Two-Steppin’ Across Texas

Leg 6 – Two-Steppin’ Across Texas

05/19/2023 – 05/25/2023

Travel day! We are going to do a Two-step through Texas; the first step of the dance is to San Antonio to visit my brother. Step two is up to Cleburne Texas to see some old friends from Oregon. The drive was split into two days since it is longer than we like to drive in a day. The first leg of our trip would take us to a winery in Anahauc Texas and its backroads all the way, baby!

You never know what you will run into on these roads. In our travels, so far, we have encountered a huge transformer, large pieces of farm equipment and a mobile home. Today we ran into a house! We came around a corner, found the road blocked and cars pulled to the side. Next thing we see is a one-story house coming around the corner. Luckily, it turned off our path and we wouldn’t be forced any further off the road than we already were. It was a pretty cool sight! There was even a guy sitting on the roof of the house with a pole to lift power lines out of the way!

Harvest Host – Frascone Winery

Frascone Winery is located on Trinity Bay just south of Anahauc TX and Jim was our host for the night. We enjoyed tasting some of his award winning wines and walked out with a couple of bottles to add to our stash. The rest of the afternoon was spent working and then we took a short walk down the pier to watch the sunset. Another excellent Harvest Host stay.

A Visit with My Brother

It was a straight shot through Houston into San Antonio on I-10. We planned to spend 3 days at the KOA just two exits down from my brother’s house. Then 3 days turned into 7…

Everything started off good. Friday was a light day and Bill went off to meet a co-worker for lunch, which allowed me some quality time together with my brother. We decided to do some go-cart racing at Andretti Indoor Carting. You know the saying, “slow and steady wins the race”? I don’t think that pertains to an actual race. LOL It was a lot of fun racing around the two-tiered track and I felt like I was moving along pretty quick, but not quick enough, I reckon. I finished dead last. Bummer…

All that high-speed racing made us hungry and we decided to get some lunch at the Rock n’Brew. Great place with good food. We got a chicken ranch pizza with a siracha cream sauce. I thought it was tasty, my brother… not so much. More for me! It was a great day hanging with my little brother!

Fredericksburg TX

While my brother was at work on Saturday, Bill and I took a ride up to Fredericksburg. Fredericksburg is about 70 miles northwest of San Antonio in “Hill Country”.  Once we got out of the city, the ride was beautiful. As we turned the corner onto Main Street, we were surprised by what we saw. The street was lined with shops, restaurants and wineries and bustling with tourists.

We parked the jeep and walked several blocks up and down Main Street exploring the shops and enjoying the great vibe and energy around us. We stopped in to Rustlin’ Robs and sampled A LOT of their sauces, jams, salsas and chili. Bill called it “lunch”.

Marketplatz

Before heading out to find a winery, we stopped at the town square, which is known as the Marketplatz. The Marketplatz has served as the Fredericksburg social hub for over 150 years. It contains a charming garden with a water wheel, pavilions with picnic tables, a playground and the Vereins Kirche.

The Vereins Kirche, which translates to Society Church, was the first public building in Fredericksburg. It was used by all the religious organizations and also served as the first school. Marketplatz is a great area right in the heart of the city and it’s easy to see this as the social hub for the weekly farmers markets, Oktoberfest and Christmas celebrations.

Texas Wine Country

Fredericksburg is also known as Texas Wine Country. I like wine. With over 50 wineries in the area and only enough time to visit one, where do you think we went? To the visitor center, of course! With a map in hand and several suggestions from the city host we settled on Wildseed Farms and Vineyard.

On the way out of the visitor center I noticed this gorgeous quilt hanging on the wall. Fredericksburg’s sister city, Montabaur German, made and donated this quilt in honor of Fredericksburg’s 160th birthday and its name is The Challenge Quilt.

Wildseeds Farms and Winery

All this walking around has left me a little parched. Time to head out to Wildseeds Winery. As we pull into the winery we quickly realize this is a nursery and wildflower farm as well as a winery. In fact, they are the nations largest working wildflower farm with 1,000 acres in Texas. There is a gift and home décor shop, a room filled with all sorts of wildflower seeds, a nursery and a biergarten on site. We, however, are here for the wine (and maybe the wildflowers)

Wine Tasting

The Thomas’s have been growing wildflowers for over 40 years but are fairly new to the winemaking industry. They planted their first vines in 2015 and produced their first wines in the summer of 2019. For $20, we enjoyed a guided tour through seven of their award-winning wines annnnd because our guide enjoys a good wine as much as we do, she let us sample her favorite too!

We had a lot of fun listening to her stories and learning about the different grapes. All the wines are made with 100% Texas grapes and they were all wonderful! We settled on three, one being the favorite of our wine guide. (She was a great salesperson 😉) Great Find!

