Out of the desert!

While we thoroughly enjoyed traveling through the deserts in California, Arizona, New Mexico and southwest Texas, we were ready to get back to green grass and less dust.  The desert is such a diverse and strangely beautiful environment.  We were extremely grateful the snakes and tarantulas were not around and that it wasn't hot this time of year.  

We selected Fredericksburg (FBG) as our next destination.  FBG is a small town settled by German pioneers in 1846.  It is in the heart of Texas hill and wine country.  There were more than 185 wineries in the vicinity of FBG, although sadly we skipped wine tasting/winery touring.  FBG is a popular tourist destination with lots of shops, boutiques, restaurants, cafes, art galleries, etc.  We chose, however, to spend most of our time visiting the National Museum of the Pacific War and the Admiral Nimitz Museum.  We'd both recently read the book, "Unbroken" so seeing this museum was timely.  It's an excellent museum and the entrance ticket was good for 48 hours - allowing visitors to spend up to 16 hours touring it.  War is horrible - no question about it.  

After our stay in Fredericksburg, we drove to Luckenbach, home to a population of 3. Luckenbach, made famous by a song by Waylon Jennings has only an old store/post office/bar and dance barn, but it was fun to see.  I was even serenaded whilst snapping photos in the bar!  Luckenbach still hosts dances and musicians on a regular basis.

We spent several hours touring the Lyndon B. Johnson Ranch, which is now a State and National Park.  While not initially on our list of places to see, we were glad we made the visit.  The still-functioning ranch, which includes LBJ's residence - the Texas White House-  is set along the Pedernales River in the beautiful hills of Texas. It was an interesting and informative visit - reminding us of some of the good things LBJ was able to accomplish while President.  

We next visited Georgetown (GT), home of Southwestern University.  GT has a wonderfully preserved historic downtown and was voted as having the "most beautiful town square in Texas".  From Georgetown, we made a stop in Lockhart, the heart of the "best Texas barbecue", according to a few websites.  We ate at Black's BBQ and left disappointed.  We think Olympia's Ranch House BBQ has them beat, hands down.  

On our way to Houston to rendezvous with friends, we went through several small towns, each with beautiful old courthouses & historic downtowns & homes.  We thought the main squares of either Lockhart or Gonzales could easily compete with that of Georgetown as having the most beautiful town square.  

Our combined failure to use our RV's navigation system, smart phone GPS app and Map Quest's poor directions caused us some aggravation as we tried to find our RV park near downtown Houston, but we finally managed.  Our ultimate rendezvous in Houston was with Kalika & Gautam Sinha (and their 2 delightful kids), friends we met in Romania.  Fortunately, Kalika's excellent Indian dinner, along with fun conversation revived us.   Now, on to Galveston Island.  

Photos include 7 from Fredericksburg; 5 from Luckenbach, 2 from LBJ's ranch; 2 from Lockhart followed by 4 from Georgetown.