A Day on the Trail

Thurs May 2, 2013.. Trip day 4 of 8

Well, sort of… on the trail in the warm car.   Overcast this AM and cold… 47.  Same the rest of today.. high in mid 50’s.  Windy.  Today was a day to stay inside.. so we did.. inside the car most of the day and took the dogs with us.   We mapped out an interesting route.. from Kerrville .. to outside of Ingram.… Medina Hwy to Medina… Hwy 16 to Bandera… Bandera Hwy to Camp Verde.. then back to Kerrville.

 

We started by checking out a RV park that looked really good on the iNet.  http://johnsoncreekrvresort.com/   And it is as good as it looks.  (didn’t think to take pictures).  It is on the edge of an active pecan grove and most of the cement sites are in rather full shade… This is where we would choose next time we come to this area.

 

Then on to Medina, “the Apple Capital of TX”.  Population 515 as of 2000 census.  (May not have bothered in 2010)… The drive down is through some surprisingly steep hills and twisty roads.  Great country… lots of hardwoods, very green, hay fields and horse ranches.

 

This was a fun drive.  We stopped in Madina to have coffee and some cookies at the  Apple Core

 

 

 

 

 

 

From there, the road to Bandera  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bandera,_Texas    “The Cowboy Capital of Texas”. This is a thriving metropolis compared to Medina but looks much larger and more modern, although only about 3 times in size.  We stopped at a place described in Southern Living Magazine called Gunslinger Dry Goods. This was full of high-end western ware, jewelry, and such..We asked who bought all this stuff. The young woman there in tall boots said the area has 5 or 6 large dude ranches and they have a good return customer business on the iNet. http://www.gunslingerofbandera.com/

 

A surprise stop on the road from Bandera was a wide spot in the road called Camp Verde.   http://quantumtour.com/entity/campverde/      This link offers a very short visual tour and some interesting facts if you scroll down just a bit below the video.

 

We had an excellent lunch in the restaurant there and Carol had some shopping in the general store.   Just across the parking area is a fine large grove of old black walnut trees on the banks of a small river.

 

This was a pre-civil war US Army camp and the stop was the spot of the original general store set up for the camp.  In 1854 the Army initiated an experiment using camels for supply transport and “other military purposes??”  The first shipment of 33 from Egypt arrived via naval supply ship in April of 1856, accompanied by four “native drivers.” More came a year later.  In 1861 the Fort was captured by the Confederacy and when recaptured by the Union in 1865 there were more than 100 camels there.  Although they passed every test of their ability - carrying heavier loads and traveling longer distances than mules and horses, the experiment ended in 1869 when the War Dept. needed funds for reconstruction after the war.

We got back to Camp 5CB’s about 3:00 PM in time to help our neighbor raise a stubborn jack. They had been here for 2 ½ months.  The guy suddenly took worse with a heart problem and the woman’s brother was recruited to drive their 40 ft Class A and 2 dogs back to Wisconsin.  His first trip in a big RV so should be interesting for him.