Links mentioned in the Podcast
www.millersinmotion.com
Embark on a visual and aural escapade as we recount our voyage through the Texas Hill Country; a true RV enthusiast's dream painted with the colors of Fredericksburg's quaint charm and Luckenbach's iconic presence. Our tale begins with wheels rolling smoothly from Fort Worth, a journey blessedly free from the buzz of interstates and the necessity of crossing state lines. Discover the Firefly RV Resort, an innovative blend of camping luxury and tiny house living, and stay tuned for a sneak peek into our live podcast recordings at the anticipated 2024 Florida RV Super Show—an event that promises to be a convergence of RV culture and innovation.
Venture beyond the beaten path with us to Fredericksburg, where historical tapestries and Germanic roots interlace to create a tourist's delight. Marvel at the town's transformation into a treasure trove of attractions, from the stirring narratives housed within the World War II Museum to the pioneering conservation at The Preserve, where the majesty of elephants unfolds before your eyes. Our hiking exploits at Enchanted Rock reveal a rugged beauty and a connection with nature that's as unassuming as it is profound. And when twilight descends, we immerse ourselves in the fusion of local viticulture and wildlife preservation, sipping on Texan and South African wines amid the serenity of vine-laden hills.
In this episode, we wrap our Texas Hill Country adventure with reflections on the vibrant spirit of Fredericksburg and the cultural patchwork that makes it a destination worth savoring. We share pearls of travel wisdom, from the best seasons for visiting to the irreplaceable joy of companionship on the road. Through our stories, we invite you to engage with us. Submit your burning questions for our upcoming guests, whose insights into the RV lifestyle and travel destinations will be as enriching as they are entertaining. Connect with the pulse of our journey and find resources to fuel your own at millersandmotion.com and RVShenaniganspodcast.com. Saddle up for an episode that's more than just a trip—it's an exploration of heart, heritage, and high-spirited shenanigans.
Links mentioned in the Podcast
www.millersinmotion.com
Embark on a visual and aural escapade as we recount our voyage through the Texas Hill Country; a true RV enthusiast's dream painted with the colors of Fredericksburg's quaint charm and Luckenbach's iconic presence. Our tale begins with wheels rolling smoothly from Fort Worth, a journey blessedly free from the buzz of interstates and the necessity of crossing state lines. Discover the Firefly RV Resort, an innovative blend of camping luxury and tiny house living, and stay tuned for a sneak peek into our live podcast recordings at the anticipated 2024 Florida RV Super Show—an event that promises to be a convergence of RV culture and innovation.
Venture beyond the beaten path with us to Fredericksburg, where historical tapestries and Germanic roots interlace to create a tourist's delight. Marvel at the town's transformation into a treasure trove of attractions, from the stirring narratives housed within the World War II Museum to the pioneering conservation at The Preserve, where the majesty of elephants unfolds before your eyes. Our hiking exploits at Enchanted Rock reveal a rugged beauty and a connection with nature that's as unassuming as it is profound. And when twilight descends, we immerse ourselves in the fusion of local viticulture and wildlife preservation, sipping on Texan and South African wines amid the serenity of vine-laden hills.
In this episode, we wrap our Texas Hill Country adventure with reflections on the vibrant spirit of Fredericksburg and the cultural patchwork that makes it a destination worth savoring. We share pearls of travel wisdom, from the best seasons for visiting to the irreplaceable joy of companionship on the road. Through our stories, we invite you to engage with us. Submit your burning questions for our upcoming guests, whose insights into the RV lifestyle and travel destinations will be as enriching as they are entertaining. Connect with the pulse of our journey and find resources to fuel your own at millersandmotion.com and RVShenaniganspodcast.com. Saddle up for an episode that's more than just a trip—it's an exploration of heart, heritage, and high-spirited shenanigans.
Welcome back to the RV shenanigans podcast. I'm Ryan.
Speaker 2:I'm Lauren, and together we are Miller's Emotion. We sold our ranch in North Texas and are experiencing new adventures, traveling the country in our Alliance Valor Toyholler RV.
Speaker 1:In full disclosure. We got three fourths the way through this episode and we weren't recording.
Speaker 2:The life of a content creator.
Speaker 1:And so here we are back at it again. Yeah, so this is a destination guide. It was the first time. It still is the second time.
Speaker 2:But we like destination guides because that allows us to go back to some of our favorite places and relive the wonderful times that we had there.
Speaker 1:It does, and we are going to be adventuring slash, talking about the Texas Hill Country this week but in particular Fredericksburg which is in the Texas Hill Country. And, with that being said, let's just talk about where it is.
Speaker 2:Go for it. It's in Texas in the Hill Country.
