Catching up on days 5-8

Howdy! 

Sorry for the lack of updates, but phone service was limited recently.  This won't be a detailed post, but I just want to give a quick update.

Day 5 - after the tent fiasco, we finally made it to Cousin Chuck's house in Fort Davis.  All I can say is amazing - both the view and their hospitableness (is that even a word?) Anyway, we chatted over a bloody Mary on the porch, then headed to a tour of the area.  We did the triangle of Marfa, Alpine, and Fort Davis.  We went back to their house and enjoyed some beverages and an awesome dinner. Finished up the night with some stargazing!

Day 6 - Spent a few hours at the McDonald Observatory, which was pretty awesome.  Afterwards, we went back to Marfa to hit up a couple of bars we missed and then to Alpine for the same. Our lodging in alpine was fantastic - check out The Maverick Inn.  We met some folks at the bars, rested a bit at the hotel, then went to see the Marfa Lights...yeah, just a bunch of headlights.

Day 7 - After a slow start, we headed south-ish to Big Bend State Park.  It was pretty spectacular...aside from the times I thought we may careen off the side of the cliff.  But, Ted was very safe and we made it through!  We scrapped our trip through the national park to head to Marathon.  But, we did stop in Terlingua and met an interesting dude naned Doug.  We stopped at the Chili Pepper Cafe for a snack and made it to Marathon.  We had a yummy, but expensive, drink at The White Buffalo bar, then went to the Snakebite Saloon.  We had a good time chatting with John the bartender.  We got back to our little room in time to drink a beer in the rainstorm and celebrate our 1 year anniversary at midnight.

Day 8 - After sleeping in a bit, we decided to change our route from Concan to Uvalde, due to the tent fiasco.  We had a quick breakfast at Shirley's Burnt Biscuit and hit the road.  We stopped in Del Rio for a late lunch and are currently on the last stretch to Uvalde.

Sorry for the quick recap. Maybe Ted will be more verbose tomorrow.

Happy Trails!

~ Eilene

Thoughts on tent living, "neighbors" and family.

Tuesday morning started with breakfast and shopping. We noshed on potato, egg and cheese tacos at Mahaley's (which was yummy), then strolled back to the car, buying doormats about dogs who lick too much and t-shirts about farting along the way... doing our part to support the local economy, after all. We stocked up on provisions, hardtack, fatback and the like from the local general store (H-E-B) and then hit the road for Balmorhea. We made great time as there isn't a lot to distract one along that route. About two-thirds of the way along our 300+ mile journey, we stopped for a delightful picnic lunch at one of Texas' delightful designated rest stops (and I wasn't even propositioned for anonymous sex in the men's room!)... we chatted briefly with a nice gal from Colorado as we enjoyed our sandwiches. Her travelling companion was a Great Dane named Zane, who was about the size of Kyle Field. We got into Balmorhea State Park about an hour later... set up our tent, watched a snake start to eat something, then change its mind (leaving behind some manner of lovely corpse), fed bread to turtles (some of which were assholes), had a kick ass grill-out, pissed off our neighbor by daring to talk in conversational tones in our tent a minute before quiet time at 10 PM, the same neighbor who again admonished us around 2 AM when we were having what you might call "tent issues". After he threatened to have us "ejected" from the park, we decided to CUT DOWN our tent, throw it away, pack up and leave. We hit the road for Ft. Davis a few hours earlier than planned, missing a  scenicly breathtaking drive through the mountains in the middle of the night, instead settling for a terrifying drive through the mountains in the middle of the night. We ended up checking into a roadside motel around 2:40 in the morning. The lobby smelled like a bad buffet and the room smelled like mothballs... and we were both thrilled to be there at this refuge from shelter shortcomings and fuckstick neighbors. We woke up the next morning, relatively well-rested... completely repacked the truck to reset from our camping failures and subsequent flight and hit the road again for a short trip to Eilene's cousins place, not knowing how good things were about to get! She'll catch you up on that fabulousness sometime very soon. Now, enjoy some relevant photographs!

A recap - Day 3

We are heading west to Balmorhea, so this gives me a chance to update on the happenings of Day 3.

While Day 2 was pretty solid, I think Day 3 ranks up pretty high as well.  After "washing our asses" and packing up at Marble Falls, (thanks again to Dennis and Phyllis!) we drove into town for breakfast at Bluebonnet Cafe. With biscuits as big as your face and the largest Texas toast we've ever seen, it did not disappoint.

