New Campground Reviews Blog and link

March 30, 2011 Cottonwood Creek RV Park.

Today we were expecting rain that never really materialized. So I started off the day working on the blog.  In particular, I deleted the campground review page and created another blog: America by RV Campground Reviews. I then linked the two blogs together. So if you look at the top of the right sidebar you should see a hyperlink to the campground reviews. I also added some additional pictures and reviews. Working on the blog took most of the day. Please take a look at the new reviews. They should be easier to find via the State name.


I've been doing some minor landscape work here at Cottonwood Creek RV Park.  Sheri, one of the owners, asked if I would be interested in helping her around the park a few hours a week for which she would be willing to pay.  She knew that we had turned down a volunteer position in Palo Duro State Park and would possibly be around for a while. I agreed to help out.  Her husband Les is disabled from his explosive accident, so Sheri could really use the help. So today, I also worked with her for a few hours grinding up cut cedar tree branches and spreading mulch along the trails in the back. 


We've been enjoying our time visiting with our friends and neighbors. We've taken a few side trips with Dale and Betty to a local Mexican restaurant in Dripping Springs. 


I built a new stand for the satellite dish from PVC that I purchased at Home Depot and got it set-up. I'll post pictures later.


We have a few trips planned in the near future and a Mexican Fiesta scheduled for the park.  Meanwhile, we will all be fighting off our pollen allergies and dealing with the yellow pollen dust on our vehicles and anything else left out in the elements.

Hill Country Bar-B-Que and Friends

March 23, 2011 Cottonwood Creek RV Park.
We've been doing a lot of nothing yet enjoying our friends and neighbors here in the park.  We had a short "happy hour" one night with our neighbors (door side) one evening and really enjoyed chatting with them.  Before they left to go back to work, Steve explained that he and his wife, Jo were here on vacation from north of Dallas for Spring Break and for their anniversary. Steve had done some extensive research on the best barbeque in the Hill Country.  He prepared a Google map of the best of the best in the area which he later shared with me and he gave me his personal reviews.  It was all quite interesting.  Steve provided me copies of his research before they departed last week.
Based on Steve's suggestions, we took a trip to Lockhart, Texas The Barbecue Capital of Texas.

There are four BBQ restaurants in Lockhart. The restaurants estimate that about 5,000 people visit their establishments each week. This would be roughly 250,000 people a year who eat BBQ in Lockhart.

The downtown is very rustic and interesting.  The old courthouse is still used by the county and houses the Clerk Of The Court on the first floor. We didn't visit the other floors.

We decided we would try one of Steve's suggestions and headed for Black's Barbeque.

Blacks BarbequeLocated at 215 N. Main Street is internationally known and was established in 1932. It is one of the oldest barbecue restaurants in Texas that has been continuously owned and operated by the same family. (Blacksbbq.com) Black's has been recognized in various publications such as the New York Times and Texas Monthly magazine. The May, 1997 issue of Texas Monthly selected Black's BBQ as one of Texas' fifty best barbecue restaurants. During President Lyndon Johnson's term in the 1960's, the President asked Black's BBQ to provide barbecue sausage to be served on the grounds of the U.S. Capital in front of the Smithsonian Institute. With Secret Service and Department of the Agriculture personnel supervising the operations, the sausage was prepared and flown directly to Washington, D.C. for this Presidential affair

Upon entering the unassuming restaurant, you serve yourself sides in a buffet style line and then tell the grill men what cuts and quantities of brisket, ribs, pork, sausage, etc. that you want. The meat is then weighed. Everything is served on styrofoam, so it's not exactly environmentally friend, but the food was outstanding. I think the beef ribs were the best I've ever had!

We've never had real barbeque until we came to the Hill Country last year. We really enjoy it and plan to try more of Steve's suggested locations.

When we got back home we had a surprise. Our friends Dale and Betty were in the site next to us. We had first met Dale and Betty, (farmers from Nebraska), here at Cottonwood Creek RV Park last year at this time. They had paid a visit to us in Mesa, Az earlier this year but had told us they would not be going to Cottonwood Creek RV Park as they would be staying in Arizona.

Dale and Betty spent the past month near Tombstone and we had jokingly suggested via phone and Facebook that they come join us in the Hill Country.  However, they always indicated that they wouldn't be making it this year. In fact, the last word we had from them was from the day before saying they were in Las Cruces and probably headed home. So, it was a pleasant surprise to us to find them here when we got back!

So for the last few days we've been doing a lot of nothing, just sitting around with Dale and Betty, the park owners and other friendly couples solving the world's problems! And afterwards, we've had happy hour at rotating sites for the last few days.  All this talking, thinking, pondering, bloviating and visiting can be exhausting!  One evening a neighbor, "Doc" and Les smoked a pork butt and then shredded it. So we all had a pot luck and shredded pork sandwich dinner. It was fantastic! 

We've gotten little or nothing done and determined that there is nothing that we really have to do! We've really enjoyed all the company.  Yesterday Joyce, Betty and a group of the women from the park had a "girls day out" in Dripping Springs going to a cutesy little place in town for lunch.

This morning, I decided to get out and do a bike ride before all else just to make sure I got some exercise!

Life in the Hill Country: Bee Caves and Blanco TX

March 16, 2011, Cottonwood Creek RV Park.

The other day we decided to take a ride out to Hamilton Pool. We were told about a "good Mexican" restaurant in the city of Bee Cave. We decided to stop for lunch en-route.  However, we got to the restaurant and learned that on Tuesdays they don't open till 5 p.m.  Of course by now, we were hungry and close to downtown.  So, we drove further into Bee Cave looking for a place to eat when we came across this outdoor mall, Hill Country Galleria designed like a city street. In fact the city hall and library are the central building on the street.

We parked and found a nice little pizza shop selling pizza by the slice. After we finished lunch we decided to forget about Hamilton Pool and just spend some time shopping. We shopped and visited the book stores till after 5 p.m. before heading back home to Maggie and Rico.

Yesterday, we drove a few miles to the Historic District of Blanco, TX.  We visited the town last year.  You can read last year's blog here.  In the center of the town square is the impressive old former courthouse built in the late 1800s.

The courthouse was used in the recent movie version of True Grit.

Now the building is a visitor center and contains just a couple of offices on the first floor. The upstairs is vacant and surprisingly open to the public. It contains the old court room used in the movie.

Below is a picture of the old court room converted for use in the movie.

Later we went across the street to a renovated theater and cafe' that is now the Uptown Blanco Restaurant. We had a very good and moderately priced lunch in the beautifully decorated restaurant.

The weather has been mild with a couple of cold days. However lately it's been cool and damp in the mornings with highs in the upper 70's and low 80's. We are patiently waiting for the wild flowers to emerge and bloom.