Speaker 1:There you go, you should know where it is magically so. The Texas Hill Country is going to be west of the Austin area or northwest of San Antonio, in the biggest town Well, I don't know if it's the biggest but the most well known town in that area is Fredericksburg. It is also home to something called Lucan Buck. I hesitate to even call it a town, it's more of a dot on the map that Willie Whelan and the boys made famous. So, with that being said, typically when we do these destination guides, we like to talk about kind of where things are, are drive down from an RV aspect, we talk about the RV resort we stayed at and then we'll dive into some of the more fun stuff like attractions, food things, drink things and our kind of final thoughts. So we are going to start off with the drive For us. We were coming from Fort Worth, texas, and it's one of the rare times that our huge rig did not have to go down an interstate or cross a state line or cross a state line.
Speaker 1:So we actually came down just to the west of 35 and 35 W if you're in the Dallas Worth area and into Lucan, buck and Fredericksburg right on top of it. For the most part it was a great drive. There's not a whole lot to it, to be completely honest with you, and that's the beauty of Texas is it's kind of big and wide open and that works perfect because we have a really big rig.
Speaker 2:Now, depending on your travel style, just be prepared that there weren't a whole lot of fuel stops, so you may need to be aware of that and prepare accordingly. And also, this didn't come with those big giant rest stops that you find on the side of the interstates, so you also need to kind of be aware of that. You need a good navigator who's going to show you something like that if you need it.
Speaker 1:And also an RV specific GPS, because you can get in some areas that may have a low crossing bridge or more than that in Texas, you end up with what we call a high center situation. A lot of train tracks, for some reason, are elevated in Texas and if you try to pull over them with especially more of like a travel trailer I'm thinking airstreams, because they seem to sit a little lower and you go over it, you can potentially high center over that as you go over.
Speaker 2:That's right, but thank goodness for our RV GPS.
Speaker 1:Exactly, and someone's staring at Google Maps, in addition to Also I forgot to say this at the top of the show, but this is the last episode that's going to come out before we start doing the live podcast recordings at the 2024 Florida RV Super Show. So if you are in the area because I'm assuming if you're going to the show you are now in the area come say hi. Also, we're trying to get used to outside distractions because we're going to be recording out in the public, and so we've got some guys working on some really pretty coaches over here that I kind of wish I owned.
Speaker 2:It's not the noise that distracts me, it's how shiny they are.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's a Tiff and Allegro red sitting over there now, and it'll be switched out for something equally as shiny here pretty soon. Also, there's people walking by, dogs barking, so if you hear a little extra noise today, that's what's going on. So there's some context there. That's right. Okay, now back into the Texas Hill Country. We stayed at the Firefly RV Resort.
Speaker 2:I'm very proud of you for not tripping over the Firefly. That's a work in progress.
Speaker 1:So I will say well, yeah, saying Firefly apparently is a difficult thing for me. Also, the official name of this place is a lot longer than what I said. I think it's actually Firefly RV, luxury RV and small home something, village resort insert, kind of common name there.
Speaker 2:They tried to put all the names in there and I think that they tried to convey what it is. So, yes, whenever they were talking about the luxury RV sites, they're trying to make this resort style. So you've got paved sites kind of I don't want to call them fancy. It's hard to make an RV site fancy.
Speaker 1:I disagree. There's some fancy sites.
Speaker 2:This was not. It was very nice, yes. And then there are also tiny homes that can be rented if you don't have an RV.
Speaker 1:So what's unique about this resort is that they actually sold all the sites. So Firefly essentially is more of a management company than an operator company. They still operate it, don't get me wrong, but people individuals purchased these sites. Some chose to put a small home on. Some people live in those small homes full time. Some people use them as vacation homes and then rent them out when they're not using it. Others leave them as RV sites and then they may add or not add a lot of other amenities like fire pits and little cabana thingamajiggers and that kind of stuff. What makes it unique is that they actually sold all those. So it's kind of a mixed bag when you're booking. That's why there's not like no two sites where they look the same, unless they happen to be two that nobody's done anything to, and then they're pretty bare bones at that.
Speaker 2:And that probably also explains why we could never find like an office or anything of that sort. So it's because it probably didn't exist. So when you check in, the people who check you in give you everything that you need. And then the gate system yes, it is gated is worked off of like your license plate, so it recognizes you and automatically will open.
Speaker 1:In that regard, which is really cool. Typically, you would just neither not have a gate or they would give you some sort of a clicker or something else, and the fact that this one just uses your license plate is really nice, because it's not one more thing on your dash. They still do have parking passes, so you still have to put that up every once in a while just because they want to know you're supposed to be there. But it was great that you didn't have to worry about how do I get in the gate or gate codes.
