Hill Country Slacking Part Deux

After our hotter n' hell hike at Enchanted Rock, we made our way back to the hotel for a nap. That is the first commandment of traveling with a toddler ' Thou shalt respect nap time for the toddler is a tired toddler and her wrath is mighty.' The second commandment is something along the lines of 'Thou shalt have no other blankie than the beloved blankie for I am a picky toddler and will forgo the nap if thou should try to foist another blankie upon me'. Fortunately, the preferred blankie was merely hidden under the bed in the hotel and a short nap ensued vitalizing the wee one and her parents for our jaunt to Luckenbach.

What was once a real town is now the coolest beer joint in all of Texas. Kitty couldn't wait to kick her shoes off and hang out. There was a pickers circle going on and familys, bikers, retired couples and local poets all hung out in the shade of the trees enjoying the music and some cold beers. Okay, the kids enjoyed dancing on stage to the music but did not have beer. No drinking until you can order it yourself. A really great way to spend a late afternoon and early evening, just doing a whole bunch of nothing. Highly recommended

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We headed back to Fredericksburg for dinner. Since Fredericksburg trades on its German heritage, every restaurant in town serves up hearty faux German food. My favorite name of a dish was schweineschnitzel überbacken. I didn't actually eat it, but it is fun to say. I was able to find stuff to eat at most of the restaurants that was appropriate for 100f+ weather. Except at the Bavarian Inn that is. We went in to look at the menu and while the early 1980s did not delight my aesthetic senses and there was a weird odor, what put me off was the menu listings for 'On the Lighter Side'. A German sausage sampler plate or chicken fried steak. They have a very different definition of what constitutes light than I do.

The next day we headed out to Johnson City to see a man about a camel. And a zebra. And some goats. This was the highlight of the trip for Kitty. She not only got to hand feed a buffalo( who has a very raspy tongue) and play with some goats but got to actually pet a zebra foal as well. She has been kind of obsessed with zebras lately. I grew up on a farm so the first thing I noticed was the condition of the animals. All of their feet were healthy (the first thing I look for), their enclosures were big and roomy and everyone appeared to be really well fed. Its actually a good business model. Breed and raise the exotic animals you love and have tourists pay to  feed them. They also have highland cows. I love highland cows.

We drove past vineyards and sunflower fields on the way back to Fredericksburg. We procured the ubiquitous peaches and preserves. After an afternoon nap and long soak in the pool, we wandered around the shops of Main street. We opted to skip dinner and instead had peach pie with Blue Bell ice cream at the Tootie pie company. It was worth every single calorie.

We woke up bright and early the next morning, hit the road and by late afternoon, Mark was back on the boat working. Seems that it was time for our regulator to receive some attention. More on that later but all in all, Fredericksburg provided a much needed opportunity to do a whole bunch of nothing. I hope to be doing a whole bunch of nothing on the boat very, very soon.

Movin' to the country gonna eat a lot of peaches

This past week supposed to be our preliminary shake down cruise. Mark had arranged for time off from work and I was getting our provision lists together in preparation for week cruising along the Gulf Coast. Unfortunately, by Friday the day we had to give the green light, the track of TS Debby was uncertain. She would probably head east away from us, but no one could promise the high pressure area over Texas would hold and Debby wouldn't head west towards us. Since I have a firm and steadfast 'do not play with possible hurricanes' rule, we had to put the shake down on hold. I am all for testing our anchoring equipment and technique but testing it in possible gale force winds when you have a heads up seems kind of stupid.

So we had a choice to make. Use the extra time off to keep on keeping on with the refit or take some much needed R and R. Mark has been keeping a schedule of 3 days in the office, 4 days refitting for 2 solid years. I've been trying to keep up with the kids, the boat, the houses for those same 2 years. Decision made. R and R it is. So we headed out to the most beautiful part of beautiful Texas- the hill country, to do a whole bunch of nothing for 4 days.

We stayed in Fredericksburg, an old German settlement which was the hometown of CHESTER NIMITZ! (man are they proud of that factoid) and is now a tourist destination thanks to the fact that it produces some of the most exquisite peaches in the country and also produces some mighty fine wines. There are tons of great shops for those so inclined and plenty of breweries to please the beer fans. Our hotel- Fredericksburg Inn was on the banks of Baron's creek just off Main street and had a really outstanding pool and lovely grounds for chasing a toddler around. Maybe the room was decidedly circa 1980s motel pedestrian but the grounds more than made up for it.

We drove up to Enchanted Rock for a morning hike. We got there as early as possible as the high for the day was supposed to be 105f. That is stupid hot. We started our ascent with Kitty tagging along until it go too steep then it was into her carrier and up to the summit. Mark thought to bring an umbrella to shade her and he made quite a spectacle climbing a giant boulder with a baby strapped to his back covered by a big umbrella. It did make him easy to spot though.

 Enchanted Rock is a big ole hunk of pink granite. While the hike is not a long one, it is steep. Really steep. So much so that when I happened to pause and turn around about half way up the dome, my fear of heights kicked in and I had to sit for minute to let the anxiety pass. Yes, heights freak me out. So much so that I purposefully lived on the 28th floor of a high rise where I would go out on my balcony every morning and peer down and think to myself "Yep. Still freaked by heights". I refuse to let fear ruin my fun so after a minute or reminding myself that it seemed much steeper than it appears I soldiered on. This is me on the summit smiling because I've yet to realize that I have to look down to get off the darn thing.

