Blanco, Texas

March 24, 2010. 
We went to bed with some light rain and awoke to the same.  It remained cloudy, foggy and rainy most of the day.


We decided around noon to take a trip to Blanco, Texas about 15 miles from here.  It's a small town with a population of about 1500.  It has a nice historic square around the former courthouse and county seat built in the late 1800s. The county seat has since moved to another town.

We walked around and Joyce checked out all the small shops common in these little shopping districts.  We stopped for lunch at The Red Bud Cafe and had sandwiches.
  

After lunch, we drove to Blanco State Park, a small Texas State Park on the Blanco River.  We stopped at the gate office and went inside.  I asked about the main attraction in this park and was told the park is only a mile long along the Blanco River. The river has some dam walls that the river flows over and folks like to swim here.  The ranger explained that they have RV camping.  I asked about the prices.  A premium site with 50 amps and sewer is $23 plus a daily entrance fee of $3 per person, and in our case another $5 per day for our "extra" vehicle, for a total of $34 a day plus taxes. The only way to avoid the daily entrance fees is to buy a Texas State Parks Pass for $75 for both of us.  The ranger gave us a 10 minute pass to check out the campground.  We took the tour and photographed the river through the drizzling rain.

The campground looked tight with no privacy between sites.  We dropped off our pass on the way out and headed back home in the light rain.


There's a small campground on the edge of town on FM165 called Blanco Settlement on the Blanco River that looked inviting, although it's close to the road, flat and lacked shade trees.  


We like to check out campgrounds in the areas where we stay.  However, we are very happy with our site at Cottonwood Creek RV Park.


We got back home after driving over some rather steep hills on the way home.  The scenery was beautiful but diminished by the foggy rain.


I'm continuing to have problems loading pictures to the blog.  From what I've learned on-line it appears it may be a problem with Google Blogspot that is being worked on.  So bare with me till I'm able to upload pictures!  For now be sure to check out the highlighted hyperlinks above in the blog.

Groceries, Laundry and the Salt Lick Bar-B-Que

March 23, 2010.

We awoke to a beautiful morning with temps in the 50’s but quickly warming.  In fact I think it hit the high 70’s later in the day.  I didn’t sleep well because I left the awning out overnight and I could hear the wind picking up and the awning moving with wind gusts.  However, after lying awake listening to it, it seemed to die down and I fell back to sleep.  After I got up in the morning, I went ahead and brought in the awning as the wind was picking up again.

No big plans for today.  Joyce wanted to go into town and do some grocery shopping.  Then she wanted to get back and do laundry. You see, our full time RV lifestyle also comes with the usual domestic responsibilities!  It's not all about seeing the sights.  This for us is a way of life and sometimes we need to slow down so it doesn't feel like a vacation that went on for too long!

We drove to Dripping Springs, Tx. and stopped at the largest small grocery in town. We started shopping but Joyce quickly noted that things were over-priced.  We had a pretty good list to fill.  We decided to leave and drive to a H.E.B. in Austin some 23 miles away!  It was a long distance but a nice drive.  We loved the H.E.B. grocery store!

After picking up groceries, we stopped at the Dripping Springs Post-Office to mail off our taxes.  Glad that’s done even though we won’t be seeing a refund!

Back at the rig, I took Maggie and Rico for a long walk along the trails within the Cottonwood Creek RV Park.  It’s a nice little trail area.

Folks are encouraged to build little trail markers out of rocks and sticks.  Build them but don’t destroy them!

Joyce worked on the laundry in the little laundry house in the park.  It’s very nicely decorated in a western theme and clean.

For dinner, we went to the Salt Lick Bar-B-Que in Driftwood, Texas a mere 18 miles away!  

World famous for their bar-b-que. I gotta admit the pork ribs were the best I’ve ever had. In fact all the bar-b-que was good but the side dishes were below average.  

It's very casual, BYOB with picnic tables in a banquet room setting.

Travel Day to Cottonwood Creek RV Park, Dripping Springs, Texas

March 22, 2010.
This morning was beautiful with temps overnight in the 30's it quickly warmed to the 70's.  But we were moving today, travel day. Our destination was somewhere outside of Austin.  I called Cottonwood Creek RV Park after reading about the park in another blog.  I spoke with the owner, Sherry who was very pleasant and had a spot for us.  She wanted to make sure that I called her before we arrived so she could greet us at the entrance. 


There were only about 5 or 6 RVs total still at Yequa Creek Park after the last couple days of windy cold weather.  We got going and were pulling out of the dump station in the Yequa Creek Park, by 10:30. The deer greeted us as we were leaving Yequa Creek Park just as they had when we arrived.

Our GPS took us along some back country Farm to Market roads. At first, I was a little concerned as some of the roads were twisting and narrow, so I double checked the GPS destination. Eventually we made it to Hwy 290. Portions of Hwy 290 were very pretty particularly as we entered the Texas Hill Country. West of Austin, US 290 is an attractive route through the Texas Hill Country, passing through Fredericksburg and Johnson Citynear historical sites related to Admiral Chester Nimitz and President Lyndon Baines Johnson. East of Austin, it is divided highway passing through or near Giddings and Brenham

After entering Dripping Springs, Texas my GPS started acting up and loosing the satellite.  It kept trying to "recalculate" and lost our location.  Very disconcerting as it really didn't straighten out till just before reaching our destination.

After about 122 miles, we arrived at Cottonwood Creek RV Park.

View Larger Map

I had called about 20 minutes out and Sherry was there in her golf cart to greet us.  She took us for a spin in the cart to show us a couple of sites that she thought would be suitable.  We picked a shady one in a section to ourselves. 

It's a beautiful site with the Cottonwood Creek in the back of the rig.

Sherry is the most gracious host to date that we've met.  She took time to sit down with us and point out some of the attractions and restaurants in the area.  We had planned to stay for a week and visit Austin, Fredericksburg, Blanco, Dripping Springs and the LBJ Ranch. However, Sherry seems to think we need at least two weeks. We shall see! We paid Sherry for a week at $150 plus $17 for electricity, a portion of which may be refundable based on our electrical usage.  

Sherry was gracious enough to pose by her cart after taking me for a short tour of a portion of the trails on the property. Unfortunately she doesn't like having bikes on the trails. Joyce and I will explore the trails later on foot.

This is a beautiful campground.  It seems to be geographically located between many points of interest in all directions.  However, each of those points will require a good drive. Our site is at perhaps the lowest point in the park. I hope that isn't a problem when it rains. WiFi is provided and works well however, our cell phones (Verizon) don't work very well unless we go to the top of a hill. I'm sure we will enjoy our stay here!