Speaker 2:That's the other thing I was looking for, and so, yeah, and even though there wasn't a proper office necessarily that we came into contact with, there was still like an emergency number. So I think that you still had resources. It's not that we were without, it's just that management was fewer and far between if you wanted to talk to somebody in person.
Speaker 1:They were. They were pretty much on golf courts and you can just flag somebody down and they were always super nice when you did. But just know that's kind of how you had to do it. Also, one other kind of odd thing that you just need to know if you're looking at booking a firefly and this happened to Phil or Stacy, phil or Stacy, phil and Stacy they're together and they're not separate is because they're individually owned sites.
Speaker 1:They booked a site it looked awesome online because I wish I had booked it and then they got there and it was literally under construction. So you had the RV pad. That was perfectly fine. Nothing was obviously blocked. They wouldn't have rented it but they were either building a tiny house or extra things behind the RV site. You couldn't really tell what they were doing yet and they had just wood frames up and it was kind of a construction site and so for what we did, I don't think they cared that much. But at the end of the day, if I had a bunch of kids and I was looking to actually spend time outside my coach, I'd have been a little upset with that.
Speaker 2:Sure, and they never. I don't think that they asked anybody to move that necessarily. I don't know. I don't know if they would have been willing to or not, but just something to keep in mind that technically, yeah, it's always under construction.
Speaker 1:Well, and I was going to say it's not what was online, because I looked at the picture of their site and it was nowhere close because of the construction and you got to remember there's nails and screws and those types of things. So again, for us, we didn't do much there besides sit around and chat. We left for the most part and if that's what you're doing, it's probably not that big of a deal. And that's exactly what they said. But if you did have kids and wanted to play outside and that in the site was as much of a part of your stay or as your vacation or stay, if you're living full time, just know that that would have put a sour taste in my mouth. If that's what I had gotten there to and not known, I don't. And I say that they may have been told. I don't think they were, but they may have. I don't know.
Speaker 2:Well, and I think that if you're going to market as a luxury RV resort, I mean those are keywords where you wouldn't expect construction materials on your site. So just but other amenities that they did have. They had a big pool, they had a dog park, they have, you know, valley trash service, all those things, and the grounds were well kept and valley propane too.
Speaker 1:I did learn that oh fun. So yeah, other than that it was a great. I will say the clubhouse was a little odd. If you do go in the extreme heat or extreme cold not saying that it's Texas so you can potentially get pretty cold. It did while we were there. There's no indoor space in the clubhouse, everything's outdoor which is misleading with the word clubhouse house.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I, it's more of a pavilion with that gorgeous pavilion and it's covered and they have a lot of really big fans for the summer, so I can imagine when it's hot it's probably a little better down there versus cold. There's only so much those little propane fancy looking heaters can do. But yeah, it was outside. Also, they offer chef inspired dishes, as I believe how they set it online. I'll be honest, it's a food truck, and a mediocre one is probably the best, nicest way to say that the food wasn't bad. It also wasn't very good.
Speaker 2:A very limited menu.
Speaker 1:In my opinion, too Right they do bring other trucks in occasionally throughout weekends, and so it's always kind of a mixed bag. You may have something different when you get there. So just know that, as with food trucks and door trailers, that can change because, well, just like RVs, they roll, so I mean it could change tomorrow, for all we know.
Speaker 2:I'm going to say this simply in my opinion, don't bank on it.
Speaker 1:Now I make your own food, and there is a ton of really good food, and so I would tell you that to me, this resort is a jumping off point more than it is anything else. So I don't know if it's worth the dollars being spent at that rate, but if you really just want to try it out, go for it. It was not bad by any means. I just didn't see the value in the dollars spent versus, say, just a more basic park down the road.
Speaker 1:Agreed so with that being said, I've lost my notes. I'm sorry. So, with that being said, with Firefly wrapping up, let's move into some of the attractions, because if it is going to be a jumping off point, let's jump into something.
Speaker 2:Let's go see what to do. So I would say the biggest attraction is Fredericksburg. Go down Main Street, go look at all the little restaurants and the shops and tea stores.
Speaker 2:That's right, so you can do a lot of things there. In Fredericksburg it's a little bit slower pace, so just kind of understand everybody is kind of lollygagging about, and but that's part of the fun there and there are a lot of things that support maybe the local community, local people, so you are doing that and there's plenty of people to talk to. There are plenty of people making friends along the way, that's for sure. It could have been the wineries and the breweries that helped them do that, but they were very friendly.
Speaker 1:I will say to, fredericksburg itself has turned into a little bit of a tourist town. It didn't used to be that way, but it is, and so you are going to spend a little bit more for things that you wouldn't if you went just slightly further away than downtown.
