Texas Hill Country

There is an area in Texas called the Hill Country. The area is west of Austin and San Antonio and is becoming a very popular place for people to come to and live, especially retired folks. So, we wanted to see if this might be a place that we would buy a house and move here. We spent three weeks at the Johnson Creek RV spot and did some exploring.

This is the view from our RV spot....a pecan orchard. Quiet and serene.

Kim likes to take Hobbes out for a walk so he can see the outside once in a while. You should see the looks she gets while walking a cat !

The Johnson Creek at our campground. They had a very bad drought this past summer so the water is very low.

Ahhhhh...gotta love retirement.

Sunset.

Some of the two-lane roads that are all over the Hill Country.

...and none of them are straight or level. People go 70 on these roads !

Eventually all the leaves got blown off the pecan trees by the wind and rain (and the coming winter).

This is a small herd of deer in our orchard. We saw one herd over over 70 while driving one day.

Almost all the trucks have these guards in front because of all the deer.

I talked to one fellow and he said, after hitting a deer on the road, it cost him $9,000 in damages. Since he's put on the guard, he's hit nine more. And they just bounce off the guard. While running on the roads, I could see the herds off the road.

We went to Kerrville's Christmas parade. There were over 80 floats! This is Kim afterwards watching Santa talk to the children. Doesn't she look happy ?

At 9pm, they lit up all the lights at the county courthouse. So pretty.

A Nativity scene on county land !!?? We're not in California here are we?

Look at the size of this bed frame !

A very sweet set of gravestones in Bandera. Tender.

A picturesque cemetery in Bandera. I found a gravestone from 1870.

On the way home from Bandera we found a small herd of Buffalo.

Uh-oh....gotta go "downstairs" for some much needed supplies.

So much of the soil here is like this....look at all the rocks ! Sheep and cattle is all they can do here.

Some fellow built a 2/3 size replica of Stonehenge here in Ingram.

...and also some Easter Island duplicates.

I found it while out for a morning ride. Now we don't have to travel to England.

Even after looking at the label, I bought it. Good tasting dark beer.

One of the longhorn steers. Look at the width of his horns !

City hall in Llano, Texas.

The people in the Hill Country are very friendly, helpful and warm. We enjoyed it but decided not to move here. All the two-land roads and deer everywhere. Scary. We drove home from Llano one night after viewing their Christmas light display (next blog). The trip was about 34 miles to Fredericksburg, then another 18 from there back to the RV park. We drove VERY carefully....dark, no other cars, two-lanes, up and down, twisty turny....AND deer crossing the road. I was bushed when we finally got home. Don't really want to do that every day. So.....it's on to San Antonio to see the Alamo!