We've been having computer connection problems on our wireless at the campsite. We had to come over to use the WiFi at the clubhouse today to catch up on the last 4days. Last Saturday night we attended the dinner/dance at this clubhouse to honor Valentines Day and had a very good time. The dinner was great and tho' I'm not fond of western music, I was tapping my foot to the live band playing!
The Texas Hill Country has several German towns that started as German settlements in the area. We visited one of them named Fredericksburg on Sunday. In Fredericksburg we shopped a bit and toured thru the National Museum of the Pacific War. General Nimitz of WWII fame lived there and there was a museum to honor him also. It was filled with WWII memorabilia and now I know more than I ever wanted to about that war. When we exited the museum, we discovered that the weather had degenerated into a fierce cold wind and we ran for the truck. We finished off the day with a lunch at the Fredericksburg Brewing Co that included a tall glass of hometown brew.
The holiday on Monday threw us for a loop. Being retired we forget about things like weekends and holidays. Many things in Boerne (Burney, another German town) were closed because of the holiday so we had to change plans. We headed out of town to The Cave With No Name (yeah, that's its name!) to go underground again. We're going to dedicate this trip to things underground, I guess. At least in caves the temperature is consistent and usually warmer than topside lately. It's been very cold here, in the 30s, so going underground was inviting. This cave was privately owned and a little more difficult to access. There were 1oo+ steps to descend (and ascend) to get to the main cavern. The last 15 ft was only 4 ft tall and all but children had to bend over to get thru. When we finally overcame the obstacles, the cavern was beautiful. I've noticed that all caves are different and this one was more up-close and personal than the last two. We had to walk very carefully to avoid formations and sometimes had to walk thru water because of the recent rains. The tour took about an hour and then we went out as we had come in....up the stairs. Not so bad tho' I brought up the rear!
Yesterday our mission was missions! In San Antonio there are five missions; Espada, San Juan, San Jose, Concepcion and the Alamo (which was a mission but turned into a fort during the battles with Mexico). We visited the first four extensively but only drove by the Alamo as it was close to closing time when we got there. We had already seen the Alamo several years ago when we visited San Antonio on vacation. It was very interesting to find out how the Spanish founded the missions and forced the local natives into converting and being their labor. Of course the local natives did appreciate the guaranteed food supply and the protection against fiercer, warring tribes.
Today is a beautiful warmer day but it had already been set aside as our day for catching up on things like laundry, cleaning, computer stuff, etc. Unfortunately it's been so cold here that we've not done the fishing and hiking that we had planned. Tomorrow we move on to Gibson, Louisiana, a small town to the west and south of New Orleans.
Funny story time! Next time you see him, ask Ed how it came to be that he found his phone tied up in our bathroom trash bag (yuck!) in a campground dumpster by calling it with my phone?! He had been missing his phone all day and we thought it was gone for good. Then he had the smart idea of using my phone to call his phone while walking around to all the areas he had been that morning before it went missing. It was pretty funny to hear his ringtones coming from the dumpster!!!!!