Speaker 2:Agreed and if you're headed that way, remember it is a little bit of a smaller town as well in Texas and so parking can be a little bit of an issue. If you have the option of taking a smaller vehicle or kind of carpooling, try to do that. You're not going to get a big parking garage or something that's big, friendly.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but say for all the Dooley drivers out there like us just know there is parking. You're just going to be further away, a lot further away than other people. So you're probably going to be two to four blocks off of Main Street, Whereas if you've got a small cart you might be on Main Street. I don't know that I would park on Main Street because I don't know how you're going to ever back out of that site. But to each their own, do what you do.
Speaker 2:That's right, just be prepared.
Speaker 1:So, as far as the rest of Fredericksburg itself, one of the things that's really popular down there as well is the World War II Museum, also known as the Admiral Nimitz Museum. If you're unfamiliar with history, go read history about World War II. Admiral Nimitz was a very predominant person in the war, and he's originally from Fredericksburg, if my memory recalls, and so they named their World War II Museum after him, so his presence is around a lot of play. There's a lot of things named Nimitz in the area. So, with that being said too, we did more things than just downtown.
Speaker 2:Yes, more than just walk and eat and drink.
Speaker 1:I don't remember them, but we did them. No, I'm just kidding, If you drink them. We also went to a really, really unique place that probably came after a few of those beverages. In fact, we're going to give credit where credit is due. Steph Henson, out of the blue, just goes, let's pet elephants.
Speaker 2:Something you didn't know you could do in the Texas hill country, but you can at this place called the Preserve, and there it is in Fredericksburg. They had a couple of elephants and it's a ticketed thing, so you purchase your tickets and arrive at a certain time and our particular event was an hour and a half long and so it was a bigger kind of event and you show up with kind of another group of people and they talk to you about the elephants, lots of education involved and then there's a lot of interaction. So, yes, you get to kind of touch their feet and help bathe them and some different things. I think that what they were looking for was improving conservation efforts by education and getting people more familiar with these very large animals that many people may not have experience with.
Speaker 1:I was going to say. A lot of the work that they did went towards conservation efforts and those types of things. It's somewhere between zoo and like heading park I don't know the best way to say it but it's all educational based. You can't just show up and pay an admission fee and go on around and see these animals on exhibit like you would in a traditional zoo. It is everything is scheduled, because most of this park is actually dedicated to the animals. Their enclosures are massive, unlike at zoos. Now, they can have large enclosures at the zoos, but they're on stage on the frontward facing, typically not that big sometimes, and so with this it's just totally different. With that also being said, they do have other animals. It's not just elephants. None of them had educational things built around them quite yet.
Speaker 2:But I believe they're in the works they were in the works.
Speaker 1:I believe they said January, February, they'll hopefully start to have something along those lines. Elephants is their main point of focus, but I know they have giraffes and some other things as well.
Speaker 2:I thought it was really interesting. It's kind of a one and done. We wouldn't do it multiple times, necessarily, but I thought it was interesting to do for the first time.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it really was. So I'm going to preface this by saying we're bad Texans, very bad Texans. So there is a state park, very I don't know if it's necessarily historical, but very recognizable thing in the state, and if you're not Texan you may not know what I'm talking about If for everybody else it's called Enchanted Rock.
Speaker 2:It's a 400 foot tall pink granite rock.
Speaker 1:That looks like a dome. To be honest with you, it's very predominant in Texas. It's got a lot of lore around it and so it's a very popular place, and any real Texan I will admit it, I've been a bad Texan has at least seen it. They know of it and we knew of it, but we had never been there before. So we bit the bullet and I was open to a hike. Phil was less open to a hike.
Speaker 2:You were a little coerced into the hike.
Speaker 1:I'll say the same thing I said on the video I wanted to go, but I didn't want to go.
Speaker 2:See, he also forgot to ask how long is the hike. We just said we're going to go hike Enchanted Rock and that's something you haven't done before, and we should start the new year by doing things you've never done before.
Speaker 1:So literally on New Year's Day, Stacey and Lauren tried to kill Phil and I.
Speaker 2:Actually I begged to different. We didn't try to. Phil did quite well.
Speaker 1:Oh, thank you for leaving me out of that.
Speaker 2:You did fine, except for a small fight with a cactus.
Speaker 1:So, enchanted Rock, we're going to move past the fight with a cactus. So, enchanted Rock. There's two main hiking trails. I'm sure there's more than that. There's the Loop Trail, which is what we did, which goes all the way around it and is how long.
Speaker 2:Approximately five miles.
Speaker 1:That's more depressing when.
Speaker 2:I hear it Give or take.
Speaker 1:So that goes all the way around. And then there's the Summit Trail, which is much shorter but also much more vertical.
Speaker 2:And I still say that I saved you from doing the summit trail. We did the nice flat-ish loop.
Speaker 1:And I will say it's gorgeous.
