The Bill and Kit Excellent Adventure Journal-Issue #16

Wednesday, February 18, 2009:

Woke to sunny skies and temp already in the 70’s. Took a nice long walk around the neighborhood and enjoyed lunch at the Granny Char Breakfast Bar.

Decided to drive down and see the Natural Bridge Caverns just southwest of New Braunfels. This National Natural Landmark is a network of living caves full of interesting formations.

The 75 minute tour takes you down 180 feet into a unique world of cave formations that are still being created by surface water percolating down through limestone rock. The 70 degree temperatures and 90 percent humidity offer an unusual contrast to the warm (83 degree) and dry surface conditions.

Thursday, February 19, 2009: Another local area exploration opportunity. We wanted to see the town of Dripping Springs and verify if the legend about the roads being so rough that your automobile shock absorbers can rupture and create the condition that the town was named after.

In addition Pat’s son Joey creates Ornamental Iron in town and we wanted to check that out as well. Yep the same Joey that entertained us on Saturday night with his great musical ability is also an iron artist as seen below.

Pat's Son Joey

After a nice visit with Joey and a tour of his workshop we headed to Fredericksburg…..why?…..because it seemed the thing to do and because Kit wanted to. On the way we passed the LBJ Ranch National Park and Historic Site and ducked in for a quick drive through. The grounds are quite extensive with many buildings and animals to view. We will have to add this park to our life “bucket” list for another day.

In the town of Fredericksburg Kit browsed the shops and Bill toured the National Museum of the Pacific War. What the heck, you ask, is such a museum doing in landlocked Texas? Well part of the exhibit is housed in the former Nimitz Hotel owned by the family of Fleet Admiral Nimitz. There were displays of artifacts and military equipment from the Pacific Theater during World War II including a TBM Avenger airplane and the PT-309 Torpedo Patrol Boat. Below are some selected photos from the
museum.

All in all, another interesting and educational day.

Love, Dad/Mom, Poppy/Guma, Bill/ Kit