TOUR AMERICA, 2020: BOERNE, TEXAS, THE LONE STAR STATE

Places We Have Called Home In 2020

(We Added Another Stop to Our Link, Our 14th For This Year)

Home Is Where We Park It:  Cave Without A Name RV Park, Boerne, Texas

July 23, 2021

Temperature 97 Degrees

Travel Day – Driving Got Really Interesting Toward The End!

I guess it should go without saying Never let Bill browse the internet when he has hitch itch.  I mean to tell you I was bored, going out of my mind, anxious to get on the road, wanting to go somewhere, almost anywhere.  That’s how we ended up where we are.

That is how we ended up here.  Where is here?  More about this in a couple of minutes.

We knew we had a ride ahead of us today.  Google Maps indicated a drive time of about 4 hours.  I’ve learned to always add at least an hour to that.  That meant we would be on the road for five hours.

What was that line from the Dr. Seuss Book Sam I say I don’t like green eggs and ham.  Allow me to paraphrase Sam I say I don’t like five hours on the road, oh no I don’t.

Yet, we had to do it.  Therefore, we were up at the crack of dawn and on the road by 8 am.  Guess what, I did it again?  Not the wrong way this time but I missed the on-ramp for 10 East.  Not a problem I said to myself I’ll just stay on the access road to the next on ramp.  Guess what?  The access road dead ends!  But wait, what is that at the very end?  Why it is a small gravel road that allows access to 10 East.  By golly I guess others have made the same mistake in the past and they’ve accounted for that.  No harm, no foul we were on our way.

10 East proved to be a bit of this and that.  Some good pavement, some not so good, and some brand new pavement.  It was a rolling road that went over hill and dale.  We even had some 7% downgrades.

I decided to try an experiment today.  Once on 10 East I set the cruise control at 62/63 and decided not to touch it – not even for the hills we came to.  It turned out to be the right decision.  Elvira handled everything, downshifting and upshifting at just the right time to keep the RPM’s at 2000 – that is where this engine makes its maximum horsepower.  The temperature varied between 179 and 195 but never went any higher.  I believe I’m on to something.

Now about where we ended up.  Here is where my flawed reasoning almost got me into trouble.  I figured if there was an RV park associated with the cave then the roads must be OK for RV’s to travel on to get there.  Sort of.  The first few miles were just OK.  Then the fun really began.  The road turned into a narrow, two lane country road barely wide enough for two trucks to pass going in opposite directions.  More than once I thought I was going to loose a mirror.  The road also had more twists and turns and hairpin corners then a snake doing a belly dance.

We made it though.  Where are we?  We are outside of the town of Boerne.  Although this town is commonly mispronounced Born by people like me, the locals don’t mind. The correct way to say this name is Ber-NEE.  Boerne was named in honor of German author and publicist Ludwig Börne.

More to the point.

 

We are in the RV park associated with the Cave Without A Name.

Home sweet home.  It is hard packed dirt, with a bit of a slope to the front.  But hey, we really don’t have to worry anymore about being level – unless you don’t want to roll out of bed!  We have water and electric but that is all.  As for satellite – notice I parked dead even with the only tree that could block the satellite antenna from getting a signal.  Oh well, we have plenty of recorded shows to watch.

We have the whole place to ourselves.  Given the road leading back here I can well understand why.

Tomorrow, we’ll go on a cave tour.  Then on Saturday morning we’ll move a few miles further east to another new home on the outskirts of San Antonio.

That was our day on The Road of Retirement.  We didn’t use the generator today rather I wanted to try using the inverter.  Which, once I remembered to turn it on up front worked without a hitch.  We had the same crazy issue with the front AC once we got here.  The whole silly on/off sequence for two or three times before it settled down and worked without an issue.  No idea what that is all about.  Hey, we’re here and we’re  good and we’re feeling blessed and fortunate to be doing what we love to do.

Thanks for riding with us today.  We always appreciate your company and your comments.  Stay safe, wash your hands and wear your mask.  Till tomorrow.

These are the voyages of  Elvira and her two intrepid travelers.  Our continuing mission: to explore as many new states as possible, to seek out new acquaintances and make new friends, to boldly go where we have never been before.

See you on down the road!