We began our time in Texas by staying at our first Boondockers Welcome in Dennison for a couple of nights. We ran into some generator issues and our hosts were gracious enough to let us plug into their power. They were incredibly nice and have a beautiful piece of property. While we were there, we discovered what happens to your RV furnace when you lose power while it is running. It apparently really needs that cool down period because when that doesn’t happen, it melts the blower cage that is made of plastic. We discovered this issue at 2 am when the furnace starting making a terrible noise. Not the way anyone wants to get woken up! We did do some exploring in the town and discovered that Dwight D. Eisenhower was born there! Who knew! We also visited Landon winery and Ironroot distillery in Dennison. Our next stop was about 20 miles outside of Austin. We ended up in a nice spot that backed up to a lake (it was more of a pond), unfortunately the weather was not that great, so we didn’t get to spend much time enjoying our view. We went out for Thanksgiving at the Old 290 Brewery and Winery. The food was awesome and you could choose a wine or beer pairing, so it worked out perfectly. While we were there, we called a mobile repair person to fix the furnace. Success! We made a couple of trips to Austin. Our visit to the capital was great! What a neat building. We found a speakeasy in downtown called the Red Headed Stepchild. You had to get the secret code from the bar next door and the storefront was a computer store. We then enjoyed some interesting drinks while we sat on swings. We found some other interesting places on/near 6th street. Next…what does one do when in Texas??? Buy cowboy boots of course! We have been practicing our 2-step. We also went on a hike through McKinney Falls State Park, which was stunningly beautiful with all the rock formations and waterfalls. We finally found some decent wine; we were almost ready to call in an emergency shipment from Washington. We visited a total of five different wineries and were able to restock the wine cellar (Duchman, Windmill Farm, Salt Lick Cellars, Wimberly, Winery on the Gruene). Kim made a bunch of money in the kissing booth at one of the wineries. Haha We found some decent BBQ in Texas at Blacks BBQ, it turned out to be the only meal we needed for that day. We wanted to try out those new cowboy boots, so off we went to oldest dance hall in Texas which is in the town of Gruene. After we fueled up on some LoneStar beer, we hit the dance floor. The band was good, but we were the only ones on the dance floor. I guess they no longer dance at the oldest dance hall. BTW, David needs a little more practice with his 2-step. Our next stop in Texas was in Sonora, where we visited the Sonora Caverns. This is a must see, if you are ever in the area. They are truly amazing. On the tour you spend about an hour and a half walking through the caverns. Watch out for the attack squirrel in front of the gift shop, Kim thought for sure it was going jump on her face. Sonora is a small town but has some interesting old buildings in the downtown section.

We are off to New Mexico and then headed towards Arizona. Take a look at our travel plans page, to see where the road is taking us. See you next year Texas.