Day 186: Kerrville, TX

We are loving the cooler and drier weather.  We now need to linger at the campsite in the morning, allowing enough time for the sun to warm things up to a comfortable temperature before hitting the road.  That leaves us time for one or two cups of coffee, and no need to rush in order to head out at first light.  We even have time to do a little bike maintenance before we set out for the day.

Las Vacas negras (the black cows).

Alea had a short 30 mile ride today.  The road mostly flattened out a bit, but she had a few steep, short climbs to contend with, which were on a very rural backroad.  We saw herds of black sheep and herds of black cattle as we wound our way through ranch country.  This is an area of the country where we wouldn't mind hanging out for a while at some point in the future.  The towns are big enough to have some amenities, it is very scenic and yet it is rural enough to have lots of options for safe riding in the surrounding hills.

Una araña grande.  (A BIG spider.)

We've found a Texas substitute for Aldi: H-E-B, which appears to only have stores in Texas and Mexico.  They have some really great low prices on the basics that we need, they stock a lot of stuff that we have trouble finding at Walmart, and they have an awesome deli with far more choices than we've seen anywhere else.  And they make some fresh guacamole that is better that most of what you find in Mexican restaurants: It's not cheap, but way cheaper than restaurant prices.  It turns out that H-E-B started out here in Kerrville, which probably in part explains the prosperity of this little town.

Las avejas negras.  (The black sheep.)

We are staying at Kerrville-Shreiner Park Campground ($23, power, water, adjustable showers).  It's a great park, with tons of different deer just about everywhere you look.  And since it is sunny once again, it is nice that there are also plenty of small trees shading our campsite.  All-in-all, it is a nice contrast to where we stayed last night, though there we were basically paying to be close to all the things going on in and around Fredericksburg.

The roads were quiet enough that Lana and I could play ball on them...

Alea and I are beginning to learn some Spanish, and hope to start building some conversation skills once we have a basic vocabulary built up.  I'm really liking DuoLingo - it seems like a much better way to learn than my experiences in college and in junior high school in Belgium.  We may never get fluent, but I suspect that we will have better conversational skills than when we traveled in Europe in the early 90s.