Texas-Part 1

Art and I spent 2 weeks in Texas. We started out with 1 night at Fort Stockton and then headed for the "Texas Hill Country". This part of Texas is very pretty with rolling green hills, unlike what we saw in the west, which is more desert-like.

Fredericksburg was our first stop in the hill country. This area was developed by German immigrants in the 1850's. It is a cute small town with many of the original buildings. There are authentic German restaurants and "Biergartens" which we had to sample! While in the area, we toured the LBJ ranch which is now a national park. We were also able to go into the ranch house, which is being restored to what it looked like while LBJ was in office. By the way, Lady Bird lived in the ranch house until her death in 2007.

Our next stop was Austin to visit Godson, Brett, and his lovely wife, Rachel. Brett is the son of our dear friends, Frank and Dot Baccari, and like family to us. While there, we were able to see Brett and Rachel's first home which was very nice. They've done a lot of work fixing and decorating with great results. We also met "Kirk" Gibson, their dog, who was very sweet and liked to kiss Art on the ear. I think they bonded!!! Brett and Rachel also toured the RV one day. We had a mean game of shuffleboard, and I found out I am a lousy player! I'll have to practice to fit into the retired life-style. We sure had a fun time with the Baccaris!

Carol met us in Dallas-Fort Worth. She kept me company while Art went to Minneapolis to meet Matt for a Mich State football game. Carol and I had a great time! One of our stops was the Fort Worth Stockyards which use to be one of the largest livestock marketing areas in the Southwest. It has been preserved as a historic landmark and now has historic tours, shops, and restaurants. Twice a day there is a simulated cattle drive down the main street. The drive only had 15 long-horn cattle in it, but we got the idea. We happened to be there on Halloween, which made it even more fun. We must have had fun since we were there about 8 hours touring and shopping!