Speaker 1:It was very pretty. It does help when you go with friends and you're just kind of chatting and taking pictures and we obviously you know we film things, so you know it may have taken us a little bit longer than most people, I would argue. We doubled up on time because somebody had the genius idea of beating the estimated time on the sheet that they give you when you show up to these places. Like a hike should take two hours, 45 minutes, five hours, whatever, and they all wanted to beat it. So now we're booking it through this thing.
Speaker 2:That is a challenge and you know it.
Speaker 1:I agree it's a challenge. I didn't say I wanted one. I thought the hike was a challenge itself.
Speaker 2:You should know better with me and Stacy.
Speaker 1:So we did hike it. We did have three or four casualties, oh not casualties, injuries.
Speaker 2:I was going to say, jeez, it wasn't that bad of a hike.
Speaker 1:With that being said, be careful. There's cactuses. Because those were two of our injuries Stacy tried to high five one and I tried to dropkick one.
Speaker 2:If you'd like a little educational moment on their cacti. Needles are sharp, they're painful.
Speaker 1:And there's two different kinds. She had a ton of needles in her hand, I had two really big ones in my foot, and then let's go ahead and talk about yours, because you also took one for the team. We'll call it.
Speaker 2:Oh, I still think we don't know what happened.
Speaker 1:I was walking and then I wasn't yeah, and then try to inhale water on the way down.
Speaker 2:There's a chance I was distracted. Okay, let's just leave it at that.
Speaker 1:But Phil was the only one that made it out unscathed. Good for Phil, don't worry, we'll get him back with RVM plug season 2.
Speaker 2:Yes, we will, but I enjoyed the hike. I would do that again in a heartbeat. I thought that was a lot of fun.
Speaker 1:Yeah, was there anything else about attractions that we need to touch on?
Speaker 2:if you're in the area, I definitely think that Luke and Boc is worth a stop, and so if you're familiar with Texas country music, you've heard of Luke and Boc, willy Wayland and the boys. You know all then all that stuff. So it's a very small pinpoint on the map. You can drive right past it and miss it. It's a small driveway that I don't think that you you've realized goes to more. Anyways, so they have a general store, a post office and a bunch of live music. That's good quality. If you want a good taste of that kind of music, definitely go there. But the store said that their most common question is this is it?
Speaker 1:Yeah, there's not a lot there. The most popular thing to do there besides ask that question Is it take a picture with that post office, like Lauren said, and apparently you can dry camp there.
Speaker 2:Yes, you can. And now this is not through Harvest Host or any other third party. You actually have to go on to the Luke and Boc Texas website and you can dry camp for $25 a night. Little steep for dry camping. But if you're there, you know, and in the area I and this is just our style I might have preferred dry camping over the resort.
Speaker 1:I would have too. That's one of the things we're talking about, actually, to the earlier today, as we were walking around our current resort and we're in a, let's say, a very large popular resort in Florida, right before we get ready to head over to the fairgrounds for the show and and we both looked at each other and we're like we get why people like it. We just don't know that it's for us and that doesn't mean it's bad or good or anything else. I think it's a great resort. It's been nice to us. We prefer probably more unique destinations.
Speaker 2:Definitely now remember if you're going to try to dry camp at Luke and Boc, you do need to call ahead and make arrangements with them, and this is old-fashioned pick up the phone. This is not a text or an online booking situation.
Speaker 1:Yep, okay, I think this next thing is an attraction. Most people would argue it's just food and beverage, but I think food and beverage is an attraction. It's probably also why I am the way I am.
Speaker 2:But I think when you're going to a place like Fredericksburg with such is steep history with you know they're German heritage and everything and all the wineries that those things are inherently attractions.
Speaker 1:They are, and this area of Texas, specifically the Hill Country, is really known for Wineries, vineyards and breweries are starting to kind of come up with that as well. It's really wine is the big thing down there. It's kind of the wine country of Texas, if you may. But with that being said, there are a ton of things to do Around that area and the tide into attractions. Let's go ahead and talk about our first winery we went to, which was called the Rhino. Did I get it right?
Speaker 2:the Rhino re. Yes, okay, so think rhinoceros conversation. I know we just did elephant conservation, but now we're on to the rhinos too. We're just conserving all of the animals and then.
Speaker 1:But they also partner, all of them to.
Speaker 2:I'm sorry. Would you like to go to more? We can arrange that.
Speaker 1:I don't. I'm assuming we're going to more.
Speaker 2:It's not a matter of if it's been so rhinoceros converse conservation with winery and so this. This was an interesting concept. We didn't really know what to expect. They have one rhino there on the grounds and his name is Blake and he's actually from fossil rim is what we found out. He's on loan from fossil rim, which is another wildlife exhibit here in Texas, and a lot of it's very interesting and you should check it out. We have a video on that we can link we do.
