Friday, February 14, 2019 - It's Valentine's Day, and our 2nd day of exploring.

Friday, February 14, 2019 - It's Valentine's Day, and our 2nd day of exploring.

After a good night's sleep I was excited about today.  It's Valentine's Day and I get to spend it with my very best friend, enjoying our day together.  

Our RV Park sign as we leave this morning.

We started it with breakfast, a Valentine gift for Dean.  Breakfast is his favorite meal and he enjoys going to eat at different restaurants, especially those that specialize in breakfast.  We had checked online - both Google and Trip Advisor, and found Rio Rancho was high on the list.  We definitely chose a good one.  Their breakfast menu was extensive, but we both decided on the same meal.  I liked it because they offered a half size as well.  I don't remember what they called it - but it consisted of one (small meal) or two (large meal) homemade biscuits, stacked with hash browns, your choice of eggs, bacon and finally with sausage gravy over it, sprinkled with some cheddar cheese.  It was delicious.  

We returned to Bentley to get ready for our day.  We are going back to Fredericksburg to attend Fredericksburg Trade Days.  We happened upon this the last time we were in the area 4 or 5 years ago.  We enjoyed walking through most of the booths looking a plethora of items that were for sale.  It was somewhat chilly when we arrived but it warmed up around noon.

Pictures were taken as we entered/left "Trade Day's.

We left Bentley around 10:30, arriving at Trade Days about an hour later, and we left near 3:45.  We looked at almost all of the booths, if not all of them.  What an assortment of vendors with some really nice products.  The only thing we (I) bought was a book signed by the author Henry E. Gann titled "Escape I Must!"  He was a Prisoner of War in WWII.  I am anxious to read it.  I enjoy reading, however I find it difficult to read fiction any longer.  The types of books I prefer now -- real life, autobiographies, something I can learn from or that inspire me.  I feel certain this one will be a good read.

This booth reminded us of our brother-in-law Elmer as he uses gourds for his Purple Martin houses as well.

I was constantly reminded of my son Marc as we walked through the large buildings with all of the woodworking that was on display.  He would have enjoyed seeing all of the items made.  We took a break to grab some lunch from one of many food vendors on site.  I failed to take a picture of where we stopped, but I had to share my brisket taco.  It was very good.  Dean chose a hot dog and his was good as well.

We arrived at Trade Days about 11:45 and left shortly after 3:00.  By the time we left my back was hurting pretty bad.  I do fine if I am continually moving, but that walking, stopping, standing still awhile just gets to me everytime.  I was miserable by the time we left.  We decided to drive on to Comfort and Boerne before turning back to Kerrville.  

Our first stop was at Joshua Springs Park and Preserve in Comfort.  It was very pretty especially with the sun hitting the water in the collage below, and we enjoyed seeing the longhorn cattle too,

From there we moved to Boerne.  If you haven't figured it out yet I love to take pictures of old courthouses, and Boerne did not disappoint.  In the first two pictures are the old jail, sitting next door to the original Kendall County Courthouse - see the plaque below that provides the dates.

History of the two courthouses that were located in Boerne, TX, Kendall County at  http://texasescapes.com/TOWNS/Boerne/KendallCountyCourthouseBoerneTexas.htm#history

Original County Courthouse

New Courthouse

As we left the courthouse we drove by the Boerne Municipal Building.  All of the buildings are quite grand and beautiful.  

A short distance down the road, we spotted another one of those Texas Stop Signs.  I received a message from them that we could earn 2 hearts at Dairy Queen today, so we just had to stop!  LOL!  The lady who took our order said she had an important question to ask it and it could be really great if we answered correctly.  She asked, "Are you old enough to receive our discount for seniors?"  What a way of making you feel good - lol!  I told her if it was for ages 63 and above we were good, and we saved 10% of our bill, that's not bad at all, plus we get a free $5 gift certificate, a DQ cone for $1, and one mini blizzard.  Not a bad deal.  We'll make use of that at our next stop!

As we were leaving town we drove by this beautiful structure in the downtown area.  If I had felt better and we had more time I would have enjoyed walking through it.  Here is information on the business:

The Diengner Trading Co.

I slept on the drive back to Kerrville, waking up when Dean turned on to a bumpy road, with cattle guards on it.  I was glad when we arrived back at Bentley.  I fell asleep not too long after we returned and slept most of the evening.  I woke for up a short time around 9:30 and had no problem going back to sleep about an hour later.  

We had a very enjoyable day visiting Trade Days and the neighboring communities.  This is a beautiful area to visit.  We would like to visit it again in late March/early April to see the flowers, especially the bluebonnets.

We have another full day planned for tomorrow.