Texas RV Travel blog

Golfing is a great sport and Texas is home to some awesome golf courses. You may golf at more than 900 courses in Texas, including two Tour 18 golf courses, one in Houston and one in Dallas. These golf courses recreate world famous golf holes for a challenge at each hole. For fast free information on golfing, click to order FREE Texas Golf Guide. You may also wish to Search for Texas golf courses by fees or by whether it is public, private or resort golf course.

Here are a few popular golf courses in Texas.

• Alamo Country Club in San Antonio
• Padre Isles Country Club on North Padre Island
• Crenshaw Cliffside At Barton Creek
• Bayou Din Golf Club in Beaumont

Some of the most well-known golf courses in Texas are:

• Painted Dunes Desert Golf Course in El Paso is one of the premiere golf courses in the Southwest United States.
• Waterwood National Resort and Golf Course at Lake Livingston is ranked by Golf Digest as one of the best golf courses in the state
• Tapatio Springs outside of Boerne is regarded as one of the top golf resorts in South Texas and home to 27 holes of championship golf on three courses.
• Quarry Golf Club in San Antonio is a world class course with a back nine which descends into a massive limestone quarry surrounded by 100 foot cliff walls.
• Mill Creek Golf Resort and Country Club in Salado is a Robert Trent Jones golf course.
• Columbia Lakes Resort Hotel in West Columbia outside of Houston is one of the top ten resort courses in Texas.
• Ambush at Lajitas Golf Course features four holes on an island in the Rio Grande River and an optional par one in Mexico.
• Horseshoe Bay Resort Golf Course was designed by Robert Trent Jones, Sr.

Scheduled 2007 PGA tournaments in Texas:

• March 26-April 1, 2007, The Shell Houston Open, held at Redstone Golf Club Tournament Course in Houston.
• April 25-29, 2007, EDS Byron Nelson Championship at Cottonwood Valley Golf Club in Irving and TPC Four Seasons Resort Las Colinas.
• May 21-27, 2006, Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth is the longest running event on the PGA Tour still held at original site.
• October 4-7, 2007, The Valero Texas Open at La Cantera in San Antonio

Tags: Texas golf, world class golf, unique Texas golfing, Texas PGA tour

Posted by CyberCelt under Did You Know & Golf | No Comments »

Whooping Cranes

February 10-11, 2007
Eagle Fest in Emory, Texas - Barge Eagle tours on Lake Fork, exhibitions and lectures, Native American art and performances.

February 15-18, 2007
Brownsville International Birding Festival - Enjoy field trips, seminars, explore the biodiversity of south Texas and northern Mexico.

February 18-22, 2007
El Cielo Nature Festival, Ciudad Mante, Tamaulipas, Mexico - This festival is sponsored by the McAllen and Brownsville Chambers of Commerce. El Cielo is located in northeast Mexico includes the northernmost cloud forest in the North American continent.

February 23-27, 2007
Annual Celebration of Whooping Cranes and Other Birds in Port Aransas - Guided tours of birding centers, wetland habitats, art exhibits, seminars, singing zoologists and more.

Tags: birding festivals, whooping cranes, bald eagles, cloud forest

Posted by CyberCelt under Beach & Birding & Other Countries & Wildlife Watching | 2 Comments »

Star Parties in Texas

In Austin, there are Star Gazing and Moonlighting Tours (weather permitting) at Wild Basin Wilderness Preserve each month. Star Gazing takes place with the crescent moon and Moonlighting Tours happen around the full moon.

For a list of the Austin Astronomical Society’s planned star parties for 2007, please visit the website. The star parties are held, weather permitting, at the Eagle Eye Observatory at the Canyon Of The Eagles on Lake Buchannan.

The 29th Annual Texas Star Party will be hosted on the Prude Ranch, a 3,500 acre mile-high ranch located six miles northwest of Fort Davis on May 13-20, 2007.

Tags: stars, Texas, star party, star gazing

Posted by CyberCelt under Lakes & Nature & Skywatching | 5 Comments »

Blanco River, Dudley Johnson Park

Yesterday, we went to the Blanco River at Five Mile Dam, just outside of San Marcos. They call it Five Mile Dam because it is five river miles from Wimberley, Texas. The name of the park is the Dudley Johnson Park, in memory of a fallen police officer.

