Moving Day

Sinton, Texas
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=28.069708,-97.52615&num=1&sll=28.055015,-97.526321&sspn=0.069686,0.11261&hl=en&ie=UTF8&ll=28.055015,-97.526321&spn=0.069686,0.11261&z=13

My o my things change fast in my life. After she read my blog entry for last night, the manager, Luella, sent me an email about there being a wifi booster near the Castle. When you look low on the light pole instead of high, there it is about six feet off the ground. So out came the laptops for more research. After a good bit of walking around with a laptop in my arms checking signals, the decision was made to move the Castle forward.

The utilities lines sometimes limit your location and that is true in this case. Everything was made ready for the move. The Truck was coupled up and we moved the Castle slowly forward. A couple of times it was necessary to exit the Truck to adjust the utility lines. Careful measurements had been made as to how far the Castle could be moved forward. It seemed that the new twenty foot sewer hose would be the limiting item. It was. The electric shore line could have handled another five or six feet of forward placement for the Castle.

We need to regress a bit on the time line of the move. While working on the laptops figuring out what to do, a seat was taken on the picnic table in front of the Castle. It was in the morning shade. This morning it was in the low forties, so the table was in a chilly spot. Finally my brain woke up and noticed that the rear of the Castle was in the morning sunshine. OK move the Castle forward and put the table at the rear so morning tea or coffee can be enjoyed in the sun.

Now the Castle is in place and totally set up again. A nice fellow pulls up in a car and walks over to introduce himself. He turns out to be a reader of my blog. Since he is in town for a couple of days he stopped by to say Hello. Steve and his parents, Beatrice and Ivan, were really nice folks to visit. Steve and Ivan took a short tour of the Castle. Since the Castle is so small, it is always a short tour. Thanks for stopping by Steve. His parents live here in town so he may get to stop by again on another trip to town.

After getting the castle set up, it was get the peripherals put in place. The extra water hoses were put away. The picnic table was put on the concrete. Other odds and ends were stowed. WHEW time for lunch and a nap!!!!!

Lunch came and went just fine, but the nap did not. As my body was laying on the couch, my mind was going at least a half mile an hour. That is pretty fast for me. Suddenly a thought hit me. Maybe the table can be set at an angle and Sneaky brought back home to live. Up and at it fat man, get busy.

The tape measure was brought out again. Measure here, measure there. Move the table, then measure some more. It looks like Sneaky will fit.


The key to the storage area was retrieved and the thought was to just carry Sneaky the hundred feet from the storage to the table. Firing up the Truck seemed like an overkill for retrieving Sneaky. It turns out that Sneaky balanced extremely well on one of my shoulders and was an easy carry. It fact a lot farther would not have been a problem. Sneaky is on the table tied down and awaiting a bath from all the fresh bird droppings it got in the storage yard.
This is all working out very well. The new location gives my computers about twice as much signal strength. Both have been able to access the internet most of the time. Gtek drops the signal now and then, but it is workable. Now publishing and research can be done in the comfort of Comfort Castle.

On a walk later in the day, this next picture had to be taken to so everyone just how nice a day this turned out to be. This is looking toward hole number eleven of the golf course next to the Castle. The temperature was about seventy. Sure makes me glad to be south now.
Tonight the plan is to head down to my favorite Mexican food restaurant in this part of Texas for a gorging. That should finish out a wonderful day of trying to have tooooo much fun. TheOFM.

Goodbye Aircard

Sinton, Texas

Not too much has worked out just right in the last two days, but on the other hand nothing really bad has happened either. Sneaky the Yak proved to be too large to fit into the site nicely, so it had to go over to the secured boat storage area here in the park. It works out nicely and will be very good when time is available to build a stand to store Sneaky safely.

The computer mess has occupied most of the last two days. The Sprint air card that did great service for a year and nine months all over the country has started not finding decent strength signals. In Comfort the cell tower was in plain sight on the other side of the freeway, but connections were hit and miss and unstable. Down here in Sinton, the signal is very weak and unstable. For the month of September and October, most of my internet service has been free spots here and there. My decision has been made to drop the $60 a month Sprint air card when the contract runs out early in November.

