<– Day 20 – Fri. May 1st: Luckenbach, Texas  | TRIP OVERVIEW | Day 22 – Sun. May 3rd: Buc’s, Boats, Bats & a Batmobile –>

Kerrville, a pretty neat town.

Today was a ‘day’ off. It was supposed to be an easy, fun day. Yet, we still found ourselves at a few cool places in the otherwise semi-sleepy town of Kerrville.

We didn’t drive very far today, staying mostly in Kerrville.

We arrived at Kerrville on Friday out of sheer fate.  Well, fate and careful motel hunting. Our plan was to land in Austin Friday night, but the weekend rates were pretty unfriendly for an otherwise friendly state. Fredericksburg rates were much better. So, using Priceline I found myself veering over to Kerrville; someplace called the YO Ranch was serving up some rooms at $62 for Friday and Saturday. That was a bargain for a weekend rate, so I went for it. I figured since we’d never been to Kerrville that maybe there’d be something interesting there.

It turned out that this YO Hotel place was really cool! Check out the interior and exterior shots.

Outside of the Y O Hotel

Lobby of the Y O Hotel. Dangling off the chandeliers are all the brands of ranches that sent cattle from southern Texas to the panhandle (or so they say).

We even have balcony attached to our room.

On Saturday morning we awoke and went hunting for a laundromat. I normally travel with a week of clothes. I can always tell when the week is up, because the rear of the jeep smells like a gym locker. I don’t know how my wife stands it. I guess it is true love after all?

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<– Day 19 – Thu. Apr. 30th: Texas Justice, Pacific War, & a Comfy Bed  | TRIP OVERVIEW | Day 21 – Sat. May 2nd: Ingram Rocks, but Kerrville Robots –>

Ann and I checking out Luckenbach, Texas. We didn’t see Waylon, Willie, or any of their boys.

After a good night’s sleep at James’ B&B, we took a few photos and hit the road. Our first stop was downtown to meet up with James. We both got so busy that we hadn’t had a chance to meet in person.

James strongly recommended that on our way to Kerrville, where we planned to hold up for a couple days, that we stop by Luckenbach, Texas. Of course, Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson made the town famous in their song. That was all Ann or I knew of the town, so we were all in for that adventure.

We made a quick stop in Fredericksburg at the Nimitz portion of the National Museum of the Pacific and learned about Nimitz’s early life. However it was too dark to get any photos inside. We settled for some photos of us operating artillery.

Luckenbach is only six miles or so south of Fredericksburg, It didn’t take us long to get there. After some confusion about where Luckenbach was, we finally figured out (with some help) that the main loop into the town was closed for a bike rally, so we had to park nearby and walk to the town.

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<– Day 18 – Wed. Apr. 29th: Power Wagons & Pecans  | TRIP OVERVIEW | Day 20 – Fri. May 1st: Luckenbach, Texas –>

Our welcome to Uncorked’s Bed and Breakfast

We didn’t have much driving to do today, but we still managed to use up the time we had.

Thursday morning we met with Texas Justice, or more accurately with the Justice of the Peace in Llano County (the name is pronounced ‘lah-no’). Normally, we get hauled into court, but this time we went of our own volition to meet with Brian Alexander. Brian’s been interested in jeeps since he was a kid working at his uncle’s camp, a long stone’s throw from downtown Llano. He remembered the camp owning an early column shift CJ-2A, but then they switched over to floor-shift models.

Eventually Brian moved to Odessa, where he enjoyed a career in law enforcement, before moving back to Llano and winning election and re-elections as Justice of the Peace. Along the way Brian, always a military buff, got involved in reenactments and WWII history. For years Brian was interested in owning a jeep, but the stars didn’t align until a 1951 CJ-3A fell into his lap. It needed some work, so he’s been rebuilding it. The project is nearly done. When finished, he plans on selling it and getting what he’d really like, an MB or GPW (well, and a M-38, and a M-38a1 — why just have one, right?).

