34 Water crossing

  Now you know why I couldn't finish a post with such beautiful scenery with this one image.  Yes it is the urinal in the bathroom,  use it, just don't drink the beer.   Koyote campground.  Unusual, just had to share.   I always feel strange taking pictures in the bathroom.

       That evening we received an email from our niece with an urgent message. "There are heavy rains predicted and Carla & JW said their camper site won't be accessible if the rainfall is too heavy, due to some low bridges on the way there.  Drive & Stay safe - we love you!!!!"    We had already noticed that road construction was much different in this part of the country than we were used to.  In Minnesota at the bottom of every gully or low lying ravine they put in a culvert or water way and then pave over it.  Here they just follow the contour of the terrain and if it happens to be a potential waterway they just put a flood gauge there.  And sometimes a warning. "Turn around, don't drown." 
     The ride today was going to be part of the Devils Backbone, ( nice name)   Compared to the three sisters it should have been a nice scenic ride.   It started out with a little mist, and we would skirt the rain all day.  It started out just fine.  We seen these longhorns resting in the prairie grass with their youngsters.  I thought it would be nice if Ruthie stood beside them to give people a comparison for size.  Well anyway they are huge.  It was 73 degrees and nice to ride without a jacket or gloves.   My goal was to head to Wimberly Texas and take FM 32 across the top to Blanco.   It was my fault, I had the GPS on shortest route on the way to Wimberly.   When I seen we were on Mail route road and then turned on a John Knox Road, I should have recalculated.  However the scenery was pleasant and the road was paved. 

     These signs may have been warning enough for most riders.   As you can see the yellow light was on but if they really wanted to warn us it should have been red.  And the barricade wasn't across the road.

We continued down the road, kind of neat isn't it? 

     Here is the local constable going back across the crossing.  He had came down to check the water depth.  He called it "Slime crossing"  so named because it is so slippery.  He said if we were on two wheels he would ask us to turn around.  No guarantees!

A local couple came by and stopped to talk to us.  It is called Indigo crossing but some call it "slippery crossing"   their favorite summer past time is sitting on the river playing dominos and wathcing motorcycles try and make it across the river.  Most fall right away,  others as they try and give it some gas to make the incline on the other side.  "Good Luck"  
Ruthie held the brake while I went down to give it a look see.

Committed now,  We had been warned not to give it any gas once we entered the water.  Just let it idle.  As we started across I knew our idle speed was not going to be enough to climb the other bank.  I twisted the throttle ever so slightly.  We were moving along I could feel the current playing with the front wheel.  I would discribe it as driving on wet ice.  Making the smoothest of steering corrections we danced our way across the crossing.  I couldn't imagine what would happen if we had slipped off of either side.  It seemed slanted toward the left side where the current was coming from.  As we reached the other side we both gave a sigh of relief.  I don't think we will be doing that again.

   Wimberly turned out to be a great little town.  A unique tourist stop, lots of little shops and places to eat and drink.  We ate at an outdoor cafe.  Ruthie is standing guard at a place that offered daddy day care.  Kind of neat, you just drop your husband off, they will watch after him and all you have to pay for are his drinks when you pick him up. 
 It was a pleasant ride back to our loaned camper on Madina lake.  It was going to be a little colder tonight.   We stopped by Bandera on the way home to stock up so we could stay home if the weather was bad.  But we didn't mind at least we could still ride and no snow to shovel.  And as we brushed our teeth outside, we thought not many in Minnesota are doing this tonight.  

33 Hill Country

January 11

     We continued past Utopia on the road to some popular motorcycling roads referred to as the three or twisted sisters.   If you are checking our progress with the gypsy tracker you will notice we do a lot of U-turns and backtracking.    Sometimes we miss things, sometimes there are arguments about what we seen and sometimes we are just lost.  We seen coyotes hanging on a fence in several places, we found out later the trapper on that ranch was basically proving to the rancher that he was getting the job done.
We turned around one time because Ruthie had said we had passed a dead cow.  I disagreed.  Obviously I was right this time because I'm posting it.  It was a large white dog sleeping by the fence.  Here you see his cousin.  They are Great Pyrenees, we seen several of them on this ride.  They were imported from Europe as live stock guard dogs.  The story we were told was that they are raised with the sheep as puppies and become their guardians.

