The Challenges of Getting Settled In

We have been in Texas for almost three weeks and are realizing the challenges of being in a new place!  But, we are finally beginning to find our way around - a task that has been a bit of a challenge because figuring out north, south, east and west requires a compass!  and a good connection to GPS! (Even with GSP we went 40 miles out of our way on our first trip home from Walmart!)  And then there are the road names FM = Farm to Market; RM = Ranch to Market; Spurs; State Roads, State Highways; Interstates.  But we are learning! With the rain you do have to be careful which short cut you take because here in the hill country there are roads that flood in the low spots! Thankfully they don't deal with snow and ice down here!  There are no gradual downhill grade to many of the roads here - just straight down and straight up!  

Our first week here we decided to go exploring and headed west - at least it seemed west - out of the driveway on Hamilton Pool Road to explore Hamilton Pool, a natural pool and falls along Hamilton Creek just upstream from the confluence with the Pedernales River.   Unfortunately, because of the rains, the park was closed so we decided to keep going and see where the road led.  Believe it or not -we were driving along and there on the other side of a tall fence was a bull elk and a herd of cow elk!  Out in the middle of Texas! And he was bugling !  

We then drove on to Marble Falls, TX where I saw the biggest and tallest piece of lemon meringue pie I have ever seen in my life!  The Blue Bonnet Cafe has been in operation since 1929 and has  been serving up pies of all kinds and chicken fried steaks since the beginning. (And to some rather famous Texans!  Just inside the entrance is a photo of George and Laura Bush at one of the tables.)  The sign outside announced "Pie Happy Hour" every day between 3pm and 5pm!  Now that's a happy hour worth stopping for! This place as must stop if you are in Marble Falls!

One of our challenges the first week was to get the satellite dish hooked up.   "How hard can it be to find a satellite dish installers to come out and point our dish?"  Apparently not as easy as I thought.  With the Bronco game looming large on Sunday, Randy and I decided that perhaps we should give it a try and see if we could get the dish pointed ourselves. It can't be that hard! I called Dish TV for the coordinates and encountered - Azimuth, Elevation & Skew! Oh no!   So on to Google and YouTube!  We found a video of a guy in London with a Scottish accent explaining how easy it was and a video of a man on a 30 foot ladder demonstrating the art of making sure the satellite was "plumb" with the wall - all of which really didn't help too much.  Then I stumbled on an awesome web site http://www.dishpointer.com  that gave us all the right coordinates for our address and even had a Google Earth map that showed us the "line of sight" for our satellite!  The learning curve was a little steep but we prevailed and got tuned in just in time to see the Broncos get defeated by the Colts!

Next challenge -find a bike path!  We didn't realize how blessed we were in Fort Collins to have a massive bike path system just out at the end of the campground road!  Our first attempt at riding our bikes was not good.  We found a park in Bee Cave just 10 minutes from here that looked like it had a great paved loop.  However, after getting on the path we realized it was very narrow and mostly intended for walking and jogging!  Not to mention the uphill grades and switchback like turns!  So exit quickly we did!  Over the next few days we asked the locals what they would recommend and several recommended The Veloway, a bike and skate track about 30 minutes from here.  The path is a 3.12 mile loop that is one-way and 23ft wide! No traffic to contend with or dogs or walkers/joggers.   But don't be fooled by the picture!  Here in the Hill Country of Texas there is no such thing as an easy flat course!  There are some hills in this loop that will eat your lunch!  I made it around twice but had to shift into first gear to peddle up some of the hills! We will for sure get into shape if we keep riding on this course! 

Little Bo Peep and her
 "Little Lost Lamb"

TRICK OR TREAT! We had a special treat on Halloween!  Little Bo Peep and the cutest little lamb ever stopped by to trick or treat!  What a blessing it is to be able to enjoy such fun with our grand kids   Little Bo Peep even recited the nursery rhyme and told us she had decided way last year that this was what she and her little sister would be for Halloween!