Speaker 2:So and they're hoping to bring in some females and make lots of little baby rhinos, which is going to be adorable. And as far as the wine goes, that they have some wines from Texas when they partner with vineyards and some are from South Africa we found out that Basically the owners were on trip in South Africa and kind of got the idea that they needed to Help conserve the rhinos and they figured this would be a good way to do it in Texas wine country.
Speaker 1:I was gonna say they have a kind of a wine background. That's why it really kind of initiated it. Of the wines there you are gonna find a few not from theirs or Texas, as well as South Africa, but you will find a few others that are randomly from scattered from other places that compliment, but for the most part they're all from South Africa. There's a very heavy tie between those two destinations.
Speaker 2:And so that was a really neat experience, and that's a place I would go back to in a heartbeat. I had a great time.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I'm not a big wine person. It was fun. If you're looking for a whole lot about rhinos, that's not really that.
Speaker 2:True.
Speaker 1:Not a zoo, it's not the sanctuary. Like the elephant thing, you're not going to learn, just a whole lot, that's because we didn't pay for that experience.
Speaker 2:You can get the rhino experience and learn more about Blake.
Speaker 1:I did not know that. We just sat around and learned about wines and watched Blake.
Speaker 2:That was the cheaper of the experiences, since we paid so much for the elephant experience.
Speaker 1:That's true. Also, I will say that, as far as grounds go, it was very pretty.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, it was gorgeous. And while we're on the topic of different wineries, there in Fredericksburg there's so many and we aren't really wine aficionados per se, so I'm not going to attempt to say that we are, but you have a lot of options, a lot of variety and a lot of transportation to get you from one place to the next.
Speaker 1:So you don't have to drive. There is, I was about to say there's actually wine shuttles if I remember correctly, and one of them makes multiple stops inside a firefly.
Speaker 2:Oh, I didn't know that you didn't?
Speaker 1:It's on the map, that's how I knew that there's actually multiple stops inside for the wine shuttle that's not specifically for. So now you know what everybody goes to firefly for. Apparently it's for wine shuttles, no, but with that being said, breweries are starting to come up pretty heavily. There Again, a lot of the German heritage, some of the best Hefeweißen beer, which is a weak beer, if you don't know that I've had we stopped at a couple places with great German beers and tried a variety of different things and some flights and whatnot.
Speaker 2:That was wonderful. I would say one of the most interesting places that we went to was the Frederickburg Brewing Company. They're on Main Street. It's the oldest gastropub in Texas. I did not know that I didn't realize that gastropubs weren't a thing until the 90s. Yeah, apparently there was some law that changed, that started to allow them at that point, which was really unique. I didn't realize that. So this one is kind of the granddaddy. The food wasn't really up to what I was hoping it would be. But the beer was great, yes.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the food was standard. Nothing to write home about. The fried pickles were pretty good.
Speaker 2:The pretzel was pretty good, yeah, and everything.
Speaker 1:I got a burger. It was a good burger. I will say it wasn't bad by any means. Could I have made it at home? Maybe they had some different things on there I didn't think of, but yeah, maybe.
Speaker 2:But the beer was pretty good.
Speaker 1:The beer was solid and the nice part about it is it's right down in downtown Frederickburg, so if you're looking for someplace to eat or grab a beer whilst you're walking around, it's convenient because it's on the main street.
Speaker 2:And there's a chance that it's so popular simply because of its location and the fact that it is the oldest in Texas. But if I were going somewhere for really good German food and even better beer, it would be the Altstadt Brewery.
Speaker 1:I'm so happy you said the name of that, because I butchered it every time I've even tried to say it, let alone while we're recording a podcast. So yeah, this brewery was very it's very palatial on the outside. It was very pretty.
Speaker 2:Very pretty.
Speaker 1:The inside was as well, but they tried to make it kind of like an upscale beer garden October. I don't even know how to describe it, but it's very, very heavy in the German heritage.
Speaker 2:It was beautiful, though it was so rich, it felt like yes, and so in the food, oh my goodness, I don't even have words.
Speaker 1:I will say that the food, and we'll get into the drinks here in a second. The food was amazing. If you don't know, Phil and Stacy are Navy veterans. Phil spent quite a bit of time in Germany and so he knows what German Schnitzel. If you don't know what Schnitzel is, it's a pounded down chicken breast, not just a chicken. It's chicken breast that's essentially pounded out super thin, breaded, fried, Think like a Parmesan crusted chicken from BJ's Kind of the same thing, but not even close to the same thing. But that Schnitzel sometimes has gravy, sometimes doesn't. This one came with like a lemon butter sauce and it was some of the best chicken I've ever had.
Speaker 2:That's not something we can make at home. I'm going to tell you that right now Not even a little bit.
