A Recent Trip

In the previous post, I related the hike Donna and I took at Enchanted Rock. That was just the first day of a 4 day journey.

We left early Thursday to reach Enchanted Rock around 9:00 or so. Following our hike, we went to Fredericksburg to spend the night. Our first in town stop was Hoegemeyer's Barbeque Hall located near the Markplatz. Oddly, this was the location of the Thai restaurant we frequented in past visits. The BBQ at Hoegemeyer's is average, but the prices and quantity are good. But we thought BBQ was a good choice because we were pretty ragged looking following our hike, and we really didn't want to go someplace nice. The good thing about BBQ joints is that they are normally pretty casual affairs.

We then checked into our hotel, the Inn on Baron's Creek. Hotels in Fredericksburg are pricey. We normally try to get someplace within walking distance of Main Street. This was the first time to stay at this place, and it was a nice hotel with a better than average breakfast. After cleaning some of the trail off our aging bodies, we walked a couple of blocks to the Auslander and enjoyed a couple of dunkels in their biergarten. It was a fairly hot day, and the biergarten was open air. I needed a cooling down after the hike, so we strolled across the street to Culture's Bar and Grill to enjoy their air conditioning and some of their 47 beers on tap. We then returned to the hotel for the night.

Early the next morning, following a good breakfast at the hotel, we set off for Palestine. We drove east along US 290. I continue to be amazed at how the area between Fredericksburg and Stonewall is building up. Wineries and vineyards occupy much of the countryside, but there are other businesses as well. It wasn't that long ago that we could drive this route and see a few peach orchards and produce stands and little else other than countryside. Things do change.

We worked our way up through the Temple area and on over to Palestine, arriving in the early afternoon. As usual whenever we visit East Texas, we drove through some pretty heavy rain, especially from Temple on. The countryside was lush, stock tanks were full, and the crops, though young, looked promising. The first thing we did upon arriving in Palestine was stop at Little Mexico. I've mentioned this restaurant in my blog before. I grew up eating here, starting when it was just a little shop on the square. It has always been my standard for Mexican food. While still good, it really no longer appeals to me as it once did. The prices are a bit high, too, when compared with some of the places I normally eat. Oh well, as I said, things do change.

We checked into our hotel late that afternoon and settled in. Late that night, heavy storms rolled through, dropping quite a bit of rain. There was thunder, lightning, and hail in some areas around us. We rose early the next morning, had breakfast in the hotel, then set off for Lake Palestine. The whole purpose of this trip was to attend a family reunion, so that was our destination for the day. We had a good visit with some family that cool and windy Saturday. Later in the day, we set off west, returning home. We only made it to Hillsboro, though, where we spent the night.

Sunday, we rose early and headed home. It was rather cold that day, with temps in the mid 30s. That's a bit low for this part of Texas this time of year. It is always so nice to return home. We had a nice drive home, but both of us noticed the change in the countryside. While things east of I-35 were lush and green, west of I-35 the landscape became more parched as we drove homeward. Stock tanks held less and less water. Our part of West Texas continues to need rain. I continue to fear that we are in the early days of another drought.