Toughing it out.

I've often said that having an RV is like having a cabin on any lake, river or mountainside you can drive to. For the most part that is true, but this weekend I'm finding one shortcoming to my cabin. Today it is 48 degrees and raining, a perfect day to sit inside and curl up with a good book by the fireplace. Opps....no fireplace! A good wood-burning fireplace would make the setting perfect. But I'll just have to cope. So, I've got a peppercorn and garlic pork tenderloin in the crock-pot (smells great), 11.6 hours of Mozart playing in my iTunes through my surround sound, a Louis L'Amour novel on my Kindle, the heat cranked up to 72 degrees and I'm kicked back in my recliner coping with my lack of a fireplace. Sometimes you just have to tough it out.

Leo and I made the move from the beach to the river two weeks ago. Its been a welcome change. I love the Texas hill country and in general the weather here has been great. We're staying at Rio Raft RV Park on the Guadalupe River, just north of New Braunfels, Texas. Here, the Guadalupe (or "Guad" as known to the locals) flows as a tail-water of Canyon Lake. By managing a minimum flow to the river, this section of the Guad is maintained as the southernmost year-round trout fishery in the United States.

 Thanks to the work of the Guadalupe River Chapter of Trout Unlimited and TPWD, the river is stocked several time between November and March. TPWD puts in its standard ten to twelve inch rainbows. GRTU supplements this with rainbow and brown trout of 18 inches or longer. Many of these fish carry over from year to year, making the Guad one of the 100 Best Trout Fisheries in the U. S..

It also causes the area to be a draw for Winter Texans that prefer trout fishing to beach-combing (my kind of folks). The Leos will only be here for the month of March this spring, but we plan to make this our winter base from now on.

The campground has a pot-luck dinner every Wednesday evening. For the past two week there have been about 50-60 attending. It's a great way to meet our neighbors. Now that I've figured out how to light the pilot light on my oven, I can whip up a tasty Lazy Peach Pie. And last week I cranked out some Bourbon glazed Little Smokies.  Both the Lazy Peach and the Smokies bowls came home empty, so I guess they were satisfactory. I think this week I'll try a Lazy Blackberry Pie.

Leo has also been trying to make friends. But, so far, the squirrels and ducks are somewhat standoffish. We did get some visitors a few days ago that almost caused Leo to have a heart attack.

He has been on guard ever since, just in case they want to call again.

I think he has us well covered.

Once this cold, rainy weather moves out, I plan to move my office back outside. I've been working outside when weather permits and it has been quite pleasant.

But, until then, I just tough it out.....without a fireplace.

Check Our Calendar

I was visiting with Maggie today and she seemed to be having difficulty keeping track of where the Leos have wandered to. I've noticed the same confusion by Doug and Kim. Maggie suggested I publish a calendar showing when we are traveling and to what location we have moved. Seems like a good idea. So, I have added such a calendar to this blog. At the bottom of the page is an embedded copy of my Google travel calendar. It shows our location now and planned locations in the future. By clicking on the date, more detail can be found, such as the RV Park, event and so on.