Speaker 1:As us. We always get a pretzel because someone likes pretzels and cheese sauce.
Speaker 2:I love a good pretzel and cheese sauce.
Speaker 1:I will say that this one blew Frederick Berg's out of the water.
Speaker 2:It sure did.
Speaker 1:Because it was way more of an authentic German pretzel, whereas the one at Frederick's Library is more of a traditional American pretzel. The difference is a whole lot of dough and just kind of the snap to the whole thing. The beer was it's hard to talk about beer, we're not a food channel, so we're not exactly used to describing it had notes of citrus and it was a really good Hefeweiss. I'm a big fan of Hefeweiss and beer and a bad one is really bad and a good one can be really good and luckily I got two really good ones, but the Allstead one was phenomenal.
Speaker 2:I got a flight so I could try several different littler versions, and Mine did have hints of centrist because it was. I think it was peach was one of the beers, oh my goodness. So yes, they were some unique beers that I don't think we can get in other places, which I really appreciated and everything that I tried I could tell was good in its regard. Even if it wasn't to my palate, it was still good.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the quality there, the people there. It was just an awesome experience and I think we sat there for almost two and a half hours just kind of taking it in and chatting and enjoying good company.
Speaker 2:Definitely.
Speaker 1:And going through everything and our waitress was very knowledgeable.
Speaker 2:So I don't know that she was German necessarily, but she did have an accent of some sort, and she was extremely knowledgeable over the menu and the beers too.
Speaker 1:That accent is called Texan, you should know it.
Speaker 2:It was not.
Speaker 1:No, it was not, I didn't notice the accent, but she did have a lot of knowledge. So they're doing something right in the fact that they're either hiring people that know their stuff or they're training them to know their stuff, cause you go a lot of places sometimes and not a lot of people know what they're talking about, unfortunately.
Speaker 2:And before we move away from food, I have one little side note. This was an unexpected find. What was after we tortured the boys for a five mile hike at Enchanted Rock, we promised them that pizza on the way back. I completely forgot about the pizza I know. And we were looking at where to go and, as luck would have it, a Google search pointed us towards a food truck, which gave us a lot of skepticism.
Speaker 1:We didn't know it was a food truck when we did it.
Speaker 2:We didn't know, it was very vague. And then we show up and there's this teeny, tiny food truck with about four parking spaces and it's also important to know when we pull up.
Speaker 1:First of all, we were looking at the building, wondering this can't be, it and then we accidentally pulled in the wrong entrance. That helped we pull around the building. Let me set the scene. It's dark, it's cold, it's kind of starting to drizzle a little bit. We're thinking we're going to like a pizza restaurant.
Speaker 2:And people are tired and there's a chance some of them were hangry to it's me. I was hangry, yes it was, and so, anyways, then we walk up to the window and these little personal pizzas are 20 bucks a pop.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and so there was a lot of skepticism going into it.
Speaker 1:I will say, though, I didn't care what it cost. I was hungry in there and hangry, and they had just subjected me to almost five mile long hike. We were getting that pizza.
Speaker 2:This was some of the most delicious pizza I've ever had. Yeah, it was pretty good. Completely unexpected, Like brick oven style gourmet ingredients, they did their own sausage. They made their own sausage. It was so good. It was called Prometheus pizza, and I don't know much about it besides that it was unexpected and delicious.
Speaker 1:I can tell you that if we have, if we are north of San Antonio, well, if we're north of Fredericksburg and we have to go to San Antonio, I will go out of my way to stop there, get lunch or dinner and then continue on to San Antonio. It was really good and I'm glad you said that, because even when we were talking about the show and what we wanted it to be, we put notes together. By the way, I forgot.
Speaker 1:Sometimes I like to keep things a secret and surprise you I don't like when you do that, but in this case it was good, I guess. And, but now I want pizza, which is a problem because I don't think that pizza exists here.
Speaker 2:Moving on.
Speaker 1:What other food and drink stuff do you have?
Speaker 2:You know I'm just going to summarize this that I would skip the Fredericksburg Brewing Company, go to Altstadt instead and then get a pizza one night from Prometheus, because those were by far my favorites.
Speaker 1:Yep, and don't be scared away by the exterior Prometheus. Trust us, it is tasty. What else about Fredericksburg? It's not that big of a town. I'm surprised we can talk this long about it, I would go.
Speaker 2:I think that you should put it on your hit list is what I'm saying. So it may not be everybody's cup of tea. It's not fancy and upscale and anything like that. You got to kind of slow it down a little bit but I do think that it's worth it. There's a lot of history, there's a lot of culture in there with the German influence, and I feel like there's something for everybody.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there really is. We also, because we were there New Year's weekend. There's a couple of things to note. Whether you watch the video or we made a comment about it, is there are resort was a little loud for us. I honestly do think that was because of New Year's weekend, as soon as the next, because we stayed till the second and so that the first was much quieter.
