Rick and Reyna 2011 Roadtrip: 2nd installment

June 14 Tuesday

We’re in Pompano Beach, FL this morning after staying overnight to have bug tuned up yesterday afternoon after about 4000 miles since Dallas, so taking some time today to try to catch up the blog as we are in the luxury of a motel. I’ve been hearing (not seeing any newspapers) about big fire in AZ that has burned through the area where we stopped and camped. We went through the 2 towns of Springerville and Eager that were evacuated. What a shame to burn up all that beautiful country, but I’m sure it will rebound, so back to the day by day below. (Sorry that some of the pics are not where they should be compared to the narrative. They look like they are in correct place where I create the blog, but don't come out quite right on the preview. Oh well. Modern technology - but it's free, so can't complain too much.)

May 18 Wednesday

After overnight in Junction, TX motel, we went south into the TX “hill country” along the Llano River on US83 and then east on TX41 and a then a county road to Hunt, TX.

My brother-in-law, Joe Keeper, is from Hunt, TX, and we’d been here 20 years or so ago for the wedding of Joe and my sister, Anna, so we passed by the family homestead somewhere along the Rio Guadalupe but didn’t recognize the house and none of the Keeper’s are living there now so didn’t try to find it for a visit. Rio Guadalupe appears to have decent amount of water in it, but it’s deceptive because of the way dams are built up along the river to retard the flow and make parts of it lake-like for the homes that are built along the way. Otherwise, like every place else we’ve been in the west, the creeks are low or dry. Because there is so much tree and brush cover and TX looks pretty green in this area, you don’t really notice how dry it is most everywhere.

All pics of flowers below alongside the highway where we turned off to Hunt.

Continued from Hunt over to Kerrville and then north on TX16 through Fredericksburg (great name for a city/town don’t you think?:) ) to the Austin area where we met up with a friend from my Army days in Korea, Gary Bauch. Had a drink at the Steiner Ranch Steakhouse with a nice sunset view of Lake Travis, which is showing lots of dry bleached land where the Lake level is down 30 or 40’. Local uproar is about how the Colorado River (TX has their own) Water Authority that controls Lake Travis just sold water to a developer so more houses can be grown. We had a nice dinner with Gary who has a new job and is charged with building a reverse mortgage company to nationwide status. Austin area was pretty and while it is developing and expanding, a lot of the development is not so obvious due to the hills and dales where it is tucked away. We spent the night at the Lost Parrot Inn. A bit pricey for us but it’s in a resort area and there weren’t too many other choices around, but the owner put us in the nicest room in the place I think, as we were the only guests for the 7 rooms in the Inn. Cutesy place. Bright tropical colors.

We were in this room.

Reyna in her element.

May 19 Thursday

We left Austin area on US 183 heading north and passed by Fort Hood which supports town of Killeen, TX, where I went into 3 Army stores that cater to the troops there. I want to get a license plate frame that says US Army Veteran, but didn’t find one, so still looking. From Killeen we cut over east to I36 and headed north to Dallas area where Reyna’s cousin lives in Mansfield and 2 of my friends also living around there. Reyna’s cousin, Carlos “Bobby” Joya and his wife, Scarlett, put us up for a few enjoyable days.

Reyna with her cousin Bobby

Reyna, Bella, Leo and Scarlett

May 20 Friday

Used the NPR Car Talk website to find a mechanic in Dallas area that specializes in VWs, since VW needed tuneup, valves adjusted, oil change, fix the speedometer/odometer and to fix the electrical so the headlights will work. Found a guy not too far away in Grand Prairie and dropped the bug off around noon.

Provided him with a speedometer cable that I had purchased from Wolfsburg West (big VW after-market parts supplier in Corona, CA) and had shipped to Reyna’s cousin.

May 21 Saturday

Picked up the VW about 11. Everything taken care of except the radio still not working. Ordinarily wouldn’t care as we have an iPod thing that we can play music on, but figured we might want to hear weather forecasts and warnings now that we were in tornado country. The mechanic hadn’t been able to figure out how to turn it on to see if it worked. No big deal. I couldn’t figure it out without reading the instruction book either. He installed the speedo cable, but didn’t hook it up to the head as he tested it first and found the head was frozen up and would have just broken off the cable again once the wheel started spinning the cable. With a mostly functioning vehicle, Reyna and I drove into Ft Worth to meet our friends, John and Phyllis Cameron, at the Japanese Garden at the Botanical Gardens. I really like gardens and although it was noon and pretty warm, we took time to also see the Cactus Garden and Rose Garden sections as well before we went over to the Stockyards in Ft Worth.

We stopped in this gazebo about 30 minutes after meeting up with John and Phyllis. Phyllis couldn't container herself any longer and had to bring up the results of the Mavericks Lakers playoff. She's a rabid fan. I was as gracious as I could be under the circumstances. I rooted for Dallas the rest of the way and happy to see that they managed to win it all.

At the Japanese Garden. I think this is a wood duck, but haven't checked my bird guide.

Some very, very large koi in the pond.

Pink Knockout. Very fragrant.

In the Rose Garden

I couldn't quite get picture of the entire beatle that is in the middle of this picture. Note the 2 fake eyes on it's back.

The Stockyards are historic site and now a tourist destination. Our timing was good as it was about 4 and at 4 there is a cattle drive of longhorns down the street for a few blocks, which really brings out the tourists. Unfortunately, my camera acted up and I didn’t get any close up pics of the actual parade, but I managed to get it going again and took some pics of the beasts in their corral afterward. The horns are long.

Are we having fun yet?

Then we went out for dinner to Mexican food place called Uncle Julios (there are several in Dallas area). I’m dubious about big restaurants and multi-location spots as I figure it’s difficult to keep up the quality, but Uncle Julio’s was excellent. Reyna ordered quail and it was a good thing she got the 3 bird order as it allowed one for me. And I generously shared some of my carne asada.

Got back to cousin’s in Mansfield and , and he decided that we needed more beer, so he and I went on a run. We drove about half an hour to only liquor store around and it was closed on Sat night about 9! I learned that TX has a lot of dry counties.

May 22 Sunday

Washed the car this morning and installed new seatbelts that I brought from CA (another Wolfsburg West purchase). It’s nice to have belts that actually retract properly. Another friend who had moved to Dallas from LA about 10+ years ago, Jim Laitshaw, came over to visit on Sunday afternoon. It was interesting to hear about his desire to transfer job (he’s with AT&T) to some part of the country where he wouldn’t be a slave to air conditioning. Since I’m spoiled from living in So Cal, I concurred with that thought. That evening we went out to have some BBQ at the Flying Pig with Bobby and Scarlett and their son. Tomorrow we head southeast to Port Arthur TX on Louisiana border.