  .  We were not disappointed in any of the roads that day.   We seen prairie grass with rolling hills in the background.  Rock filled pastures with small bushy tree's with sheep and goats grazing with their watchful protectors.  I was surprised at all the sheep.  In the westerns I watched as a child the cattle ranchers hated sheep ranchers.  Now I find out they were here before the cattle.  Were Roy and Gene lying to me?

        As we approached the three sisters which are comprised of RR ( ranch road) 335, 336 and 337.  The terrain was becoming much more rugged.  We entered 337 from the East at what we will describe as the bottom of a triangle.  It was a nice introduction to what we were about to see.  Pleasant scenery, tree lined water ways, it was a real treat.   Often we turn our little rig around to take pictures or just sit and soak up the scenery.  As we started up the West side of the run it ran along with #55 we missed where 335 branches off from 55 and continued on to Rocksprings Texas.  It was still a great ride the curves were getting tighter and the view from the road was getting more panoramic.  At times there was no shoulder only rock lined passes that you could have reached out and touched.

      When we hit the top of our run we turned East to catch 336 on the other side of the mountain   Part of the road was on open range.  You were made aware of it as you crossed over the metal livestock guards.  Now besides the rock barrier on one side and a drop off on the other you have not only the native animals to be aware off.  You might be speeding up to a herd of cattle,sheep or goats.  I do not want my obituary to say.  Done in by a  goat.       This country is wonderful, I still keep wondering about the settlers and the hard ships they endured.  You wonder if they could admire the country they were seeing with broken wagon wheels, harness's stretched to the breaking point and bodies raked with pain and sickness. 

    These motorcycle roads were everything we had been told.  One of the roads that had free ranging stock on it had a warning telling how many motorcyclist had been killed in the last few years.
    One of our new neighbors at the camper village had told us about a popular fish fry in the village of Medina.  It sounded like he was going to attend so we thought it would be nice to meet him there.  We had been riding the hills all day and were a little tired but we hate to pass up anything.   Key Madina into the GPS. Done!   It was now late afternoon and we were on the last leg of the run.  The sun and shadows were giving us more depth to our view. 

     It was around six when we arrived in Madina we really hadn't intended to be out after dark but we thought we were close to the fish fry location.  We made a pass through town and didn't see any place packed with cars.  Matter of fact there didn't seem to be much going on at all.  Looking around for someone to get directions on, we found two men still working on an old truck in a garage.  They said the place we were looking for must be ten or more miles up the road toward Kerrville beyond the Children's home.   This was going to be a longer day then we had anticipated and we knew we would have to ride back to our little camper home very carefully because of all the deer in this area. We finally arrived at Koyote Ranch for the meal.   Nice place, campground, lodge and country restaurant.  It was obvious to all the regulars we had know clue what the procedure was.  They directed us to the buffet line, helped us gather our beverage and "Jerry" invited us to sit with him as he was alone that night.  Jerry was the almanac that answered our questions about the coyote, white sheep dogs and then a bonus.  He said that if we wanted a pretty ride we should ride from Lajitas to Presidio Texas along the Rio Grande river.  He was sure we would like it.    He had gave someone else the same information a few years back and after the ride they complained about all the Mexicans they seen.  Jerry's reply.  "What did you expect, Chinese?  Your 50 yards from Mexico."   Yup, part of it is the ride and scenery and the other is the people we meet. 

   I have another picture to post of today's adventure but I didn't want to spoil the mood and I really need to get Ruthie's opinion on it.  A safe cool ride home with our milk house heater to keep us warm.  Another great day we will always remember. 

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.
   

31 An Apology

      Ruthie tells me that I should just apologize to people when I meet them.  It would save a lot of time.  She has this idea that I will do or say something inappropriate.  I don't know where she got such an idea.  Well I might as well get it out of the way so we don't have to go thru this again.  I have been trying to get my blog and ride dates closer together.  This post is an example of what happens when I try and share a simple idea.  I was going to tell you about our next stop and how we chose to go there. 

