Being Thankful

From Fredericksburg, Texas, we drove a whopping 33 miles south to Kerrville and the Buckhorn Lake Resort.  That’s what I call a great travel day!  We arrived at Buckhorn on Tuesday, November 25 for a week-long stay over Thanksgiving.  

Buckhorn Lake Resort is one of the highest-rated campgrounds in Texas, and it certainly lived up to the reviews.  Tim and I have rarely stayed in resort-type campgrounds – perhaps once or twice for a day or two on our long road trip.  True resorts are not the type of campground we usually choose, partly because they are very expensive, but also because we don’t take advantage of the pools, tennis courts, etc. that are offered.  However, we were up for trying something different for Thanksgiving, and the weekly rate was not outrageous.

Welcome to Buckhorn Lake Resort

Buckhorn Lake Resort is a destination resort in every sense of the word.  The campground is beautifully maintained, the streets and sites are paved, the yards are manicured and the amenities are plentiful.  We were handed a calendar when we checked in and were amazed with the number of activities listed.  Social hours, concerts, potlucks, breakfasts and dinners were just a few of the offerings.

What really attracted us to Buckhorn was the annual Thanksgiving dinner that the resort sponsors.  Buckhorn’s 8,000 square foot barn was the setting for the Thanksgiving potluck.  The resort supplied the turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, and each RVer brought a dish.  I had read about similar holiday events but had never been to one.  We thought it would be the perfect way to spend Thanksgiving away from family, and it was.  The food was amazing.  I couldn’t believe the quantity and quality of the food prepared by our fellow RVers.  Tim and I brought Waldorf salad, which my mother had always prepared at Thanksgiving. For me, it’s not Thanksgiving without it.

A Thanksgiving Feast

What A Great Thanksgiving!

Tim and I learned that one of the benefits of staying put for more than a few nights is having the time to meet new people.  Buckhorn is a very social place, and its dinners, social hours and other events help facilitate interaction among RVers.  We attended a dinner and concert on Wednesday night and joined six people at a large table.  It was especially fun to compare notes with two of the couples who had also started full-timing this year.  At Thanksgiving we sat with two couples who lived near Dallas and were returning here for their second Thanksgiving.  It turned out that one couple was parked next to us.  We enjoyed many conversations with them over the next few days.

On the day after Thanksgiving another Sprinter pulled in to Buckhorn. Almost every RV at Buckhorn was a huge motorhome or fifth wheel, and we are so tiny by comparison.  It was therefore especially nice to meet a fellow van dweller.  We spent a wonderful afternoon with Angelique and her stepmother and compared notes about traveling in a Class B RV.

Many of the folks who come to Buckhorn for Thanksgiving love to decorate their RVs and sites for Christmas, and we looked at all of them.  I actually found one inflatable that even I thought was cute – usually I just want to shoot them with a BB gun.  Another site was decorated with everything under the sun, including a G-scale train.  Although the display was a bit much for me, it was heartwarming to meet the elderly gentleman who created it and to watch the pleasure that he gets from sharing his display with his neighbors.

Even I Liked This Inflatable

Can You Have Too Many Decorations for Christmas?

Tim and I got into the Christmas spirit and decorated our RV the day after Thanksgiving.  I’ve never started decorating so early.  We outfitted with RV with reindeer antlers and a big red nose.  The RV looks very festive.  We also added our gnome nativity scene on the dashboard.  All of it is silly, but fun.  We even decorated Kitty with her own Santa suit.  Now that was one unhappy kitty.

Rudolph the Red-Nosed RV

Away In a Manger

Santa's Calico Protege
(Buckhorn Lake Resort photo)

"My Humans Think This Is Cute"

With Christmas on the horizon, Tim and I started to think about where we might want to spend the holidays.  On the spur of the moment we decided to spend a month at Buckhorn.  We have never stayed in any campground for that length of time, and certainly never at a resort, but we want to have different experiences in this new lifestyle and see what might suit us.  In just the short week over Thanksgiving, we found that it’s easy to get spoiled at Buckhorn.  Kerrville is also a nice town and a good base from which to explore the Hill Country, which seems to be our favorite part of Texas.

But, before beginning our month at Buckhorn, we decided to backtrack and spend a quick two weeks hitting the highlights in Arkansas and Oklahoma.  Unfortunately, we had missed those two states in our rush to escape the polar vortex.  Our hope was for the weather to hold out for a short visit.  More on that next time.