29-31OCT07 - Kerrville, TX (we're back!)

After taking three days to drive from the western edge of Texas to the Texas hill country. We plan to stay here awhile and have set up camp in Kerrville city park named Kerrville-Schreiner Park. This is very nice park, voted one of the top ten in Texas; but the staff allows and encourages the feeding of the local deer population. Needless to say the deer have no fear of humans, or the dogs, since all dogs are on leashes. To us the deer are just a nuisance, and we wonder how long before a buck during the mating season attacks someone? Not to mention the disease carried by fleas and ticks on deer.

http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/spdest/findadest/parks/kerrville_schreiner/

While here we will visit Dan’s sister Sharon, her husband Tim, and Dan’s father. (See our first blog posts back in July.) And we will attempt to have the RV repair done in Minot, ND, checked at a Freightliner dealer in San Antonio. The repairs were probably done properly, but we would rest easier if another service facility checked the entire drive train.

The last couple of days have been spent visiting with our relatives, doing laundry and other miscellaneous things. On Wednesday we went into Fredericksburg for most of the day. Fredericksburg is 45 minutes north of Kerrville, and is the hill country town that a lot of tourists have on their “to do list”. End result is that Fredericksburg has many beautiful original buildings that have been restored. But most of them are antique stores; boutiques; and other emporiums that have nothing to do with the ranching economy or Texas cowboy life, but designed to appeal to tourists with platinum credit cards. Dan did note one interesting thing in the window of one of these shops. Seems there was an original movie poster for a Roy Rogers movie. Turns out Trigger got second billing on the poster. Dale Evans and Gabby Hayes were in much smaller print at bottom of poster.

But there are a few things that are worth your while if you are ever in this part of Texas. First is the museum dedicated to Fleet Admiral Nimitz located in the restored Nimitz Steamboat Hotel ran by his parents when he was child. Second is the National Museum of the Pacific War.

http://www.nimitz-museum.org/

And last but not least is the Old German Bakery & Restaurant located on the west end of Main St away from the tourist center. We are not sure how good the Restaurant is, but the German pastries baked fresh everyday are not to be missed. Get there early because most are gone before 10AM. Turns out we were just in time for the first day of Christstollen cakes, traditionally baked in Germany for the holidays. These are similar to fruit cakes, but have almond paste in them and a slight anise flavor, with what looks like a whole box of powered sugar poured on top.