Finishing up with Texas

Fredricksburg, Texas is a town of German influence/background. We stayed 3 nights at the Oakwood RV Resort, which we found in Passport America but discovered they are no longer affiliated with P.A. The town itself is small but there are a few sight-seeing locations nearby. Being in a German heritage town, we just had to eat German cuisine. We found the Auslander Restaurant on the main drag and partook of some authentic German fare (however, I had to wash it down with a good old fashion Irish pint of Guinness.)  While we were here Jeanne cracked one of her crowns so she had to get tended to by one of the local dentists. They got her right in and squared her away, no problems.

Some of the buildings downtown Fredericksburg, Texas

Library building

Cross Mountain was an early Indian lookout point overlooking the valley floor where Fredericksburg is now. Later, early Germans erected a large cross on the mountaintop, which has now been replaced with a lighted cross. We took the short walk up the hill to the cross and got a view of the valley.

The view from Cross Mountain

The cross

And what visit to this area would be complete without a visit to the megalopolis of Luckenbach, Texas. Made famous in song, this is not much more than a large ranch used for concert venues.

The stage behind the bar in Luckenbach

The old Post Office (now contains souvenir shop and the bar)

The bar

The stage and eating area behind the bar

The stage area inside the dance hall

Enchanted Rock State Park was located just outside of Fredericksburg. We hiked to the summit and got another great view of the valley. The rock formations of Enchanted Rock reminded us of Stone Mountain in Atlanta, GA.

Some of the enchanted rocks at Enchanted Rock State Park

A weird "zipper" line on Enchanted Rock

Nice view from the top

San Angelo State Park was our next stop. We stayed 2 days, the park being just outside San Angelo, Texas. The campsites were spacious with water and electric hookups, the dump station nearby. The poor lake there was all but dried up due to the drought. And hunting season was getting ready to start, many of our neighbor campers were hunters getting ready to blast away.

Next, it was off to one of the Escapee parks we have not been to yet, Tra-Park in lovely Pecos, Texas. This is one of the Rainbow parks in the Escapee system. The Escapees should consider terminating their partnership with Tra-Park. This was a TOTAL dump; run down trailers, junk piled up around them, junker cars parked all around and screaming through the park at warp factor 8, and NOISY generators, impact wrenches, various tools running right up to the 10 PM magic hour. And Pecos is an eyesore in and of itself. Driving the highways in and out of Pecos reminded me of the highways in the Bakersfield area, like driving through a county landfill site, garbage EVERYWHERE!

It was one night and out of Tra-Park. We drove into Carlsbad, New Mexico and stayed for a few days at another Escapee Park we had not been to yet, The Ranch at Lakewood, NM. This was a co-op version of the SKP system, and it was much more to our liking. A typical SKP park, very friendly folks, and lots of activities at the park. While we were there we did get some big rain,lightning and thunder, and the weather got a whole lot cooler, some days into the 40’s. 

Carlsbad Caverns was quite awe inspiring. A couple hours walk through the very large hole in the ground took us by some really cool rock formations. It was really nice to see they had a kennel on site for the puppies, although we did not need it for this round, the temperature outside was  in the mid 40’s.

"Oooooooooooh!"

"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh!"

"Ohhhhhhhhhhh!"

We sit here now just waiting for our mail, then it will be onward and westward to who-knows-where-next?