Tuesday, October 9, through Saturday, October 13, 2012:  In Fredericksburg:
Fredericksburg is only 82 miles from Austin, so the trip was easy and short.  We are staying at the Fredericksburg RV Park, where we've stayed before.  It's very nice.

Our reason for coming here is to visit some wineries during the 2012 Texas Wine Month Trail---a creation of the Texas Hill Country Wine Association.  Fredericksburg is a nice little city (Population:  10,500), with the odd juxtaposition of its strong German-farmer history and its Pacific War Museum.  (Admiral Nimitz was born here.)

After arriving and setting up, we hit the local Ace Hardware store for a couple of things, then spent the rest of the day unwinding from the frantic pace of our week in Austin.

On Wednesday, we ventured to the LBJ Ranch---about 20 miles away---part of which is now a state historical park and part of which is a national historical park. 

There's not much to see there unless you're willing to spend a lot more time than we were, but it was interesting to at least see where the former president spent his entire personal life.

On the way back to Fredericksburg, we stopped at three wineries (Surprise!!!) to see what they had.  Our quick consensus on the Hill Country wines is that they are generally a little short on flavor and long on tartness. 

Nevertheless, we picked up three bottles (two Tempranillos and one Cabernet/Syrah) at the last stop (Woodrose Winery).  The other two wineries were William Criss and Pedernales Cellars.

Thursday afternoon was time to attack three more wineries:  Singing Waters Vineyards, Bending Branch Winery, and Sister Creek Vineyards. 

At the Bending Branch Winery, we had a nice chat with John Rivenburgh, the Winemaker, VP of Operations, and son-in-law of the owner. 

We haven't changed our opinion of the wines here, though we happily admit that some are certainly drinkable.  Tomorrow, we'll continue our research.

We also stopped at the local H.E.B. Market to pick up some food.  Nice place; nice people.

Friday, we hit three more wineries: Torre di Pietra Vineyards, Grape Creek Vineyards, and Becker Vineyards. 

Torre and Becker were beautiful places with friendly and knowledgeable people, and Grape Creek was awful.  The place was OK but the lady who served us couldn‘t have been less friendly or interested.

Friday night we had dinner at The Nest, a very nice restaurant two blocks away from our RV park.  We had a fun waiter, Jeffrey, and a delicious dinner of scallops.  We inferentially insulted the locals by ordering a lovely wine from Sonoma County, California (Ferrari-Carano).

Saturday, we were a bit wined out so we visited only one winery---in the downtown Fredericksburg---called Fredericksburg Winery, naturally.  The people were fine, but all six of the wines we tasted were absolutely terrible.

This was our last day in Fredericksburg, so we just relaxed the rest of the day. And I watched football, of course.