From there, we drove to Johnson City to the Exotic Resort Zoo.  What a fun experience! We got to pet zebras and camels, and see a kangaroo with a Joey in its pouch.  They have cabins on-site, so we will be visiting there again.

After hanging with the animals, we drove over to Texas Hills Vineyard for a tasting.  We were lucky enough to be the only ones there and had the pleasure of doing the tasting with the winemaker/owner Gary Gilstrap.  It was fun visiting with him.  (For those familiar with the winery, there is a new dog.  Got to see him, but didn't ask any questions about Brutus)

We said our goodbyes to Gary and headed down 290 to Pedernales Cellars. Again, we were the only ones there, so we had a blast talking with Dora, the wine lady (not to be.confused with the explorer).  We enjoyed a glass of Viognier under the large oak tree and got some awesome pictures.

Dora recommend we go by Hilmy Vineyards.  It's a new one, but her husband Vinny the handsome Italian works there.  We stopped by, but they were closed for harvesting. We decided to make a stop at Becker, because I wanted Ted to see the winery grounds.  He agreed they are pretty spectacular.  We went inside and had the fastest tasting ever with Randy.  But, he did give me a free sample - I think my boobalicious dress may have had something to do with it.

Our final winery stop was Grape Creek, one of my favorites.  Good times, again, were had by all.

On to Luckenbach - boy did we luck out with this stop.  Every Monday they do a "Pickers Circle" .  It was so much fun to sit at the picnic table with a cold Lone Star Light and just listen.  Definitely my favorite part so far.

We got checked into our little house in Fredericksburg.  The plan was to go get dinner and drinks somewhere on Main St, but we decided staying in and having a picnic on the bed while watching Bachelor Pad was a smarter decision.  Probably a good idea in the end.  But, we will definitely be making a weekend trip back to F-burg in the near future.

We are currently halfway to Balmorhea.  Tonight is our first night to camp.  We'll update again tomorrow.  Until then, here are a few pictures from yesterday.

Happy Trails!
~Eilene

Day 2... we've set the bar pretty high...

So, we're winding down the second full day of our "Texcellent" adventure... and we put our foot in it! Slept in (9:15 am) but managed to both wash our asses, pack the car, take a half-dozen stupid pictures before we hit the road a scant hour later... New Braunfels to Canyon Lake for breakfast with a view (yay, migas,  bottomless mimosas and lakeside fabulousness). Back on the road, we stopped at the legendary Devil's Backbone Tavern. It is haunted (THEY say) and Eilene almost peed herself in the ladies room (thank goodness she had just gone) when she thought she saw one of the Tavern's much-discussed ghosts in the mirror... turns out it was just a cardboard cutout of Dos Equis' most interesting man in the world. From there, we moved on to Wimberley and "Pioneer Town". We ate ice cream, played basketball and spent some quality time with one of the coolest old dudes I've encountered in quite some time (at which point, Eilene mounted a giant Jackalope... thankfully it was not alive, but stuffed... oh, and fictional). From there, on to Blanco and some beers with the locals at a cool riverside bar (where Eilene beat me in pool... having already earlier bested me in shooting hoops). Now, we're wrapping up the show at her awesome cousins' place in Horseshoe Bay / Marble Falls. We fed the deer, walked down to the water, then came back and hand-fed the same piggy deer. Tomorrow, it's off to Fredericksburg, via about four winery stops.

We like life. :-)

And, we're off!

Howdy! We started off this morning by re-packing all of our road trip necessities.  Ted can now see out of his back window. 

Before heading out of town, we had breakfast with Mom at La Antigua in Port Lavaca.  Yeah...don't recommend it.  Quick stop at CVS and we are on the road!! 

We are stopping at Dry Comal Creek Winery in New Braunfels.  I haven't been there in quite a while,  but their Black White Spanish wine was one of my favorites.  Hope it doesn't disappoint! 

Later, we will head to Gruene.  Dinner will be at Mozie's, followed by some band we don't know at Gruene Hall.

I've posted a few photos from this morning.

Happy Trails!!

~Eilene

Join us on our journey...

What do you do when your one year anniverary is coming up and you have a week off?  Well, a road trip of Texas, of course!

We'll be traveling through central and west Texas with stops in Gruene, Fischer, Fredericksburg, Balmorhea, Big Bend, Concan, and Corpus Christi...and a few others along the way.

Travel begins tonight after work.  We will be making a quick trip to The Cape/Point Comfort to drop off Jett with Aunt Nancy, and then head to Gruene early Saturday morning.

We'll try to post daily updates. Until then, Happy Trails!

~Eilene