This post has been about two years plus in draft form. I intended to finish it when we got home but my dad took sick and I obviously forgot all about it. As I was preparing to draft a new post today, I found this draft awaiting and finished it so it could be published.

Oct 31st – Nov 17, 2019 – There are two or three purposes for this little road trip: to have some time away after a very different summer and fall season, to check out two Holiday Inn Club Resorts, and to see what three days on the road is like in preparation for a future trip to Palm Desert by car, when we will do five days on the road.

Our route took us through Detroit to Indianapolis, then on to Memphis, Dallas and finally to Canyon Lake in the hill country of Texas. Each of the first three days was a seven or eight hour drive with extra time for gas and food.

In Memphis, we spent a few hours on famous Beale Street and had dinner at BBKing’s Blues Club. A live band was playing all the old favourites and although it was loud, it was quite fun. It was quite hectic outside as ESPN was setting up for broadcasting the college football championship the next day.

 

Canyon Lake Resort is in the hill country of Texas and appeared to us upon arrival to be quite isolated. As we roamed around over the next few days we realized that there are some very quaint towns and wonderful vistas along these rural roads. The resort itself is older, having been purchased by HICV from another timeshare company. It will take a number of years to bring it up to HICV standards. People are quite friendly in these parts and we have struck up conversations with locals in restaurants, which often leads to tips on things to do.

Our first day here, since the weather forecast was excellent, we drove to San Antonio (about 1 hour) and toured the city using the Hop On Hop Off bus. We opted to do the audio tour of the Alamo which was excellent and then had lunch at Landry’s on the Riverwalk.

We had an interesting time on our second day here since we only had a half day to fill in. We decided to play tennis but the courts at the resort were being used for a hay-bale maze. We were told that arrangements had been made to allow us to play at the high school, but no one there knew anything about those arrangements. The receptionist very kindly googled and phoned to find public courts in New Breunfel. By that time it was too late to play and return for our meeting with the HICV staff. That meeting also didn’t quite go as planned. Our rep was someone who had only been working for them for three months and I think he may have been intimidated by our firm commitment to not buying more points despite the fact that he felt we could save money in the long term by having those points which renew every year. Never tell the customer they’re wrong! After we left him, we carried on to New Breunfel and played tennis and then had dinner before returning to the resort.

The next day was a planned golf day, which I had booked earlier in the week. Imagine our surprise when we went to get the directions and found I’d booked a tee time for Canyon Lake G&CC in California! A quick email to cancel that tee time and a new booking at the right club and we were good to go. It was an interesting round of golf given that the grass is currently dormant. Most fairways were a mixture of clover and large bare spots, but most of the greens were fairly good. There was no one in front of us and we were able to play the whole 18 holes in just over three hours – George H. W. Bush would be proud since 2 1/2 hours was his limit for 18 holes. We were back in time to do laundry and enjoy the pool before going to the local steakhouse for dinner.

Our last full day here was cloudy with scattered showers and got progressively colder throughout the day. We decided to do a scenic drive through hill country and used one of the online guides as our model. Our route took us to Fredericksburg, an old town settled in 1846 by 120 German immigrants. It boasts a 3 1/2 mile long wide main street with century old limestone buildings and new structures standing side by side, depicting a true blending of the traditional and the contemporary. Of note is the Veriens Kirche, an eight-sided building, in the middle of town. It is a replica of the first public building in the settlement which served as the town hall, the schoolhouse, a fort and a church for all faiths. We had a lovely chat with a representative of the historical society about their display on the history of trains in Fredericksburg.

A little further along, we stopped at Grape Creek Winery for lunch. Neither of us were aware that grapes could be grown in Texas and that there is, in fact, a fairly sizeable wine industry resident here. In fact, George read that after Napa Valley, this is the second largest viticulture area in America. There are currently over 50 wineries in operation with more being built every year.

 

Our last stop was at Devil’s Backbone overlook. History has it that much of the area we travelled today is haunted. A section of highway with many small curves has been nicknamed the Devil’s Backbone. A small park looks out over the valley and would be quite scenic on a sunny day. A chain fence has been constructed at the edge of the park, presumably to stop people from hiking down the steep cliff. The fence has become a repository for people to leave a talisman and includes crosses of all descriptions, flowers, stuffed animals, etc. It took us a while to figure out what this was all about but Google helped us put two and two together.

The next stop on our road trip was Austin, the state capital. Known for its beautiful capitol building, we used the Hop On Hop Off bus to shuttle us around town before taking the capitol building tour. The city seems quite small for a state capital with the downtown core taking up maybe a dozen streets in either direction. There is a large university and hospital complex within those blocks as well. On the southern side of the freeway that dissects the downtown is a unique artsy area with lots of shops and restaurants. Probably the biggest surprise for us was to find out that the legislature only sits for five months during a two year period meaning that all of the elected representatives and senators have full-time careers elsewhere.

After we left Austin, en route to our next HICV Resort in Galveston, we made a detour to visit the President George H.W. Bush Library at College Station on the grounds of Texas A&M University. It was easy to find and we spent most of a day there. The library is well laid out and tells the story of President Bush’s life’s work very well.