more of the texas state capitol building.

here are some pictures of the interior of the building. two are looking up and down in the rotunda, one of the ceiling of the senate chamber, one of the exterior of the back of the building, and one of judy and i in front, with our feet cut off.

austin... traffic mecca of texas.

i'm telling you... it was horrific. we tried twice on saturday to get downtown from our campground, mckinney falls state park, about 5 miles from downtown. the peace and quiet of the park belied the intense experience of trying to get around in one of the fastest growing cities in the united states, if not the fastest. the population growth has so outpaced the ability of the infastructure to absorb all of the commerce coming and going from this city center that it will take decades for the city to catch up with all of the necessary improvements. construction is ongoing, which only adds to the confusion. we finally abandoned all hope of ever traversing the short drive to the city center until early sunday morning, when we finally achieved our goal.

once we got there it was a wonderful mixture of architecture from 100+ years ago to the present that gives a vision of how far the city has come in the last 150 years.there is a beautiful hotel, the hotel driscoll, that fully expresses the elegance that was a century ago while backdropped with modern structures that both expose the plain practicality and extravegent overstatement of modern architecture. the state capitol is another example of elegant design for public buildings as expressed in the distant past that sharply contrasts with the modern impersonality of government structures. texans are rightly proud of their civic architectual heritage and are even today striving to preserve the old county courthouses with an ongoing program of renovations for various courthouses all over the state. they are wonderful structures and truly deserve preservation. it is a benefit to us all that they are spending the treasure and energy to bring back these buildings to their former glory. i took some pictures of one of these buildings in lockhart, texas that will appear shortly in the bar-b-que chapter. lockhart is, after all, the mecca for bar-b-que lovers in the south, and with good reason.

antler art... a store in fredericksburg.

owned and run by aretired lawman. he makes creations from cast off antlers, (an antler christmas tree anyone?) lots of the mounted heads of lots of different animals,even a full mount brown bear rug for a mere $18,000.00. sorry i didn't have the spare change. we also met a retired texas ranger there, he is the one who looks like a retired texas ranger.

texas has a lot of exotic animals. we have seen axis deer, wild escaped herds are all over this part of texas. we have seen llamas, camels, ostrich, emu, who knows what else. feral hogs, escaped domestic varieties are a menace, they destroy acres of crops and decimate golf courses. they are widely hunted and are good to eat, i am told. the locals mix the wild pork and venison to make a tasty sausage. i would like to try some of that,but so far haven't had the chance to do so.

stonewall, texas...

is about halfway between fredericksburg and johnson city. it is the area l.b.j. came from and his ranch is there. we went there to visit wineries and see some longhorn cattle feeding on the lowly jimson weeds. we didn't know there was a great museum of the pacific portion of world war II in fredericksburg. it is a GREAT museum. we spent a whold day walking thru getting steeped in the pacific theater and all of the strategies that were implimented there. it was very absorbing and we were absorbed for hours on end. if you ever are in the vicinity don't miss it. the wineries are good too, but i just wantded to make a point of recommending the museum. very educational and interesting.

oh yeah... the wineries. texas is the fifth largest wine producing state. the best wines to our taste tended to be the sweet wines and ports. we went to several and bought about a case of wine all told, kinda pricy... but good, if you like sweet wines, which we do, now.

and the longhorned cattle. a lot tamer than we expected. these were on the l.b.j. ranch. names were poncho and lefty, which was which? nobody knew.

luckenbach, texas, looking for willie and the boys.

but, alas, they were not in residence.
here you have it, downtown luckenbach. there is a dancehall and a store, and a few other delapidated buildings. not much to look at but the mecca of hundreds who go there every year for the annual "hug-ins". there was one happening the weekend after we were there, i sure hope it warmed up for the event. i was told there would be hiundreds of folks there for lots of music and a big dance over the weekend, the cost was $35.00 for the weekend, includes all the music you can stand and a dry campsite, also included a ticket to the dance. not a bad deal if you are a real country music afficianado and a hardy soul who can stand the cold.

guadelupe river state park

nice place. teh river was not at flood stage as there had been a drought condition for some time, and it was a god thing too. the river floods it's banks when the rains happen to a degree that cannot be believed. when we were there it was at a tame level, most beautiful to behold. we went to the river and witnessed the force the water has by observing the trees and how tenaciously they hold on to eachother and the ground upon which they stand. the force of the water has washed away any of the dirt around the root systems of the trees exposing the tangle necessary for survival in this precarious environment. it seems it is either flood or drought here. resulting in a beautiful rugged landscape. it was nice to be in such a quiet place after the energy that was san antonio.

we have decided our strong preference is for the rural settings as opposed to the busy metropolitan areas in texas. the state is growing at such a rate that the infastructure is being overloaded in the cities. the traffic in every city we have visited is horrific. while in austin we tried three times to fight our way thru traffic, finally making it to downtown by going on a sunday morning at an early hour. otherwise forget it. i suppose if you are a resident of the particular city you learn your way around, but if you are a visitor, forget it!

last of san antonio...

while in san antonio i visited with my afore mentioned sister, carolyn. she is a devoted mother and grandmother to one of the most admirable broods in texas.