With that in mind, the decision was made to try out the campground pay as you go internet service from Gtek. It has been very stable but so weak at my campsite that it is nearly unusable. A lot of try this and try that has been going on for the last two days. No decision yet. After trying out both laptops in areas around the Castle, a walk was taken with the signal strength meter on the laptop screen. The signal gets strong enough and steady about half way to the clubhouse. Inside the clubhouse, the signal is very strong and very steady. My plan had been to use the service from in the Castle. Now it looks like time will be spent in the clubhouse. It is nice in there.

Maybe it is good that sitting in the Castle playing on the internet instead of getting out chasing fun will not be very easy. The Gtek service is $20 a month. That extra $40 a month not going out will be noticeable on my SSA funded budget.

Finally this evening after the computer mess was well defined, some golf was attempted. The course a few feet from the Castle is a plain 18 hole course that is priced at $12 a round weekdays and worth about that amount. It is not really hard, but you do have to play decently or you will not score well. That is a personal experience from this evening.

Now that things are settling down, there will be more time for adventures. It is my plan to wait out the cold weather here and hit the road again in March. We will see how bad the hitch itch gets and how it gets scratched. WOW this is a lot of work when you are trying to have tooooo much fun. TheOFM.

computer trouble

Having computer trouble

Look Out, Here They Come

Sinton, Texas
Rob & Bessie Welder RV Park

The RV park name was omitted yesterday. Sorry. The Team is here for a longer term stay to get in some serious golf and fishing (and fresh seafood eating shhhhhh). This spot in the “canyon” of Rvs has turned out to be very good. The neighbors are gone all day and come home to be peaceful and quiet. Wonderful. The strong winds that hit here today have had only a small effect on the Castle thanks to the wind interference by the adjacent Rvs.

Speaking of strong winds. While the Truck was carrying me all over the place for chores, a stop was made down at the ski basin in Rockport to see the sights if there were any. Here is what was happening.


The wind was really blasting the water into the bulkhead and blowing spray many feet into the parking lot. Park in the wrong place and you get a saltwater shower for free.

A stop at the Aransas County Library resulted in bringing home a recommended fishing book. It has already been mostly read. It turns out to be about fly fishing the flats for game fish. Oops not my style at this time. It will go back at the first opportunity.

Another stop was in Aransas Pass to remove my name from the waiting list at an RV park there. They seemed to appreciate me keeping them informed. They will be full for the winter and unlikely the Team would have gotten in there. All you Rvers headed this way, call and get reservations. The parks are getting filled up early this year.

About the first week here in Sinton is going to be chores week. Laundry is almost down to desperate. The Truck and the Castle are filthy inside and out from all the mud at Lake Corpus Christi State Park.

However, my act is together. The most important chore was accomplished this afternoon. Also the second most important was nearly completed.

This picture is of the number one chore. Get the tackle and lures swapped over to saltwater gear. Additionally a saltwater fishing rod was added to the rear seat in the Truck. Now that chore is ready for action.

The number two item was to get in some golf swing practice. This park has a wonderful place to practice all your golf shots. A good hour was spent in proper practice this afternoon until the invasion hit. About five pm the mosquitoes executed a perfectly time invasion. By the time my feet got the rest of me out of there, my beautiful fat body had over a dozen painful bites. Since my body went through a blood letting a couple of days ago, it does not need to be donating to the wildlife of the area now.

There were not any spectacular adventures today, but until five pm it was a great day of trying to have tooooo much fun. TheOFM.

Equalizer Hitch Performance

Sinton, Texas

This morning was cool but the Team got away from the state park at nine am. An experiment was tried again. The sway control was not hooked up on the Castle. It made for a very active drive compared to with the sway control engaged. The Castle towed very well. The main route was highway 188 from the interstate 37 to Sinton. It is a roly poly road with a good surface. Without the sway control the driving was constant small corrections. Other times this route has been driven with the sway control engaged. Those times it was a very relaxed trip. Once again it has been proven to my satisfaction that the Equalizer hitch sway control is exceptional in performance. It is not likely this experiment will be tried again in my lifetime.

