Once again, I am being lazy and dictating to Siri. Siri doesn’t always hear what I say. Sorry.

--------I planned this trip a while back so that I would have an opportunity to use full hook ups in between my Choke Canyon trip and my South Llano River SP trip at the end of the month. I knew that, after camping two times for a total of seven nights, I would need to empty the black tank completely and give it a good rinse. I have been using antifreeze to flush since the trailer is winterized. That’s not a problem, but when I dump at the parks there’s no real way to rinse it out. When I have full hook ups, like I do here at Kerrville, I can hook up my orange hose and send water back up into the black tank to clean it out. Probably too graphic for you non-campers. Anyway, that was the main purpose for coming back to Kerrville for only two nights.

--------I had another goal for when I arrived, and that was to put my sheets back on the bed. I hadn’t change them since I bought these new sheets way back when. Putting them on the bed involves using these corner clips to hold the fitted sheet in place, since the mattress is thinner than a normal one. It is a real chore to do, especially if the camper is hot. I had hoped to do it one cold morning before I came here, but I just never got to it. Fortunately, the camper was not all that hot inside when I arrived, and I got it done fairly quick and easily.

--------The ride here was just as pleasant and normal as it always is. I go out Bandera Road, which is also Highway 16, and go through Bandera. That is the same road I use to go to Choke Canyon going the opposite direction. Except, then, I follow 410 around the city before getting on to 16. There was a slight wind of about 11 mph, but not enough to bother me.

--------I was happy that I was able to get the lock off the chains this time. If you remember, they froze up when I was going to Choke Canyon. I was going to buy a new lock, but they are really expensive. I decided to give it a really good cleaning and then flooded it with WD40. Anyway, I switched out the bent key for the spare. It seems to be OK now.

--------After making the bed, I got everything set up as much as I wanted to. Then I was ready to hit a Korean restaurant that I heard about. I had jokingly asked Siri one day if there were any Korean restaurants in Kerrville. I totally expected the answer to be no. Evidently there’s been one here for about 20 years. I got in the car and drove to it only to find a sign on the door saying it was closed because they didn’t have enough staff to operate. That is an almost perfect example of the Baker curse in action. I drove on back to the park and decided to take a quick trip to the river to see if I could get any pictures. I also wanted to get some pictures of some elements of the park for a homework assignment I had for an additional training class I’m taking for Master Naturalist. Most of them were just shots out a window of the water tower, water processing plant, the river, the prairie, and the woods.

--------At about 5 o’clock, I drove over to the basement brewing Company and had a flight. I had two stouts on the flight that were not to my liking. One was cloyingly sweet like a barley wine. The other had a harsh chemical/alcohol taste that made my teeth itch. I couldn't drink either of them. I took the flight with the two full glasses to the bar and ordered a really nice IPA. It was a nice juicy IPA. I even had a couple of crawlers made so I could bring them home. The strange thing is that I had given one of those stouts a 4.8 the last time I drank it.

--------The rest of the evening was spent finishing up that homework, drinking beer, and watching my Korean series. I was able to get one episode on the TV, but hard as I tried, I just couldn't get the second one. I don't mind watching it on my phone, but it is much more comfortable laying in the bed looking up at the screen when it is on the TV.

--------I got up extra early this morning so that I could spend as much time as possible on the river trail. Today was my only whole day here at Kerrville. I wanted to get the most birding in that I could, and that river trail is where I usually see the best birds. Unfortunately, it was pretty windy. I didn’t see any birds at all. Every once in a while I could hear them off in the distance. I just couldn’t see any. I tried to take pictures of other stuff anyway. I am attracted to dead plants of winter and oddly colored things that stand out against the dried grasses.

--------When I got back up to the Butterflies Center where I had parked the truck, there was a group of Master Naturalists in there doing a maintenance day. I thought that was pretty cool. I didn’t go and volunteer to help. I had other things to do

--------I drove down to the river and did see a couple of water fowl. I don’t know if they’re natives or not. I really don't know much about ducks or other water birds. I took pictures since they were alive.

--------When I got back to the camper, I went ahead and got after that black tank. I dumped it and rinsed it really good about two times using my orange hose on the back flush. I would carefully let the hose fill the tank up, watching with a flashlight pointing down the toilet inside the trailer. When the water got high enough, I would run outside and dump it again. By the time I was finished the water coming out of the tank was just as clear as could be in the little window on the hose connector. I went ahead and left a good amount of water in the tank since I was going to use it the rest of the time here and dump it in the morning. That turned into a problem later. I’ll get to that.

--------I decided that I would try again to get lunch at the Korean restaurant. I called several times, but never got an answer. Even though I was convinced they were closed, I went on Facebook and sent them a message. I didn’t hear back, so I drove over to see if it was open. Just as I pulled up and saw the sign from yesterday, my phone dinged with a message explaining that everybody was sick, so they weren’t able to open. I felt bad for them, but as a"me person", I felt more bad for me.

--------Before pulling away from the Korean restaurant, I told Siri to find "restaurants near me" A Thai restaurant that I had not been to before came up. It was really close, so I went there and had an awesome lunch. Everything was really delicious. I’ll hit that spot again believe me!