                    Next stop?  Sometimes our trip planning gets a little complicated.  An example:
     I monitor a Gold Wing forum occasionally.  A note about forums.   My explanation is that they are internet discussion group devoted to a particular subject. It is amazing the detailed information and assistance you can receive on forums.  Some are so helpful and knowledgeable you would think the poster may have wrote a product manual.  One thread I read was on oil filters, (I know, but it was interesting.) The detail and research was amazing, their were even pictures of dissected oil filters showing contaminants filtered.  Listen it doesn't get any better than this. However with every thing good their is some bad, I call it the drama or bully squad just like a school play ground.   I’m pretty much a lurker ( stay in the background and read others posts.) for at least two reasons, since we are involved in the trike building business I have decided on the forum we just want to be riders like most of the forum.   I have seen others use it to promote their business by building themselves up and degrading others.  Here is an example of the drama.  A person might ask the forum if anyone knows where he might get a headset that he can use without a helmet,  I hope he is sitting down because he has just ignited a flame that won't go out on it's own and the poor sap doesn't even know it yet. The replies will be many and harsh about the sins of riding without a helmet, accident statistics, how the brother of this guy I know  was saved by his helmet.  etc  It can go on for days with by now many not knowing the original question or no one having the courage to step in and post an answer to the poor guys question.  The original poster has probably signed off.   "All I wanted to do was have a way to check my intercom system in the garage without putting my helmet on every-time." he mutters as he posts on Craigslist,  "For sale "used computer"   Sometimes if it becomes heated or silly enough a moderator will step in and stop it and sometimes a forum member will interject and extinguish the flame.  One of those voices of reason is a gentleman from Boerne TX.   On the forum his posts ( it's hard to judge a man by his verb-age.) make him seem like the kind of person you would like to have living next door.  ( I don't know, maybe he's a son of a gun.)  One time the trike discussion was going pretty strong about the best riding trike.    Here is his post in that thread.  "As you can see, I have a '05 ( to avoid law suits I deleted the name)  kit hung on my '02 two wheeler. I got 38-40 mpg on my two wheeler. I get 22-24 on my trike. My Kabota tractor has a slightly better ride it and corners much better. It wears tires out like they were made of bubble gum. I buy stop leak by the case for the differential.  I have snapped two drive shafts and had a bent rim installed with the kit. I have spent over $51,478.46 on this trike since I got it. (this price does not include the price of the two wheeler) I bought the modified Steer triple tree under the advisement of this group. It has broken twice and the trike is not steering to well at present. Most of the kits are overpriced and work poorly, junk, if you will.....and I only have 129 miles on my trike...... Gee, I love that machine....

    Okay don't you want to invite him over for coffee.  I think of him as the voice of reason.  To avoid the drama I have used the private message to communicate with him about our current trip, places to visit, roads to travel and safety issues.  Lots of good info from him.  On his posts he has his picture with his current ride in front of  the old store at lukenbach Texas with the caption "if you haven't been to Luckenbach you haven't completed your journey."   There you go, that's why I'm behind on this trip journal.  Why couldn't I have just said.  "Somebody told us to go to Luckenbach?   ( Surprising note:  when I did a search for Kubota, after figuring how it's spelled it came back with two pages of results on a motorcycle forum?) Damm, there I go again. Anyway the result, here we are in Luckenbach.   A neat relic of the past,  a popular motorcycle stop.
  

30 Meet Joe

Trivia for post 29,  Buddy Holly died on Feb 3rd in a plane crash.  Waylon Jennings gave up his seat to The Big Bopper because he had the flu. Richie Valens won his seat on a coin toss and one musician decided not to spend the $36.00 to board the plane.  Decisions and choices?  Hmmmm.  How do you think Tommy Allsup was feeling as he watched the plane leave without him after losing the coin toss?  Be careful what you wish for.  Silver linings?  I found this story on Tommy, if you want a good read on music history, Click Here  
I think you will enjoy it.