Comfort Castle is comfortably set up in its site. There are large rigs on three sides. However the view from the main window is of the golf course.
The large rigs keep the late evening sun off the Castle. That is a nice part of the location. The standing water in the picture above probably means an outbreak of mosquitoes in a week or so.

Additionally we lucked out with the large motor home to the north of us. That will stop the ugly north winds this winter. We shall find that wonderful. It is sort of like being camped in a canyon.

After settling in, it was time to go to the nearest Wal-Mart to restock some food and get a new sewer hose. The sewer opening is too far for my current hose by about three feet. A new twenty foot hose solved that problem.

Now it is relax time and get ready for trying to have tooooo much fun. TheOFM

More Blood

Mathis, Texas

An amazingly beautiful day got me out and about before nine am for a change. The Team headed to Rockport for chores. These flowers greeted my right next to my first parking spot. What a glorious way to start the day!
The Blood Bus was found easily. It was waiting patiently for me to add my blood to the worlds supply. Actually it was the first time in two years that there was enough donors that my veins had to wait more than a few seconds. That is great. The group was hoping to get fifteen donors for the day. They had that by eleven am. YEAAAAAAA!
As usual they gave me a free shirt as a thank you for donating. It is OldFatMan size, XL.

Next was Wal-mart to get the oil changed in the Truck. It was about fifty miles overdue. This time there was no wait and the techs jumped right to the task. However before they could finish, the cold front moved into town.

Extremely heavy rain, high winds (more on that later), and a drop in temperature from 84 to 63 in about ten minutes. Typical Texas cold front. NASTY.

A worker that was on the roof of the Wal-Mart had a problem. His ladder blew down and broke with the first of the cold front. He was on the roof in shorts and a tank top repairing something. The employees in the shop called for a manager to unlock the roof access door. The manager was having trouble finding the keys to open the roof access. Mean while the poor fellow was stuck on the roof in the cold driving rain waiting for help to get to him. Hopefully he made it down ok. When the Team left, he had been stuck up there for at least fifteen minutes. What a nightmare!

On the way back to the Castle, the wind and rain made the driving very bad.
With Sneaky on the roof of the Truck, our sideways wind resistance was high. The wind was moving the Team around on the road for the first few miles. As we got farther north the wind lessened but the rain was still coming down in torrents. Some of the plowed crop fields were flooded so deep the furrows were under water.

After the unusually long trip up to Sinton, a stop at the library gathered in two books to help pass the evening. As we turned into the campsites loop a sad sight welcomed us. A large oak tree had fallen onto a shade shelter. The tree had knocked two legs of the shelter with their foundations side ways badly. The roof was dented downward about a foot. The other two legs were leaned over noticeably.
For the rest of the day, this lazy bum is sticking inside the Castle and out of the rain and bugs. There were more and different adventures today than was expected when the Team set out to try to have tooooo much fun. TheOFM.

Cliffs

Mathis, Texas

It is warm and very humid here today. A very small black flying insect is making it miserable to be outside today. On my shore line walk this morning, the bugs kept on crawling in my nose, ears and eyes. When my head or neck was wiped, my hand came back covered in little bug bodies. The walk was cut very short after a couple of pictures were taken.

The lake is so far down that it seemed like it might be interesting to walk the shore line. It would be in better bug circumstances. Around the first bend was this scene of one of the overlooks from the structures on top of the cliff.

After a good ways of scrambling over loose rocks and fighting bugs, it was time to leave. My hopes were to find a short cut up the cliff and save a lot of walking distance. Here was the first try. After getting up to the dirt with the hand cut spots for feet and hands, it was a no go since the cliff leaned toward the water. Too unsafe for me.
A couple of more were tried with no luck. Finally a slightly overgrown one yielded a path that was an easy trek up to the top by bending low under the brush. Only a few scratches and the top was under my feet.

