Geocaching goin' on

I have this informal, unwritten rule about things I hear or read: if I see or hear it once, it's something interesting; twice, it's something I might like to do or know more about; 3 times, I should pay attention, and, perhaps, take action. Geocaching came up 3 times yesterday from three different sources. I thought about getting involved in this "sportivity" a few years back, but never really got started. After the third reference yesterday, I decided to revive my interest. I use Microsoft Streets & Trips with the GPS sensor for our traveling navigation, but for Geocaching, I thought it would be better to have a hand-held unit. I have an old "etrex Legend" by Garmin, but the screen brightness has faded to the point it's next to impossible to see. So, with Jim's enouragement, I took off to the Bass Pro Shop we saw on Interstate 10 a few days ago. I needed new walking shoes anyway, and I purchased a new handheld gps unit. This is also a Garmin etrex Legend, only this model has a menu item specifically for Geocaching. I can download the coordinates from http://geocaching.com/ directly to the unit.

When I got home, I spent most of the day getting reacquainted with the etrex features, plus learning how to use the geocaching features. I downloaded the coordinates for several geocaches within a few miles of our location. Then I loaded up the dogs, left Jim with his Sunday football games, and set out to find the treasures. I found the location of 4 geocaches, but didn't find the actual goodies. I saw some nice scenery though, and had a good time searching.

This pretty little stream is near one of the geocaches.

This tree with the roots growing around the rocks on a bank is very close to the coordinates for another of the geocaches.

All too soon, the sun started to go down, and I needed to head back home, without finding any treasures. Oh well, tomorrow's another day.

On another subject, people who know me and the dogs understand that they know how to tell time. Supper time for them is 6:00 p.m. They start letting me know it's getting close to 6:00 by staring at me. The closer to 6:00 it gets, the more intense the staring. Finally, Bobo starts to "talk" to me. This is a sound he makes that is somewhere between a growl and bark. Jasmine just barks. Well, with the time change, they were most insistent at 5:30 p.m. today that they were 30 minutes late getting their evening meal! I guess we're going to need to gradually break them in to this standard time thing.

This last picture is one Jim took Friday in Fredericksburg.

Tomorrow we plan to drive to San Antonio to have lunch at a restaurant recommended by a friend. We also want to check out our route as we head to Rockport on Wednesday. We like to do that whenever we have the chance, especially when we're going through larger cities.

Dog Day

The day started out cloudy and cool. I thought that was a great deal, since the side of the motor home I'd be using to groom the dogs gets morning sun. But, by the time our walk was done and breakfast completed, the sun was starting to burn through the clouds. So, we had a sunny grooming session for awhile.

I started with Jasmine. I brush and then bathe her. Bathing the dogs is a lot easier in the motor home than it was in our sticks and bricks house. The shower stall in the motor home is big enough, and it doesn't have a high edge, so it's easy to get the dog in and out. With the long shower hose, getting them clean is pretty easy. After the cleaning, out to the grooming table they go. I have all the equipment set up and ready when I get them out to the table.

Here's Jasime, sporting her fresh hair cut. She is an easy dog to work with and enjoys the attention she gets during the session. She was a rescue dog, and when we first got her, she would not have anything to do with getting her nails trimmed. I worked and worked with her, and now she doesn't mind it at all.

Mr. Bo Jangles is not as eager to go through the process. He tolerates it, but is always glad to have it done with. His coat is so different than Jasmine's. It's very fine and catches every little blade of grass and burr he comes across.

After the grooming was all finished, we got out for another walk. Here they are, practicing their "sit, stay" on the rocks.

This is the patio area of the park. There's a nice little fountain and pond behind the red chairs.

Jasmine and BoBo are enjoying a look around from the patio wall. Pets are not allowed in the patio area, so this was a treat for them to see the view.

Below is the patio from the other side of the building. I love that there are still flowers blooming in November!

Jim made a small batch of fresh salsa while I worked on the dogs. He used a couple of japalenos, an onion, several different kinds of tomatoes, and some carrot in addition to the spices. It turned out very tasty.

He also took the dogs' bedding up to the laundry room and ran it through the washer and dryer. Now the pups are clean and their beds are too. The remainder of his day has been devoted to watching 3 or 4 college football games at the same time. Congratulations to the Air Force Academy in their win over Army!

Grooming both dogs in one day pretty much does me in for the day. It takes about 2 to 2 and a half hours per dog. So not much else has happened today.

Here's another shot of our motor home in our site here at Top of the Hill.


Now, if we can just remember to turn the clocks BACK tonight -- but I guess it really won't matter if we forget! We'll get up sometime around daylight, no matter what time it is.

