A Little Shopping, a Little Olive Oil, and a Little Beer

On Monday, we rose early and checked out of the hotel in New Braunfels by 8:00. No breakfast is provided at the hotel, so we drove up I-35 to San Marcos and stopped at a McDonald's across from the outlet malls. Any time we are in the area, we like to spend a little time at the 2 large outlet malls in San Marcos.

We always start at Tanger Outlet Mall because the stores there open at 9:00 AM. We split up, each going to the stores we enjoy. I visited the Haggar store. I like clothes shopping at outlet centers because they tend to carry sizes regular retail stores do not. I prefer pants with 31 inch inseams, and it is extremely difficult to find odd sizes such as this in most retail stores; most carry only even number lengths. So, I stopped in and purchased some slacks.

After an hour or so, we moved north to San Marcos Premium Outlets, where Donna can spend hours at the Vanity Fair store. I went in briefly and picked up a couple of shirts, then sat outside and read a book while Donna finished her shopping. It was a beautiful morning, and I enjoyed relaxing and watching the people come and go.

These two outlet malls have done well over time. Most outlet malls today are really suffering. We sometimes stop in at the malls in Hillsboro and Conroe, and both of those centers have more empty stores than they do operating ones. I did not see any empty buildings at the malls in San Marcos.

After shopping, we picked up Highway 12 and headed west out of San Marcos. At Wimberley, we stopped for gas at the local H.E.B., then continued to Dripping Springs. What once was just a spot in the road is now a busy community, with major retail businesses of all sorts, from Home Depot to H.E.B. to Walgreens. The little Hill Country towns we once loved so much are no more.

At Dripping Springs, we headed west on US 290 for about 5 miles or so, then turned north on Bell Springs Road. We followed this 4 mile stretch -- which was lined with house after house on small acreages -- to Fitzhugh Road, where we turned east for half a mile to the Texas Hill Country Olive Company. We did a bit of shopping in the store -- where we purchased a bottle of their garlic infused olive oil for dipping purposes -- then walked through the olive trees. Tours are available on the weekends. There is also a bistro on site where you can enjoy some interesting meals if you like.

Texas Hill Country Olive Company

Tasting counter, where you can sample the oils before buying.

Products for sale on left, counter center, and bistro in background.

Donna making a purchase. 

The olive trees

Donna among the olive trees.

Close up of an olive tree.

Back on Fitzhugh, we headed due west. This is a small country lane, and the speed limit was pretty low, so we took our time and enjoyed the beautiful countryside. Soon we came to the entrance to Pedernales River State Park -- a place Donna and I have hiked a few times in the past -- and at this point the road upgraded. A few short miles later and we were in Johnson City.

Blue bonnets at entrance to Pedernales Falls State Park.

Lovely stand of blue bonnets

At Johnson City, we turned north on US 281, crossed the Pedernales River, and headed to Marble Falls, our destination for the night. Upon arriving in Marble Falls, we went to the Blue Bonnet Cafe for a late lunch. The Blue Bonnet is something of a legend in these parts, and I've wanted to stop for a long time. They are especially known for their burgers, breakfasts, and pies. Although we arrived around 2:00 PM, there was still a line, and we had to wait about 15 minutes or so to be seated. Donna and I are always looking for a good burger, so that is what we ordered. The burgers were good, I thought, but nothing special. Donna agreed. We've had better, but we've certainly had worse. Oh well, another item crossed off our bucket list.

We checked into the Hampton Inn on Lake Marble Falls for the night. It is a beautiful setting on the north bank of the Colorado River/Lake Marble Falls. Right next door is a Chili's Grill and Bar, and Donna and I took advantage of their happy hour prices. We sat out on their balcony overlooking the lake for awhile, then eventually moved inside to enjoy the air conditioning on what had become a very hot day.

View of Lake Marble Falls from our room

Donna enjoying the view and the beer at Chili's balcony bar. That is the US 281 bridge in the background.

Hotel pool, with part of hot tub visible at bottom. Lake is on right. Chili's is in background.

