West of the Pecos - Big Bend Country

We left Friedericksburg pretty early this Wednesday morning and drove 223 miles toward West. With these pictures I like to show you the many faces of beautiful Texas. I don't know anymore all the names of the places where we went trough, sorry. Just enjoy the scenes like I did with my camera. Almost all photos are made out from the car.

For the most I liked the sky!

Driving on I-10 down hill between these canyons and after every curve we get presented a new, different and beautiful scenery...

Far in the back there were hills covered with hundreds of wind mills
(click in the picture to see it bigger)

A typical Texas country scene

Only 66 miles more to our goal for today - and "only" 311 miles more to El Paso :))

For me this looks like a scene out of an old cowboy movie, like many other scenes I have seen today.

Ozona is in Crockett County Texas, named after David Crockett "The back woods man from Tennessee" who died in defending the Alamo and made famous again by Walt Disney in the 1950's.

And this is not a joke! This sign I have photographed somewhere on a resting area - happily there were no snakes around. But, always watch your steps in Texas!

Hi my friends,

Just now we are resting here in the region of "Apache Springs" and we'll be going tomorrow further, probably in direction "Carlsbad" and "Roswell" in New Mexico. Maybe I will capture some (real?) Aliens there?....LOL..... :))

Thanks for all your wonderful comments to my last post! Very much appreciated.

Susanne and David

A Charming and Pretty Town in Texas

This afternoon we took a stroll down the Main Street in Friedericksburg, Tx. A pretty and very photogenic town with a lot of charm. The main street is the "Main Street" or in German they call it "Hauptstrasse" - there were all the shops are and the restaurants and some of the B&B's

More pretty house fronts - I have photographed many more, but it would be to boring for you to show them all...LOL...

I liked this facade very much!

Gillespie County Jail Fredericksburg, TX

County of Gillespie This two-story stone structure served as the fourth jail for Gillespie County, organized in 1848. It was constructed by the firm of C. F. Priess and Bro. in 1885. The ground floor housed a holding area and living quarters for the jailer. the second floor had two steelclad cells located against the east wall and maximum security cells in the center and at the back. The building was used as a county jail facility until 1939.

We spent more than an hour looking around in this real old General Store and I was very impressed. You can find here now everything - and everything means: EVERTHING you need in your life - I love this kind of stores! :))

The Brewery of Friedericksburg - a must to visit and to taste!

We went inside and had a snack together and of course: a beer too! It was good that our RV was parked far outside of the town and we had to walk some time until we got back. And if you are on the road with me, it takes always a lot of time to get back to the point where you started - a photographer sees a lot of subjects to capture everywhere she walks.

The tree of life, a metal sculpture in a park

The roots of the German language is in this town all over visible. "Willkommen" means "welcome" and makes to enter that door so much easier, right? btw, it is NOT the tax office...LOL... :)

A lot of people are collectors of all kind of goods - and these are miniature cowboy boots in porcelain, a very colorful collectors item.

It is nice warm and beginning spring time here in Friedrickburg - you cannot miss the signs of spring all over town!

This is the sunset in Friedericksburg Texas!

Fredericksburg is a city of beauty and charm. Its founding includes a rich history of people making a good life in a new place with the help of friends and neighbors. Working together, they created a city where all could live up to their potential, participate in activities and benefit from services to enhance the quality of their lives. The spirit of working together to create a beautiful, livable place is still alive today in Fredericksburg. And that spirit is responsible for the ambiance of the city today.

Read more about history of this town here

Hi my friends,

Thank you all for your loyal visits to my blog and for all the nice comments and compliments too. I appreciate that very much and I'm happy to see the faces of them who are visiting - but I'm asking myself also, why other don't come anymore...

I know, I know.... looking at traveling photos from somebody else is not the same like to be on that journey your self. I try to show you as much as possible from my sight of view and with my feelings of the places that we are visiting and with my own stumbling words - and I hope, I don't bor you to much. :))

Tomorrow, we will leave from here and moving on towards our next bigger goal: somewhere in New Mexico. Stay tuned! I'm looking forward to our new adventures and I hope to see you too, traveling with me.

Leaving Port Aransas to New Braunfels,Tx

Last Sunday we left Port Aransas with the Ferry to Aransas Pass, a maybe 5 minutes drive over to the other side.

A very long Mexican train was crossing our way in Aransas Pass

Do you know how a "mirage" looks like? It's like in this photo here...it's like the houses and trees are standing in deep open waters - but they are not. Texas is flat, flat,flat and the weather was warm and this makes the phenomena of a "Fata Morgana", like some people call a "mirage" also.