January 9th

Pretty typical of the scenery in this part of  Texas

     Our destination was the hill country of Texas and tonight Fredricksburg.  From Lago Vista we traveled on FM 1431 ( in Texas FM stands for farm to market.)  across the Marble falls dam and the 281 to Johnson City to visit Lyndon Johnson's boyhood home and ranch.  It was interesting to try and see what shaped his presidency.  An airstrip was improved on his ranch to accommodate the Presidents plane.  He was the first President to create a functioning White House away from Washington.  It became known as the Texas White house.   They say he accomplished more than most presidents during his term of office. He had a habit of conducting business at all hours of the night and had phone's and TV's installed in his  bedroom.  ( Lady bird soon had her own sleeping area built adjoining his for privacy. ( just thinking, maybe I will have to get my own wing on this camper if I keep typing on this blog at all hours of the night and morning. )  He had found out from childhood that information is the key and from his father relaying news of the day from their radio to their neighbors that the one with the information has the power.  He made it a habit to listen to all three of the major networks at one time to keep informed.   He seemed to fight for poor and racial equality, the latter you wouldn't have thought would have made him very popular in his home state.  With Vietnam in my history it is hard to like him. ( Then again I'm skeptical of most politicians.)   Of course if you look at the picture I'm holding you might be sympathetic of his childhood.  ( It is not a skull, it is a lady looking in a mirror.) His mother had it displayed over their fireplace to stimulate conversation with guests and to teach the value of not judging by first impressions and things are not always what they seem.   If you want to see a better picture email me or click "Here" 
  The artist was only 18 years old at the time of the drawing.  While your checking out the his drawing read his story.  Very interesting. 
     Here is something you may have experienced.   I have found many entities and websites do not reply when you use their contact area.  In trying to research this and find a suitable picture of the drawing I was rewarded by a quick response to an email request.  Thanks you are doing a great job and like the unknown soldier, you are known but to God. 
    Sorry, back to Johnson.  The question in my mind was how did he achieve the financial wealth to get where he was, one of the guides response was. "He married it."   And for Ruthie, Claudia Alta Taylor was born in a mansion and at age five one of the maids said she was as cute as a Lady bird.  There you go.    ( I wish I had received a cute nickname from our maids or servants.) 
     Tonight was to be another motorcycle club stay.  We may have been a little nervous when the voice mail had said they would return our call when they got out of prison?  Just teasing  Diane and Larry are involved in prison ministry's.  After we found their home in Fredricksburg we went down town for a bite to eat.  After a interesting  visit with our hosts we retired for the evening.  The next morning we had a wonderful healthy  breakfast, Diane had the table stocked with a variety of  fresh fruit.  After searching the ground and garage for Ruthie's earring we were on our way.  ( Sue emailed that they had found it on their garage floor in Lago Vista. )
 Jan 10th

     We had been warned by one of our customers that if we didn't look him up when we traveled to Fredricksburg he was going to travel the four hours from his home in Manson Iowa to ours and chew us out good.  Well we didn't want to risk that.  Picture of Wally, Joe and myself, Wally's the one without the Navy cap.     The previous year Joe had contacted us, he had been riding a reverse trike ( two wheels up front.) and would rather be riding his BMW and wondered if we could trike it?  We could, we did, and met an interesting person.     He has owned over thirty motorcycles in his life, been the mayor of his town and I'm sure if you visit with him many other things.

     Couldn't help showing off the trike we built for him.  We weren't able to take a picture of it today as he hadn't taken it out of the trailer yet.  I think he said he and his buddies don't ride  unless it is 40 degrees by ten AM.  May be wrong on the numbers.  We rode with one group that won't ride unless the temperature is their age or warmer.  I decided to share some of the conversation we had with Joe by making it clear this is Joe talking.  " My friend Marv came down to visit me here at the park in Fredricksburg.  He stopped by the park office and asked if Joe ****** was parked here.  They said he is!  Thanks Marv said, I'm his parole officer and I need to check on his where abouts."   With friends like that who needs enemys.  And to get back at Marv who rides a Harley, here are two short ones from Joe.  " My friend Marv bought a Harley and then couldn't ride it becasue his family had him committed."  and " Harley has come out with a new drive train on their motorcycles.  It's magnetic and picks up the parts that fall off as you ride."
Remember, save your hate mail, that was Joe talking.  You got to love him.
Later Joe!

