Friday May 11, By The River Campground, Kerville, TX 78028

Another good sleep, just the haunting call of an nocturnal Owl and the sparkle of fireflies during the night.  This morning we saw this squirrel just across the road from our site, cheeky little thing, holding it's nuts in it's cute little hands!  We also heard woodpeckers.

Hungry squirrel!

We get on the road by 9.30am with an urgent stop at Walmart to buy some refrigerant to try and fix the AC, you can buy that stuff here and it was successful – for an hour or so, then it enveloped us in stiffling hot air.  So we drive with the windows open for a bit and then try the AC again, it worked, phew!  Then it didn’t work, then it did! Hopefully it is just a bubble or something in the pipes but we will get some more refrigerant tomorrow to top it up and hope for the best. It wasn't so hot today, just 28C.

All along  I10 West it was flat, not very inspiring but after a couple of hours we were in Texas hill country which was much more scenic.  The only excitement was the burning out cab of an 18 wheeler - hope the driver got out OK.  We saw the black smoke a ways back and it was pretty obvious what it was once we got closer.

The cab was fully alight and not much of it left by the time was passed.

We had a mass suicide of bugs on the windscreen today, check this out! The worst of it is on my side of the brand new windscreen.

Bugs galore!

The main culprit seemed to be the lovebugs, which look like double bodied critters, they're also known as the honeymoon fly or double-headed bug.

Love Bug - Push Me Pull Me??

We arrive at The River Campground on the banks of the Guadalupe River and hook up to a 50amp pull thru site.  After settling in and cleaning the bugs off the front of the coach go for a wander around the hiking trails to see what is to see – a huge turtle sunning itself on a rock, a dead frog and a very porky squirrel feasting on a nut of some sort.

Turtle on a rock - it had disappeared by the time I reframed for a better photo!

Right next door to the camp is the WildAss Hey Barn, a bar/restaurant and Friday is Catfish Friday with an Open Mike music session.  Of course we are into that so head down there about 6.30pm for a cold drink and check it out.  Kim chose the catfish and I the BBQ - Ribs and Brisket which was awesome.  The aroma of the smoky BBQ had meandered its way through the camp. I thought Kim would help me out but he didn’t make much of an effort so it was up to me!!  Gave it a good shot and it was pretty darn good! 

BBQ Two Meats - that's a lot of protein!!

The various musicians were surprisingly good and we thought of our musically inclined friends at home who would be toe tapping (and more) the whole night, as we were. When I learn the Harmonica (air or otherwise) I am going to have a range of instruments to choose from too ( his belt doesn't really show all the Harmonicas this artist had).  The restaurant closed at 9pm so it wasn't a late night for us and I think we might have almost kicked the jetlag!

Photo doesn't quite show the range of harmonicas in the waistband