I've got more on our hill country get away coming in the next post but for now I will leave you with a moment of Zen from the summit trail. I call this one 'Rock. And some flowers. Om.'

Driving the wrong way

Kitty was pretty annoyed at this sign. There was no elephant here. LIARS!

We drove from Glasgow to Leven to pick up Mark's mom and head to the Highlands for 3 days. Mark knows that I love driving and so offered me the chance to test my driving skills by doing it on the wrong side of the road. Yes dear Brits, you do many things quite right as a nation but building a road system is not one of them.

It went something like this- Okay, I got this. Put the car into gear and drive slowly on a road marked 70 mph because it is the width of a parking space and huge buses are bearing down on me and praise me for not screaming in terror at the delivery truck drivers who like to straddle the center line on curvy roads that give you no way to see what's coming at you at 70 mph until they are 3 meters ahead of me. I struggle with the gear box because even though I drive a manual at home I don't shift with my left hand, which is the WRONG hand. Manage to get the car into gear, blood pressure drops until I see yet another g$*d*&@ed round about which has no stop sign at eye level to tell you to stop but merely a few lines painted on the road. Stop, think its clear and enter the roundabout to the panicked screams of Mark shouting "LOOK RIGHT NOT LEFT!". Manage to get through the roundabout without hitting anything but miss the road I wanted because I can't get left in time. Keep on the roundabout, find the correct road and repeat the terrifying game of chicken with the trucks. Try to decipher road signs which only have mysterious symbols on them, not useful text or anything of the sort.Get the car into 5th gear after only 3 tries and drive on the tiny, windy road. Curse the lack of an automatic transmission. Oh look, another roundabout. Pull off into a parking lot and tell Mark I am never driving a manual transmission in the UK again. Mark makes the mistake of letting me know that an automatic transmission is an upgrade at the car rental place. I have no words at this point but just stare at him. He decides to drive the rest of the way. I really do think it was short sighted to give me 2 separate challenges at once.

We had more fun once in the Highlands with the rental car. If you are in the market for a new vehicle I have to say the Vauxhall Meriva should be your last choice if you live anywhere with more than a 5 degree slope. It does 0 to 60 in about a week. There were several times we were wondering if we would be going up the hills or sliding down.

And that is how I- the person who loves nothing more than driving on new roads in new places, came to spend 2 weeks only driving a combined time of 15 minutes. Thank goodness the Brits DO have an awesome public transportation system and thanks to Mark who hates to drive but did it for me anyway and not once teased me about my inability to shift left handed.

Road tripping

  I made a last minute decision to head to Annapolis, Maryland to ostensibly see the big boat show but really I wanted to see some friends. When my great parents said that keeping the big girl so she didn't miss school would be no issue, I started loading up the car. Kitty and I would make it a road trip of almost 3,000 miles round trip. Mark was supposed to fly in to meet us but work prevented him from coming so it was just me and my wee co-pilot for 9 days.

The drive would normally be accomplished by me in a straight shot of 24 hours but since Kitty can handle around 550 miles a day before she howls in protest, it took us quite a bit longer. Kitty became adept at checking into hotels, meeting new people and going with the flow. I became adept at eating at nothing but Cracker Barrels on the road. When you have a kid who can't eat gluten and is picky, CB is your friend. She happily ate green beans, mashed potatos, carrot and a little bit of chicken every. single. meal. I didn't even eat one single burger as my ordering was limited to what I could split with my tiny, fussy eater. They also have lots of sparkly, shiny kitsch to look at, which toddlers find highly entertaining.

All in all, it was a great trip. We saw friends from Majestic and Patience Two who are all wonderful, wonderful people and very dear friends.  We met friends from Anything Sailing, SV Wildest Dream and the Puzzled gang.We hung out on their respective catamarans and got to experience agoraphobia. We went to the boat show and saw the equipment we needed to see in about 30 minutes (thank goodness. I never need to go to another boat show ever). We saw the leaves changing. We had such a wonderful time, just me and my wee one. Being able to spend time with just my little girl was a gift. She and I have never had such a long time alone. It made me fall in love with her all over again. We came home to Maura and Mark, having missed them terribly and hugged them and just drank them in. It was perfect.

We didn't have time for a sail but managed to go for a chug on Patience Two on the Magothy river. I could learn to love catamarans

Kitty's favorite thing to do is wave and say "hi" to everyone. People in restaurants, hotel lobbys, rest areas and cars driving by.

Kitty wanted to run with the big kids from RV Puzzled, Zach Aboard and Tig and Serena.

I am 100% over boat shows. Just too crowded for my tastes.

Mary from Patience Two

made this, which is the coolest stack pack ever. Not only is is purple(win!) but the super cool waves are made from phirtex so any water drains. You will not be seeing anything similar on Ceol Mor unless I can bribe Mary into making us one...

Chuck and Mary of Patience Two's back yard view. Kitty and I stayed with them for a few days and got to wake up to this view....

Not a brilliant shot cause we were driving at a good clip but that is a cockatoo behind that wind screen. that big burly biker kept tucking his head under the screen to nuzzle the bird. Awesome.

                                                 Eventually, my wee girl did actually sleep.