had very tasty whiskey and Arch Ray had a beautiful facility.

The main attraction of the Texas Hill Country were the wineries. I expected rolling hills and beautiful vineyards growing up the hillside. Not so much. Most of the area was flat and the vineyards were in open country. The wineries themselves were all different. Some had great wine, others had great food, and a few had gorgeous buildings and grounds. We enjoyed the wineries we visited and here are a few highlights

Becker Tasting Room – We had delicious wine here.

Signor Vineyards – This winery had a beautiful outdoor seating area with tasty charcuterie.

Messina Hof – We liked the wine and the people were friendly.

Augusta Vin. This was a beautiful winery and the piano music was wonderful!

We connected with a couple of friends (Dan and Susan Kim) who were traveling through the area. They were in Austin while we were in Fredericksburg and they drove over and we visited the LBJ Ranch, Garrison distillery and a winery together. We had a lot a fun.

Next stop Fort Davis, Texas

“Luckenbach Texas” By Waylon Jennings

Georgetown, Texas April 16 – April 20, 2024
Austin, Texas April 20 – April 24, 2024
Canyon Lake, Texas April 24 – April 28, 2024
San Antonio, Texas April 28 – May 5, 2024

Our first stop in Texas was Georgetown and the home of my good friend, Al Lewis. He and his wife moved here after hurricane Michael. We had dinner with him a couple of times and enjoyed touring the downtown. Upon his recommendation, we went to a cute restaurant in Georgetown for our anniversary (Wildfire). We stayed at a nice park and Ziva really enjoyed walking around. Georgetown was very cute, unfortunately we missed the Poppy Festival (maybe next time). We had fun with Al and he really likes living in Georgetown. I’m sure we will see him again. Thanks Al!

We then moved down to Austin and spent a few days seeing the sights. We loved the LBJ Presidential Library. The museum was informative and very well done. Our friend from Panama City, Michelle Guinn, recommended Terry Black’s Barbeque, so we stopped in and had some delicious barbeque. We saw people that piled on the meat – and ate all of it. We ordered three kinds of meat to share and still had to take home a “go box” because ours was huge! We did not see as many live bands as we wanted because we were a little under the weather, but we did see a couple and both were pretty good.

We then moved a little south to Canyon Lake near New Braunfels. This was a nice COE park and Ziva really enjoyed tooling around our site. Another Friend, Joe Chav, is from New Braunfels and made some recommendations. We took him up and walked around Gruene (pronounced Green) to take in the sights and hear live music. We thoroughly enjoyed Gruene. Thanks Joe!

Then it was on to San Antonio. I know, I know, you want to hear about the Alamo, but we did see other things besides the Alamo. We visited a small art museum – McNay Art Museum. I wanted to visit because the museum owns a Van Gogh (not a famous one – women in wheatfield) but unfortunately, the Van Gogh was not on display. I was very disappointed! Who does not display a Van Gogh?

We also visited five (including the Alamo) different missions. Missions were started in the early 1700s as a way for Spain to acquire new citizens. The missions provided housing, food, religion and protection of any who lived within the walls. The missions were built on the San Antonio river and later served as military forts. Four of the missions still have active churches.

Mission San Jose

Mission Espada

Mission San Juan

Mission Concepcion

The last mission we visited was the Mission San Antonio De Velero (the Alamo). I will not bore you with the history of the Alamo, because most people know that all 200 defenders were killed by Santa Anna (president of Mexico at the time) and all the gruesome details. The park was very nice – although over run with school buses. Phil Collins (apparently a huge Alamo enthusiast) donated his entire collection of Alamo memorabilia for a special exhibit and he provides the audio for a description of the battle using the diorama (This was awesome!). I recommend visiting all of the missions including the Alamo.

Items from Phill Collins

We also visited the Riverwalk (the number one tourist attraction in Texas). We wandered the River Walk several times. The area is pretty touristy, but I (Steve was less enthused) enjoyed walking along the river.

Next stop Fredericksburg

“Texas Sun” by Khruangbin & Leon Bridges