Wednesday, April 9, 2008

Events of the day



...and an eventful day it was. I'll try to not be too long winded.


First, let's start with a big Happy Birthday to my Mom. She's 87 today. I love you Mom.


Next, Dave, Paige and I continued the "Diners, Drive-ins and Dives" portion of our trip with a visit to "Mac and Ernie's" in Tarpley, TX. This is a one room roadside eatery with outdoor seating. It is open on Wednesdays for lunch (special of the day only) and the weekends. Today's special was two pork tacos with an ancho chile sauce, cheese and salsa - $5. We went next door to get our cold drinks while waiting for them to be prepared. Delicious!
We continued the feeding frenzy by stopping in Medina (The Apple Capital of Texas) for some apple pie. We limited ourselves to one slice apiece - for now.
When we got back to the park the weather had cleared some and it was decided that a ride was in order. It had two purposes: 1. to get on the bikes and ride 2. to get cell phone coverage so I could call Mom (see the first item above).
We chose a loop the locals call "Lost Maples" because is passes Lost Maples State Natural Area. Leaving the park we headed north on 16 to Kerrville. This section of 16 has some wicked switchbacks and the cars like to use both lanes. We left Kerrville for Ingram on 27 then veered on to 39. Up, down, this way and that running along the Guadalupe River. The bridges are built near water level with no shoulders and no guard rails. If it floods there is less to repair. Then we turned south on 187. Two lanes, no shoulders, driveways and a 70 mph speed limit. Up on the hill tops with huge ranches on either side, we saw deer, elk, bison, longhorns, horses, mules and goats. At Vanderpool we turned east on 337 for a run through similar country but back in the valleys. Very little traffic until we neared Medina where we turned north on 16 to return to the park. I'm still smiling. 96 miles of two lane blacktop (for the most part).
Now it's time to relax, maybe have one of those cigars I picked up in Tarpley.

5 comments:

CiaoBella! said...

Great adventuring! That's what it's all about!
M

Anonymous said...

The filling on the pie was good, the crust was adequate. It might have been better a couple of hours ago before the humidity had it's way with it.

Anonymous said...

Scott....last night my curiosity about your Minnie Winnie got the better of me and I started doing an Internet search on them. I'm not new to RVing so I am somewhat familiar with what RVing are all about. I found many Minnie Winnies for sale but most of them were the really long ones. If I was to get one it would be a predecessor to a Class A someday. So for now I am only interested in a small one like yours. 21 feet. Well there are not a whole lot of those out there, but I did find one for sale that was appealing. I believe it was a '96 21-feet and about 30K miles. Price was about $15K. It looked pretty good.

When my wife got home I showed her what I had found and she got really interested. So we looked at more Minnie Winnies and her enthusiasm escalated. By the time we went to bed she was 'telling' me we were going to get one. Now I believe her enthusiasm for going on the road might even exceed mine.

I am so pumped up right now about this RV thing I cannot work effectively today. I'll be surfing the Internet looking for more Minnie Winnies and trying to familiarize myself to this type of motorhome.

Now see what you started. ;-)

alepel

Anonymous said...

Scott....alepel again!

I got curious about your pursuit of the Diner, Drive-ins and Dive's and I searched the Internet looking for a list of all the places. I finally found a list on the Food Channel Website.

Much to my surprise the very first place on the list was the Mad Greek's Diner in Baker, Calif. and my wife and I stopped there twice this past March on our way too and from Las Vegas. My step-son had put us on to it and told us we had to stop and get a Strawberry Milkshake. So we did and it was awesome. On the trip to Vegas we got a small one and split it. On the way back we a large and it was so BIG my wife and I were laughing like school kids. Needless to say we didn't finish it. But was it GOOD! Next trip, probably next year were going to stop and eat there.

I did check out all the other places on the list but I have not been to any of the other places. But there is a possibility that on some of my future travels we might hit a few more.

alepel

Stromtrooper said...

I'm pretty jealous here, I'll have to take some time off as soon as you get back up here (or just visit down there) so we can do some real riding together. I could use the experience, yeah, that's my excuse...