First Road Trip of the Year!

It's 2026 and time to hit the road. January is a tough time to travel in terms of weather in Texas. Sometimes it's so cold the pipes freeze and other times it's 80 degrees. So, we like to "wait and see" what the weather will be like when we're ready to go. This month, the weather was fine.

So where to? All of the Chaneys and Windsors in DFW metroplex have been to Fredericksburg, a cute little town in Gillespie County. We wanted to know what all the fuss was about so that's where we went.

We took the scenic route and went through several cool little towns. John wouldn't stop in all of them but if it had been up to me...We went through Glen Rose, which I have marked as a place to go back to.

This was downtown Hico.

The courthouse in Lampasas. We ate lunch here. We bought sandwiches at a nearby H-E-B and ate them under a tree. Since the car was stopped, I got out and walked around.

A very nice lady insisted on taking our photo by their Lampasas sign. It was a cute little town!

We got to Fredericksburg about 4-ish and checked into our hotel. We are not bed and breakfast people but if you are, holy cow! This is the place to be . There are tons of them here. We stayed at a chain hotel. This was our mile long balcony where I'd start getting steps every morning.

Fredericksburg has lots of history and historical markers. This is the Ressman-Boos House built in 1845. I saw several buildings like this with the stairs outside leading up to a door - I think this is where they would sleep. Boy did I want to go in and check it out.

I love when places have these murals! Basically, this town was settled by Germans that were promised passage from German along with land if they came to Texas. The company that ran this program was a disaster and didn't realize how many people they would get and they were not ready. More on that later.

One of the big draws is the National Museum of the Pacific War. It's run by the Texas Historical Commission and they do an amazing job. There are three parts to this museum. This is the old Nimitz Hotel. Admiral Chester Nimitz was from Fredericksburg. His grandpa owned this hotel and now it's part of the museum that is dedicated to him.

The main part of the museum is named for George H W Bush who fought in the Pacific during WWII.

Inside, they have the whole story and it is amazing. If you plan to go, block the whole day for this if you want to see everything. With your ticket, you can come and go for the day, which we did. We had to take a break for lunch. This is a B25-Mitchell plane that was used during the "Doolittle Raid" when the US attacked Japan.

The third part of the museum is called the Pacific Combat Zone.

They have a cool theater where they can host events related to the war, show how things worked. We didn't see a show but it reminded me of when Brendan graduated from Ranger School. They also have a PT boat, which was used heavily during the war in the Pacific. It's a cool museum.

There are buildings like this all over town. This is the Keidel Memorial Hospital. It was built in 1909 but the hospital was opened by Dr. Keidel in 1938 and served the community until 1971. Now it's a restaurant. In the basement, they have a second restaurant and that's where we had dinner our first night. 

This was the second Gillespie County Courthouse. It was built in 1882 and used as a courthouse until 1939. Now it's the Pioneer Memorial Library. I'm so happy they didn't tear it down (like they would have if it had been in Dallas).

This is the current Gillespie County Courthouse. Not nearly the same amount of charm as the previous one. It was built in 1939 by the WPA, part of the program designed by FDR to put people to work and pull the US out of the depression.

The next day we went out to Enchanted Rock. The whole family has climbed to the top and we thought we could too.

This is before we started climbing. Someone is full of energy and ready to go.

This is only part of the way to the top. I'm still okay.

This is at the top. A nice lady offered to take our photo. Note that we are much more subdued. It's a long way to the top but it was cool and well worth the climb.

The views from the top of Enchanted Rock are very cool.

I'm guessing these are all ranches of some sort.

Next stop was the Pioneer Museum. I couldn't pass this up! This museum was about the history of the town. There's a cool little intro video that describes what happened and then lots of buildings that  were saved or replicated from original pioneers.

Remember when I said that the company that was recruiting the Germans to come settle Texas wasn't prepared? Well, they got passage to New Braunfels, which was another German settlement but not the one they were promised. The company finally put a new guy in charge, John O Meusebach. He went and checked out the land that was promised and found it belonged to the Comanche Indians. As he was riding back trying to figure out what to do, he saw this land and boom! Fredericksburg was founded. It was named for Prince Frederick of Prussia.

