Post #22

Sunday, January 4, 2026
We drove three hours today and stayed at Enoch's Stomp Vineyard and Winery in Harleton, Texas.   This winery was on a beautiful countryside estate.  It was refreshing to see new flowers planted along the walkway.  Yes, we tasted the wine samples and had a lite dinner.

Monday, January 5, 2026
Today we traveled to Waco, Texas.  Of course we had to go to the Magnolia Market (HGTV - Chip and Joanna Gaines).  We walked around the Plaza, went into the bakery shop, sat for awhile in the courtyard enjoying the 73 degree weather.  The silos were closed, but it was fun to see them decorated for Christmas! 

 

   

 

After walking around we were hungry so we went to Terry Black's BBQ and oh was it good!  We had brisket, ribs and five different sides.  The brisket had great flavor and melted in your mouth

This is where the magic happens.  Each brisket will spend its final 10 hours in the smoker wrapped in paper.  We were told that tomorrow they will prepare 144 of these briskets to meet the expected demand for the following day.  We forgot to ask how many ribs (pork and beef) and pounds of  sausage would be smoked.  We found the ribs to be the best we had ever tasted.  There are 4 sets of dual smokers like in the photo below.

 

We also got our history fix by touring the Waco Mammoth National Monument.  These Mammoth are significant because they are primarily female and young while most Mammoth sites in the Americas feature adult bulls - if you didn't know, at one time Mammoths covered a range from South America through central Canada.  Furthermore, there are multiple generations spanning at least 15,000 years - meaning at least 2 separate generations perished at this site approximately 15,000 years apart with the oldest generation dying around about 50,000 years ago.  Scientist have a working theory that two separate deep droughts, about 15,000 years apart, caused the Mammoth to die at this site.  Perhaps the most interesting discovery at this site is a camel.  It appears the Asian and African camel actually originated in the Americas and then migrated across the Bering Land Bridge.

Tuesday January 6, 2026

Today we drove 3 hours to Castroville, Texas.  We we on I35 and drove through Austin and San Antonio.  This is a pic of our campsite for two nights.  It's nice and quiet here.

Wednesday, January 7, 2026

Today we slept in and then went to San Antonio and took a Riverwalk cruise.  We learned a lot about the history, the hotels and restaurants along the riverwalk.

 

After the cruise we had lunch at the first restaurant on the Riverwalk Casa Rio in 1946.  Very good food!  It was a fun day so tonight we are getting ready for tomorrow's travel and then relaxing.

 

Thursday, January 8, 2026

Traveled about 2 1/2 hours to our final destination, Aransas Pass, Texas which is 23 minutes north of Corpus Christie.  On our drive we passed Artichoke, watermelon, winter wheat fields, and of course lots of cattle.   On Friday we did a deep clean inside the RV (lots of dust), went grocery shopping and then sat outside enjoying the nice late afternoon.  Below is a pic of the RV on our lot, our home for the next 3 months.

 

We finally can use our solar lights!

Hope everyone is well.

Later