Lake Marble Falls, looking upriver

I'm not very good at this selfie thing, but here are the old folks by the hotel pool overlooking the river/lake.

It was a pretty full day for us, but an enjoyable one.

Hill Country Trip: New Braunfels

This past Sunday, Donna and I headed out for a few days of fun in the Hill Country. Our destination for the first night was New Braunfels.

Although we had been checking the weather for the area periodically, I guess we missed that rain system that was heading into the Hill Country. We began to suspect something was wrong when we kept running into some fairly heavy fog as we approached Brady. The fog grew worse as we turned south towards Mason. As we approached Fredericksburg, the fog turned into rain. Drats!

We were hoping to see lots of wildflowers and other scenery, but the rain -- which was pretty heavy at times --  put a hamper on things. In fact, I had hoped to take Highway 1376 just east of Fredericksburg and work my way to Blanco along the Blanco River and Highways 1888 and 1623. With the heavy rain, though, I thought that might not be wise. Instead, we stayed on US 290 through Stonewall and then to Johnson City, where we turned south on US 281 to Blanco.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again. That area between Stonewall and Fredericksburg has really built up over the years. As recently as the early 1990s, Donna and I made that drive quite a number of times, and we always enjoyed it. Now, it is busy and hectic, and I would just as soon avoid it. Everyone has gotten onto the winery and brewery and distillery kick, it seems, and those places are just cluttering that once beautiful drive.

At Blanco, we decided to drive through Blanco State Park. We have stayed there quite a few times in our various RVs over the years, and we just wanted to see what had changed. We were delighted to find the same old park. If we ever RV again, this little park will be one of our regular stops.

From Blanco, we turned south on busy US 281 and drove about 10 or so miles before turning east on Highway 306. Our intention was to drive along the shores of Canyon Lake, but I got confused on some of the little roads we branched off on and we ended up calling it quits. We also intended to drive into New Braunfels on the River Road, which crisscrosses the Guadalupe River on numerous low water crossings. However, with the heavy rain, we decided that probably wasn't too wise, so we just headed into town and stopped at Rudy's for some BBQ.

We then checked into the Faust Hotel in downtown New Braunfels, where we would spend the night. After getting settled in our room, we strolled around the downtown area and finally went to the Phoenix Saloon, where we would spend some time listening to a local musician entertain the small crowd. 

In the next entry, I'll cover the second day of our trip.

I really like the tree-covered plaza area of downtown New Braunfels.

Another view of the plaza, but in a different direction.

Donna standing in front of the Phoenix Saloon. You can see reflections of cars passing along the street to her left heading to the Plaza. Ironically, there is lettering on the glass above Donna's head that says, "No habitual drunkards". When they recognized Donna, they would not admit us.

Since they would not let Donna in, I had to go in and order our beer and bring it out front to our seats along the sidewalk. We both sampled a pecan porter of some sort. 

Murals such as this are all over the downtown area. Most tell the story of the history of New Braunfels.

One reason we've always liked the Phoenix is the bar, which boasts a large number of draft beers.

Doing Some Yard Work

We've lived here for almost 3 years now. During this time, we've debated about whether to make any changes in our yard. It's really been nice not having to worry about a yard. I've always enjoyed yard work, and found it a great way to relieve stress during my working days. But I have to admit, I've rather enjoyed not having to weed beds, mow the lawn, and do all the other chores associated with lawn care during our 3 years here.

Although we technically own our home, the regulations of our community require that all changes to yard and home be approved by management. The regulations are really common sense concerns, and we are fine with them. So, we visited with our property manager and maintenance director, and all changes we wanted to make were approved.

Our first task we set was to remove the shrubs in our front beds. Neither Donna nor I are fans of shrubs, and these were particularly ugly shrubs. For the 3 years we've lived here, I've trimmed the shrubs 2 or 3 times a year, but have done little else to them.

This is a picture of our house I shot just before we moved in. The shrubs along the garage and around the patio wall to left of sidewalk are the ones we removed.

