April 26 2017 - Who is throwing rocks?

Negotiations for the house sale were going well.
We  were readying for our big China vacation next week.
Rudely awakened at 6 AM by a horrible noise.
Took some time realize that it was massive hail.
There goes the roof!

A few days later the insurance assessor turns up.  Our friendly roofer accompanies him and the verdict is quickly returned - new roof.

From the pictures you can see how they do their work - on each elevation they count the number of "bruises" in a given area.  If its over some threshold they pay.
Sounds good right?  - Well of course the roofer gets paid fully but Joe homeowner needs to come up with the deducible.  We are instantly $7000 poorer.   Learnt a lot about roofs and insurance policies today.   We arrange for the roofing crew to be ready for the day we get back from China.

The good news of course is that now absolutely everything has been replaced on the house so the survey will find nothing wrong and we can get top dollar.

No more from us for a few weeks - China beckons.

April 20 2017 - Comfort and Fredericksburg

We took a short drive today to Fredericksburg.  On the way we happened upon the small town of Comfort and had a quick wander around - we like this place!

Read this carefully...

A lovely low-key town.  Then off the the big F.  We didnt like it as much - just a bit too commercial for us.  But we had fun anyway.
We strolled around the historic district and found a few delights
One store you must not miss is Rustlin Rob's   Hot sauces,dips,spread,jellies - well you get the idea.  And they have hundreds of samples. We grazed in there for a long time and of course brought some goodies home.  We skipped the renowned National Museum of the Pacific War as it was so darned expensive.

but it was in  a nice building!

Vereins Kirche

Zion Lutheran church

On the way back to camp we happened onto Old Tunnel State Park.  As you might have guessed this is on old railroad tunnel. Pretty exciting huh?  This was part of the railroad that used to link Fredericksburg with San Antonio.   They pulled the rails in 1940, but those clever Mexican free-tailed bats found it and use it on their Summer migrations.  Its not Summer  today so no bats to be seen (but they can be  smelled) so we took a quick hike then retired back to base.

April 19 2017 Banderra Texas

Late April brings the annual "Bluebonnet" Casita travel trailer rally in Bandera "Cowboy capital of the world  We have been a few times before, so no pictures of Bandera this time.

Our drive down took us through Lampasas. A sleepy little town with an almost-nice courthouse square.

Then on to Bandera to set up our accommodations. This is our "Clam"screened room - for keeping the sun off - and the bugs off.  We  still sleep in the van.

At these rallies, various activities are organised to keep the rabble amused.  We attend all of those that involve adult beverages..  After a few glasses of wine everything looks a bit like this..

On the last day many folks open their trailers to show off their personal touches.  Continuing the theme above we spotted this very clever way of stopping the wine glasses from breaking in transit...

Just slide them into beer coozies!

April 2017 - Getting the house ready to sell

Remember what we are trying to do here?

• Move to a much smaller house (no maintenance)
• Get a new tow vehicle.
• Get a travel trailer.
• Go travel.

Much of April was spent on the finishing touches on the house before putting it on the market.
We have a long planned multi-week vacation to China coming up early next month so the plan is to market the house the moment we get back.

While painting the siding out back, I was being supervised by this little green fellow.
He lives behind the downspout and wasn't going to go far.  I tried to warn him about the wet paint - but would he listen? Now he's the only green lizard with a white racing stripe...

One last burn in the fire pit for old times sake

Last time we will see these Iris..

And last time we will see high water in our river -and hear the roar...

Here is how it all ended up looking - we used Zillow "make me move" to see if anyone was interested
Our old listing.

Mar 31 2017 - Huntsville to home.

Another day in paradise.  First order of the day - make tea!

Yes there are gators in that lake

Then pack up the van and go pay - before coming back in to explore.

Hear no evil, see no evil......

After basking in the sun for a while and enjoying breakfast by the lake its off to the Sam Houston monument.
This massive white statue is visible from the freeway - and if you visit it you are pretty much standing on the shoulder with trucks whizzing past at 70 mph. But the flowers are pretty this time of year.

Just a teaser of the way

With Clare for some scale!

Then off into town for lunch and a look around. Huntsville is a great town.  Its a university town so you know it must be affordable.  Lots of interesting history to poke around at..

Guess who died in the "steamboat house"

.
Final place we went to was the Texas Prison museum.. We weren't expecting much here but ended up spending a couple of hours.  Lots of famous and infamous folks passed through the Texas prison system and the story of how punishment has evolved over the years is more interesting than it sounds.

Here is old sparky...

And here is a sample "last meal" request...

So thats it.  3 hour drive home and we are done.

Mar 30 2017 - Visas then San Jacinto

After flicking a few more caterpillars we drove into Houston to pick us the Visas.
Would have cost over $400 if we had used an agent.  Our cost? $60.  While waiting in line we watched several 'agents' picking up bundles of passports and putting them straight into FedEx envelopes.  Looks like an easy way to make a living!

After a quick stop in the massive British Store we headed east to the  San Jacinto Monument
This is where Texas and Mexico had a bit of a skirmish during the Texas revolution
At 567 feet tall its the highest monument column in the world.

For a few dollars you can ride an elevator almost to the top.
The view from there is quite big.

After yesterday's rain the reflecting pool is overflowing

USS Texas on the ship canal

Houston in the distance

Then its off to scramble all over USS Texas - the only ship to see action in WW1 and WW2

Tonight we camp at  Huntsville State Park - wot no caterpillars?