After driving for more than 2.5 hours over flat land in Texas, we drove into San Antonio, a big city with a very big traffic, where I never ever could imagine to be living here! We were searching for New Braunfels, our next goal for the night.

Finally we arrived in Down Town of New Braunfels, a nice little town with a lot of Germans living here, their roots are going back to the first settlers coming to this place in 1842 from Germany.

This is absolutely a wonderful mural that shows the settlers arriving on a beach and celebrating Christmas together at the beach. (click in the photo to see it bigger)

This painted script tells the back story of the German settlers

We have discovered there a typical German Restaurant named "Friesenhaus" und we went in to try the German food. For me: 3 typical German Sausages with "Bratkartoffeln" and Sauerkraut... of course! Dave had a "Sauerbraten" and "Spaetzle" and blue cabagge - and of course a real, good German beer. And I can tell you, it was very good!!! :))

Obviously we missed the life music with the "Lederhosen-Guys", they don't play on Sunday evening anymore!

Click on the picture to read it bigger. We've enjoyed our food very much. I just cannot drink beer anymore without to be a little bit tipsy after one glass only... LOL...well...we are not planning either to eat every day in a German Restaurant, to many calories.....! :)


Hy my friends,

Thanks for all your kind comments to my first video and for the support and suggestions for doing more of them - I will, I promise. :)

Tomorrow, Monday we will discover the Hill Country region here, going to Luckenbach (well known as a place where people gathering together, play country music and sing together) Today are only 3 habitants living in Luckenbach! We want also go to Friedericksburg, with something over 8000 habitants. In this two places are also a lot of German settlers and Amish people living and they are still speaking their original German Motherlanguage. I'm not German myself, but I would love to speak some words in German again. We will see.... :))

Visiting a good old friend...

Michael Earney is a world known great artist and film maker and a sculptor and he is also a good old friend of David - my husband - back from the time when they both were living in California, in the 1970's. He showed us around in Port Aransas, Tx where he is living today. Check out also his website: http://www.earneyworks.com/bio.html

We went down to the Port to see dolphins jumping and the pelicans flying...

They had each other a lot to say since almost 35 years they have not seen each other in person again!

While the guys were chatting I tried to capture the dolphins swimming in the port

The dolphins were very fast disappearing into the water again

Michael is a voluntary worker for the ARK in Port Aransas. A very responsible dedication to help the endangered animals of the sea. Here we are in the Turtle House of the ARK, Michael was feeding some of the injured Turtles and checking also the water quality


The ARK

The University of Texas at Austin's Marine Science Institute (UTMSI) in Port Aransas, Texas, dedicated its new sea turtle building on 21 August 1999. The new ARK building came about as the result of some generous gifts from individuals and foundations. Most of the donations came from concerned Texans, but others came from as far afield as Boston and Bermuda. The leading light in garnering these gifts, was Edie McAllister of San Antonio and Port Aransas. Mrs. McAllister, a long-time member of the UTMSI Marine Science Advisory Council, was given a tour of the ARK three years ago on a typical hot South Texas summer day. She was concerned by the summertime problems faced by the animals of the ARK; namely the uncontrolled growth of algae and high water temperatures in the uncovered outside turtle tanks (conversely, in winter, water temperatures dip too low and inside tanks had to be found for the turtles each year). At first, the suggestion was to build some proper shade structures for the tanks, but soon, a kernel of an idea came that it might be possible to build a permanent and substantial facility designed specifically to house sea turtles and sea birds in need of rehabilitation. Mrs. McAllister was dogged in her determination to find funding for the ARK. That determination has now borne fruit and the ribbon-cutting at the ARK took place at 11:45am on Saturday, 21 August 1999.

Read more about here:
http://www.utmsi.utexas.edu/staff/amos/ark/ARKdedication.htm

One of the turtles was very nosy and interested in what I was doing with my camera, she/he came always back again over to me. Does'nt she looks pretty...? :)

There were outside also some pretty pelicans - with broken wings

And it seems they liked to show off their colors.

I will show you tomorrow more photos about very sick and injured Turtles in the Turtle Hospital in the ARK. Thank you Michael to show us a very interesting part out of your life - beside all your beautiful paintings and art works!

Hi my friends,

spontaniously we decided to stay 2 days longer in this beautiful place Port Aransas, in the South of Texas. I like it here very much, I could even imagine to live here, everything is so peaceful, it is nice warm and don't forget the pretty beach! We have enjoyed also very much to meet David's friend, Michael Earney again and having good conversations between artists together.

Thank you for all your kind comments and loyal visits to my last posts, my friends! Stay tuned, there will come more interesting stuff - we both enjoy our travels very much! :)

Susanne and David