Later a run to the remaining pier in the tent camping area yielded more disappointing news. A fellow camping there said that the water had come up a couple of feet in the last week. The water at normal level is at the bottom of the stringers under the pier decking.
Ok nasty rainy weather and warm. Go check out the Beeville golf course. Right. Four rain storms later the course had been checked out and deemed acceptable under better conditions. Here is one of the storm cells as the Truck heads towards it. They were very mean little devils.
It was an interesting day of doing whatever could fit between the rain and bugs and warm temperatures. The Team prevailed and had a decent day of trying to have tooooo much fun. TheOFM

Low Lake

Mathis, Texas

Start the day with an easy slow couple up and slow down from there. An easy drive right through the middle of San Antonio on down south to Mathis and Lake Corpus Christi. Left Comfort about 9:30 am and had a lazy lunch at a rest area and was set up in Lake Corpus Christi State Park y 2:30 pm. The park is surprisingly full with only two more trailer sites in the E/W area left. The lake is still extremely low.

Now for some good news. According to some forums the free fishing in Texas State Parks program ended last August. That is correct, it ends every August. TPW decides in early August if they will renew the program. The program was renewed for 2009/2010. The Parks are notified in late August if the program is renewed for the next year. This is a great program that has been complimented by travelers all over the west.

Since the Team is so close to Sinton, the Truck took me over to visit with Luella. She is a wonderful lady and runs the rv park there. We visited for a long time. The area is very pleasant and dryer than just thirty miles away on the Rockport/Aransas Pass waterfront. The final outcome is that on Tuesday the Team moves back to Welder park again. It would be nice if it were closer to all the activities of the coast, but it is only thirty miles to my favorite fish catching spot. By Texas standards that is right next door.

Most likely that will be my winter home for a few months. No promises about what will happen come the end of March. At least a proper priced golf course will be a three minute walk with my clubs from my front door. The large park adjoining the rv park gives me a good place to fast walk. My guess is that it is over a mile to make one loop of the place. Maybe Sturdy Steed will have to clock that loop next week.

The view from site 9 here in the state park is fine.


The team is looking content for the rest after the long 160 mile trip today.
For you to see how low the lake is, check out this boat ramp.
Now there is little to do for a couple of days but eat, sleep, nap and be a lazy bum. That sounds like comfortable way to have tooooo much fun. TheOFM.

Great News

Comfort, Texas

The Team, Sturdy Steed, Sneaky the Yak, the Truck and TheOFM, had a meeting and agreed to roll on out tomorrow. As usual it will be interesting to see where we go. After the meeting, groceries and diesel were purchased. Now we are supplied for the near future with food for the Truck and the body.

Some wonderful news came I today. DebiB of Jerrybs kayaks got a cancer is gone report recently. That is wonderful. Now if a yak is maybe in your future or you don’t really know, then Debi will be available to help you decide without pushing you one way or the other. www.jerrybskayaks.com

Wonderful news like DebiB got can really put your trying to have tooooo much fun into high gear. TheOFM

Great Plans

Comfort, Texas

Sleep late and outwait the ugly weather. Then when the sunshine is in good shape, get out the maps and plan a great road trip. Put the needed things into the Truck and head out. Man o Man it is looking good outdoors. Here is the turn off and OOOOPS>

OK. That is what plans are for. To throw away. After a bit of seat of the pants navigation and another map consult, this road was chosen.
It turned out to be an extremely pleasant road with plenty of peaceful pastoral type scenes to enjoy. It is rugged and would make a wonderful bicycle touring road. At one spot the Truck was able to stop so this nice picture of the scenery could be gathered in for my readers.
The road ended before the Team was ready to quit. So a right turn was made on some road and then a left turn on another. Both were ok but not as nice as El Pass Road. Eventually the seat of the pants navigation brought the Team out on Hwy 16. A right turn headed us toward Kerrville.

