Fredericksburg, Texas, is a small town of about 11,000 people in the heart of the Texas Hill Country, at an elevation of 1,700 ft. The town was started by German settlers in the 1840s headed by Baron von Meusebach later known as John O. Meusebach. Not your average settler as he organised a meeting with the Comanches and formed a treaty with them whereby they would not interfere in the development of the colony. The treaty is still considered unbroken to this day. Main Street divides the town and is the confluence of Highways 290, 87, and 16 which makes it quite busy, especially at weekends.  Main Street along with other streets to the north and south are very wide, as they were laid out to be able to turn an ox team in one move.  All in all a pleasant small town set in beautiful countryside, with approximately 20 vineyards within 30 mins drive!

Anyway, we were able to get out of Jim and Jerrie’s hair on schedule and didn’t over stay our allotted two weeks.  Just about all rentals are unfurnished so we arranged rental furniture through Corts, who were really good and efficient.  The move into our little flat went smoothly and was quite painless – amazing.  In one day furniture was delivered, power turned on, and TV and internet hooked up, and everyone was so nice.  When the complex manager said we had to go to Central Texas Electric Co-Op to register and pay to get the electricity turned on we looked at each other and thought “here we go.” Staggering, the effect of dealing with South Carolina Electric & Gas (SCE&G) has on a person. The receptionist at CTEC asked us to take a seat in the lobby while she arranged for us to see one of their staff, and about 3 mins later we were in Neal’s office (note the spelling) and 15 mins later we were registered, paid through their automated card swipe system just off the lobby, and power was on!  We walked out with smiles on faces!  Also, our local Post Office is a gem with everyone so friendly and helpful, quite unlike the surly staff at the Charleston central post office which we would go out of our way to avoid. Our choice of TV/Internet was TimeWarner or TimeWarner, and we had been warned by Jim that they were basically a terrible company, and good luck.  Tried to do it on-line as any normal 70-year-old person does, and was soon hanging up on really stupid TW agents who called asking really stupid questions.  The complex manager advised we go to TW’s office in Fredericksburg as they were really good, so off we went and met Natalie.  She was great – checked and saw we were in the system – but stalled – so cleared that and re-entered all our information. Then gave us all the equipment we needed to get started, and said it was a piece of cake to hook-up.  So off we went, and sure enough it was easy to get things going. Just took one call to tech services to get the password for the wireless network and that was it. However, TW has one of the most antiquated DVR systems I have come across; we can only record two shows at once, and the controls are so counter-intuitive it is mind-boggling, but hey, we are here for the wine!  Little Fredericksburg has two super markets HEB, the family owned Texas supermarket chain that is really good, and Wal-Mart.  We soon found Wal-Mart is great for setting up home on the cheap, and that shopping at HEB is much cheaper than Harris Teeter in Charleston with amazing fresh produce. Then there is the German bakery, 2 German meat shops as well as at least 6 German restaurants. However, Fredericksburg is light on Asian restaurants with only one Chinese and one Thai, but with Mexican restaurants, and couple of supposedly good American/International spots, we should be covered for our 6-months stay. By about day 3 we had joined the Wellness Center and located the golf course, which is part of the Lady Bird Johnson State Park on the outskirts of town. Johnson City, the home town of Lyndon B. Johnson is about 30 mins east of Fredericksburg, so a lot of facilities around here have the Johnson name.

Fredericksburg wine country is now considered the New Napa.  Whether that is true or not remains to be seen, but with the amount of wineries in area, and growing by the day, it is certainly a real wine area.  6 more wineries are to open this year and we are told that there are another 26 vineyard permits in the system, as well as a major Italian wine producer looking at putting in vines.  Anyway, The Angry Anglo and Wife like it and the Texas Hill Country with its wineries and restaurants certainly shows promise.