April and May are the perfect time of the year to travel in the Texas Hill Country, the area northwest of San Antonio and southwest of Austin. It is the area originally settled by German immigrants because the the scenery was so reminiscent of Germany.
Texas tends to be a flat state so these scenic hilly views make it a prime tourist destination. Spring is also the highpoint of the wildflower season and, as we traveled, we were delighted by the colors that greeted us along the roadsides. Yellow, orange, white, and an occasional patch of bluebonnets, the Texas state flower.
Our destination for our Stop #2 was Buckhorn Lake RV Resort near Kerrville, Texas, in the heart of the hill country. The "New Horizons' Owner's Group RV Rally" was held there from April 29 to May 4. Since we, and both of our traveling companion couples, live in New Horizons fifth wheels, we wanted to spend that time getting acquainted with others who do and learning new tips and ideas which might make our RVing journeys more pleasant.
Although our GPS lady did not know where the RV resort was located, we did finally find Buckhorn Lake RV Resort.
It is a lovely resort with all conveniences we could ask for: full hook-ups, laundry, fitness center, meeting rooms, banquet hall, and two swimming pools. Cowboy Western is the theme for the park, focused around this working -- lighted at night -- windmill.
We arrived on Saturday, two days before the rally began, to take advantage of a generous "pre-rally" rate the park offered. We settled into our assigned sites, just beyond the windmill, on the right.
New Horizons RVs are made by a small company in Junction City, Kansas. They do not have dealers but do all their construction under contract with the potential buyer who, with the help of the staff, designs the unit they are ordering. Every unit is built with the highest quality of workmanship but, as you can imagine, there are not a lot of this brand of RVs on the road. The newest unit at the rally was VIN#915, meaning that only nine hundred and fifteen have ever been built. Therefore, it was quite an unusual sight to see thirty-five New Horizons rigs gathered in one place.
What fun to meet and greet other couples who are facing the challenges and joys of living on the road in an RV similar to ours. The units vary in length from thirty feet to forty-one feet, from 96 inches to 102 inches wide, from no slide-out rooms to four, and from plain and simple to fancy and elegant. One of the rally activities we enjoyed the most was the Open House when any couple who wished to opened their rig for touring by others. What a variety of designs, décor, uses of space, and size. We all agreed, however, after the Open House was over, that the most beautiful unit we had seen that day was our own "Home Sweet Home."
Workshops included sessions on "Health Care on the Road" (which Rebecca Coombs and the two of us presented), several craft sessions, generators, preventive maintenance, workcamping on the road, line dancing, backing and parking an RV, and photography. Several evenings we "oohh'ed" and "aahh-ed" over pictures of "great places" some had visited. One afternoon, the owner of the New Horizons company shared with us for over an hour about the new developments at the company.
The food, of course, forced us to abandon our diets -- and even the thought of eating carefully! -- for five days. A Bar-B-Que, two catered meals and a carry-in dinner had a seriously negative effect on our personal scales!
We'll stay an extra night here at Buckhorn Lake RV Resort before we take off for Stop #3 on Sunday morning, May 5th. Come on along, and travel with us via the internet, if you're brave enough!
