March 15-19, Lakehills, Tx

                                           Yep, we are in Texas Hill Country now.

We left Big Bend National Park a day early and headed for the "Hill Country" of Texas via the towns of Sonora and Kerrville.  The Hill Country encompasses a large area near San Antonio and includes little towns such as Bandera, Helotes, and Fredricksburg .  We headed for the Thousand Trails campground on Medina Lake near the little community of Lakehills near the heart of the Hill Country, about 40 miles from San Antonia.  Joel made an exception to his "no planning/no reservation rule" and actually made reservations, although now we would be arriving two days early.

It was a good thing reservations were made because by the middle of the week, when we arrived, the campground was pretty full of families enjoying Spring Break.  This is a very large campground with several sections with lots of camp sites; some with full hookups and some with just water and electric.  The water and electric sites are closest to the lake and full of boaters and the majority of them were full.  We chose a full hook up site only because there was a clear line for the satellite dish.  Most of the sites were heavily treed and shady.

                                           Medina Lake


Once we got settled we headed into San Antonio for grocery shopping at Costco and Sam's Club.  We haven't done any real grocery shopping since Tucson, the the fridge and cupboards were getting pretty thin.  We also checked out the little  cowboy town Bandera, which will be our next destination for the SI dance rally at the the beginning of April.

  One of the Long Horns we saw near Bandera.  He had to turn his head in order to make it through the gate.  Amazing.

While I was taking pictures of the Long Horn, this little guy wanted to be in the picture also.

The campground has lots of trails to explore and we have been taking advantage of them.  Deer are abundant and don't seem afraid of humans, although I have noticed they do scattered when people are out walking their dogs.  I'll share some pictures of  them later.

On our walks I've noticed this strange growths on the trees.  They remind me of the off shoots from the spider houseplants I used have.  I think they must be a fungus of some sort.  I've even noticed them growing on the power lines.

Recently, Joel purchased a new cooking appliance.  With the weather warming up, he thought it would be a good idea to do some of the baking outside and not heat up the RV.  I, on the other hand thought it was a good idea because we wouldn't need to be hooked up to power or run the generator.

This is a propane Camp Chef oven/range combination.  Yes, I did make the bread. Looks pretty professional, don't you think?

You can bake and cook on it.  Its about the size of a small microwave and fits nicely in one of the basement storage bays.  So far I've baked some bread and cookies and once I figured out how to keep the temperature even, everything has turned out great.  I previously had lobbied for a bread maker, but lost.  Actually, this is much better because it runs off propane and can be used anytime.

Now we have to walk 5 miles a day instead of few in order to keep the pounds off so we can enjoy the fresh homemade bread!