29 Lago Vista

     January 5

     The next morning breakfast wasn't scheduled until nine.   While we waited for breakfast we loaded the trike so we would be ready to get on the road.  We hated to rush such a nice breakfast but we had an appointment in Georgetown to have our new tire installed.  Seventy five miles per hour speed limits made the trip to Georgetown go quickly.  Central Texas power-sports turned out to be a real find for us.  The tire was half the price of  the dealers in San Antonio and the service was amazing.  We had a liquid tire balancing solution put in that they installed in the Georgetown police cycles.
   Early on this adventure we had received a very nice email from Dave and Susan in Lago Vista asking if we would like take a little break and spend a couple of days with them?  Sue and I had graduated together and had only got to see each other at class reunions.  One of the things we were curious about before our stay was if they were football fans?  Our Minnesota Vikings were still in the playoffs and we didn't want to miss the game.  A phone call before we arrived solved part of the problem.  I inquired if they were foot ball fans and if they would be watching the game.  "Oh yes, we spent 23 years in Wisconsin and we wouldn't miss the Packers."  ( could be a tough evening for one of us.)  While on the phone she inquired at to dietary requirements or anything we didn't like to eat.  My normal answer was "those salty little fish"  today I just replied "crow".   Unfortunately the Vikings forgot to pack a quarterback for the game so Ruthie and I ate a lot of "crow" that night.  Dave and Sue were gracious hosts and winners.  I think Ruthie took it harder than I did.  The stay was a great fit.  We had fun and enjoyed staying with them.  They are volunteers in the community ( you have to admire people who give back.)  and we both went our separate ways and met back at their home between outings.
      On one of our trips we visited the Bob Bullock Texas History museum in Austin TX  It has displays that show how Texas came to be.  Very intesting.  It would hard not to be from Texas and have a real love of the state's history.  The only thing I thought was missing was a section devoted to the Texas Rangers,  I know Ruthie's father would be disappointed.  Ranger Walker is his favorite. I don't think we will tell him.
    Ruthie drove to the museam that day so I took a couple of pictures as we sped along.

They call them fly-overs and this one has a penalty lane.

  This one interested me becasue they indicated they would send the toll fee by mail.  I figure if the same post master handled the toll addressing that handled our forwarded  mail from Mn.
 We wouldn't' see it until next years trip.
   On the way back to our host's we stopped on the outskirts of Austin to have a short visit with Ruthie's nephew.  He also gave us some more travel ideas, thanks James and Stephen!
  A little interesting note.  As I was looking up the spelling of the museum today (Feb 3rd)  I seen that a Texas singer and musician was killed on this day in history.  Should this be a trivia with a follow up post?  Famous recording artists, cornfield, Clear lake Iowa, Moorhead Minnesota, The Big Bopper, Richie Valens, Waylon Jennings, winter Dance party and "The day the music died."   That's plenty of hints, answer in next post.  
     Our hosts showed us around the area in their vehicle and one trip in their golf cart.  We learned of Sue's dislike for the small cedar trees that are every where in this area, the pollen they give off causes cedar fever and works on everyone's allergies.  She also has a problem with the deer that are every where,  Here they are more like sheep.  Small and not tame enough to pet, but just a nuisance, they are attracted by the green grass around residential areas and golf courses.  

   On our way to their home we had noticed ( if we looked at a map once in a while we would have already know.)  that the really hill country is on the west side of highway 35.   I suppose it has something with road construction.  Lots of hill scenery here.  The drought keeps raising its ugly head around here.  This is a graphic example taken from their car's (not boat) navigation screen.  They have driven down to show us the park that was by the shore of Lake Travis and as you can see we have driven down where the water used to be.  At the time we were there the lake was down 51 percent and they are contemplating cutting off the water supply to the rice farmers down stream

1. desert comparison
2. and to see if Ruthie checks captions? 

     We stayed longer than two days at Dave and Sue's and left on the 9th.  What great hosts, they took us to a local restaurant called Cheddar's for a great meal.

 .   No comment on the caption from Ruthie either it is Okay or she missed it. 
      Our gracious hosts.
     We received a little over five inches of rain the last two days.  Everything helps but they need much more.  The next morning it was threatening rain and they asked us to stay, how nice.  We are not fair weather riders and suited up and were on our way. 


Maps Grrrrr
     As you probably have gathered I'm still learning the map part of this deal.  Here is a link to our route from Natchitoches Louisiana thru Lago Vista Texas Click here please!
    While we are talking maps, a little refresher.  From time to time we get an email or phone call asking where we are?  Anytime you feel compelled to know our location you can go to Gypsy Tracks from the home page and it will show our last location.  For your convenience I will provide a link now.  Click  "Me"  to see where in the world those two rascals are!

