Well, we got our satellite antenna problems fixed, SATS2GO did us very well, we would highly recommend them if you are ever in the Montgomery/Conroe area of Texas (No. Houston area) and need satellite antenna assistance. I mentioned we stayed at the Lake Conroe/Houston North KOA in Montgomery. This was a fairly nice KOA, lots of family stuff (aka:things for kids), and with a stocked, catch-n-release pond for no license required fishing. The only problem I had with the park was the neatly, well trimmed grass areas, especially at our site. It seemed our site had the bulk of sticker weeds in the grass. They were the round spiral type stickers and they were more deadly than any of the goat heads we have encountered nationwide! It’s like my wife Jeanne has not had many personal lessons in 4-letter word vocabulary, but she got another barrage of them, every time I stepped on one of them buggers!

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Using the KOA for our base for the week, we spent all our time pretty much driving around checking the areas, still looking for that “Ah, feels like home!” moment. We covered the area pretty well, even finding time to take a couple of brewery breaks. We had previously been to and thought we might like the area of The Woodlands, Texas, but it had been a few years since we were there. This time through sealed the deal for that area…a big no. Traffic has become an absolute nightmare with the congestion now. And to top it off, it seems the state of Texas is on a tear to spend highway construction dollars before they lose them, so in EVERY town we go through they are tearing up ALL their roads at the same time. With all the cones and reduced lane widths Jeanne gets even more lessons in 4-letter vocabulary from me. It ain’t fun maneuvering a 40’ bus towing a Jeep through some of that quagmire. (But, knock on wood laminate, no issues as of yet…). We did kinda take a liking to the area of Conroe/Willis/Montgomery and Lake Conroe, but it did not trigger that “home” feeling. As far as “beer breaks” went, we checked out a couple local breweries, one was the B-52 Brewery in Conroe. It was an interesting place, despite the China-virus hysteria bull$hit, it looked to be family friendly with a large outdoor area with lots of cornhole games and outdoor seating, pet friendly. They had some pretty good offerings, from stouts to IPA’s to sour fruiteds. Our son, Chad, also sent us on a quest to find the Urban South HTX brewery in Houston. We found it. If you are into the slushy style of sour-fruited beers, this is the place for you! I even gave a couple of them 5’s on the free Apple app “Untappd”. They don’t do a bad job on some of their IPA’s as well.

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When we got ready to hit the road, we decided we were going to “slowly make our way” (to be painfully described here shortly) toward the megalopolis of Red Bay, AL. We have a couple of minor fixes needed on Rosie, so we contacted a couple of the folks who do Tiffin work outside of the service center and set up dates in early December. So from Montgomery we headed for San Antonio. OK, keeping our drive days short. It was only supposed to be a 3 1/2 hr. drive. And mostly 2-lane backroads which we love to travel vs. the pinball action between truckers on the major freeways. We wound our way S/W, at some point getting onto little Hwy. 237 toward La Grange. Well there happens to be a whole string of small town areas along the route, all of which do nothing but sell “antiques” out of their yards. Some are pretty big outfits, putting up large steel buildings to house their “antiques”. And as we were forced to slow through these areas, we came upon the “antique” capital of the area…a place called Round Top. It just so happened we were there during some big sales/show event and I swear every resident of the state of Texas was there to buy “antiques”. The 2-lane highway was at a standstill for a little over one hour! “Hey Jeanne, wanna hear some more 4-letter vocabulary?!?!” Once we cleared that traffic fiasco, we were on our way through La Grange and on down to catch I-10 for the last short leg into San Antonio. Cruisin’ along, fat, dumb, & happy (sorta), we happened upon an accident on I-10. Traffic stopped, all lanes. “Hey Jeanne, c’mon, say it with me, &$%#>@!*$@!*&%!!!!!!!” This time, 3 1/2 hours at a standstill… So we finally made it into San Antonio, to the San Antonio/Alamo KOA. This was also a very nice KOA, also with a stocked fishin’ pond (I get it, they like to fish in the great state of Texas!). 

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We only spent a couple days in San Antonio, been there before, but wanted to re-visit the River Walk and this time check out the Alamo. China-virus hysteria strikes again; the weekday, lunchtime visit we made to River Walk revealed NOBODY walking the Walk, and every restaurant along the Walk was closed. We walked on over to the Alamo and went in on the free ticket (you pay $7 for a guided tour which takes you into the museum part). I do have to say, visiting the Alamo was a waste of our time, it is not conducive to great photography moments (I took very few pix), and it was marred by massive construction projects on its outer grounds. Not what I expected, by a long shot. So we resolved ourselves to walking around the outskirts of the River Walk and down to the Pearl market area. The area was heavily decorated for the upcoming Dia de los Muertos celebrations. We got our fill of painted skulls, then decided to “skip town” (har-dee-har-har!).

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We headed north into the Kerrville Elk’s Lodge for a couple of nights. We found Kerrville to be home to “The Coming King Prayer Sculpture Garden” containing “The Empty Cross”. We walked around gawking at the sculptures and marvelling at the number of “prayer rocks” scattered about. We also found in little ol’ Kerrville a small brewery called Pint & Plow Brewery. We just had to partake of their wares, only to find nothing spectacular.

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Next up was a return day-drive into Fredericksburg. We walked the main drag, which appeared pretty much unchanged since we were last there several years ago. We also happened upon the old historical jailhouse which we missed last time around. A quick lunch at Burger Burger and we were outta there. Jeanne heard Burger Burger was a “must-do” when in Fredericksburg, but we were underwhelmed with the food.

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Lubbock, TX, was next on our radar. We spent a week at the Lubbock Elk’s Lodge while exploring the area, taking care of some chores, and shopping for supplies. My first obligation was to stop by a pay my respects at Buddy Holly’s gravesite at the City of Lubbock Cemetery. While in Lubbock we ran accross an area of Mackenzie Park called Prairie Dog Town and, like most barren lots throughout the town, it was inundated with the little critters. For you chow-hounds out there, a place of note for lunch, we ate at “The Lost Cajun” and boy, howdy I had some ‘dat good ol’ Jambalaya!

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Wichita Falls was just an overnighter for us, again at the Wichita Falls Elk’s Lodge, then it was on to Sherman, TX and the Lazy L RV Park. How we were surprised to find the 903 Brewers just a 5 minute walk from our bus. OK, arm twisted, yeah, we partook. And again, for all you slushie heads out there, 903 Brewers is well worth your effort. They also had a couple of stouts that were outstanding!

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One day we took a ride back into Gainsville to look at some properties, then swung around back to Denton (No. Dallas area) to see that area. We took Woodrow Wilson with us and took him on a walkabout around the town square area at the old Courthouse museum, then ate some pretty good pizza at J & J’s Pizza across from the Courthouse. 

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Well, not a lot of overall excitement in this blog post. We’ll have to try and squeeze in a little more sightseeing as we hunt down that “Ah, feels like home” moment. Until next post…