Kerrville, TX

Saturday – Wednesday, November 5 -9, 2016

Our present location of Kerrville, TX is located along the Guadalupe River and was founded in 1856.  The city is best known for its many beautiful parks and is the home of the “Texas Official Arts and Crafts Fair.”  The community has become a retirees haven and is well known for its art galleries, shopping, dining, live theater and antiquing. 

This morning, Saturday, we went to the campground weekly breakfast where we met several other couples staying here.  They have a nice selection for breakfast and you order what you want.  Cooking is done by volunteers staying at the park and includes omelets, eggs with hash browns, toast or biscuit, pancakes and waffles along with juice and coffee.  We enjoyed our meal and getting acquainted. 

Weather here in Kerrville has not been too conducive to taking pictures but we did venture out today in spite of the overcast and drizzle.  We met one couple parked next to us who have been very helpful in telling us about things to see and other activities going on in the community.  They mentioned the weekly market and swap meet.  This was your usual flea market held inside a building at the Event Center.  Lots of handmade placemats, potholders, jewelry and the usual assortment of junk.  Always fun to see what might be different or local to the area. 

Going back into town, we stopped at the Kerr Arts and Cultural Center located in the historic downtown district.  Here we took in the Annual Texas Furniture Makers Show which is a juried exhibit of beautiful tables, chairs, cabinets and other items featuring the best furniture makers in Texas.  Unfortunately, we forgot our camera and phone today so did not get any pictures.  The workmanship was absolutely spectacular and the items so beautiful.  Many of the artists were available to answer questions about their work.  In a back room was an Antique Woodworking Tool Display with items dating back to the 1600’s with items handmade by craftsmen or the woodworkers themselves.  Interesting items many of which had carved decorations on them.

Walking around this area of town afterwards, we stopped in a couple of shops and took some pictures of the old buildings below.  One of my favorite stores in this area from our previous visits to Kerrville is the Sunrise Antique Shop located in the Fawcett Furniture Building in use as such until the mid 1970,’s when the building was restored and became an antique shop.  Several years ago I found a rather large metal rooster for my kitchen which unfortunately is too large for our RV so had to be placed in storage. 

The Arcadia Theater was built in 1926 and initially featured live performances.  Jimmy Rogers performed here and a local organist played the piano during the silent movie era.  The theater closed in 1988.

The Schreiner Store was built in 1879 and is one of the Hill country's most important landmarks as it was the building where cowboys bought their provisions for the Cattle Drives north and supplies were purchased for ranches in the area.  Profits from the store paved roads, built public buildings and helped found Schreiner University.

Masonic Lodge building came about in 1890 and was the home of the Lodge until 1927.  Other tenants of the building were the U.S. Post Office and the C.C. Butt Grocery (now HEB).

The Schreiner Mansion located on Earl Garrett Street was built in 1879 and has had several additions.  Expert masons and stone carvers were brought from Germany to do the intricate design work on the exterior of the home.  Today the house is open to the public and serves as an education center for Schreiner University.  We hope to tour this building before we leave.

Guthrie Building was built in 1887 for Robert Guthrie who published the Kerrville Eye newspaper.  The building was restored in 1981.

Sunday we spent getting ready for a visit with our friends Trish and Bob who stopped in the campground overnight on their way to NM and A.  We met Trish and Bob in Albuquerque when we first began our full timing and our paths have crossed several times over the last two years.  We had a great afternoon and evening together catching up and exchanging ideas about campgrounds, maintenance on the RV, etc.  We look forward to seeing them again in Yuma during the winter.  Glad you two could stop by.

Since the weather has been so rainy, we have not ventured out to do any further sightseeing this week but rather stayed in.  Ron has been doing his photography classes, reading and playing Spider while I have had a chance to get started on my winter quilting projects.