Fredericksburg to Austin, Feb. 5 - 11

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THE BASICS
After a couple of days exploring the Fredericksburg area, we drove the short distance to San Antonio, stopping briefly at Luckenbach on the way.

We explored many historic sites in San Antonio, and feel just a bit guilty that we did not go to the rodeo that's there for most of February, and was less than a mile from our RV Park. A delight was meeting Jennie's in-laws, the Sillers, for dinner at a very Mexican, large and packed, restaurant in the Market Square area.

On to Austin, which is a really cool city as well. The enormous university, the music scene, the Capitol area, the riverside walking trails - it is vibrant and "manageable." Maybe I say manageable because I am rather dreading our next city, Houston, which seems so huge. So we plan a few days of just vegetating, especially since the temperatures will finally reach into the 70's and we want to relish the end (we hope) of the freezing cold.

THE FLUFF
Last Saturday John awoke with an unhappy tummy, but he gamely came along to the LBJ Ranch. It is a huge, rolling spread, and I can finally see why LBJ so loved going home to Texas. In fact, he spent 500 days of his presidency there, a record. We saw the airstrip where he had anyone he needed to work with flown in. The ranch house is being lovingly restored to its 60's style, which is pretty much okay except that the kitchen looks great now and they will need to make it so so outdated. Our guide was a school counselor on leave for two years to travel the country; he was spending three months as a guide there, and spoke so knowledgeably about the locale. And reverently - one of his first jobs had been to help carry LBJ's suits from his bedroom closet, and he was awed by that experience.

John took to the bed by noon on Saturday and was okay by Sunday morning, so we drove to Enchanted Rock. The terrain en route was hilly and seemed to be dotted by "gentleman ranches." The rock is a massive. rounded, pink granite formation which is only the "tip of the iceberg" - I believe the underlying rock is larger than Rhode Island. We, and hordes of other folks including a large group of youngsters dressed as future Marines, climbed the rock and enjoyed the views. We took a different road back to F'burg, and went off the main road on a "loop." The loop turned out to be a very long road, mostly dirt, and as I so often do on this trip, I wondered how people cope when they run out of milk and need to drive an hour or more to get it.

Back in Fredericksburg, it was finally reasonably warm, so we sat outside at a biergarten and enjoyed a beer, along with lots of other folk. Later we watched the Super Bowl, which we thought was a pretty good game this year, although we had been rooting for the other team and missed having the Patriots competing.

A route to San Antonio took us past Luckenbach, so we drove that way and were only mildly dismayed to find that the hills and valleys were a lot taller and a bit more of a challenge when we were in the motorhome. Luckenbach became famous in a song, and has capitalized on that by having live music every day. Too bad it was only Monday morning and we couldn't hang around until the music started at 1:00. The main store and bar are jam-packed with memorabilia, lots of fun. We enjoyed a local beer, a Shiner Bock, and were sure that this place must be hopping, especially on weekends.

Our RV park in San Antonio was nice and very convenient, once we figured an easy route into town instead of the many-major-highway-route that Bertha (our GPS) dictated to us. We drove around town - we like to spend our first day in a place figuring out the lay of the land. We decided to park, which was becoming a challenge until we drove into the Menger Hotel valet parking area and the attendant let us park there. He wouldn't give us a discount on his $10 charge, however, even though John showed him our name on his driver's license.

We walked into the Alamo, which is rather small in the midst of more modern buildings nearby, but was indeed the last stop for some brave men. We walked a portion of the RiverWalk, which was constructed as part of a flood control plan to divert the San Antonio River from flooding the city. The Walk is below street level, and winds along the banks, in some sections past shops, restaurants, and cafes. There were some brave pansies in bloom, but most of the other non-native plants had been zapped by the freezes. (I am trying to figure out if a pair of glasses could be invented that would overlay scenes of wildflowers in bloom over the dry brown of winter Texas.) More walking, and then we dropped into the Menger Bar for another Shiner.

Next day, we parked near Market Square and walked through the busy tourist-stuff shops there. Then we went to the Main Plaza, where the San Fernando Cathedral is. Again, John's uncanny timing. A mass was nearly over inside the cathedral and the place was packed with fifth graders and most likely their parents and grandparents. A young woman who sang the mass in a clear, strong voice later announced that she is the Superintendent of Catholic schools in San Antonio, and welcomed the fifth graders. The cathedral is not huge, but the abundant gilt makes it quite lovely.

We toured the Spanish Governor's Mansion, learning again about the Spanish soldiers and priests, and the natives, and the settlers who came to develop this land. Then back to the Main Plaza, where on Tuesdays a caterer offers a $5 gourmet lunch. (Shrimp quesdillas, freshly squeezed pineapple juice, and a corn and bean salad with dried cherries to add zing.) Desiring to walk rather than stroll, we headed south in the city to the King William Historic District. Huge mansions built by successful German settlers line the streets. On the way home, John managed to get a guard to open the Amtrak station so he could explore it. Passenger trains come through in both directions in the middle of the night, so it isn't open otherwise.