We were a lot farther south than was originally thought. That is ok since the fuel gage was still well above half. The first road sign told me we were 27 miles from Kerrville. Way more than my guess had been.

In the next three pictures you will see a few views of hwy 16 a few miles south of Kerrville. Even though this section of road has been under my tires before, none of this part was in my memory.

These were shot with my right hand through the windshield of the Truck while navigating the curves at 30+ mph. It is amazing any of them came out well.
This is about halfway up the ridge the road climbs for a few miles.
As you top out the ridge this view is your reward for the climb to the top.
And of course you have to head back down the ridge.
When it was all traveled, the roads proved to be nice and pretty. The total mileage turned into over twice as much as was planned. Mileage doesn’t count when you are out trying to have tooooo much fun. TheOFM.

Riding In The Rain

Comfort, Texas

They kept on coming and coming until quite late in the evening. Their little tents were scattered over several campsites behind the Castle. Touring cyclists in droves made this their recovery point for the night. Not a one of them was fat at all. In the morning they were up early and rolling out before eight am. Of course they had severe winds to fight and intermittent rain to create hazardous conditions also. Hopefully they all made it safely to the next destination.

As for me it was wait for a package to be delivered. When the new to me golf club arrived right at noon it was a good sight to see. Unpacking it revealed an unmolested used lob wedge without a scratch on it. WOW. Immediately after lunch it had to be tested. It works wonderfully. It is too bad the operator is less capable than the club. Now that the testing is over the shipping box was trashed.

Now it is 2:30 and time to take a ride for pictures and a story for tonight. As the Truck was being entered the rain started. Darn. Since then it has been a steady drizzle. Several times it made me glad that TheOFM was not out on the road on his bike. YUK. So no special story tonight or pictures.

Of course the nice nap to the sound of raindrops on the roof made it a pretty good time of trying to have tooooo much fun. TheOFM


Late Evening Post

About an hour after the above post, the serious rain hit here. It has been pouring rain for nearly two hours now. Tomorrow should see some creeks running full of water. The good part is that my silly thoughts of trying a tent again are dissipated totally, again. The thought of a couple of trips to a bathroom in the cold, wet, muddy night instead of my dry warm Castle is horrifying. There is not any way that tent could lead to trying to have tooooo much fun for me. TheOFM

State Park Commentary

Comfort, Texas

Kerrville got a closer look today for a location for a longer stay at times. There is an unadvertised rv park there that is full until next March 30, 2010. Where will the team go? Bad cold is as bad as the bad heat of last summer.

From an email question comes this answer. Texas state parks are cheaper than the normal daily rate of the commercial campgrounds. However many commercial campgrounds beat the state rate when weekly or monthly rates are used. That is why the Team seldom spends many days in a row at state parks in Texas. Of course our requirements are a lot less than most folks. All the team needs is reasonably clean, sort of level, quiet and cheap. All the other things many folks want like swimming pools etc are worthless to the Team.

Being near natural areas for biking, paddling or walking is a big plus. It seems the Team is a very small minority in the RV world. It amazed me when a lady told me her forty foot fifth wheel with FIVE slide outs really cramped her style. That pile of fluff rv really limits where you can go. The Castle is only twenty feet without any slide outs and even it limit’s the Team at times. Not often, but sometimes.

An order of new golf club grips came I today. Tomorrow, if the weather allows, a couple of them will be installed to replace worn factory grips. The new ones are full cord and will not slip in your hands.

Nothing attracted a picture today. Darn. It was another easy day of barely trying to have tooooo much fun. TheOFM

Scary Sidewalks

Comfort, Texas

At last the Halloween decorating mystery of Comfort, Texas has been solved. TheOFM by means of his superior brain power and logical thinking with a little help from a poster in a business window has determined that there was a SCARECROW contest in town. The judging was last Saturday. The winners had special signs to display for the rest of the season. Many folks participated in the contest. One house had a cutout of a crow mounted on the fence with a sign under it saying “Scared Crow”.
Here are a few of the contestants efforts.