These are the shrubs bordering our garage. The gate on left goes onto front patio and leads to front door. I snapped this photo just before I removed the shrubs.

These shrubs border the wall around the patio. You can see a bit of our front door above the wall. Photo taken at same time as the one above.

So, I set out with shovel and other tools one warm day and began the process of removing the shrubs. Wow, those boogers really had some roots! And I had to be careful, because we have irrigation hoses in the beds.

This photo shows my progress, as well as the irrigation hose I had to work around. The shrubs in this bed were much easier to remove than the ones in the bed next to the garage.

Basically, I used the shovel to loosen the soil around each shrub, then used hand tools to gradually work the shrubs out. I used a hatchet to cut most of the roots. I ended up spending about 6 hours over 2 days working on the shrubs. It is difficult for me to accept that there are things I cannot do as easily now as I did 40, 30, 20, or even 5 years ago. I was worn after working on these shrubs. The roots just did not want to let go of their hold on the hard caliche soil.

I eventually got all the shrubs out, then Donna began working along behind, cleaning out the beds. There were still quite a few roots in the soil, and we both worked to remove them. There were also 1 or 2 sections of irrigation hose that had been damaged by the roots. Admittedly, I also got a bit wild with the hatchet a time or two and whacked some hose. I replaced damaged sections a day or two later.

This is the completed garage bed. The roots are cleaned out, but there is still a lot of rock in the bed we need to remove. Then we'll mix in some good soil and then stabilize the irrigation hose. Note the black sections of hose; these are the sections I had to replace.

So, we now have the beds pretty clean, but the soil is terrible. We'll gradually work some good soil in, then plant some herbs.

I'll keep you posted as work progresses -- that is, if I live long enough.

The Hummers are Back

The weather has really been nice lately for the most part. Daily highs are usually in the 70s and 80s, and nightly lows are usually in the 50s, though one or two nights have dipped into the upper 40s. Now, it did get cold this past weekend, with lows dipping into the 30s, and the north wind nearly blew us away on Saturday, making the 45 degree weather seem much, much colder. But for the most part, we've enjoyed some really good weather.

About 10 days ago, Donna mixed up a batch of hummingbird food and set her feeders up along our back patio. It didn't take long for the little rascals to show up. They've been frequenting our house ever since, and we've heard neighbors talking about hummer sightings as well. 

Not a good photo, but the best I could do.

But with the good comes the bad. We have numerous birds who tend to be pests. Although I love to watch the martins swoop and feed, they try their best to build their nasty nests everywhere. We have a hanging light fixture just outside our front door, and they love to make that their summer home. We've put some protective wrap around it, though, and that seems to deter them. Some birds think our patio ceiling fan is there exclusively for them. So, for the next couple of months, we'll be fighting these birds. Red wasps and yellow jackets like our patio areas as well. We've already removed a couple of nests. We try not to hurt them in the process, as they do some good things in garden areas, but we also don't want to get stung. One of our grandsons is allergic to bites, so we try to keep things safe for him.

We've started doing some yard work, but I'll report about that in another post. In fact, the Boss Lady has really been keeping me busy with outside work, and that is one reason my postings have been infrequent of late. I'll get caught up soon, though, and get back into the swing of things.

Short Trip to Lubbock

Donna and I made a short trip to Lubbock this past week. We needed to get away for a while, and there were a couple of things we wanted to do in Lubbock, so off we went for an overnight trip.

We took the most direct route to Lubbock; that is, we drove straight up US 87 through Big Spring and Lamesa. Throughout the entire trip, we were to see many large loads on the road, the first appearing just north of Angelo.

This oversized load was in the southbound lane. It was so broad traffic was having a difficult time getting around it, even with 2 lanes and shoulders.

I snapped this as we drove by. Notice the extra long trailer setup.

After taking care of a little business upon our arrival in the Hub City, we went to the Tikka Shack for lunch. We had eaten here once before and enjoyed it, so we wanted to try it again. We do like the place, but then, we love Indian food. On both trips, we were disappointed that there were not many people in the place. I hope it survives. West Texans take a while to get used to exotic food.

