ICE !! Canyon Lake COEs and Blanco, Texas

My last post was when we woke up and discovered the temperature had dipped to about 20 degrees.  We were lucky that no moisture had moved in with the cold weather.  We didn’t have to move but the weather was only going to get worse.  We had a choice to make.  We could either sit in the same place or we could wait for an hour or so and move east a little.  We decided to move east.

We ended up outside of Johnson City.  The RV park was pretty empty.  There was no worry about finding a place to park.  That was so different than what we had found over the last few RV parks we had been at and others we had contacted.  This park wasn’t fancy but we didn’t need a fancy park.  We also didn’t want to shell out $40 a night just to park.  Why are the RV parks so expensive in this area?  We passed several motels in Fredericksburg with motel room rates not much more than that.

We stopped at the little 290 Diner in Johnson City for dinner.  Sometimes these little town diners are fantastic and other times just a different place to eat.  The outside was interesting so we thought we’d give it a try.  It didn’t compare to the Friends Grill in Leakey but it was just fine.  It sure beat eating at one of the chain restaurants.  Well, we didn’t see many chain restaurants in this area anyway.  They were all locals and there weren’t many of them.

We knew the cold weather wasn’t behind us.  We had more winter weather alerts ahead of us.  This time the alerts brought moisture with them.  Not only moisture moved in but thunder and lightening came with the moisture.  The following morning we had ice on the steps, the roads and our kayaks.  Golly … can’t remember the last time we were in temperatures like this.  I can tell you that I don’t like it one little bit. 

I’m really beginning to question our plans for heading this direction.  Should we continue?  We could turn north or even turn back west.  Not only has the weather been unpleasant, finding places to park have been very time consuming.  It’s been difficult to find available sites in the price range we want to pay.  I’m not sure I like this at all.  I've also discovered emails at night to parks don't work.  Most of them don't even respond.  You have to call during their "business" hours. 

Moving along though ….  once the ice had melted we headed towards Canyon Lake.  We wanted to check it out.  We knew there were a couple Corps of Engineer parks there and figured this was the time to inspect them.  Even though they wouldn’t work for us on this trip, they might on another one. One when the weather was much nicer for sure.

We traveled south through the little town of Blanco. It was lunch time and immediately we were attracted to the exterior of the Oak Grill.  Who wouldn’t be attracted to this place.  It was pretty cool looking.  Our expectations were high.  Needless to say, the exterior was the best part.  The lunch was “fine” but the service was really poor.  Oh well….. we won’t stop there again.

Blanco’s old courthouse and now visitor’s center.

Potter Creek COE was our first stop after lunch.  There were lots of empty spots.  What a gorgeous place this was.  Every spot had a nice view of the lake.






 Potter Creek COE

We circled the lake and also made a stop at Crane’s Mill COE on the way back. 

Crane’s Mill COE













Next park to check out was the Blanco State Park.  We noticed it in the morning on our way to Canyon Lake. 

The problem we discover with many state parks is that the campsites are buried underneath the trees.  Unless you can reserve a site you’ve checked out, you might only find a heavily treed site available.  This doesn’t work for us or our satellite antenna 

There are many things to see around the Johnson City area but we have visited this area many times in the past. We’ve been just trying to see what we haven’t seen before.  Plus we're trying to hang close to Austin.  I'm meeting wtih cousins on Sunday.

One of the reasons we had stopped in Johnson City was the proximity to Burnet and Fort Croghan.  However, I blew it with my research of that place.  The fort doesn’t open until April!  We definitely will not be hanging around here that long.  If we extend one more night, we still might go to Burnet but checking out the fort probably won’t happen.   Why did I want to go?  Well, my gg grandfather’s house was moved inside the fort.  I’d love to see it.

We hadn’t been to Canyon Lake and now we have.  We also haven’t been to Wimberley.  That is next on our list of places to go.  Our friends, Jeff and Tina, are staying in New Braunfels.  Even though Wimberley isn’t  half-way in between, we figure it’s close.  Thus, we have a plan to meet there for lunch on Wednesday.

‘Tis life on the road.

Smile today, tomorrow could be worse