In this last one, the Truck can be seen in the reflection from the window.

A nice country ride was taken to the west and north of town. One road led along a creek where lots of trees had been damaged. There was debris scattered all over the creek bed and banks. The creek did not have much water in it at this time. The farms and ranches were looking good now that they have gotten some rain.

The weather folks are predicting that hurricane Rick will bring some more rain to the area over the next few days. Hopefully it will not get in the way of trying to have tooooo much fun. TheOFM.

No Fear

Comfort, Texas

For a change there was good internet service this morning. So the morning was spent researching possible locations for wintering over should it be chosen to stay in one spot for the winter. The Team is not convinced that is a good idea. Maybe the hitch itch will still be strong by December and we will just keep rolling. Most of the better (expensive) places on the Texas coast have already got four month commitments from their winter Texans. The OFM Team has a rough time just staying in one area for a month.

Last summer was spent at different locations on the coast and we were very ready to roll when we rolled. For those that are considering a full time lifestyle or even long trips of a few months, there is always somewhere in south Texas to stop year round. Let us define south Texas OFM style. Start at Corpus Christi, head up to San Antonio, then west to Del Rio, south along the Rio Grande to Brownsville and then up the coast back to Corpus Christi. During the peak of the influx of winter Texans, many premium rv parks were nearly full. However the Team managed to get a spot at the best rv park in Port Aransas in January.

As data was gathered that winter by day trip roaming, places were available every where we went. Should you be self contained for at least two days in a row, there were huge amounts of places to stay for free to $4 a day. Usually you had to go to some particular spot to dump and get fresh water. Then return to your chosen site.

One example is San Pedro campground and the others around Lake Amistad. This one was covered a few blogs ago with pictures. $4 for normal folks and $2 for old folks with the correct pass. You can stay in that one as long as you want if you keep your site clean. The national park rule is 14 days, but the ranger said he will only apply that rule if the campground fills up or campers cause a mess. In the twenty years of my paying attention, it has never even came close to filling up. The down side is you must go about five miles to the dump station and fresh water refill point. With the Castle that could be as often as every other week.

Along the coast of Texas are several free spots set up in a similar manner. Two that will be mentioned is the beach at Indianola and at Bird Island Basin in Padre Island National Seashore a little outside of Corpus Christi. There is also nearly free camping on many beaches along the Gulf of Mexico in Texas.

Last year even at the peak of the winter Texan season, the two county parks (parking lot in appearance) with water and electric and a dump station, never filled up. Last time they were checked it was $18 a night. Both of these are on the backside of the beach dunes.

So my information has convinced me that making reservations way ahead of time, planning details of months where, and worrying about somewhere to sleep are worthless endeavors for TheOFM Team.

In the last two months of travel after the long stay around the Texas coast of last winter through the summer, TheOFM Team is totally convinced that long stays and detail planning months in advance are not good things to do. It is much better to enjoy the opportunities that pop up right in front of you than to fret about little details like where you will sleep some night six months in the future.

There you have the travel philosophy of TheOFM Team as we try to have tooooo much fun. TheOFM

Not Me!!

Comfort, Texas

It is amazing how a business can stay in business with some of the attitudes found in the owners. A campground in Uvalde was checked out for a possible stay. Nope. With several empty sites available, the attitude was we will choose for you a site that suits us and charge you full price and you will like it. WRONG WRONG WRONG My money never even got itchy to get out of my pocket. So now they have one extra not rented site to get no profit on. That is why Wal-Mart does so well. What you want is what they offer and at the best price in the area.

Another new campground in Uvalde was very rough to say the least. It is a long dirt road into it and gravel dirt narrow sites. Overall it was not laid out very well to get rigs in and out. They did have a very nice sculpture of an armadillo to greet you when you entered the campground.


From the survey done today, Uvalde has a wonderful cheap golf course with all kinds of great deals. They have two campgrounds and neither one wants my business.
The other good news that several things were spotted in the Kerrville/Comfort area that need to be examined carefully and reported to my readers. In fact there is a list started so my senile old pea brain will remember to cover at least part of the special parts of this area.

