Fredericksburg Texas

It was not so cold last night (only 40 degrees), but it was VERY windy. I thought for a while it was going to blow our trailer away. I was glad that we had electricity and heat. We have spent so many nights in the trailer reading, that we decided we had to try something different. It is not that I don't enjoy reading, but it was time for something else. So we played cribbage. It was great. Both Bob and I had a great time.

When I weighed myself this morning I realized that I have lost an additional four pounds since leaving Portland. I have no idea how that is happening. I am eating out at lunch almost every day and my favorite food is some kind of greasy sandwich. We are eating very well at night also. Last night it was baked chicken - the toaster oven is working very well. Also we have not been exercising like I would like. It is cold and windy (Have I mentioned that before) and I am not comfortable walking in the dark on unfamiliar roads. (Last night we camped just east of the line for Central time so the sun did not come up until 7 pm.) But I have not been eating any snacks and that may be making the difference. I have to be a little careful because some of my clothes are now so big that they are falling off unless I use a belt.

We got a fairly early start this morning and headed straight for Austin. (Didn't make it there, but more about that later.) As we drove we listened to books on tape. (Mike, we just started to listen to the one about the National Parks - very interesting. thanks.)

The drive itself was interesting. West Texas is not at all what I expected. It is almost as stark and barren as New Mexico. It is hilly, not mountainous. (It looks more like the hills in West Virginia than the ones in Oregon or New Mexico) There is some vegetation other than cactus and as we got further east the vegetation almost began to look like trees. As we drove I could see that we were coming down in altitude because there was more distance between the earth and the clouds. So Bob is breathing better. And yes there were clouds all day and the weather is till yucky. Along the drive, the road cut into some of these hills and you could see the cuts. It was all rocks and the strata was fascinating. You could see that over the years various different minerals had been present and created various colors. The colors and the thickness of the strata changed as we moved east.

While we were driving and watching the geology go by (I never studied geology but am now finding myself very interested in it) and listening to a book on tape (did I say that I tend to multi-task?), I was also reading about where we were going. Austin was going to be a push and we would not get there until 5 or 6 pm. I found a small town of Fredericksburg in the Texas visitor guide. It looks very interesting. It has a WWII museum of the Pacific battle and it has a bunch of wineries. So we stopped in one of the RV parks to see if they have room. We are in the overfill area and that means it is a little cheaper for us to stay here. We will stay for two nights because I want to see the museum and the wineries.

I do not have many pcitures because the weather has been so awful. It is now 39 degrees outside ande there is a strong wind and the rain is coming down like sharp little pinpricks. They tell us that the weather tomorrow will be much better - sunny and high in the 60's. That will be nice. Then I can add some more pictures.