Heading to Fredericksburg, Texas!

Our next stop for several days would be Fredericksburg, Texas.  On our way to Fredericksburg, we stopped at Inks Lake State Park to do some hiking and geocaching. The park ranger allowed us to park Sol near the entrance station so we could hike Pecan Flats Trail. Yes, the trail was named for the pecan trees growing in the area. I stood on the rocks above Bob while he grabbed one of the caches.

From the top of the rocks I had a great view of the Inks Lake area.

 This trail was rockier than most we have hiked this trip. The trail blazes were painted on the rocks.

 As with any rocky area, there were some interesting formations.

 From the trail overlook we could see Inks Lake and the nearby dam.

After our lunch stop and hike, it was time to travel on to Fredericksburg where we would use our Harvest Host membership to boondock at Messina Hof Winery. There are several Messina Hof Wineries in Texas, this one specializes in port.

We stayed at Messina Hof for two nights. The winery was a good stopping place to visit LBJ's Ranch.
First we walked the area around the living history farm. There were deer everywhere we looked!

On the farm, this ram was resting near the pathway. He was very unconcerned as we approached.

 Near the farm was part of the working ranch which Lyndon Johnson and Lady Bird left to the national park system. This photo of a long horn is deceptive. This guy's shoulder was as high as my shoulder and with his head, he was massive compared to other steers we have seen.

We enjoyed our walk around LBJ's ranch before driving to his ranch house to take the tour.

Just outside the ranch house was the hangar for Air Force One-Half, as LBJ nicknamed this plane.

We toured the house which is over 8500 square feet, before finding the geocache in the barbecue grove.

Then it was time to head back to the winery for one last visit to the tasting room. This is the extra bar that the staff use on the weekends when there are large crowds.

 We had a good time at the winery, but didn't want to out stay our welcome. We decided to move to Gillespie County Fairgrounds where we could boondock for several days and check out our solar panels. We have not boondocked more than two days anywhere since our trip to Smoky Mountains last September and it was still pretty hot, even in the mountains.  This would give us a chance to see how the panels would do under our normal boondocking conditions, but wait, the weather forecast says it is going to be 90 degrees! Oh, well, we are boondocking anyway!