Tuesday, March 6th

Once we woke up, we had a little talk about our Vacation. We decided to take her two weeks in Texas and stretch it to a whole month here. There may be more to that, but we'll see once all this is over. :D

We took off like a light for the Texas Hill Country, hoping to make Fredericksburg and San Antonio in one shot. Didn't really happen that way, but also didn't really have a bad time doing it. We drove over the Devil's Backbone, showing a WONDERFUL view of Texas's Hill Country in this are, and continued on to Fischer Store [MAP][INFO]

We visited the actual Fischer Store, which, as usual, wasn't open. However, we did stop by the famous nine-pin bowling alley in Fischer, and visited the local cat, tentatively called "Pin Cat."

We continued on into Blanco [MAP][INFO], and seeing that Blanco doesn't have much, I pointed out the Local Dairy Queen and continued on to Fredericksburg via an old county road I'd never taken before. Glad I did!

Up the road from Blanco a bit was a trail ride coming down from Fredericksburg, the "Original Texas Star Trail" ride, ending in Driftwood. We sat and watched for a while, talking to one of the trail organizers, and even got pics, before making our way north on Rocky Road. The views on Rocky Road were really really really great and it was a neat drive down a road I'd never been down.

We continued our way north, and I siddenly realized we were in the town of Post Oak [MAP][INFO], not there's much of a town, just an empty church and a cemetary - but we were also some miles from the nearest highway. We pulled into the cemetary, turned off the truck, and got out...and listened to the just the sound of the wind through the trees and birds chirping. It was really a nice "get back to nature" feeling.

Continuing through Gold [MAP][INFO], we finally made it into Willow City [MAP][INFO]. I'd been here several times on joyrides, but I'd never been able to go into the General store, which I'd heard was an old-timey kinda place. We got there shortly before five, and walked in. I felt kind of dissapointed, though. It was a shop where youcould get galoshes and bailing twince, but that was about it. We got some cokes and ran around the Willow City Loop.

The Willow City Loop is known for it's huge wildflower shows. You drive through there and the countryside is blue and green with bluebonnets. Unfortunately, we were a few weeks early on that, but we still got treated to the lovely views of blocks of random granite, huge canyon sides, deep valleys, wide views across the hill country and cattleguards, cattleguards, cattleguards.

We drove into Llano County to Enchanted Rock [MAP][INFO][MYTHOLOGY]. We got out and marveled at the size of the darned thing, but unfortunately, it was getting late, and we still had Fredericksburg and San Antonio left to go. We walked to the gazebo, took some pictures, promised we'd go up there some day when I was a bit thinner, and headed back to Fredericksburg.

We'd taken too long driving down rural routes and the sun was rapidly going down. Although a quick trip to Rabke's Meat SHop was planned for some jerky, we just didn't have time, and we headed straight into Fredericksburg [MAP][INFO].

So, what do we do in this very tourist trappy town? Do we visit the shops? Do we explore the museums?

No, we both end up walking around the old Fredericksburg and Northern Railroad Depot [MAP]. :D Emily is a rail-fan, someone who really enjoys railroads. I'm a roadgeek, who really enjoys old roads. The F&N, though, is a little pet project of mine, since it's only railroad tunnel goes under Old Highway 9. I had an old copy of from 1924 of the depot end of the Railroad, and we were there, so we looked around, found out where stuff was, and how it related to the tracks, even found some of the old graineries and a cargo loading dock hidden in an allet between buildings.

Sadly, though, we'd spent so much time GETTING there, that it was dark. We promised we'd come back in the daylight. After a German dinner in the Auslander, we headed home...

..but not before an all to quick and all too dark run around the block to Luckenbach [MAP][INFO]. The same one Willie and Waylon sang about. Luckenbach is actually a pretty neat place. There's ALWAYS music there, usually by a local playing music in the back of the general store for anyone who'll listen. Sometiumes the more famous folk show up, unannounced, do some songs, and take off before word gets out that "SO AND SO IS HERE!" Unfortuantely, it was so late that the only thing open was the general store (surprised me), and everything else was shut down.

We finally headed home, took a long leasurely drive through the dark skies of the Texas Hillcountry, came home, and ended the day for the first time in each others arms (I was flu-ridden, didn't want to take the chance on giving it to her :) ).