--------As I was eating my Thai food, I got to thinking about how dismal my birding had been on this trip. I decided to go to the Nature Center and see if I could find anything there. Although I didn’t see very many birds, I did have a nice hike along the river again. I got some turtle shots and some water fowl shots. While I was at the actual garden in the Nature Center, a raptor of some kind was flying like a maniac trying to catch birds that were roosting in the brush. It was like Helter Skelter. I tried to get his picture every time he landed somewhere, but he was almost as fidgety as a Warbler.

--------On the way back to camp, I decided to get gas. I only used about 8 gallons getting here. But, when I’m pulling the trailer I never know how much gas I use. The wind conditions can really cause you to eat up gas really fast. Plus, pulling a trailer burns about twice the amount of gas my truck burns without it.

--------While I was at the gas station, I looked across at Brewdawgz. It was just sitting there looking so sad and forlorn that I had to go and have a beer. I ended up having two. I learned some news also. The Papa John’s was closed today, so I asked if it had gone out of business. I was told that it had actually moved to a new location. Sad for the campers who like to run over and grab a pizza. Not too sad for me. I’ve never gone there. Not when I can go right next-door and have my favorite burger and beer!

--------When I finally got back to the camper, it was already about 4:15 PM. The sun had been shining on it all day, and even though it wasn't "hot" outside, the trailer was too warm for me. I opened all the windows to let it cool down, since AC would have been overkill at this time of the year. Next, I quickly processed pictures using a new app on my chrome book called Photo Editor. It’s a lot easier and faster to use, so I’m not too sad to say goodbye to my old method using Google Photos. Google Photos kept trying to be the boss and make me save things where it wanted. It also wouldn't let me delete things sometimes.

--------Sitting at the computer pretty much wore me out, so I laid on the bed and started to read a little. The next thing I knew, it was about 6 o’clock and my feet were freezing. In that short time that I was taking a nap, the temperature with the wind blowing through the windows had dropped down to 59° in the camper. I actually had to get the heater back out. That’s Texas for you. One day you’ve got the fan blowing the next year looking for the heater. The last time I had checked the weather was before leaving San Antonio. They were not predicting a cold snap like this one. In fact, when I looked at Weather Bug after closing the windows and getting the heater going, it was still saying the temperature during the night would only get down to 36 degrees. Meanwhile, Dark Sky was predicting 27 degrees with a wind chill of 16 degrees for the morning. They predicted freezing temperatures for 6 hours.

--------That thought of a freeze kind of concerned me, since all I had in my tank was water. I wasn’t worried about the tank itself, but the part that drains down under the trailer is just a thin hard plastic tubing about 4 inches across. I didn’t want that to freeze and crack during those six hours with the high winds blowing directly on it. I put on some sweatpants and my jacket and went outside and drained all the water I had put in the tank earlier in the day. Then I disconnected the stinky slinky (AKA RV drain hose) away in the bumper storage. I took the two jugs of antifreeze that were stored in my battery box and dumped them down the toilet to get them in the tank. That way, some of it will go down to that lower part and keep it safe. The funny thing is, when I looked at the weather forecast earlier in the week, I seriously considered de-winterizing the whole trailer during this trip. I’m glad I didn't do it. It won't hurt to keep it winterized until my next trip or even longer.

--------I went back in the nicely warmed trailer and cracked open a beer. Then, I finished off the Korean series, Life, which I was watching. After that, I did my routine "night before departure" stuff. That involves packing what won't be needed for the rest of the trip. I also vacuumed, cleaned the bathroom, stowed the coffee maker, and a few other little tasks to make the morning departure prep go quicker.

--------I found a new series to start and finished all the beer I had in the trailer. Then I went to bed and slept really nicely for most of the night. A couple of times, a gust of wind would wake me up rocking the trailer roughly. Once, the stack of pillows that I always put on Rachel's side of the bed actually fell over. Just knowing the wind was out there blowing so bad made me feel colder.

--------I woke up slightly before 7:30 AM, even though the alarm was set for 8:00. I got out of bed and turned the heat up higher. Then I made the bed and went ahead and put the fan, TV table, and butcher block stove top on it for safe traveling. I got dressed and moved all of my "baggage" out to the truck. Then I turned off the heater, packed it in its box, and stowed it in the cabinet above the bed.

--------I brought the sofa slide back in. Then, I sat there for a while checking mail, etc., on my phone. When I finally went outside to finish departure prep, the wind had died down significantly. I asked Siri the wind speed and it was 11 mph. I got the stabilizers up, disconnected and stored the shore power cord, hitched up the camper, and tested my signal lights. I took the trash to the dumpster. Finally, I did a final check against my departure checklist to make sure everything was ready, texted Rachel, and headed home at 8:30 AM.

--------About midway to Bandera, the wind seemed to pick up again. Siri said it was 16 mph. That caused me to drive a lot slower- about 50. Every once in a while, I would pull over to let the traffic get past me since the speed limit was 70. It was like that the rest of the way home, so it took me until about 10:00 to get to the storage lot. Other than the low speed, the trip was just as nice as ever. I really like that route.

--------At the storage, I quickly did all the security things: chains on wheels, stabilizers down, towing chains and hitch receiver locked up in my good lock, and the battery disconnected in the battery box with the solar panel still connected to keep it trickle charged. I dumped the ice from the freezer, opened the refrigerator doors so it can dry out, put the galley blind down, and went home.

================== If you are interested in seeing photos for this trip, go to https://itsalive.postach.io/ . Most of the photos I take these days are of living things, but there are some shots of the park and campsite mixed in.