Hot Times in Kerrville, TX (July 10 – September 10, 2022)

On Sunday, July 10^th, we drove 203 miles from the Waco, TX area to Kerrville, TX, where we will spend the next two months at Buckhorn Lake Resort.  We expect to suffer through 100 degree daily high temperatures for the foreseeable future.  However, after spending well over $100 on fuel every travel day, we are looking forward to being stationary for a while.

We had originally planned to spend these two months in Colorado.  However, the crazy high fuel prices convinced us to scrap those plans.  Instead, we decided to come to Kerrville, TX and take care of myriad medical, dental, vision and hearing exams.  In our first two weeks in Kerrville, at least one of us had an appointment almost every day.

We did attempt to get some exercise in the early hours of the morning.  Phil played pickleball most mornings, from 8 – 10 a.m.  Jan would often get in a walk or a trip to the fitness center during this time.  Occasionally, we would also get out for a walk in the evening.  However, most of the day was spent indoors, reading and playing on our phones, with the A/C going. 

We did catch a couple of afternoon matinees at the Kerrville cinema.  On Sunday, July 17^th, we saw Where the Crawdads Sing.  Then, on Tuesday, July 19^th, we saw Top Gun: Maverick.  We enjoyed both of them. 

On Thursday, July 21^st, we had to drive to Austin for one of Jan’s doctor appointments.  After the doctor, we took advantage of being in a big city by hitting several big box stores.  Then, we met Jan’s niece, Katie, and went to Sour Duck Market for dinner.  Although the temperature was 100 degrees, the restaurant had fans and foggers throughout the outdoor seating area and the heat was quite bearable.  We placed our order and paid for it entirely online.  The only human interaction was when they delivered our food and cleared our dishes afterward.

On Sunday, we drove to Luckenbach and watched a performance by a husband-and-wife duo, known as Treble Soul.  Hannah Prestridge and Curt Jones had met in 2014 while performing on Broadway in Nashville, TN.  They returned to Texas in 2014 and were named the Texas Country Music Association’s Vocal Duo of the Year in 2018.  In 2020, they auditioned on American Idol and Hannah won a Golden Ticket to Hollywood.  In addition to watching the performance, Jan purchased a Willie Nelson ornament for when we have a Christmas tree.

As we moved into August, the temperature dropped a few degrees, with daytime highs averaging only around 95 degrees.  On Saturday, August 6^th, we attended an End of Summer Shindig event at the Kerrville-Schreiner Park, along the banks of the Guadalupe River.  Although the crowd was surprisingly small, we enjoyed listening to the music.  The generator that was powering the band’s amplifiers failed half-way through each of the first two songs, but they finally got it working.  Then, a wind gust blew over one of the lighting stands but, fortunately, the guitarist caught it before it hit the ground.

Over the next few weeks, we tried out several new-to-us restaurants in Kerrville, including Thai O’cha, Grape Juice and Pint & Plow Brewing Company.  On Friday, August 19^th, we spent time browsing the shops in Fredericksburg and had lunch at the Fredericksburg Brewing Co., the oldest brew pub in Texas.

On Sunday, August 21^st, we drove back to Austin and had brunch at Cenote with Katie and Michael, before they relocated to Baltimore.  The next couple of days were very rainy, significant because Texas had been suffering from a severe drought.  Phil took advantage of one of the rainy days by playing pickleball indoors at the Kerrville Methodist Church

Our remaining weeks continued to be uneventful.  The temperature dropped slightly, with daytime highs in the mid-80s and low-90s but the humidity kept us indoors most of the time.  We did a lot of reading and made a few trips to the pool.  We spent a lot of time exploring house plans online and scheduled meetings with an architect and two builders in late September.  We also took advantage of strong wi-fi service (unusual for a campground) by binge watching all eight seasons of Game of Thrones.

On our final full-day in Kerrville, we had an unwelcome event.  As Jan started to use the microwave/convection oven, the power went off.  We had had this issue three months earlier but, after jiggling the power cord, the oven had worked again.  This time was different.  We jiggled the power cord and, although the power blinked on for a second, the electrical outlet started making a sizzing sound.  Upon examination, we could see that both the receptacle and plug were fried.  Since we had done minor electrical repairs on the rig in the past, we imagined this repair wouldn’t be too difficult, but we were wrong.  The wiring of the original receptacle had been done at the factory, before the outside walls were installed.  It was wired using 12-gauge Romex non-metallic wire, which was quite stiff, and there was virtually no slack in the wiring.  Phil had to expand the hole in the wall, just to be able to extract the receptacle.  Fortunately, the receptacle was hidden in the cabinet above the oven, so the damage wasn’t visible.  To add to the challenge, the receptacle was a snap-in wiring type that wasn’t sold at Lowes, nor Home Depot.  We’ll save the rest of the story for our next post, but the good news is that it ended well.

Our electrical issue didn’t keep us from enjoying our final night in Kerrville.  We dined at The Boat and had a table with a view overlooking the Guadalupe River.  We shared a half-dozen oysters on the half shell, then split the seafood combo.