Five Mile Dam, Blanco River

What a wonderful sight met our eyes. The Blanco River is flowing over the dam and the pool behind the dam is deep and wide. Several years ago, the Blanco pretty much dried up during a drought and it broke my heart to see this magnificant river reduced to stagnant pools. Since we have been in a two-year drought, I have not wanted to return.

Dry as a Bone Blanco

I found the picture above on Notes from The Cubicle blog. Sean snapped this picture of the exposed backside of the dam on July 19, 2006.

Tags: Blanco River, Five Mile Dam, Dudley Johnson Park

Posted by CyberCelt under Birding & Day Trips & Family Fun & Kayak/canoe/tube & Rivers | 4 Comments »

Parents, frightened by the infant car seat ratings report featured in the February issue of Consumer Reports magazine and on the website, ConsumerReports.org, will be happy to know that the Consumers Union will be retesting all the car seats, using in-house labs.

The crash results and report, performed by an outside lab, concluded only two of twelve car seats tested passed the side impact test. Consumer Reports is suspending the article’s ratings and other recommendations regarding specific car-seat models until this retesting is completed.

In an email dated January 25, 2007, the president of Consumers Union, Jim Guest, stated:

One of our tests was intended to simulate how infant car seats perform in a side-impact crash at 38 mph. That’s the speed at which many new vehicles are tested in side crashes by the government’s auto safety agency. But upon reevaluating our data, we believe our tests simulated crashes that were much more severe than that.

I rely on Consumer Reports for information and testing results on any major product that I might purchase. In the past year, I have used Consumer Reports.org to complete research on front loading washers and dryers and used car safety and repair ratings. This inaccurate report, while disappointing, is only one of four mistakes made by Consumer Reports in 70 years!

The others errors were: Suzuki Samurai (1988) and Isuzu Trooper (1996) road test results, ingredients in dog food lacking essential nutrients dispute (1998), and a depreciation miscalculation involving hybrid gas-electric cars and trucks (April 2006).

Tags: Consumers Union, Consumer Reports Magazine, infant car seats tests, suspending ratings and recommendations, infant car seats safety retested

Posted by CyberCelt under Did You Know & Product Reviews & Trouble | 4 Comments »

San Marcos Falls

Many of you know that Texas was in the grips of a two-year drought that had dried up most of the rivers and greatly lowered the lakes.

Lower San Marcos Falls

We were blessed with rain, ice and snow, so the springs and rivers are flowing and the lakes are up again. More rain, ice and snow on its way to Texas! Thank you, Lord!

Tags: San Marcos River, San Marcos Falls, Texas drought broken, Texas rivers flowing

Posted by CyberCelt under Kayak/canoe/tube & Rivers & Scuba/Snorkel & Wildlife Watching | No Comments »

Ford Airstream Concept displays one piece grille/headlights combo
and windows that are each uniquely shaped.

Ford Airstream Concept doors are asymmetric, providing easy
access, like passenger side power clamshell door (above) .

Rear Area of Ford Airstream Concept includes a 360-degree screen for
gaming and entertainment that also provides provides mood lighting.
Note the 3-door rear hatch.

The Ford Airstream Concept car was introduced at the 2007 Detroit Auto Show is a collaborative effort between Airstream and Ford Motor Company. Although not as sleek as the Base Camp developed by Airstream, Nissan and Kelty, the hydrogen-fuel cell, battery-powered plug-in vehicle, is definitely different.

Using a HySeries Drive with hydrogen fuel cell that kicks in to recharge the lithium-ion batteries, this powertrain technology could deliver 40+ miles per gallon. Fueled by batteries for the first 25 miles, the hydrogen fuel cell automatically recharges the batteries, giving the car a range of 225 miles between hydrogen fueling.

Whether this concept will ever be realized and on the road, Ford appears to be committed to alternative energy . . .

Other Ford vehicles with this technology, like the Edge (above) unveiled at the 2007 Washington Auto Show, are now being driven as test vehicles for alternative powertrains. Ford appears to be making a commitment to alternative fuel vehicles.

At the 2007 Washington Auto Show, Ford displayed the first Ford Escape Hybrid E85 (above). The Escape E85 is a vehicle fueled by hybrid electric power, and using flex fuels, including blends of 85 percent ethanol fuel.

Tags: Airstream Ford Concept, Ford Edge, Ford Escape Hybrid, HySeries Powertrain, alternative fuel

Posted by CyberCelt under Alternative Energy | No Comments »