Lockhart, Texas

We arrived at Lockhart State Park for a 4-night stay after a short 55-mile drive from Lakeway. It’s a beautiful, well-maintained state park with a swimming pool, public 9-hole golf course, and small campground. There are 10-sites with full hookup and 10-sites with water and electric. It was very quiet there and we saw many deer and wild turkeys wandering across the fairway in front of our camp site.

 

Lockhart, with a population of nearly 13,000, was established in 1848. Lockhart was on the historic Chisholm Trail, used to drive cattle overland from Texas ranches to Kansas railheads in the post-Civil War era. We were truly impressed with architecture of the county courthouse built in 1894 and the library built in 1898.

 

Lockhart, on the “Texas BBQ Trail”, was proclaimed to be the Barbeque Capital of Texas in 1999 by the Texas legislature. So we thought we’d try all four barbeque restaurants in town: Black’s Barbeque, Kreuz Market, Smitty’s Market and Chisholm Trail BBQ.

 

After trying all four restaurants, we found Kreuz Market and Smitty’s Market to be almost identical in style (no forks, no sauce), preparation and taste. We thought Chisholm Trail had the best variety and tasting side dishes. They also were the least expensive. Overall, we both liked Black’s Barbeque the best. Although it was a little more expensive than the others, the meat was definitely the most tender and flavorful.

We drove back to Castroville and the San Antonio area yesterday. We're spending the Christmas holiday with Julie's mom, sister, brother-in-law and nephew.  No desire for barbeque this coming week.

Steve & Julie Cornelius

Lakeway, Texas

We drove to Lakeway (Austin), Texas on Wed, Dec 9^th, and settled in at La Hacienda RV Resort for a 5-night stay. We hadn’t been to Lakeway in almost two years and many things had changed. The Austin area has grown in leaps and bounds and it just seemed a little more crowded, even in Lakeway, 25 miles west of Austin.

Thursday night we went to The Oasis, a restaurant on nearby Lake Travis. We went around 4:30PM and few people were there, but by 5:30 it was crowded. We enjoyed dinner and watching the sunset.

 

On Friday, we had old friends Rob and Janet over for dinner. They enjoyed the halibut and salmon we grilled and the weather was nice and warm so we ate outside at the picnic table. They are planning to retire next year and settle in California where they’re originally from, but they also want to get another RV and travel.

We hung out Saturday as a cold front moved in and we had drizzle. Then it poured down rain on Saturday night. It began clearing off today and we went to see the movie Spotlight.

Leaving the theater we saw a large crowd of people gathered outside the shopping area. At first we couldn’t see why there was a crowd, then we saw the piles of “snow” that had been trucked in and the kids were even throwing snow balls. After shoveling a lot of real snow in Colorado, we had to stop and laugh at this.

 

On the way home, we stopped at Lucy’s Fried Chicken, a new Lake Travis location for the restaurant, for an early dinner. The view of the lake was great and we tried the deep-fried deviled eggs as an appetizer. They were really good.

 

 

We head out tomorrow to Lockhart State Park for a 4-night stay and to try some BBQ in the BBQ Capital of Texas – Lockhart.

Steve & Julie Cornelius

Fredericksburg, Texas

On Fri, Dec 4^th, we left Castroville and “moved” about 90-miles north to Fredericksburg, Texas for a 5-night stay. Fredericksburg is west of Austin in Texas Hill Country and was settled by German pioneers over 160 years ago. There are many museums to explore and many restaurants to try. We planned to stay five nights at a new, local RV resort.

On Friday night, we took our lawn chairs and found a good spot on Main Street to watch the annual “Light the Night” Christmas parade. It was fun to watch, but we reminisced about watching a boat parade of lights last year in Key West.

 

 

Saturday we drove a few miles southeast of Fredericksburg Luckenbach, Texas. It was interesting to see the tiny town and their dancehall.

 

After leaving Luckenbach, we went to the LBJ National Historic Park (LBJ Ranch). We watched a film about the history of the area at the Texas State Park, then drove through the ranch to the “Texas White House”. I was surprised to learn that LBJ spent nearly a fourth of his time as President at his ranch and running the country from there.

We paid the $3 fee per person and went on the tour of the ranch house given by National Park rangers and volunteers. After the President's death in 1973, Mrs. Johnson continued to live at the ranch part time until her death in 2007. The ranch house inside was exactly as it was when they lived there.