Tonight a cool front has hit here and the temps are already down to a blizzard level of 54 degrees. Looks like it will be brisk in the morning. That means it will be a good day to clean house and do laundry. Maybe it will be warm enough after that to get out and chase trying to have tooooo much fun. TheOFM

Freethinkers??

Comfort, Texas

Over in Kerrville the Guadalupe River has a few dams making lakes. The main one is fairly nice looking and needs me to put Sneaky in it for some funnnnn. While taking care of other business in Kerrville today, it was convenient to stop at one of the boat ramps to check it out. The ramp will do very well. In fact there was a yakker on his way in to get out of the heat. He is in the red yak to the left in this picture.

Back in Comfort there is lots of Halloween decorations in the yards. Perhaps a sashay around getting pictures of the decorations will be a good thing for the weekend. In the mean time here are some more pictures of downtown Comfort.

This monument to the “Freethinkers” is on High street right in the middle of town. My experiences with “freethinkers” has been very unsatisfactory. Every one of them has been very intolerant and angry at any person who does not agree with them on every subject. Consequently in every case my association with them has always been very short.
There was a building missed in yesterdays post. Now we get it also.


Along the section of down town that is not commercial buildings are some nice looking private residences. Most have flowers in bloom around the homes and look very nice. In this picture there are two homes with lots of flowers. The fragrance along this stretch of road was wonderful.
Some golf practice was satisfying and made a good finish to a day of trying to have tooooo much fun. TheOFM.

Historic Comfort

Comfort, Texas

A wandering we did go. A wandering we did go. My O My a wandering we did go. Down town historic Comfort, all three blocks of it. There were many signed buildings and the Team has tried to bring you the best of them. The sign will be first then the building. It would be a nice place to spend about an afternoon shopping the “antique” stores. At least there is very good food at Highs Café. High street runs through the middle of the district.

And now the buildings. The signs tell all that was found out about the area.


　







After the nice time in the historic district, a ride around the neighborhoods was taken. The town is nice and fit the bill for a gentle day of trying to have tooooo much fun. TheOFM.

Boerne City Lake

Comfort, Texas

Since Wal-Mart is a major store for me, at every place the teams stays a few days the Wal-Mart website is consulted. The Wal-Mart store locater is used to find the closest Wal-Mart. Here in Comfort, my mindset was that the one in Kerrville was closest, then Fredericksburg then Boerne. When the locator was used the sequence turned out to be the reverse to my surprise. All are nearly twenty miles away. After going to Boerne on another task, it was obvious that that location was not for me.

Getting into the parking lot required several blocks of narrow city streets with lots of traffic. It is good to know that this location is not really the most convenient even if it is a mile closer.

The task that took the Team down there was to check out this.


Some comments had been made on a yak fishing forum that this was a nice lake to fish and paddle. It turns out to be about twelve miles from the castle. That will make the commute very easy. It is a nice place with decent restrooms and a good launching ramp, sort of. You will see why in a moment.

At the ramp parking area is a nice sign with a listing of the fishes one can expect to encounter from the lake.
While wandering around to get pictures for this blog entry, a nice fellow spike to me from the floating pier. We visited for over fifteen minutes. During that time he caught three very active large mouth bass. All were just under the legal limit, but they did put on a show. The lake is like a lot of them in Texas and is very low.

The concrete ledge in the bottom left of this picture of the dam is the lake end of the boat ramp. There is a good bit of distance from the end of the ramp to the water line. However it will be fine for a yak to launch, soon maybe.

This next picture is looking upstream of the lake toward the creek that feeds the lake when there has been enough rain.
The lake is clear enough that you can see about five feet into it. In the last two weeks, the gentleman said, there has been enough rain that the lake is up about two feet. There is more rain coming tomorrow and off and on for the next few days.

To me it looks like this lake will be a good one for trying to have tooooo much fun. TheOFM.