Tuesday, March 6th

Once we woke up, we had a little talk about our Vacation. We decided to take her two weeks in Texas and stretch it to a whole month here. There may be more to that, but we'll see once all this is over. :D

We took off like a light for the Texas Hill Country, hoping to make Fredericksburg and San Antonio in one shot. Didn't really happen that way, but also didn't really have a bad time doing it. We drove over the Devil's Backbone, showing a WONDERFUL view of Texas's Hill Country in this are, and continued on to Fischer Store [MAP][INFO]

We visited the actual Fischer Store, which, as usual, wasn't open. However, we did stop by the famous nine-pin bowling alley in Fischer, and visited the local cat, tentatively called "Pin Cat."

We continued on into Blanco [MAP][INFO], and seeing that Blanco doesn't have much, I pointed out the Local Dairy Queen and continued on to Fredericksburg via an old county road I'd never taken before. Glad I did!

Up the road from Blanco a bit was a trail ride coming down from Fredericksburg, the "Original Texas Star Trail" ride, ending in Driftwood. We sat and watched for a while, talking to one of the trail organizers, and even got pics, before making our way north on Rocky Road. The views on Rocky Road were really really really great and it was a neat drive down a road I'd never been down.

We continued our way north, and I siddenly realized we were in the town of Post Oak [MAP][INFO], not there's much of a town, just an empty church and a cemetary - but we were also some miles from the nearest highway. We pulled into the cemetary, turned off the truck, and got out...and listened to the just the sound of the wind through the trees and birds chirping. It was really a nice "get back to nature" feeling.

Continuing through Gold [MAP][INFO], we finally made it into Willow City [MAP][INFO]. I'd been here several times on joyrides, but I'd never been able to go into the General store, which I'd heard was an old-timey kinda place. We got there shortly before five, and walked in. I felt kind of dissapointed, though. It was a shop where youcould get galoshes and bailing twince, but that was about it. We got some cokes and ran around the Willow City Loop.

The Willow City Loop is known for it's huge wildflower shows. You drive through there and the countryside is blue and green with bluebonnets. Unfortunately, we were a few weeks early on that, but we still got treated to the lovely views of blocks of random granite, huge canyon sides, deep valleys, wide views across the hill country and cattleguards, cattleguards, cattleguards.

We drove into Llano County to Enchanted Rock [MAP][INFO][MYTHOLOGY]. We got out and marveled at the size of the darned thing, but unfortunately, it was getting late, and we still had Fredericksburg and San Antonio left to go. We walked to the gazebo, took some pictures, promised we'd go up there some day when I was a bit thinner, and headed back to Fredericksburg.

We'd taken too long driving down rural routes and the sun was rapidly going down. Although a quick trip to Rabke's Meat SHop was planned for some jerky, we just didn't have time, and we headed straight into Fredericksburg [MAP][INFO].

So, what do we do in this very tourist trappy town? Do we visit the shops? Do we explore the museums?

No, we both end up walking around the old Fredericksburg and Northern Railroad Depot [MAP]. :D Emily is a rail-fan, someone who really enjoys railroads. I'm a roadgeek, who really enjoys old roads. The F&N, though, is a little pet project of mine, since it's only railroad tunnel goes under Old Highway 9. I had an old copy of from 1924 of the depot end of the Railroad, and we were there, so we looked around, found out where stuff was, and how it related to the tracks, even found some of the old graineries and a cargo loading dock hidden in an allet between buildings.

Sadly, though, we'd spent so much time GETTING there, that it was dark. We promised we'd come back in the daylight. After a German dinner in the Auslander, we headed home...

..but not before an all to quick and all too dark run around the block to Luckenbach [MAP][INFO]. The same one Willie and Waylon sang about. Luckenbach is actually a pretty neat place. There's ALWAYS music there, usually by a local playing music in the back of the general store for anyone who'll listen. Sometiumes the more famous folk show up, unannounced, do some songs, and take off before word gets out that "SO AND SO IS HERE!" Unfortuantely, it was so late that the only thing open was the general store (surprised me), and everything else was shut down.

We finally headed home, took a long leasurely drive through the dark skies of the Texas Hillcountry, came home, and ended the day for the first time in each others arms (I was flu-ridden, didn't want to take the chance on giving it to her :) ).