Everybody’s Somebody in Luckenbach!

Our last stop for the day is Luckenbach Texas. Every time I hear “Luckenbach” I start singing the Waylon Jennings song. You know the one I’m talking about, right?

Jacob Luckenbach founded this small German settlement 10 miles outside Fredericksburg in 1849. It did not become famous, though, until the 1970s. Hondo Crouch and some of his friends bought downtown Luckenbach from the Engle Family with the intent of getting away from “the city life”. He coined the phrase, “Everybody’s Somebody in Luckenbach!” In 1973 country singer, Jerry Jeff Walker recorded an album in the dance hall and four years later, Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson released the now infamous, “Luckenbach Texas (Back to the Basics)” and the rest is history. Luckenbach is now a regular stop for tourists visiting Fredericksburg.

Today was our day to be somebody in Luckenbach. This place has a great feel about it, very laid back. We grabbed a Lone Star beer and sauntered around the city, which consists of a bar/general store/post office (in one building) a dance hall and a couple of outdoor stages. We pulled up a picnic table and listened to a little music and just enjoyed this moment in time.

I would love to come back and spend a few days exploring Fredericksburg and Texas Wine Country, one day was not long enough!

A Bad Ending to a Good Day

It was on our drive back to San Antonio that our Texas Two-Step turned in to a Slow Waltz across Texas. We are coming out of the hills and almost to the freeway when Bill says to me, “I lost my clutch.” I said in my most calm voice, “What do you mean?” He said, “I have no clutch.” Fortunately we are able to coast into a parking lot and safely get off the road.

Bill got out his toolbox and tried to fix it but it was a bigger problem than his collection of tools in a parking lot could repair. We used our roadside assistance provide, Coach Net, and within thirty minutes they had a tow truck enroute to us. We made it safely back to the KOA about 2 hours later.

The next morning my brother came over, took Bill to the part store and then they set out to replace some parts on the clutch. (the parts that were recently replaced while we were in Florida.) It turns out to be bigger than just the master and slave cylinders. Time to find a repair shop.

The Plan

Our plan was to go ahead and tow the jeep up to the next planned stop in Cleburne and get it fixed there. This would allow us to still get a visit in with our friends. We are all hooked up and pulling out of our spot when we realize the jeep will not flat tow correctly. Not wanting to take a chance and create a bigger problem, I go up to the office and see if the KOA can give us another spot for the week. Not a problem, we checked back in and Bill started to look for another repair shop.

Luck was on our side and there was a brake and clutch shop 5 miles away. Coach Net, once again secured a tow truck for us and we got the jeep to the hospital.

I have to give a HUGE shout out to Coach Net. They were wonderful to work with. They were polite, they were responsive, they called back when they said they would and they covered both tow truck expenses with no hassles. Great job, Coach Net, we are very happy with the service you provided!

Waiting Game

The repair shop gave Bill the heads up that they would not be able to look at the jeep until Wednesday. We had our spot secured at the KOA until Friday and on hold through the holiday weekend if we needed it. At least we had a comfortable place to stay. Now we wait…

We actually didn’t have to wait too long. The repair shop was able to get to the jeep a day early and it was finished early Wednesday morning, however, the engine had a clicking sound that was not there before. Bill ubered over and they all agreed, the noise did not sound right. Back to work. They took it apart again and found a part that had fallen between the fly-wheel and transmission. Thursday morning, the call came that everything was good and the jeep was ready. Yay!

Two-Stepping Again

Now we are back to the Texas Two-Step and it is a quick two-step. Do we stay here and head to Oklahoma tomorrow? Can we still stop and see our friends in Cleburne? Where will we stay? I cancelled our reservations and it’s Thursday before Memorial Day weekend. Good luck finding something at short notice.

I hate doing things at the last minute. There is always the chance something will get missed. For example making sure all the hatches are closed tight, everything is hooked up correctly and the GPS is set correctly. It is too easy to miss one check mark and one missed check mark could be disastrous.

We took a few deep breaths, reached out to our friends and methodically formulated a plan. An hour and a half later we are on the road to Cleburne. Bill and I are a good team. He checks me, I check him and we get the job done.

Cleburne

We took US-281 almost the entire way up to Cleburne and it was a beautiful ride through the hill country. The shoulders of the roads and fields were covered in wildflower. Stunning!

Our friends secured us a spot at the Fun Town RV Center. They had a very nice campground and we were the only ones there! We had a great time catching up with some familiar faces over Italian food and some beer. I wish circumstances hadn’t been what they were and we could have spent the three days here as was planned. Next time.

What’s Next?

Our time in Texas has come to an end and it is time to head up to the Chickasaw National Recreation Area and then to the Wichita Mountains in Oklahoma. Mountains in Oklahoma? Hmmm….