Grapevine Walk

Good morning, my friends. It's our last morning in Grapevine. We'll be moving along once we get ourselves together and packed up. We'll be heading to Sulphur Springs, Texas, and that will be our last night in Texas before crossing the border into Arkansas. Arkansas will be the first of four new states for the side of the RV.

It was a lovely day yesterday. Our first task was to get the birthday boy out for a short walk. This is another place where it's a little too exposed for his taste. Our "walks" are better described as five-minute "stands" before he asks to be let back into the RV.

Mike spent his morning attempting to repair the slide topper. As it turns out, his efforts were in vain. He still needs another part. He spent about an hour calling different places. Most places had him leaving a message for callbacks that never came. The slide topper problem isn't mission critical, and so I believe I might have talked him into leaving it alone until we get home. There, he'll have the whole summer to work on it. We'll see if my convincing will stick. 

While he was doing that, I took a little walk around the RV park. It's a very nice park...the nicest one so far this trip. This is the view from our site.

To the left is a playground structure.

More to the left is a roped-off swimming beach with life vests provided. I've seen this more than once. It's a great idea. Not everyone can afford a good life vest, and not everyone uses a life vest often enough to be motivated to spend the money. No doubt providing them for free will save some children's lives.

These kayaks were for rent.

There were coots in the water.

And the ever-present Canada geese.

There are several of these fake dogs? Wolves? Coyotes? Not sure what they're supposed to be. I just know they're supposed to scare away the geese and their, um, droppings. Obviously, the geese didn't get the memo.

From a different vantage point, the lake looks like this. It's a large campground.

The long-tailed grackles have kept us entertained with their calling and singing.

I was nearly back to the RV when I snapped this image. That's us right there. You can tell by the catio. We had a nice big grassy space all around us.

There weren't many blooming things...just these little tiny flowers in the grass.

When Mike was finished with the slide topper, we still had plenty of time to take a walk in the Historic District of Grapevine. We parked the car at a nearby strip mall and then walked the rest of the way. Along the way, we passed these flowers.

Here's a little rundown of the history of Grapevine.

The first structure we came to was this cabin.

There's the cabin.

Out front was this well.

The sign there said "water for horses only." If you're thirsty, you'll have to get something at one of the restaurants.

Inside the cabin, I could see the bedroom with this Irish Chain quilt on the bed.

To the left was a spinning wheel.

In a second room was this bed. Is that a grandmother's flower garden quilt?

On the other side of the room was a fireplace and some tools for cooking over an open fire. There was more in this room, but the reflections made it impossible to photograph.

Back outside and across the street, I took another picture of City Hall.

There's another angle of the Watchman. 

Walking on, we passed by a gazebo.

To the right of that was this mural painted on the side of a building. Too bad about the cars blocking the view.

This town reminds me a little of Boulder City, Nevada, with its sculptures. Here's the first one we encountered.

I regret not getting the lead figure in this. It was hard to see my camera screen in the bright sunshine.

Turning directly around, I noticed this sign.

Looking across the street, there's the unicorn.

Let me zoom in so you can get a better look.

Walking on, I was finally able to get a picture of the train depot. It's hard to see in this image, but there is a train extending out from the left side of the image and outside the frame.

Here's another sculpture of two people saying good-bye. I'm assuming one will board the train.

Like so many towns in the west, the railroad is at least partly responsible for its existence. This was a big sign with lots of information. I've cropped it into smaller pieces below to make it easier to read.

In the upper left...

In the upper right.

The timeline across the bottom.

Turning around, we could get a better look at the train.

Historically, steam locomotives had to fill their boiler with water intermittently, and this well would have been used for that.

This is another picture of the "clock tower" at the visitor center. I noticed it's not a clock at the top, but a compass. Now take a look at the left side of the compass, and you'll see a clock there. It was 2:00 p.m.

Now look to the right of the compass, and there is a thermometer. It didn't seem to be functional.

At street level in front of the visitor center was this sculpture.

This is winter and spring for the vines.

This is summer and fall.

Across from the visitor center was this building designated "Grapevine Main." We didn't go inside, but it seemed to house shops, restaurants, and a hotel.

It's a modern structure built to look old. At the bottom center arch, this mural was painted.

The street was lined with all kinds of wineries, gift shops, restaurants, galleries, and other food-related items. This particular shop carried spices and rubs. I loved these gift boxes at the front of the store.

There were some more funny shirts and signs to give us a chuckle. I probably should have bought this one.

This was outside one of the wine-tasting rooms.

As we walked down one side of the street, I spotted a bakery on the other side. I made sure we stopped in on our way back. We each got one of these little bite-sized tarts. I didn't think to take a picture before biting into mine. It was lemon meringue. Mike's was creme brulee. They were bite-sized treats. I had mine finished in three bites, but it would be possible to eat the whole thing in a single bite if you're in a hurry.

Turning around, we could get a good look at the building across the street. Up top were the years 1891 and 1991. And this being 2024, we weren't sure what the years signified.

Just before returning to the truck, we saw this sculpture.

And that was our day in Grapevine. It was a fun town to snoop around. I'm told Sulpur Springs is a nice place, and that we'll enjoy it. We have just one night there, and so I don't know if we'll have much time to explore. Our drive today is about 137 miles...a little more than two hours...and so we'll have a little time after we get set up. 

It's looking like a good day of weather...always appreciated when we move on down the road. Enjoy Texas while it lasts. As of tomorrow, we'll be somewhere else.