Adventures in Texas

Medina Lake

Hello all,
I've been living more interesting times on my journey, and am remembering some things from the past few weeks that I can share...

On my way into Texas I stopped at the Gulf Coast Museum in Port Arthur for the afternoon. It was really quite amazing. The bottom floor was thoroughly about the history of Port Arthur. The whole top floor was about musicians who came out of Texas. So many!

There was a replica of Janis Joplin's 1964 Porsche 356, painted by Dave Richards, which was cool.

Janis Joplin Porsche replica at Gulf Coast Museum

I landed at Medina Lake Campground in Texas, located just southwest of San Antonio on February 16th. I knew my friend Keith was arriving the next day on his way back from his western excursion. But as I came around the corner into the campground... what did I see? A white VW bus with a trailer attached! It was my friend! A day early! That was a pleasant surprise.

We had some fun times hanging out there. He parked on the water side, about a mile away. I didn't at first, but moved over there a week later. It was beautiful by the water. The weather was cool, but warmed up some as the days went on. The sunsets and the deer and hanging out with Keith were my favorite parts. There were deer, often groups of ten or more, just hanging out all over the campground. I found that delightful and talked to them often.

Deer at Lake Medina Campground

Keith and I went into San Antonio one day and enjoyed visiting The Alamo and The River walk.
We went into Austin another day and walked along 6th and Congress, checking out the venues and food and some live music. We were actually scoping it out, looking for buskers (street musicians). Though it is rumored that there are usually many, we didn't see a single one. That was kind of a bummer because we were interested in coming back to do some ourselves.

6th St. Austin, TX

We spent time playing scrabble, walking, riding bikes, and working on a better music set up for the house speakers in my RV. It was great. Then it was time for me to go. Keith was staying one more week, and I was headed toward Austin. We'll see each other back in VT this summer I'm sure.

I stayed at two different homes from the Boondockers Welcome program for a couple of days on my way to Austin. At one, I was parked up on a hilltop overlooking the town of Boerne. The other was a cool place in the woods with huge gardens and gigantic containers collecting rain water for their water needs. The area was made up of mostly all limestone, which makes for a difficult water situation as it would ruin their water heaters quickly. So they created their own rainwater collection system. Nice people at both places.

I made it to Austin to see my brothers first race of the season at Circuit of the Americas. Mom flew in from Colorado. It has been a really special time for me. I so enjoyed spending time with my brother and learning about this whole racing world thing. I really didn't know the first thing about it, except that cars drive around race tracks at high speeds and it is a favorite past time for many people...
He got me a spot to park Aretha right along the race track. Concrete slabs and full hookups at each site were a pleasant surprise. Mom and I watched the races from a few different spots and it was all very exciting to keep up with Tom and his team. He is a BMW racing driver for Auto Technic. He was named one of the worlds most successful privateer BMW race drivers of 2014, as he took 3rd place out of the 283 drivers across the world that year. He was one of the drivers invited to the annual award ceremony in Maisach, Germany. That year he also won SCCA NARRC North Atlantic Road Racing Championship. He loves racing. I guess he was born that way.

At the upper paddock pit

Tom's car on the track

I've uploaded the next video in the originals video series I'm making. The song is called One More Song. I wrote it in 2016 or 17. I hope you'll have a listen. Please hit like and share if you like it!
One More Song Mp4

I am heading to a campground in Lake Whitney, TX today.
To my kids: PLEASE keep sending vids and pics and doing face time with me!!!

Take care of yourselves everybody - and those you love.

Until next time,

Stefani