32 Bandera

January 10th

Breakfast at the Old Spanish trail, saddle seats!

      We had heard much about the hill country of  Texas, we decided to use Bandera as a base and take rides out from there until we moved on.  Fortunately while we were in San Antonio we hooked up with a distant nephew of Ruthie's.  (pretty complicated, something about nephew thru adoption or something, I tuned it out, Easier to explain in person anyway. I know I have never seen him at any of the reunions, seemed like a nice enough fella. ) After visiting with them JW and Carla suggested we make use of their camper parked by Medina lake.   He was gracious enough to meet us

Very small white tail, and Ruthie in the mirror!

at the park and get us settled.  To avoid any more work on his part we didn't turn on the water.  Electricity and a place to sleep was treat enough. He was kind enough to introduce us to the next door neighbors so they wouldn't think someone had broke into his camper.   Then he drove us by the clubhouse so we could grab a bite to eat.  The sign said they were open until six, that gave us a half hour we said our good bye's, expressed our gratitude and poof he was gone.  Entering we found out the kitchen closed a half hour before the club house.  Now what?  I know we have some breakfast bars and popcorn but all the hotel yogurt was gone.

Our home for 8 days! 

Texas clean up crew, Vulchers!

    We will get by tonight and tomorrow we will run into Bandera for some supplies.  JW had told us there were items in the camper to eat and drink.  Ruthie looked in the freezer and found some Jimmy Dean sausage pancakes on a stick.  ( I'm guessing some of the younger generation only think of Jimmy Dean as sausage.  When I was quite young one of the highlights of our summers on the farm was a trip to the Dairy Congress in Waterloo Iowa.  Besides touring all the livestock barns and farm product booths we always did two things.  We got our picture taken with the new model of Oliver tractor and seen the hippodrome show.    You know now that I think about it the hippodrome show may not have been every year, but one year between horse shows the entertainment was Jimmy Dean he entered the arena on a very spirited quarter horse circled the arena at full speed stopped in the center by his band.  (yup, a Texas boy) Great entertainer, it was probably around the time his song "Big Bad John" was topping the charts.)  (Just thinking, that

generation probably only think the only thing George Foreman did was make grills?)  They happened to be blueberry.   We cooked them in the micro wave.  No syrup, however they looked a lot like a pronto pup to me so I figured mustard and catchup.  When I told our daughter what I had used, her expression was ewwww.  ( then I found out she puts catchup on potato pan cakes, something about a kettle calling a stove black.
      One of our first outings took us through Utopia TX.   As usual I had worked up an appetite.  We have made it a habit when possible we make a pass thru the town to try and see where the locals are parked.   Today they were parked at the Lost Maples cafe.  A real treat, good food, friendly people and then the "find".  I was snooping around admiring all the unique wall decorations.

  There it was, a movie poster. "Seven days in Utopia" with Robert Duvall and the two actress's I had my picture taken with.( they claimed just to be part of the background in the cafe scenes, but I'm sure they are just being modest.)  
   Bandera has quite a history, the spanish word for flag, supposedly the oldest polish settlements, and the cowboy capital of the world.  Part of it's early growth was due to it becoming the staging spot for many of the early cattle drives because of a natural pass to take the cattle through.