when the blizzard delayed our lunch to meet and greet carolyn we were told to go to a restaurant that turned out to be a longish drive away, much to our puzzlement. we drove and arrived at the restaurant in good time, had a few minutes to spare so sat up to the bar and had a beer while waiting for her arrival. she arrived with 24 of her closest family and by the time we were all assembled there were 28 people seated in a private dining room in the restaurant. these were four of her five children, their spouses and offspring. the other son lives in utah and couldn't make lunch with his wife and two kids, too bad, it would have been wonderful to have them all in one place at the same time. i had not seen her children in about 25 years so it was great to meet them and their families and to find out what they had been doing for the last quarter century. one thing for sure, they had been prolific! it was a great lunch and my neice, amanda, paid for our lunch out of the kindness of her heart. we have been getting a lot of free stuff in texas, these folks will give you the shirt off their back if you need it, maybe even if you don't!

we met a couple days later at her son justin's house. the same crowd. he has a big house on a golf course that could accommodate all of the families. we had a big potluck dinner. judy and i made some "gourmet" macaroni and cheese, three different versions, justin made ribs on the grill, we all sat and watched in amazement as children rollerscated, scootered and generally ran amok for hours. what energy! we watched the superbowl in the "theater room". it was the first time judy and i had been in the presence of so many family members and it was a true delight. if any of you don't have a big family go get you one, they are lots of fun.

san antonio..... mas

there are things locals tell you must be seen by visitors to san antonio. so we went to see them. one was the mercado. it is a large building that houses lots of little shops that sell everything mexican. quite a colorful sight with live music. it was nice, but not a "must see" in my estimation, if you have been to mexico you have seen it already, if you haven't been there it is entertaining to go to the mercado.

of course, one must see the alamo and learn about this important battle in the fight for texas independence. it was most impressive and we greatly enjoyed our visit to the historic monument. i gotta say, texans have a real sense of their history. much more than any other state we have visited. every texan has a strong awarness of their place in history and a real pride in the orgins of the state and it's people. it is a very positive attitude and gives texans a strong identity with the land and history. i much respect the pride they hold as texans.

nobody told us there was a pet african porcupine in san antonio tho. we had to discover that for ourselves.

san antonio blizzard of 2011

and we were there! a half an inch of snow and the whole city shut down. schools, major roadways, government offices, all of the city came to a halt. not too hard to understand really, the town has no equipment to handle the snow. even a little bit of it. it turns to ice when the cars drive on the streets and everyone loses control of their directional stability. it was a sight to see. made a snowman and posed it with sock monkey mascot just to show the extent of the snowfall... the date was friday, february 4, 2011. a day to remember.

goose island state park,

goose island state park is wonderful. it is a small state park but a real gem of a place. all over texas we heard about "the big tree" and at last we got to view the most famous tree in texas. it was a big tree alright. and it resides in goose island state park. there was also "stinky beach" which wasn't talked about at all anywhere. too bad too, it was a real thing to experience as well. the camp ground was set amoung stately live oaks and definately one of the nicest we have stayed in so far. located near rockport. rockport includes "hu dat oriental cuisine", i suspect the founders hailed from new orleans.

goose island was on our way to san antonio to visit with my sister carolyn who lives there surrounded by dozens of children, her own and her grandchildren. the frog tried to stowaway in the van but we thought it better that it stay in the beautiful oak grove than go into the hustle and bustle that is san antonio.

palacios, tx.

pronounced "palashus" in texas, rather than the spanish pronounciation. we stayed at the serendipity campground. it is a quiet little seaside fishing town. not a lot to do, but the quiet was nice. we rode the bikes around the town, took in the beautiful old structures. the luther hotel is there. rita hayworth stayed there, judy is posed in her room. i gurss rita is done with it so she didn't mind.

on the way to goose island state park we went to a little town called seadrift. while there i saw a man shucking oysters. i asked him where i could buy some. it is possible to buy oysters but you have to buy a 120 pound bag, more than i could use. anyhow i wanted to buy about three dozen to grill on the weber, you can't buy oysters by the dozen. tom deforest kindly gave me three dozen from the sack he was shucking out for the church. he told us "i can't charge you for the oysters, god would frown on that." so we gave him money for the plate at church the next day. he invited us to the service but we were moving on to goose island.

when we left palacios we had breakfast from rolling joe. jose rolled us up some breakfast burritos. darned good breakfast, kept us 'til dinner.

lunch at the blessing hotel.

no sign... no indication that they even served food there. just a couple guys leaving the hotel fron the side entrance. judy asked them if there was a place to eat lunch there and they said "yup, just in that door and turn left. but don't go in if you're not hungry." they laughed and went on their way... we went in and turned left. we walked into a room with mismatched tables and chairs and a few folks sitting around... some of them eating, most just sitting at a table talking and drinking coffee. one of the ladies said "grab a plate and help yourselves" we did as directed. on top of a couple old timey cookstoves there were some green beans bubbling away with some bacon. pots of stew, potatoes, some gravy, fried chicken. there was beans and rice, chicken fried steak, tamales, onion rings. there was a salad bar with some tossed greens, tomatoes, cukes, cole slaw, five bean salad, pickeled beets and various dressings. there was sweet tea to drink, coffee, and lemonaide. there were various desserts, dump cake, cobblers of various colors.and a friendly staff whose motto was "never trust a skinny cook".the four ladies(one was camera shy) who make all the food get to the kitchen at 7:00 every morning and set to rattling those pots and pans. they close at 2:00 pm and clean up, then start it all over the next morning. we left with a warm feeling from the food and the friendly folks who obviously love what they do. if you are ever in blessing don't miss lunch at the blessing hotel. they also have rooms to rent. we looked at some of the rooms and found them to be clean and charming.