The Lone Star Motorcycle Museum – Day Four

23 Saturday Nov 2013

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the Lone Star Motorcycle Museum, weather

On Friday, we headed home, and stopped in at the Lone Star Motorcycle Museum in Vanderpool. The weather had turned pretty bad,rainy and 39 degree temperatures made us glad we were in a car. Amazingly, as we pulled up in front of the museum there was one motorcycle there and a couple of other cars. We talked to the driver, and it seems he had driven in from Austin, and was freezing his… well you get the idea. Anyway, it wasn’t a good day to be out in a bike. I suppose you could dress for this weather, but I don’t think it would be worth it. Fortunately the museum was well worth it. As you can see from the photos, they have a lot of beautiful vintage motorcycles there, and most of them appear to be in nearly new condition. We hung around an took lots of pictures, then decided to have lunch at their little restaurant (The Ace Cafe) because the weather was so miserable outside. Turns out the food is pretty darn good. We split a burger on the jalapeño cheese bun. The bun was $1 extra, but it was worth it. Then we split a piece of their pecan pie, and that pretty much finished us off for lunch. Enjoy the photos, their web page is; http://www.lonestarmotorcyclemuseum.com

Sonora Caverns – Day Three

23 Saturday Nov 2013

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Carlsbad Caverns, Sonora Caverns

On Thursday we decided to head up to Sonora Caverns. I figured we probably wouldn’t get back to this area any time soon, sows better go while we are here. Of course getting there still involved driving 100 miles, but it was definitely worth it. I have been in quite a few caverns both in Texas, and I have been to Carlsbad Caverns some years ago. Now Sonora cagers isn’t nearly ass large as Carlsbad, but it is bigger than any of the other caves I have been in, and you get to be closer to the actual rock formations that you do in any of the other cases I have ever seen. You still aren’t allowed to touch of course, but you certainly could if you didn’t mind going to prison for a long time. I had no desire to do that, so we just looked and took pictures. Debbie and I took a lot of pictures, so this is only a small sampling. Oh, and finally, when we returned from the tour we found that one of the gift shop employees was busily making Turkey Cookies out of pretzels, candy corn, Oreos and hot dipping chocolate. YUM!

Can you say Turkey Cookie

Casey’s “Cable House Travel Court” and Touring Camp Wood

23 Saturday Nov 2013

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Cable House, Cable House Travel Court, Casey

We arrived before dark at Casey’s “Cable House Travel Court”. I didn’t have any idea what to expect, so my mind envisioned something a bit more rustic that it actually is. Casey has really put a lot of time and effort into making a very comfortable environment. Essentially he has a large open court area surrounded by new or restored mobile home trailers. And when I say mobile homes, I mean the 15 to 25 foot variety, not the huge ones. In the middle, there is a covered seating area with lounge chairs surrounding a wood stove that comes in handy on those cool evenings. As you can see from the pictures, he seems to be going for a sort of tropical motif. Pretty nice. Debbie and I stayed in the only permanent structure, that Casey calls the Cable House. The Cable House got its name because the building was originally built to house all the cable TV equipment that the previous owners used to provide cable TV to the community of Camp Wood. That business is gone now, since everyone uses satellite dishes for TV. Anyway, Casey fixed up the inside with several sleeping areas, kitchen and a bathroom with shower. We stayed in the “Day of the Dead” room (see photo), that is decorated with Casey’s collection of Day of the Dead souvenirs. It isn’t as scary as it sounds, and we slept like babies. The main area of the cabin is decorated as a clubhouse of the Escondido MC members, with a nice big screen flat panel TV and satellite to drive it. Now this is camping the way I like it!

The next day Debbie and I walked down to a restaurant for breakfast. Camp Wood is pretty small, but I was still surprised to see people (including us) actually walking around instead of driving. Breakfast was great, and I can only say the pancakes are ginormous.

After breakfast, Casey picked us up and gave us a tour of the highlights of Camp Wood. As Casey says, it won’t take very long, and it didn’t, but it was still fun. After a little rest from our frantic pace, we headed out to a couple of sewing and quilt stores in town and I took some photos of a colorful building while I waited.

At dinner time we headed over to the Two Fat Boys BBQ restaurant run by a member of the local Gypsy MC chapter. The smoked turkey was really good.

We finished up the evening around the wood burning stove out back at the travel court talking with Casey and his wife Chris. Wow, this is shaping up to be really relaxing vacation.

Day of the Dead room

Escondidos MC Clubhouse

Vacationing in Camp Wood – The Trip Down

23 Saturday Nov 2013

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Camp Wood

This is the first of four posts covering four days of my vacation. The story starts on Tuesday November 19th as we head out to visit an old (well I might be older than he is) friend Casey down in Camp Wood. Casey had invited us to come down a couple of years ago, and today seemed like the perfect opportunity to take in the sights. Our first stop was at a turn of the century church along 290 just behind the Rest Stop between Johnson City and Fredericksburg. I had been there before, and I wanted to get some more pictures. I just love blue skies behind the blue church building. Then we continued west. The trees are changing color, so we enjoyed a beautiful drive through one of the twisted sisters (39 west of Kerrville), over to 83 and south to Leakey, and finally west over the second half of 337 to Camp Wood. It was a beautiful drive, I especially liked the part of 39 that runs along the river. As we approached Camp Wood, we stopped to take a picture of the Adopt a Highway sign that says the Escondidos adopted this section of 337.

COC&I Chili Cookoff and Meeting at CTHD

17 Sunday Nov 2013

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Alan Babin, Central Texas Harley Davidson, Chili Cookoff, TMRA2 Officers

We had a wonderful day today at CTHD (Central Texas Harley Davidson). Today was the November meeting for COC&I, and the Chili Cookoff. There were lots of contenders and a pretty full program. We started out with a TMRA2 Officers meeting at 11AM, then went out to participate in the Chili Cookoff by sampling several chilis and donating toward which ever ones we found to be the best. If I didn’t try your chili, I apologize, some of the ones I did try were pretty hot, and I couldn’t handle more than a few. Even so, it was fun for all. After that we had the COC&I meeting, starting with a color guard that included Alan Babin, a very well known disabled veteran that many of the clubs have supported for many years. It was great to have Alan there, and after the Color Guard we presented him with a copy of my picture book that everyone had signed. After that it was on to the usual list of speakers and awards, including several clubs that donated money to our favorite charity, J. W. Rock. Eventually we presented the Chili winners with their trophies and then I was blessed to give the closing prayer since Frank had surgery on his feet yesterday. Don’t ask, it is a long story, but you can be praying for his full recovery. Last but not least we were off to a meeting to receive the name of our J. W. Rock family that we will support for Christmas. Overall a great day.