Second day in Fredericksburg

What a beautiful day!  We had rain off and on all night and a very heavy mist hung in the air as we relaxed drinking coffee and planning our day.  By the time we were back at the Nimitz Museum to finish our tour it was beautiful. Quite the comparison to the gray skies of yesterday. You can just catch Ben as he heads in the door of the museum.

Being able to break the museum into two days really made a difference. More places like this should allow a two day window as it it difficult to absorb so much at one time.  This new gallery begins with the situation between China and Japan and clearly explains the world situation leading up to the bombing of Pearl Harbor.  Then it takes you through all the battles and ends with the surrender and dropping of the atomic bombs.  It is very well done.  Throughout the entire time you are reminded of the situation in Europe and back home in the USA.  Nimitz was the commander  of one portion of the Pacific and MacArthur another part. Maps clearly defined the area for people like me who have trouble with keeping it all straight.  It certainly was well done in Jane's opinion and Ben said he felt like it told the story better than even the WWII Museum in New Orleans. It is highly recommended if anyone is in this part of Texas.  Being able to concentrate only on the Pacific made it simpler.  I took some photos but my museum photos are never very good.

About noon we headed north on Rt 16 back towards Llano looking for the Willow Loop.  This was a small road leading to a tiny town of Willow and then looping back through the backcountry to the main road.  It was said to have beautiful bluebonnets.  About 12 miles out of Fredericksburg we turned on Willow loop and were in for about 2 hours of beautiful scenery and flowers.

We stopped along a fence with bluebonnets and longhorn cattle and settled down for a relaxing picnic lunch. After lunch we continued on for 13 miles with many a stop along the way to view and take a few photos.  I can't imagine what the traffic would have been on the weekend - because it was fairly heavy for a back road today.  I will let a few photos tell the story.

This last photo is white poppies as far as the eye can see. It was a beautiful drive with so many varieties of flowers we could not begin to list them all.

Finally we drove back into Fredericksburg and made a stop at WalMart to buy a new TV remote.  For some reason ours was not working even with brand new batteries.  

Our last stop was at St. Mary's Catholic Church in the downtown area.  The original church was built in the 1800's when the area was settled. The larger one was built around 1900 and was built and decorated to resemble the painted churches of Europe.  While not as ornate as some I visited in Germany it was very beautiful with at least 10 very beautiful stained glass windows and some paintings on the ceiling. 

Back home at the RV park we got the remote working, read about the German restaurants in town and organized things.  It seems that after about day 3 it is time to reqroup and reorganize things.  

We drove back the few blocks to the Main downtown area and selected Der Linderbaum for our dinner.  Jane enjoyed a Schnitzel and Ben  had a pork dish that was the special - it had a mustard sauce and some wonderful German potato salad.  Everything was great. 

One interesting conversation - well really two different conversations today. We always fly our Tennessee Flag from the Sprinter when we are parked in RV or State Park Campgrounds.  Usually someone asks us what kind of flag we are flying.  Evidently it was the topic of discussion at the 8 AM coffee group this morning.  One guy came by this morning and asked Ben - said he thought it must be from one of "those Asian countries".  Then late this afternoon a couple stopped during their walk around camp to ask what sort of flag it was...he was nice enough to invite Ben to come to the guy's coffee group tomorrow morning!  It is so interesting that most people do not recognize the flag of our great state of Tennessee.  Of course here in Texas it always leads to a tale about TN guys coming to help at the Alamo!

A really great day !!