35 Admirals and Camels, oh my!

 Jan 14,

  While I describe the next few days you can come up with a caption for Ruthie's activities.
     We had been riding pretty regularly and with the hunt for lodging taken care of for a few days we were going to try and slow it down and relax a bit.    We walked over to the community club.  ( How about the street cleaner missed some leaves?)  The community is described in the brochure as a private resort community.  Pretty nice, pool, hot tub, and club house with a restaurant.  Homes of all kinds and RV's.  People of all ages, during the off season it tends to be inhabited with mostly retiree's like ourselves.  Great group of people.  ( Maybe, "I've fallen and can't get up."?)  Some met for breakfast and a get together for  bible studies.  They were all willing to help us in our travels with points of  interest, maps and brochures.  We couldn't have asked for better travel agents.

   As we have seen so much on our travels the drought has struck a major blow here also.  Lake Medina is now a fraction of itself and homes that once were lake front property now overlook cattle grazing in the lake bed.  The rancher has fenced it and is now using it for pasture land.  ( Maybe, the tread on this tire looks like it will last this trip.?) 
    Jan 15 ,
       28 degrees last night , I think they moved the bathrooms further away last night, a little nippy walking across the parking lot.  
     We stopped in Bandera for breakfast.  Old Spanish Trail restaurant.  It seems that every small town has it's meeting spot, if you walk in and haven't lived in the area for at least seven years it is advisable that you avoid the well worn seats.  If they aren't there already they soon will be.  Drinking coffee, playing cards, dominoes or dice.  Just a break in the day before their busy day.  It takes a long time to fit in.  Today it was easy, we rode in on our trike and Roy one of the regulars already had his VTX trike parked out front.  Nice looking trike, he had made some nice modifications to it.  While we were waiting for breakfast we tried to figure out who was on the trike.  No luck.  Soon he spotted our trike and came looking for us.  Roy is a promoter of the area, chairman of the historical committee,  a missionary passing out penny's with a cross cut out of them and thankfully for us, he always carries a supply of the hill country motorcycle roads.  ( Wish we had met him two days ago, we wouldn't have missed one of the twisted sister roads.   He also let us know we were in the second oldest Polish settlement in the US. 
     We had planned on riding today but sometimes your plans change.  We met Roy,  Ruthie was having a conversation with Eldon and Ann in another booth,  they were from Michigan and on their way to the Stillwell Ranch and RV park by Big Bend park.  Ruthie said they preformed at the museum at the RV park.    They invited us.  Wonderful, another destination.  Wonder if we will see them again?  It could be interesting.  Sometimes we just don't know where roads are going to lead, do we?  Roy ended up manning the camera to take our pictures on the saddle seats.   We modified our plans, Ruthie got her hair cut.  I made my way to the lumber yard to check out some plywood.  Our plan was to replace the end of a booth in our loaned camper that had suffered moisture damage.  Soon Ruthie was driving and I was carrying a two foot by four foot plywood board.  I'm sure it looked strange with just the top of my head and frozen fingers visible.  Laying the original end piece over the board we traced, cut, sanded, and stained.  It said stains and seals on the can.  However when I read the directions.  (Always, don't assume anything.)  It directed us to cover it with a polyurethane,  A call to the manufacturer confirmed, and they apologized for the misleading label.  Didn't help! Back on the trike, remember it had turned cold, a quick trip to Bandera for sealer.  We would let our little wood project dry while we rode tomorrow.
 Feb16th

     Stopped for breakfast at OST seen Roy and met his friend Dan, they were going to have a birthday party for him tomorrow.  I believe he was going to be 91.  He had a photo album and a mind filled with memories.  He had been born in New Mexico, the picture of his boyhood home has an arrow pointing to the room his grandmother lived in and the room he was born in.  He remembered times were hard and his father sold the 320 acres to a neighbor for an old car and four hundred dollars and they moved to Texas.  Dan's plan that day was to go home and tile his bathroom floor.  Happy Birthday Dan! Many more.

     We continued on our plan from a couple of days ago that had been modified due to meeting new people and the visiting that followed.   We rode to Fredricksburg to visit the Nimitz museum, hotel and Pacific war memorial. If you visit make sure you get an audio player, our volunteer guide failed to make us aware of them.    It was interesting, educational and depressing.    The way man treats man will probably never be understood unless you are in that position.  An enemy that was so determined to overcome that suicide missions were an honor.  The bravery of both sides to aid their country.   I was aware of the five Sullivan brothers that died on the same ship.  Today I seen a letter one of the brothers had sent requesting that the five brothers and two buddies be allowed to serve together.  They were all members of the same motorcycle club and were determined to do their part to help the cause.  There were many examples families had shared of their loved ones.  Very touching.  The lives lost, the sacrifices, and the injustice's.   The internment ( the governments wording, it looked like prison to me.) of American citizens of Japanese decent will be hard to forget.  When you hear of people not liking the census you might want to remember that it was the census bureau that identified a lot of these innocent victims.  Although others nationalities were "detained" the Japanese Americans were the largest group. Just think about it, what if the Nimitz family had been interned.  Would we have had an Admiral Nimitz? 
      Sobering, lets ride to clear our minds.  On one of the forums someone stated that at times it takes a tankful of gas to clear his mind. 
     \

     So what is a camel doing on the Camp Verde general store?   It is because our secretary of war Jefferson Davis ( we will be hearing that name a lot.)  decided to experiment with camels from 1857 - 1969 for the calvary and imported them to Fort Camp Verde.  When the civil war broke out there were 53 camels on hand.  The fort passed into the hands of the Confederacy,  and who was the president of the Confederacy?  Very interesting.
     Here is  a map of our travels in and around the "Hill Country"  if you would like an interactive map click this link.   Map

Almost forgot,  Ruthie lost another earring.  Finally found it when I stepped on it.  My apologies!