Brian seems to have a good knack for details, so I suspect that once he buys an MB or GPW, he’ll end up restoring it, because not having the correct steering wheel or some other detail will gnaw on him until he has it right (Brian, that’s my prediction 🙂 ).

We had a real nice time talking with Brian about jeeps and about his interests beyond four-wheel-drive, so we thank him for his time. Also, Ann and I need to apologize to the people of Llano County for bringing the wheels of justice to a halt at least for a couple hours Thursday morning.

Downtown square in Llano

Another shot of the square.

The deer sign represents the fact that Llano County is the deer hunting capital of Texas,

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<– Day 17 –Tue. Apr. 28th: Dr. Peppers & Texas Rangers  | TRIP OVERVIEW | Day 19 – Thu. Apr. 30th: Texas Justice, Pacific War, & a Comfy Bed –>

Talking about jeeps and life with Lee (left) and his father Sam (right).

Great day yesterday that started with a question mark … Would Paul Cook respond to my request to see his Power Wagons before we passed Kempner on our way to San Saba. I had contacted him at the last minute, so I wasn’t assured he was available. Since we had nothing else planned, we just went with the flow and hoped Texas would surprise us with something.

Around 11am we were driving south toward Temple, Texas, when I saw a sign for Buc-ee’s. Then I looked across the freeway and saw a giant beaver head with lots of triangle flags, which I believe is the international symbol for ‘Hey, we’ve just opened so come over and take a look!’. I asked Ann if she knew what a Buc-ee’s was. She didn’t. I didn’t either, but told her we were going to find out! So, we took the exit and drove across the freeway for our first ever Buc-ee’s experience.

You really have to see a Buc-ee’s to believe it. HUGE!

Our jaws dropped as we pulled into the massive parking lot. This was supposed to be a gas station/convenience store, but it was enormous. It was so big it seemed like it took an hour just to circle all 112 fuel pumps (yes, we counted them). As many of you know, Ann and I have been through many states in the last few years, but this Texas-sized gas stop was the biggest one, by far, that we’d ever seen. We were even more surprised to learn this was the 35th store.

I’m just one of the many nuts in the store.

That’s a LOT Of picked eggs. I picked up a jar.

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<– Day 16 – Mon. Apr. 27th: Frontier Texas | TRIP OVERVIEW | Day 18 – Wed. Apr. 29th: Power Wagons & Pecans –>

Dr. Pepper Museum in Waco, Tx, and a happy Dr. Pepper fan eagerly waiting to venture inside.

We had big plans for Tuesday morning. Our first stop was going to be the outdoor historic village of Buffalo Gap. So, when I hopped out of bed at 7:30am and saw that it was raining, we quickly changed that plan. Without feeling rushed, we somehow didn’t get out of the room until 10:30am.

The rain was gently falling as we got onto eastbound Interstate 20. Soon we turned southeast on Highway 6. If there’s one thing I like about these Texas state highways it is the speed limit: 75mph. That’s faster than any of the speeds on Oregon’s Interstates. You can get places in Texas, however the places are so spread apart, that even at 75mph it doesn’t seem fast enough.

Eventually we reached Dublin, Texas. I spotted a cool Dr. Pepper sign and asked Ann if she’d like a photo of it. She agreed, so I did a loop around the block, We weren’t halfway around when we ran into several more Dr. Pepper signs. Then we spotted a Dr. Pepper museum reference. That’s when the light clicked for both us. We both remembered reading that besides the Dr. Pepper Museum in Waco, there was a second one in a small Texas town. This was it.

This is the billboard I spotted while driving through Dublin.

Feeling lucky, we jumped out of the jeep to see what this was all about. We learned that Dublin was home to the first Dr. Pepper bottling plant. The Dublin plant used cane sugar in all their soda pop products, including Dr. Pepper, even when the rest of Dr. Pepper world switched to high fructose corn syrup. This fact angered the Dr. Pepper company, so the company revoked Dublin’s right to bottle and sell it. Now, the Dublin Bottling Works bottles and sells a variety of custom flavors and sells them all over the country.

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