Moving day

We extended our stay in Kerrville for all of last week to try to get things set up so we could get the Harley into our new truck.  We still don’t have a tow bar for the truck, but today we left Kerrville behind us with Mark driving the RV and me driving the truck with the Harley in it. 

The whole time we’ve been in the RV park on the outskirts of town, we’ve been within nineteen miles of Bandera, the Cowboy Capital of the World.  We never went to see it while we were living so close, so today we drove to Bandera.  It was a bit disappointing.  I’ve seen town’s that could better qualify as the “Cowboy Capital of the World”.  Shoot!  Kerrville could have been the Cowboy Capital of the World judging by all the ranches and cowboy hats I saw around there.  But we saw what there was to see in Bandera, had lunch in a restaurant full of old photos of cowboy actors (with a whole wall dedicated to John Wayne), and there was even a Native American dressed up with war paint offering to let us have our picture taken with him and his “war” pony for $5.  He wasn’t there when we came out of the restaurant, but he was as we were driving out of town so I caught a free picture of him and his horse through my windshield.  (Shame on me!)

"Great Western Cattle Drive".

2 signs: “Bandera, Cowboy Capital of the World” and “Great Western Cattle Drive”.

A pretty little square in front of the public restrooms (the wall with the mural)

A pretty little square in front of the public restrooms (the wall with the mural)

An interesting building...Don't know what it is, but I like it.

An interesting building…Don’t know what it is, but I like it.

In the restaurant with all the cowboy pictures.

In the restaurant with all the cowboy pictures.

Main Street

Main Street

Even in the Cowboy Capital of the World, Mark stops to check out a bike.

Even in the Cowboy Capital of the World, Mark stops to check out a bike.

Stolen shot through my windshield.  The Native American is talking with the woman in pink.

Stolen shot through my windshield. The Native American is talking with the woman in pink.

We left Bandera in the heat of the day (mid-70’s at least) and skirted around San Antonio to the south side.  We’re going to stay in an RV park here for a week or two, partly because we’re still waiting on the tow bar to come in and be installed at Camping World, and partly to finally do some sight seeing in San Antonio!

PS – If you watched “60 Minutes” tonight and saw the first segment on DARPA, the 15-second shot of a miniature drone is what the company my son, Jamey, works for has been working on.

 

One thought on “Moving day

  1. Back in the day, this little town was Cowboy Central. The picture of me reading a plaque tells of all the cattle trails and cattle the were herded through Bandera. Back then being a cowboy was quite a profession and at the beginning of cattle drive season, the Cowboys would show off there abilities amongst themselves and to prospective trail bosses. Thus the start of the Cowboy rodeo. When I was a boy I wanted to be a Cowboy, sure I played the part. I loved the hat and boots, western clothes and our neighborhood had a practice barrel for bronc riding. I might have made a good Cowboy had we stayed in Monticello, UT, and the uranium didn’t do me in. As for Bandera, TX, its more of a Biker town now, of modern day Cowboys. The bike I was shown admiring was parked down the street from a Biker club house and the traffic was made mostly of Bikers passing through or stopping for something to eat, or shop in this small town. Although I wasn’t able to ride my motorcycle in Bandera that day, it was with me…

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