Colorado Springs --- Homeward Bound

The Wine-sipping Patios at Grape Creek Vineyard near Fredericksburg, TX

Roger here...  Ho-o-meward bound.  I wish I was homeward bound.  Actually, we are.  In fact we should be back at Retama Village when you read this.  

As I mentioned in the last post, our final week at Colorado Springs was not the best.  We continually worried about our daughter and granddaughter, who evacuated Ft. Myers, Florida to escape Hurricane Irma.  They weathered the storm with my brother and sister-in-law in The Villages Florida, south of Ocala, where the eye of the storm passed directly overhead.  They are fine.  Their apartment in Ft. Myers is fine, but they are still without electricity six days later and don't know about the status of their jobs.  Our worries have abated.  We now have new, but lesser ones.  Such is life.

We tried to add some interest to our drive back to extreme south Texas.  It helped to take our minds off our kids.

Amarillo, Texas...  We skipped our first scheduled stop in Capulin, New Mexico and drove all the way to Amarillo, Texas.  We knew we would have good Verizon telephone coverage and good cable TV to follow the hurricane.  Our stop was at the Oasis RV Resort.  We had been there before and knew it would be a good nesting spot for three nights to "ride out the hurricane" in spirit with our daughter and granddaughter.

The Cadillac Ranch was just down the street.  We had driven past this iconic spot, but had never stopped.  We thought it would be a good diversion.  It was.

Look at this lady allowing her son to vandalize a Cadillac!

A silly diversion, but a diversion nonetheless.  Most people recognize this series of Cadillacs buried nose-first in a field, known as the Cadillac Ranch.  Onlookers have been carrying cans of spray paint to graffiti-up the cars for years.  Dianne rummaged through a pile of discarded cans to find a can of partially used red paint so that I could join the fun.  

Nothing that I sprayed showed up.  I am obviously not a graffiti artist :-).   My good friend, Greg, saw this picture and said, "Arrest this man!" 

This car has seen better days....

Our other Amarillo diversion involved eating.  Specifically, eating at a "Man v. Food" restaurant serving comfort food. 

Youngblood's Cafe is located next to a stock yard.  We both enjoyed chicken-fried steak with homemade mashed potatoes, green beans, and yeast rolls.  Certainly not a normal food choice for us, but very tasty on this rare occasion.

The green beans tasted like they came straight from my late mom's kitchen.

Leaving Amarillo, we drove four hours to Big Spring, Texas for a nondescript overnight stop, and then four more hours to Kerrville, Texas in the Hill Country.

Kerrville and Fredericksburg Texas...

A frequent stop on our way into or out of south Texas is the Buckhorn Lake RV Resort a few miles outside of Kerrville in the Texas Hill Country.  Our stays here never disappoint. 

We spent two nights here so that we could visit the Fredericksburg area for a full day.  Our first stop was at the gardening wonderland known as Wildseed Unlimited.  Of course, we bought a couple of unique items for our yard --- then we were hungry.

This must be the entrance.

 We had heard nothing but good things about the food at the eclectic Alamo Springs Cafe located in the middle of nowhere, ten miles from Fredericksburg.  We intended to stop here after watching an evening flight of the bats from Tunnel State Park with Jay and Nancy last year, but we were tired.  Not stopping was a mistake.

This is a very different place.  No one greeted us when we walked in, so we walked past the lunchtime diners and found a table outside in a rustic setting --- in reality, the entire place is in a rustic setting.

This walnut tree seems to be growing through the roof.

I went back inside to see if we needed to let anyone know we were there.  A friendly guy who appeared to be the owner saw me in my confused state and greeted me with, "First time here?"  When I said yes, he told me to get a beer from the fridge and find a place to sit.  I like the vibe of this place. I got two Shiner Bocks, took them to our table and decided to enjoy the ambience.  My friend from inside soon appeared telling us that Becky would be right with us.  He piqued my interest by suggesting that the famous Cover Burger (cover of Texas Monthly Magazine) was the best thing on the menu.

As it turns out, it was not only the best thing on the menu, but according to Texas Monthly, it was the best burger in the entire state.  So, I ordered it.  I must say that this burger is the best I have ever had in any state.  Seriously.  It was grilled perfectly and covered with grilled onions, melted cheese, tomato, lettuce and avocado and served on a jalapeno bun.  It melted in my mouth.  It was delicious.  Due to the fact that I was not tempted by all the other fried things on the menu (fries, onion rings, grilled/stuffed avocado, etc.), I actually was able to eat the entire burger without being overly full.  Half-way through the meal Becky dropped by the table and said, "How y'all doin, Angels?"  You can't beat the genuinely friendly people of Texas. 

Dianne had..... (and "had" is the correct verb) a bacon, egg, cheese sandwich on Texas toast with lettuce and tomato.

It was AWESOME!  -- D.

We will be returning to this place.

After lunch we paid a visit to our favorite Hill Country winery, Grape Creek Vineyards, before driving back to the motor home.

Tuscany in Texas

We skipped the tasting that we have done many times before and purchased two glasses of Dianne's favorite wine ---Bellissimo, a red blend.  We sauntered to the garden patios where we sipped wine in an idyllic setting.  We also bought a bottle to take with us and two really cool stemless wine glasses. They remind us of Yeti products in many ways (including the price).  Now, we are all set for the Retama Village happy hours that we have been missing while traveling.

Happy Camper

We will be taking a hiatus from blog writing while we are at our home in Retama Village, but stay tuned.  In a few weeks we are taking the motorhome west for an amazing (to us) event.

Don't have a photograph of this, but imagine this pet picture of the day:   When we drove through Mission and approached our home in Retama Village, Bandido was so excited to be home he started crying!   They have been enjoying our patio no longer having to be tied up while outside.  Charlie the cat is also enjoying the back yard.   Still mighty hot down here, but evenings on our patio are delightful!