28 Gruene/New Braunfels

     We left San Antonio on Jan 4th with a light drizzle falling.
     I think Jeff Foxworthy would probably say  "When a person appearing to be homeless stationed between the lane of cars at a busy traffic light collecting funds, comes up and says " and I thought I was cold, y'all must be miserable"  you know you must look pitiful (the kicker would have been if he reached in his cup and gave "us" money)  A brief but interesting conversation before the light changed and the miserable looking couple sped off into the rain. You are always curious about the circumstances that put a person there?  Especially with recent investigations finding that some of the people that are doing this are not in a desperate situation and have just found a way to make money.   One of  our hosts had  mentioned viet nam imposters and one in a wheel chair with leg folded underneath one on occasions the victim would have the wrong leg down.
     We traveled the interstate which is unusual for us turning off at the New Braunfels exit.  My niece Carmen's husband Chris had told us about the Gruene music hall and we wanted to see it.  The hall was built in 1878 and claims to be the oldest continually run dance hall in Texas.  In the era before every type of entertainment was channeled into your living room or available in your pocket places like this hall provided a gathering place to unwind and listen to local entertainers.   It was a friendly group in the bar area when we arrived.  I expected it looked pretty much like it did years ago except for all of the neon beer signs.  I suppose our rain gear set us apart as we warmed ourselves by the wood burning stove.  We started to take each others picture beneath the "welcome Cowboy's"  sign. One of the young Texas ladies volunteered to take our picture together and her group invited us to join them.  Maybe we do fit in?
     This particular hall became a stepping stone for many stars.  Many I recognized.   One particular photo story on the wall was of a popular local band that entertained frequently, in 1981 they went to Nashville for the last time saying "if something doesn't happen this time it will be our last try."  and now we all know George Strait.  Jerry lee Lewis and Bo Diddley have also played there. The hall has two free shows daily with feature entertainment on weekends.  The free shows give newcomers a great place to start and showcase their talents.  The movie "Michael" with John Travolta used the hall as a set. 
     The wooden structure because of shrinkage has left gaps between the boards, as a result light streams in and the sound of music radiates from every wall.    We listened to a couple of solo entertainers for a short while in the afternoon ( we were hungry again)  with the thought of returning in the evening after eating and finding lodging.

     It was here that we found a real gem.  From the outside we weren't even sure if it was open.  Located a short ways behind the hall on a high bank Guadalupe river,  the wooden exterior reminded me of a granary on the farm where I grew up.  The wood was so weathered if it had been painted at one time there wasn't any trace of it.  We found a plaque telling us the history, a cotton gin powered by the river below had been built on the site of a grist mill,  It was destroyed by fire in 1922 and then in 1925 the cotton crop was lost to a boll weevil infestation.  

  Around the side we found an entrance and on entering were greeted by another small wood burning stove.  There was only one couple in the bar and a hostess in a door way inquired as to how many were in our party?  Not what we had expected.  We followed her thru several spacious warm rooms with massive burning fireplaces.  It seats over a thousand and has multilevel out door tables under the shade of trees. We may have created a monster here as Ruthie is getting used to having her own camera.  Lots of pictures of this Gristmill Restaurent, I will include a few.

 In the middle eighteen hundreds Germany had to many people and to little land Texas had the reverse problem.  Many German immigrants came to Texas with the help of Prince Carl, New Braunfels is one of those settlements and has bascially swallowed Gruene.  

Upside down Christmas tree or Ruthie's balancing act?

We found a wonderful bed and breakfast Inn built in 1898 that has an addition that was once a  feed store and livery stable. The Prince Solms Inn with a piano bar in the cellar.  When we left the music hall we stopped to see what it was like and listen to the music.  A local man bought us both a drink as soon as we walked in.  I guess we are fitting in here.  We found out later he was buying drinks for everyone.  You should thank me, I only added two pictures one of the inside and one from the exterior.  Ruthie really liked this place.  If you want more I will email them to you or stop by this summer and take a look. 

     As you are probably aware I'm having trouble knowing when to stop sharing.  We have seen so much on this trip.  I will cut this post off here and get some rest.