Monday, Dec 7^th, we visited the National Museum of the Pacific War and Admiral Nimitz Museum in Fredericksburg. We watched a Pearl Harbor Observance at the museum’s memorial courtyard that Monday. The museum exhibits were very, very good and detailed all the World War II battles in the Pacific. 

We moved again on Wed, Dec 9^th, for a 5-night stay in Lakeway, Texas.

Steve & Julie Cornelius  

 

Texas Wedding

The nine of us arrived in San Antonio on Tuesday, November 24^th. We took Paul and Ying to Hondo to the Medina county courthouse Wednesday morning to get his marriage license. It had to be completed 72-hours before the marriage ceremony.

We all enjoyed a Thanksgiving Day potluck lunch, hosted by the Hideaway Restaurant at Alsatian RV Resort. The Hideaway Restaurant was catering the wedding for us on Saturday, November 28^th, and we decided with their manager on Thursday to move the wedding and reception inside versus the outdoor pavilion. Temperatures were predicted to be in the mid-40s on Saturday afternoon at the time of the wedding and it would have been too cool.

Friday night, we enjoyed cocktails in our motorhome. There were 13 of us and it was a lively get together. Afterwards, we all headed to the Hideaway Restaurant where we enjoyed dinner together.

 

Saturday morning, Julie, Marcia, Lisa and Jan finished setting up and decorating for both the wedding and reception. The wedding was set for 2PM and just over 30 family members and close friends arrived. Judge Bubba Howse from Hondo, Texas also arrived to perform the ceremony. Everyone enjoyed the traditional wedding ceremony.

A reception was held immediately following the wedding at the pool-level Hideaway Restaurant.

 

 

A few hours after the wedding, a group of us went to the Quihi Dance Hall, only 10 minutes up the road from Alsatian RV Resort. The Quihi Dance Hall has live music twice a month on Saturday nights and we were lucky enough to catch a dance hall night. Paul and Ying enjoyed having a traditional wedding dance, after being recognized by the band Billy Mata & The Texas Tradition.

Sunday afternoon many of us met at the Mi Tierra Café near the River Walk in downtown San Antonio. After an early dinner, we enjoyed walking along the river to see the holiday lights.

 

Paul & Ying left on Tuesday for their honeymoon. They were headed to Spain and then around the rest of the world over the next six weeks.

Steve & Julie Cornelius

Taiwan Wedding

Julie and I flew from San Antonio to Taipei on Tuesday, November 17^th. We left San Antonio at 5:30AM on a flight to Houston and then on to San Francisco. We took a 6,500 mile, 14-hour flight from San Francisco to Taipei on United Airlines. We left at 1PM on Tuesday and arrived at 5PM on Wednesday. Needless to say, it was a very long travel day for us.

Our son Paul, my sister Janet and her partner Nancy met us at the airport. We all overnighted at the Novotel Hotel near the airport and enjoyed cocktails and dinner together. On Thursday morning we took the High Speed Rail to Kaohsiung, about an hour and a half ride.

 

Paul rented a car and drove to a popular park nearby to hike and see the Formosan macaques, also known as Formosa rock monkeys. They are the only native primates living in Taiwan.

 

The next day we headed to one of the schools where he teaches English. We really enjoyed seeing his students.

 

Then we traveled about 30-miles out of the Kaohsiung to Fo Guang Shan Buddha Memorial Center. The visitor’s center had an interesting art piece made entirely of old cell phones.

We met Ying’s family on Saturday and enjoyed sashimi for lunch. After lunch we went to the wedding venue for the rehearsal.

We thoroughly enjoyed Paul and Ying’s wedding on Sunday, November 22^nd. It began with Paul coming to Ying’s parent’s apartment to ask her parents for her hand in marriage. We were already there waiting for his arrival around 9AM.

    

 

 

After observing the traditional wedding customs, we all departed for the wedding venue across town to attend the wedding ceremony and banquet. There were about 60-70 family members and friends who attended the wedding and banquet.    

We thoroughly enjoyed the wedding. We traveled back to Taipei on Monday, November 23^rd and overnighted again at the Novotel Hotel. We met Ying’s parents and brother on Tuesday at the airport and all nine of us flew together on the same flights to San Antonio. We left Taipei at 1PM on Tuesday and arrived in San Francisco about 10:30AM on Tuesday. The flight was a little quicker with only 12-hours flying time. Then we connected to our flight to San Antonio. It was Ying’s parent’s first time in the USA.

 

Steve & Julie Cornelius