Texas Hill Country

Howdy!
Which way is east?














Think it is this way...lets go!

We are on our way to Bourne, (Bernie)  a town north of San Antonia in the heart of Texas Hill Country. On the way we stopped in Marathon and toured the gardens of the famous Gage Hotel. 

Mom and dad had dinner there that night.

 Mom had another chili relleno




















and dad had a pork cutlet

We spent a week in a nice park in Bourne, lots of grass for Brody and me.

Unfortunately, we had to stay in the motor home every day while Jerry, Charlie, mom and dad spent the next six days touring the area.  They toured Fredricksburg stopping afterwards to  visit LBJ's ranch. Before his death he donated much of his ranch and home to the National Parks. After Lady Bird's death in 2007, their home was opened for tours.

 his airplane

and the ancestors of his herd of cows

Another day they went to New Braunfels.  The first stop was to Naegelin's Bakery, the oldest bakery in Texas (!868). Dad could hardly wait to get there

to buy some of their famous strudel (top shelf)

They walked down the street to visit Henne Hardware (1893),  the oldest hardware store in Texas'

Then they walked through the beautiful Landa Park, set on the crystal clear springs of the Comal River.

Gruene is a charming old historic town of German origin.

Established in 1878, the Guene dance hall is the oldest, continually operating dance hall in Texas.

The stage has seen the likes of George Strait, Bo Diddley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Garth Brooks and Willie Nelson, just to name a few!

They had a delicious lunch at the old historic Gristmill, overlooking the Guadalupe River.

 check out the size of Jerry"s chicken fried steak, sure wish he had saved some for me.

After lunch mom spotted a giant wind chime, can you see it?

Leaving us again to fend on our own, they spent a couple days in San Antonio. Walking along the famed River Walk.

They decided to skip the tourist boatride....

but they did stop to have lunch on the river,

before visiting the historic and oldest saloon in Texas.Established in 1881 the Buckhorn Saloon is where Teddy Roosevelt recruited Rough Riders and where Pancho Villa is rumored to have planed the Mexican Revolution. 

 Now a museum, it houses a large collection of buckhorn

San Antonio's five Spanish colonial missions are the largest collection of Spanish colonial architecture in the U.S. They were built in the early 1700s to convert Native Americans to Christianity and help settle this region under the flag of Spain. They straddle either side of the San Antonio River with each about three miles from the next.

 Mission San Antonio de Valero (also known as the Alamo) was the first they visited.

Followed by Mission Concepcion

Mission San Jose ( a huge complex)

and Mission San Juan

Unfortunately, the road to Mission Espada was closed that day. 

As some of you saw on Facebook, we had a huge storm heading our way on our last day in Boerne. We watched on the radar as the storm approached, complete with tornado warnings.  Mom made sure I had my Thundershirt on and I hunkered down for the storm, 

although I must admit I was so nervous I paced around abit

My brother, Brody seemed not to care as long as he was in dad's lap.

I was glad when Jerry came over to calm us down. As a pilot he has lots of expereince with bad weather, so I listened as he told us that the worst was over 

We were lucky, lots of thunder and lightening, a bit of hail, but nothing that caused any damage. We later heard a tornado passed over us, but did not set down.

We were sorry to see our friends Jerry and Charlie, head out on their way back home to Mississippi.

 We had a great time together and Jerry was such a great tour guide. Now we are on our own. 

Next stop, Padre Island on the Texas Gulf Coast.
Adios,
Yuki and Brody