This is called a Sunday House. The settlers were farmers and they all had lots of acreage out of town. They would come in on Sundays for church, community, etc. The family would stay in these one room little houses for the weekend and then go back home.

Back in the day, they had one room schoolhouses like this one. What's cool about the museum is that you can go inside most of the buildings and check things out. This particular building is the White Oak School.

This is the Walton-Smith log cabin. It started out as a one room cabin but once the family got situated, they were able to add on to the back. 

I don't mind cozy but this is a little too cozy. The add-on in the back is the kitchen. The other thing that's cool is that when you go in, a recording starts. Scared the crap out of me the first time. But, the narrator tells you about the place that you're in and what you're looking at.

This is the inside of the Arhelger Bath House. It's a barbershop and the last place for you to get a bath before you head out of town.

So, I guess you strip down and climb in the tub while other fellas get their shave and a haircut? Yikes!

This is the Fassel-Roeder House. This house was built in sections. According to the grandson of the owner, who happened to be born in this house and was narrating, the first section was the bedroom. The structure was originally a one room butcher shop owned by Mr. Kammlah. The Fassel family bought it in 1876! Then they added on.

The next add-on was the kitchen. It's pretty nice. 

This was the original room - the bedroom.

The last room added on was this living room area. The family used this house as a Sunday House until 1967. 

This last building on the grounds was the Kammlah Homestead, which was actually several buildings. This is the front house that was used as a general store. There's the back house with a cellar and an attic where the family lived. They had a smoke house and a barn/blacksmith shop.

We had two full days in Fredericksburg and enjoyed ourselves quite a bit. We had some German schnitzel and some of the best Mexican food I've had out in a long time.

We took the scenic route home and John was kind enough to stop in a couple of places.

Our first stop was in Llano Texas. I've heard of this place...and the wine they produce, which is quite tasty. It's the county seat of Llano County. Their courthouse is quite lovely.

I liked their little mural. You have to pay attention to see it.

Their historic bridge over the Llano River. I like the cool walking trail. If I'd had time and it hadn't been so windy, I might have talked John into a little walk.

The second place we stopped was Goldthwaite, Texas. Where? I know! I'd never heard of it but as we passed through, John pulled over and I got a picture of their beautiful county courthouse. 

Goldthwaite is the county seat of Mills County.  I liked this mural too.

And finally, Hamilton Texas. You'd be surprised to hear that it's the county seat of Hamilton County. We passed through here on the way to Fredericksburg and I saw the courthouse. It's gorgeous! So, John said we could stop on the way back and get pictures.

Not far from the courthouse was the Hamilton County Jail. I think it's part of the Hamilton County Historical Museum. Lucky for John, it was closed or I'd have tried to talk him into going in.

What a cool trip! I love driving through Texas and we had the perfect weather for it. I never knew some of the towns we drove through even existed. 

Where to next?

2025: The Year in Review

Here we are at the end of our second year in retirement. I don't know how we had time to work! Our days are filled with travels, family and hobbies. Here's a quick look back.

In January we started out exploring the piney woods of Texas on a trip to Marshall and Longview Texas. That was fun. We even drove out to Caddo Lake for a quick peak. We also did another thing on our bucket list. 

We went to the Ft. Worth Stock Show. We didn't have a chance to actually go to the rodeo but maybe next year. 

We celebrated Laura's birthday with the family at their house in Richardson. It's always good to see my family. January was a good month.

In February, we'd never been to a live tennis match so we got tickets to the Dallas Open. Ben Shelton is warming up behind me!

It was also a big travel month. We hadn't been to Europe in a long time. Prices had finally come down so we jumped at the change to visit Portugal. We went to three cities: Lisbon, Sintra and Porto. Back home, we spent some time at White Rock Lake. We also got a membership to the Dallas Arboretum.