Fredericksburg Revisited

We got started today a little later than usual. I was enjoying taking my time this morning after my 30 minute walk with the dogs. I keep forgetting to grab my camera when I start out. Gee, I'm doing well to remember my heart rate monitor and pedometer! The mornings are beautiful here, and I know I'm missing some good photo opportunities.

Anyway, by the time we had breakfast, showered and cleaned up the kitchen, it was after 11:00. Oh, well, that's not a problem, since we don't have to get all our sightseeing done to be back at work after vacation.

When we were in Fredericksburg a few days ago, we agreed we would go back to see the National Museum of the Pacific, Home of the Admiral Nimitz Museum. This is actually a complex of museums that cover pretty much everything to do with Admiral Chester Nimitz and the Pacific War (World War II). I did not know until we got here that Nimitz was born and raised in Fredericksburg, which is the underlying reason for the museum's location here. This first picture is the Nimitz museum. The building is a reconstruction of the Nimitz family's hotel, which was operational from the 1850's to the mid 1960's. The exhibits in this part of the museum cover the history of the Nimitz family and the career of Admiral Nimitz.



Jim is standing in the Veterans Walk of Honor in front of one of the Memorial Walls.



PT 309, shown in this picture, has been refurbished and is part of the guided tour of the Pacific Combat Zone. They sometimes have live re-enactments in this area, but not today. We did see several interesting exhibits here, including a quonset hut that had been set up as a field hospital.

A break in the war action is this Japanese Garden of Peace, which was donated by the Japanese people.

The other part of the museum is the George Bush Gallery, which includes over 20,000 square feet of Pacific War exhibits spanning the pre-war period through Japan's surrender. It was a sobering experience, to say the least.

We took a break from the museum to have lunch at the Rathskeller on Main St. in Fredericksburg. I had a delicious King Ranch Casserole and salad. I'm sure it wasn't the light version, for which I have a recipe, but it was excellent. Jim had a hamburger with a home made bun, of course he enjoyed that a lot! Ok, I confess, we split a slice of chocolate pecan pie for dessert.

On the way home, the plan was to go through Luckenbach, Texas, but we missed the turn. We saw the town in the distance, but didn't turn around to go back. The drive on the road back to Boerne was lovely, this is beautiful country.

Jim went to the store to pick up the milk we didn't get yesterday, and we're settled in for the evening.

Ahh, what a tough life.

Stonehenge - in Texas??

I first heard about this interesting place one evening a couple of weeks ago in the RV-Dreams chat room. Ok, I confess, I spend some time in the chat room many evenings -- and see, I've actually learned something fun to do from other visitors there.

This is a replica of the original Stonehenge , which I probably won't ever see. We had a beautiful day, a nice drive to the area around Kerrville and Hunt, Texas, and some fun visiting this unique location. Al Sheppard, a retired oilman, was given a large slab of limestone for his birthday, and he set it on end in a roadside pasture. To his dismay, no one noticed his rock. Convinced that drivers needed to pay attention, Al at first thought of filling the pasture with a pyramid, then a Polynesian temple, then a fake flying saucer crash site. He settled for a couple of Easter Island heads and "Stonehenge II," which claims to be 60 percent as large as the original. Although Al passed away in 1994, his family has kept the pasture open for visitors. In this picture, I probably have my foot on some of old Al's ashes, which were scattered on the site.

Here's a distance shot, see how blue that sky is (And here I thought only Colorado had such blue skies)!

Here is one of the two "Easter Island" sculptures on the site.

This has to be one of my favorite stops of the day. On the drive to find Stonehenge II, we crossed the Guadalupe River several times. We stopped at one of the crossings to take a few pictures. This has to be one of the prettiest rivers I've ever seen. We saw an RV park in Kerrville called the Guadaulupe River RV Resort. I would love to come back to this area and spend some time there.

We needed to find dog food for BoBo today. He has been eating Canidae Dog Food for several years and it isn't avialable just anywhere. I found a distributor in Kerrville, Texas, so we stopped there and got a supply while we were in the area.

I also needed a haircut. Like many other fulltimers, finding a good haircut is as important, and sometimes as elusive, as finding a good RV park. I've talked to several women friends who use the hair salon at Walmart, and since we spend a good deal of our shopping time there, I decided to give it a try while Jim did some shopping. I like this haircut a lot better than the last one I got at SuperCuts (won't go there again) but the jury is still out on just how much I like it.

After our sightseeing, hair cut and shopping, we were hungry, so we stopped at a local restaurant for some Mexican food. The notable comment about that is that we resisted the twenty or so cheesecakes they have on display as we entered. Since we were so "good" about refusing dessert, I baked a "Crustless Pumpkin Pie" which we'll be getting into shortly.