The Tikka Shack is a casual dining establishment, and not a very busy one. Perhaps Donna and I have bad taste; we prefer to think we have good taste but everyone else is corrupted. I'm sure we are the sane ones.

Chicken curry with basmati rice and plain naan bread.

Lamb tikka masala with basmati rice and specialty naan.

On our trip back, we decided to take a different route. We drove southeast on US 84 through Slaton and Post. We detoured briefly at Justiceburg to take a look at Lake Alan Henry. This is a fairly new lake. When Donna and I first moved to West Texas in 1979, we would follow US 84 up through Lubbock and on to Olton. The lake was not there then, and I'm not sure when it was formed; to be honest, I'm too lazy to look it up.

Sunrise over Post. This photo was taken from a rest area atop the Caprock, before we descended to Post below.

The Caprock to the west

View from atop the Caprock looking east.

A cove on Lake Alan Henry, with boat ramp bottom left. It is difficult to get close to the lake.

I was not impressed with the lake area. In fact, I wasn't impressed with the entire drive from Lubbock on down to Snyder. Sure, the Caprock is always interesting, appearing as a flat mountain range. In our younger days traveling this route, this area fascinated us because it was so different than what we grew up with. Time has a way of making you see things differently.

At Snyder, we turned south on Texas 208, and followed it through Colorado City and Robert Lee on to San Angelo. The stretch from Colorado City to Angelo was the most scenic, especially the stretch from the tiny hamlet of Silver on to Robert Lee. I think this stretch calls for a day trip in the days ahead.

Here is another long load. It is about to make a right turn, and had to move all the way over to the left to do so. His companion had just made the turn.

Here is the same rig near the end of his turn.

Once we arrived home, I was about to pull up to a traffic light to make a left turn when I noticed 3 trucks with oversized loads pulling up to the light from the left. I stayed well back so that they could swing wide. It was a bit unusual to see so many large loads during the trip.

Finally, Some Rain

The good weather folks at our media outlets finally delivered on predictions of rain. They had predicted rain for several weeks, but all we ever got was a heavy dew. On Tuesday night, though, they gave us almost an inch of rain, bringing our total to just under 1½ inches for 2019. It's amazing what a good rain will do for grass and plants.

It was quite foggy Tuesday morning. This is a view from my back patio looking towards the clubhouse, whose outline is barely discernible.

As a contrast, this is our normal view of the clubhouse, so you can see just how thick the fog was earlier in the week.

Our temps are still not living up to the averages for this time of year, but they aren't that far off. But when it's 60 degrees outside and the wind is blowing 50+ miles an hour, it is a bit chilly. And yes, we did get winds of that speed earlier in the week. I got out late Tuesday and secured all of our belongings on the front and back porches to make sure they didn't blow away, and I'm glad I did. Poor little Junction, a small town about 100 miles south/southeast of here, was hit by not 1 but 2 tornadoes on that night, with quite a bit of damage. A year or so ago, that same time suffered through some severe flooding and loss of life. I hope their hard times are over.

Daughter Courtney and sons came Tuesday and left Wednesday. She stopped at Rosa's on her way in and picked up a tribe size order of beef fajitas. The flavoring on Rosa's fajitas is the best I've ever enjoyed. Not everyone may agree with me, but Donna, Court, and all of her family agree. We had a good feast. Hard to believe that oldest grandson Xander is about to complete his sophomore year.

The sunrise on Friday was quite pretty. I never tire of a West Texas sunrise or sunset.

We finished our taxes this week. Always good to get that in our rear view mirror. I was also able to get back to the gym this week after suffering through back pain last week. Boy, it is so good to work out. When Donna and I have to miss for any reason, we feel so guilty. It's like we are missing something important in our lives -- and we are.

We attended the birthday dinner at the clubhouse this past Thursday. Once a month we have a birthday dinner, and we bring in some entertainment. It's a pleasant way to spend the evening. Now that we've lived here almost 3 years, we know quite a few people in our community, so we enjoy visiting with everyone. It reminds me of my life growing up in a small town.