On Wednesday, the weather prediction was ferocious - very windy in addition to the harsh cold - so we planned a museum day. The San Antonio Museum of Art (SAMA) is magnificent. Although it's built inside an old brewery, the insides are bright and modern. We browsed through the various rooms. I especially enjoyed the Egyptian artifacts, being mindful of the revolution going on in Egypt and hoping that there would not be (further)damage to the ancient treasures over there. Many of the SAMA Egyptian objects are on loan from the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. The museum has a large collection of art from Central and South America that was donated by Nelson Rockefeller. He had gathered wonderful and varied objets d'art. We spent so long in the museum that we just went back to the RV to rest before our dinner.

We had arranged to meet up with the Sillers, Jennie's in-laws, at a restaurant in Market Square. (Actually, there had been some confusion about the name of the restaurant, which flashed me back to the day when a friend waited for me at Olive Garden while I waited for her at Me and Ollie's. But we did get the name straight in time.) What a fun place La Terria is! There are many large rooms, and by the time we finished eating, they were all full and there were dozens of people in the large entry room waiting for tables. One room had gold cutouts and white lights covering the ceiling. Another had large shiny pinatas. The room where we ate - sitting next to a Christmas tree - had a huge mural depicting the history of San Antonio. The owners are very devout folks, and in one vestibule there is a small shrine with lighted candles. At the end of the room where we ate was a long bar, and in the middle of it was a tall statue of the Virgin Mary. It seemed to me like an unusual juxtaposition, but Alejandro (Mr. Siller) suggested, with a twinkle in his eyes, that it was there to make the bar patrons behave.

Indeed, there seems to be a comfortable interweaving of church and state in San Antonio. Louise Anne told us that when new city councilors are installed, the ceremony takes place in the Cathedral, and representatives of all the major faiths sit shoulder to shoulder.

It was a wonderful meal and visit, and the thoughtful Sillers even insisted that we get sweet pastries at the bakery counter in the lobby for our breakfast.

On Thursday, we drove the couple of hours north to Austin, and settled into an RV park which is convenient but not quite as nice as we have been used to. Oh, well, we can't always make lucky choices. We drove into town, using a small map which indicated a tourist info center at the State Capitol building, so we could gather more detailed brochures. We parked and walked up to the Capitol, went through the metal detector and past at least a dozen Texas Rangers, and found that that info center only served the Capitol tours. But they pointed the way to the general tourist info center, which was within walking distance. Substantial walking distance. We almost felt as if we had had our day's exercise just walking on the Capitol grounds. They say everything is bigger in Texas...

Well, it sure was so when we then drove through the campus of the University of Texas. John said that within his view in one spot were as many students as there are at UNH. I checked, and the student population is 48,000. We must have caught them at the end of their day of classes, because it was truly remarkable.

We drove down through the city and over the river and along South Congress, which sports plenty of funky shops. Then we stopped for a beer at Threadgill's. It was fun, but we were there at a poor time (4 PM) so the place wasn't exactly hopping.

For Friday, we planned to visit the Museum of Texas History and the Blanton Art Museum. We knew we should go to the LBJ Library, but John just couldn't get excited about that. The Texas History Museum is wonderful! We went through slowly, reading all the placards. Texas history really is fascinating, as it became independent from Mexico and then one of the United States. I know more now, but the history is quite complicated and we avoided like the plague the room where they offer a "test" on what you had learned...

The Blanton, just across the street, is the largest university art museum in the country. It has nice collections - much Italian Renaissance.

By now, we again needed to walk rather than stroll. So we headed down to the river and walked on the Lady Bird Lake Walk. When construction on the path redirected us to the streets, we walked up to and along Sixth Street, which is the music center. Indeed, in mid-afternoon, there were plenty of live entertainers already creating music.

Although it was early, hardly 5:00, we went to Stub's BarBQ for dinner. It's a fun building and good food. We even had an appetizer, which we rarely do - fried green tomatoes.

I keep using the terms "up" and "down" relating to Austin. Well, it is a hilly city, and we now understood why the entire city had been closed down when there was freezing precipitation about a week ago. They don't have plows, or salt, and we could imagine what chaos it would have been to venture out on those icy inclines.

We do have cable TV at this park, so we were able to watch the celebrating in Egypt following Mubarek's resignation. What a hopeful accomplishment!

We are now hoping for some warm weather to thaw out our bones. We hope you, wherever you are, are safe and warm. Best, Linda and John

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