Speaker 2:It was, and even with kind of the racket that went on, I will say that when quiet hours hit, everybody was pretty well behaved. We didn't have any issues with that.
Speaker 1:I would say the only day that there was some extra noise was New Year's Eve itself, but that's because everybody was up, but we didn't have any like fireworks or anything like that shooting.
Speaker 2:That was pretty respectful.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it really was. So another thing is kind of thinking about time of year to go, because the RV if you're going to stay at Firefly specifically because it is so outdoors and there is a lot of outdoors things to do, weather is going to play a big factor. So obviously you might have different tolerances than, say, us or anybody else. It's definitely a fall and spring kind of thing. Personally, it's south Texas in the summer is not the coolest place on the planet.
Speaker 2:January is probably also a bad idea.
Speaker 1:I don't know if it's a bad idea, but just know that you can have gorgeous days. You got some pretty cold days too, and so just kind of understand the winter you're going to have a little bit more of a roll of the dice. You're pretty solid. Spring and fall, summer it's going to be humid and hot. That's just the way it is in Texas.
Speaker 2:But also keep in mind if you're going during those times spring and fall it's probably when it's going to be the busiest. So if you want to miss the crowds and you don't mind tolerating the weather, there's one way. If you want to go when it's the best it's going to get, go for the crowds.
Speaker 1:You couldn't have said it better myself. So at the end of the day we always like to leave you with kind of our opinion of the destination. We kind of give your opinions on the little bit of things. Overall, as a trip, our view on this trip is going to be a little bit skewed this time.
Speaker 2:Oh boy.
Speaker 1:Because we drank so much.
Speaker 2:No, I'm just kidding. We did drink that much, to be honest with you.
Speaker 1:We were drunk the whole time. No, we went with friends, and so I will say that I think friends makes most trips better.
Speaker 2:And they definitely did on this one. I'm so glad we got to do that with those friends.
Speaker 1:So I've thought about this and I was wondering if Phil and Stacy and Todd Steph weren't there, would we have had as good of a time?
Speaker 2:No, I don't think that we would have. I mean, we obviously we live together in a very small space. We travel a lot. We are in each other's bubble all the time, as I go into her bubble, and so whenever we get to go experience new places, sometimes it's nice to have just a different set of eyes, different ideas, and it's nice to converse with them and to experience things just in a different way.
Speaker 1:And don't take it as we wouldn't have enjoyed ourselves. I think we would have enjoyed ourselves. I don't know that we would have done the elephant thing, because that was Steph's idea, but it would have been a more standard location for us. When we show up at a new place, we typically work during the day and then we'll get out in the afternoon or maybe take an afternoon off and kind of replace it on a Saturday. But we work around the fun. This was more of a vacation and more of just fun.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I don't think we would have indulged quite as much, and so I'm glad that we did that with friends.
Speaker 1:Yep, and so, with that being said, would you go back with friends or just us?
Speaker 2:I would go back boondock hike in Chana Drock get pizza. I would go and have a different experience.
Speaker 1:And I think that's important to know, and because we live full-time, and whether you live full-time on the road, you're a weekend warrior or you're just a travel junkie and you're listening to this just because you wanna learn something about the area For us, we don't typically go back and do the same thing. We'll go back to the locations because you may have a horse show something along those lines gets us back into the area or our family's there. But even when we go back to areas, we try not to do the same thing again because we wanna have new experiences. That's a big reason why we chose this lifestyle is to experience as many things as you can, or, as our slogan says, experience more.
Speaker 2:That's right, and by going these places and trying multiple versions of it, we're learning more about what we actually want and what we actually enjoy.
Speaker 1:We do so. Thank you so much for joining us for this destination guide to the Texas Hill Country. We are truly appreciative of how successful and how many people have been listening to this podcast. It's actually been quite shocking.
Speaker 2:You guys like listening to us talking awful lot.
Speaker 1:I'm really good at talking and you put it up with me, so we could not thank you enough, and we're very excited about the 2024 Florida RV Super Show. We have a lot of really good shows coming up. If this is still coming out before we are actually asking for your help, we need some questions for our guests, so I'm gonna put a link in the show notes or the description, depending on if you're listening to this on your favorite podcast platform or watching this on YouTube.
Speaker 1:We have all of our guests listed there and what we're asking for is just a question. We don't really care what it's about, just know that if it's not on topic, we're not gonna use it. So leave it in the RV space for the most part of destination stuff. Other than that, please check out millersandmotioncom or RVShananiganspodcastcom. There we go For any more information and we look forward to chatting to you guys next week. We'll see each other soon.