In March, we took our first big road trip of the year. We drove through West Texas and checked out several county seats and small towns. This was on our way to Phoenix to see my sister and knock another thing off our bucket list: Spring Training. 

It was fun to see the kids and spend time with family.

In April, we did a local day trip to Bonham, Texas. That was pretty fun. We also went with mom and visited Oregon to see the Chaney family...all of them! What a blast that was. We had a great time until my bulging disc decided to become permanent. Then I was down the rest of the month.

May brought us Mother's Day and several graduations.

Atticus graduated from Arizona State University. Unfortunately, while Atticus was graduating, I was getting a shot for my back so I missed it.

James graduated from West Point. I love the look on John's face. He's a very proud uncle. 

At the same time James was graduating in New York, Harper was graduating from high school in Phoenix. By this time, I was able to travel so John went north and I went west. I'm a very proud aunt.

John's "little brother", Walter, graduated from Community College. He has since gone on to SMU to complete his degree. We also celebrated John's birthday this month. 

June found us touring around Texas once again. We went to Belton, Waco, Amarillo, and Claude. Claude was one of those small towns on 287 on the way to Amarillo. I've always wanted to stop there and this time we did. From Amarillo, we stopped in Dalhart. All of that was on the way to see our friends in Colorado Springs. It's always fun to go visit them. But we were making up for lost travel time. So we also went to Galveston. We'd never been in the summer and wanted to check it out. 

This was also the month that our friend, David Tompkins, retired from the Ft. Worth Fire Department.

July found us back at the Dallas Arboretum. It's a lovely place for a picnic. We also visited the Dallas Holocaust Museum. We did not do it justice. I had no idea how much there was to see there so we'll have to go back! 

We went to a Ranger game. They played the A's and won. We also found time to continue on our baseball journey. We drove to St. Louis and Cincinnati with a stop in Jefferson City and Indianapolis. What a fun trip that was.

August was Mom's birthday month. We took her to dinner at her favorite Mansfield restaurant, Meehan's!

Hopefully, her wish came true. I think that was THE birthday place for her this year. If I'm not mistaken, Michele and David took her there as well. That's the sign of a good place.

In September, we toured around Texas a little more. It's a big place so there's lots to see. We went to Greenville, Van Alstyne and Anna. We also went on our annual trip to Annapolis. That is such a great time. We love spending time with Courtney, Dave, Maeve and Rowan. When Emily joins us, that completes the circle and it's a blast. We also decided to visit the Meadows Museum at SMU. I've driven by there several times. It's a cool little museum.

It was also our 25th Wedding anniversary. It went by fast!

In October, we went on the adventure of a life time. We went to Hawaii with our friends, the Turbevilles. What a great time! We saw the Iolani Palace, Pearl Harbor and then rented a car and drove around. From there we went to Tokyo where June took us on a culinary tour. We tried all kinds of different food and enjoyed it all. Our last stop was Taipei. We were there twenty years ago and had as much fun then as we did this time.

November is a time for Thanksgiving. This year we cooked and Mom came to join us.

But that's not all we did! We went to Alabama to see James in Enterprise. The drive was beautiful. We stopped for a night in Merdian, MS. That was a lot of fun. From there our drive through Alabama was just gorgeous. We got off the interstate as we crossed into Alabama from Mississippi. I think we enjoyed the drive almost as much as the visit.

Before we knew it, it was December. We added a new member to our family.  Meet Rex.

That car wasn't even a day old when we took it to Beaumont/Port Arthur. It's a fantastic road trip car. On the way south we stopped in Athens and Crockett, two small towns that were pretty cool. While in Beaumont, we drove through a little town called Nederland. That was a quaint little town. We also drove down to Port Arthur. While we enjoyed the visit, we wouldn't want to live there. I turned 59 and we spent Christmas with the family.

Katelyn brought a game called The Mole. We had fun trying guess who the Mole was.

James brought out a similar game called the Imposter. Guess who was the Imposter...twice!

A Merry Christmas was had by all.

What an amazing year. We are fortunate to have time to do all the things we want to do and spend time with those we love. I can't wait to see what next year has in store!