2010 Texas Hill Country Rally - April 9-15, 2010

Joe, happy to hear you'll be joining us at the rally.  We'll try to answer any questions you may have on the Hill Country.

Joe, you will enjoy the rally, there will be some pretty neat people there.

Please go to the New Members section of the forum and introduce yourself so that we can welcome you to the forum.

Injun Joe said:

We are very interested in possibly setting up a home base in the Hill Country and hope you don't mind if we might pick your brains a bit.

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Sorry Ned & Lorna for a little thread drift  :

We have a small ranch 30 miles due west of Fredericksburg which is our home base for the winter - we love living in the Hill Country.  If you want to look around the Kerrville or Fredericksburg area, I can hook you up with some good people.

Thanks, John.

I'm not looking for a ranch, more like a place to park (that I own).  I'm trying to determine how best to find something like that.

Perhaps your sources can help.  Will I see you at the rally?

Joe - you can buy anything from a lot to a 2,000 acre ranch and anything in between.  We want to make the rally but we're not sure if the timing will work out for us.

Joe, you might like the development we bought in.  There are usually some lots for sale at any time here.  We'll be happy to show you around.

Great info, John and Ned. 

Sorry to have sabotaged this thread.  I'll end it here.  We'll talk more next month.  Thanks.

Here is an update on the rally which is two and half weeks away.  It looks like the spring flowers will be in full bloom by then.  Because of  the rain and warm weather the flowers are really coming to life.  Some of the bluebonnets in our yard are already blooming.  If you have been thinking of coming you can go to Spring Branch RV Resort website and register or call them and mention the Hill Country Rally. 

The address is 10950 Hwy 281 N, Spring Branch, TX.  Toll free: 866  542-2110 or Office: 830 885 2491.  E-mail address:  [email protected]
Website:    www.springbranchrvresort.com

The following have signed up:

Dave and Jeanette Reavis - North Carolina/Texas
Joe and Lynn Grano - Houston, Texas
Ned and Lorna Reiter - Wisconsin/Texas

Since there are only 3 of us signed up for the rally, we're moving the venue from the Spring Branch RV Resort to our lot.  Between us and our next door neighbor, we have room to park 3 RVs with full hookups, in addition to ours.

If you have reserved at the campground, please call and cancel and email us for directions to our location.

Yeah - it wasn't unfortunately going to work out for us this year  :-[  had a great time at the last one.

Injun Joe said:

Thanks, John.

I'm not looking for a ranch, more like a place to park (that I own).  I'm trying to determine how best to find something like that.

Perhaps your sources can help.  Will I see you at the rally?

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Joe,

I have been a "parttimer" for going on five years now, I have a "workshop" base in the Design District near downtown Dallas and a winter camp
base (5 1/2 acres) near Lake Travis outside Spicewood Texas. I usually spend my summers in the high country of New Mexico often in Cloudcroft. What has come to be was just sort of "natural" and unplanned. Now I see great economic advantage to remaining a citizen of Texas (no state income tax)  but owning my property in New Mexico where property taxes are dirt cheap. I spend more in Texas on property tax than I do renting a high dollar location in Cloudcroft for the summer season, if I could easily make the changes I would!

Steve, At the Winter Palace on the Narrows of Lake Travis

The rally is now history as Dave and Jeanette and Joe and Lynn left this morning.  The weather mostly cooperated and we were able to eat and drink outdoors most days.  Joe will be posting some photos later.  It was good to see old friends again and to make new ones.  Those of you that weren't present were discussed.  In addition to the above two couples, Jack and Liz drove up from D'Hanis on Monday for the day and yesterday we had two RVing couples from Lorna's church join us for dinner.

2010 Texas Hill Country Rally

Greetings.  Here are my impressions as an RV rookie at my first-ever rally.


The Attendees:

Ned/Lorna - hosts, Wisconsin/Texas
Dave/Jeanette - North Carolina/Texas
Joe/Lynn - Houston TX
Ken/Jan - Idaho/Texas
John - Spring Branch Tx
Jack/Liz - Hondo Tx
Herb/Laura - Startzville TX
Terry/Lisa - Canyon Lake TX


The Place:

Ned and Lorna live in the Texas Hill Country, a stunningly beautiful area of rolling hills and valleys, fast-flowing rivers, dinosaur footprints, historic cities/towns and mile upon mile of lush Texas bluebonnets and wildflowers. 

The photos included here cannot do justice to the beauty of this region.  You must see it in person, drink it all in, and do it in April as we did when it was in full bloom.  I now understand why our hosts are home-based here and why we also may be interested in doing likewise.



The Highlights:

Ladies engaged in shopping, workouts, sightseeing, photo-taking; guys were RV-parts shopping, checking out everyone's rigs and picking Ned's brain about all things RV, plus many others.  He has an amazing breadth/depth of knowledge and I shamelessly interrogated him while he patiently tolerated me and graciously shared his insights (look out, Gary, I'm coming for you next  ).

We imbibed copiously and enjoyed Lorna's pot roast.  I'm beginning to learn that eating and drinking are the central themes of these rallies and conspicuous consumption is not only tolerated but encouraged.  On the next day, Lynn served up a spaghetti/meatball dinner and we ate and drank into the night.

The following morning Lynn again challenged our waistlines with sausage and her own special chocolate-peanut pancakes smothered in maple syrup.  Then we did more sightseeing and photographing, before returning to Ned's for Happy Hour and a ribeye steak dinner.  Did I mention anything about all the eating and drinking?


The Bottom Line:

A fantastic first-ever rally.  The people are what make it happen and I am thrilled to list them all as new friends.  I may not yet be eligible for full "framily" status, but I can't wait for the next rally, hopefully on the East Coast or something out West.  You know, a person could get used to this lifestyle.  Oh yeh, did I tell you about all the eating and drinking?

I'm including some of Lorna's photos and my own and I hope they will convey the great time had by all.  Sign me up for next year.  Thanks for listening.

Ok  I get it !  We missed a superb rally.  What lovely scenery!  Are your allergies as bad as mine ( in AZ)  with this beautiful spring?

Joe, you qualified for Framily status with your first post.  It's just how we do things.  Thank you for the photos.  Isee Texas in my future for a visit!

Betty

Enjoying mid 80's and my new pool in Yuma. 

Great recap of the week Joe.  Thanks and it was really wonderful to meet you and Lynn.  Looking forward to getting together with both of you again down the road.  Thanks again for all the help from you and Lynn.  Both of you are definitely "Framily".

Lorna and Ned:

So sorry we had to miss this, as we had a little hope of making it early on.  However, stuff happens, and we didn't.  Will strive for next year.  Good Lord willing and the crick don't rise!!!  ;D

Daisy

Hi Lorna,

Sure sorry we couldn't make your rally. We certainly were looking forward to it. Now we'll miss the HS&J. Hope we can stop on the way back to Florida.

Jim we were sorry you couldn't make the rally too especially since the wild flowers are absolutely spectacular this year.  Sure hope that your surgery goes well and the recovery goes well too.  Our thoughts and prayers are with you and Pat.  Take care and hopefully we will see you in fall on your return.

Lorna,

I really wanted to photograph some more wildflowers. By the time we head west they will all be gone. We'll have to be sure to see you somewhere along the route.

I expect the surgery will go just fine. The Surgeon is supposed to be very good, just doesn't have a great personality. ;D

Ned and Lorna,
Thanks for everything. As always you were superb host. It was great to see you guys again.

It was great to meet Joe and Lynn. And it was great to see Jack and Liz again. It had been way too long.

Dave & Jeanette
Currently in Carlsbad NM