We tried a couple of new restaurants this week. Newk's Eatery opened recently. It is an offshoot of McAlister's Deli. The menu looks pretty interesting. Donna and I both paired a sandwich with soup so that we could sample a couple of items. Donna had the Farmer's Market Sandwich while I tried the Pesto Chicken Sandwich. For soup, Donna tried the Chicken Tortilla while I sampled the Lobster and Crab Bisque. I think Donna enjoyed her selections more than I did. The bill was quite high for deli fare, so I don't know that I'll go back as there are better deals around town. For example, a nice dinner for us at our current favorite restaurant -- Napoli's -- costs us only two-thirds what a meal at Newk's costs, and that includes gratuity. So, if I have to choose, I'll pick Napoli's EVERY time.

On Friday, we tried the new Bush's Chicken. We really enjoy the Chicken Express chain. The local Chicken Express is near our home, but we thought we should give Bush's a try. Their menu is similar to Chicken Express, so we thought we might like it. And we did. I think we still prefer Chicken Express, but if we happen to want chicken while we are in that part of town, we won't hesitate to go to Bush's.

After our lunch at Bush's, we made a drive through the state park to see if many spring break folks were camping. Quite a few of the sites were occupied, including a couple of tenters despite the cool weather. Nice to see folks getting outside.

Part of the park's bison herd was along the main park road. Always good to see them out and about.

The rain seems to have brought out some wildflowers. This was also taken at the park.

We attended the Rio Concho West Committee meeting Friday morning. Although we are not committee members, we try to attend these meetings when we can just to keep up with what is happening in our community. We finished the week with another heated session of Geezer Bingo.

Slip Sliding Away

Well, I recovered from the bug Donna and I had a couple of weeks or so ago, but now something new has come up. I woke up last Monday with a snag in my back. I've always had back problems, and I seem to get a little hitch in my get-along about once a year. Tuesday I was really struggling to move around, but I began loosening up on Wednesday. Still, I was unable to go to the gym at all this past week, and that bothers me. I can't seem to get my routine going here, and with exercise, routine is very important. Sassy Miss Donna keeps bouncing along, though, so at least one of us is doing well.

We were surprised to see the mowers on Tuesday. I don't recall them starting their mowing routine this early in previous years. But we did need some mowing done. The weeds were getting pretty tall. When the mowers show up, you know spring isn't far away. These guys usually take 2 days to mow and trim in our neighborhood. We have just over 300 housing units, so it is a fairly large place, and we have lots of open areas. I don't know how many people work in the crew, but it is close to half a dozen. I'd just as soon mow my own yard, but it was nice to have someone else do it this week since I was down in my back.

The cold moved in Sunday night. The low that night reached about 20, and the high on Monday was 32. That set a new record for lowest maximum temperature on that date. Monday night, the temp fell to 17, setting a new low, but we broke freezing on Tuesday. By Wednesday, the temp was back in the mid 50s, and we continued to warm every day after that. Our average maximum temp for this time of year is right at 70. From Thursday through Saturday, we had daily highs in the 70s, and we did quite a bit of sitting out on our back patio. It was so nice to be outside again. We have a front moving through now (Sunday morning), and the temps will dip some, but not that much.

Our big need right now is for rain. We've only had about half an inch of rain since the start of the year, and that is below our average. Even though our lakes are in the best shape since we moved here 8 years ago, drought is always a big concern out here. As summer comes on and temps soar into the low 100s and the hot, dry winds blow through, it doesn't take long to dry things out. We had a very short sprinkle about sunrise this morning, and we have a chance of more rain through Tuesday. Let's hope we get some.

Courtney and her gang of ruffians are coming down this week. It is spring break for grandson Xander's school, so we'll get a chance to visit with the little rug rats for a bit. For us, spring break is a time to stay close to home while families go on vacation. I'll spend spring break doing taxes and getting the car inspected. I'll have my fun after kids return to the classroom.