Best little town in Texas

When we decided to spend the holidays in Texas, we didn't anticipate this incredibly cold weather - below twenty degrees at night, never rising above freezing during the day.  But it seems awfully wimpy for me to complain, when Nancy's siblings in the Northeast are dealing with temperatures twenty degrees colder than here, and Minnesota's citizens twenty degrees colder than that.  Still, for a Louisiana boy who's been living in California his whole adult life, it's chilly here in Fredericksburg.

This is how we attained water flow in our motorhome.  That morning I placed a tiny electric heater next to the metal water supply line so that it blew warm air against the water pipes, and I covered the whole arrangement with a large pail.  After fifteen minutes or so the ice within the pipe melted and water began flowing.  I removed the heater but left the pail over the water pipes and the attached heated water hose, thinking that the heat in the electrically-warmed hose might keep the temperature under the pail high enough to keep the water pipes from freezing at night - and it worked.  Since then we've been warm and cozy in our motorhome, with plenty of hot water.

We've fallen in love with Fredericksburg.  It's hard to imagine that we would actually move to Texas, but if we did, it would probably be here.  The locals are incredibly friendly and helpful, and many of them - both lifelong residents and recent transplants - are enthusiastic about the town and are anxious to tell us about the cool places to go - restaurants, activities, things to see.

Dressed warmly on New Years Day, we wandered Main Street and dropped in to Vaudeville, a wonderful upscale shop whose downstairs took us to the Bistro for lunch.

It felt like a transplanted bit of California.  The menu was fascinating.  The daily special that Monday was Crawfish Etoufee, Tuesday was Duck Confit, and so on.  Our waiter, who came here from Redding, California, told us that the owner of Vaudeville was the chef, and that he offered pre fixe dinners on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday at $150 plus wine pairings.  More and more like Napa or Sonoma, and maybe this is what happens to an area that goes into full wine country mode.

Here we are on Wednesday, January 3, 2018, and the worst of the cold spell has broken.  It's expected to rise to 51 degrees today.  We will stay here for several more days and expect to do wine tastings, tour the museums, and visit a local real estate office before we pull out.

Our plans, subject to change, are to drive to and spend a few days in Corpus Christi, Texas on the Gulf of Mexico, then to Lake Charles, Louisiana, followed by a stay in New Orleans next to the French Quarter.  After that, we hope to drive north to Little Rock and Fayetteville, Arkansas, then to Branson, Missouri before heading back down south to Florida - but if the weather stays cold we may have to alter those plans.