On Saturday, April 10th, we left Johnson City and drove 67 miles to Buckhorn Lake Resort in Kerrville, TX. This is at least our eighth stay at Buckhorn Lake Resort. The purpose of our return was to take care of our annual doctor appointments and await warmer weather before beginning our travels north. Although it’s a very nice campground and Kerrville’s a nice town, we’ve pretty much exhausted the available attractions.
Shortly after getting set up, we drove to Walgreens and Jan got her COVID vaccination. Jan was glad to be able to get the Johnson & Johnson vaccine so she didn’t have to worry about scheduling a second injection.
Phil attempted to play pickleball most mornings but, with some poor weather and the departure of many of the winter regulars, there were a lot of mornings when he was unable to play. Jan walked every morning, often opting for the Louise Hays Park in town rather than having to make multiple laps around the campground. Phil joined her on days with no pickleball. We often spotted deer in the park who were relatively unfazed by the passerbys.
Monday, April 12th, was our 18th wedding anniversary. We celebrated with dinner at Rails, Kerrville’s top-rated restaurant.
On Wednesday, we went to Bandera and had dinner at the 11st Street Cowboy Bar. We took our own steak and Phil grilled it over one of the large pits. We purchased sides of baked potato and salad. We sat by the dance floor and spent the evening watching experienced country dancers demonstrate their skills. We had hoped to have an opportunity to use our newly-learned line dancing moves but we were disappointed. The only line dancing opportunity came when the band went on break and, even then, few people got up to line dance. Phil did line dance to Copperhead Road but the few dancers all appeared to be on a different beat. Later that evening, Phil attempted to Google local line dancing venues but saw comments such as “Texans don’t line dance” and “like disco, the line dancing craze died in the 1990’s.”
On Saturday, we went to the Fredericksburg Trade Days. This is a massive flea market that is held for three days on the third weekend of each month. We strolled around for a couple of hours and made a couple of purchases. If there in truth in the saying “one man’s junk is another man’s treasure,” we saw lots of potential treasures for someone else.
On Wednesday, April 28th, Jan flew from San Antonio to Nashville to attend the wedding of Evan Gaskin, son of Sheila and David Gaskin, on May 1st. After dropping Jan off at the San Antonio airport, Phil returned to our RV and sat through an evening of wild weather. The forecast included a tornado watch and the threat of large hail. Fortunately, the worst of the severe weather passed to both the east and west of Kerrville. The town of Hondo, 50 miles due south of Kerrville, was hit with 80-110 mph winds and softball-sized hail that did a great deal of damage. This was one of three hailstorms over Texas and Oklahoma that inflicted at least $1 billion damage combined. Although spared any damage, we did experience very heavy rain that continued for most of the next 24 hours.
Hailstone that hit Hondo, TX
On Saturday, May 8th, we drove to Fredericksburg. We wanted to stock up on some of our favorite sauces from Rustlin’ Bob’s before we leave the area on Monday. Rustlin’ Bob’s is one of those stores where you can stroll up and down the aisles and sample the various products on crackers and pretzels. We had last visited Rustlin’ Bob’s in June 2020 and, due to COVID, the store had been locked down and shopping had consisted of calling in our order and picking it up at the register. This time, we were happy to see that life at Rustlin’ Bob’s had returned to normal and we were able to graze to our hearts’ content.
Our purchases from Rustlin’ Bob’s
After leaving Rustlin’ Bob’s, we strolled down Main Street and visited a few more stores. We then decided to drive to Luckenbach and listen to some live music. We arrived in time to listen to a set of country and gospel songs by Weldon Henson and his band. Weldon’s six-year-old daughter, Brea, joined in the performance and soloed and sang backup on a number of songs.
Weldon Henson and his band 
Brea Henson singing with the band
GordonsOnTheGo 