Monthly Archives: April 2019
Last Day In The Texas Hill Country . . .
Our last morning with all of us together started at 8:30am (UGH!) at El Bracero, a local Mexican favorite of Chris and Linda’s. And it was easy to see why. But I’m going to talk about all our great food on this trip in a later post.
Brandi, Lowell, and Landon were heading back to Houston this morning since they all had to be back at work/school tomorrow. But they did plan another stop at yesterday’s Pottery Ranch for something they had their eye on, and decided to go ahead and get.
And with Miss Piper heading out this afternoon this was our last get-together.
As I mentioned before, Chris and Linda are living in one of those private airport subdivisions. And of course that means their place comes with a hanger. Or Boy’s Toy’s Heaven, as I call it.
So here, in case you’re counting, you’ve got an ultralight plane, two Corvettes, three motorcycles, and a Sea Doo. Plus a complete shop with sandblasting, welding, and pretty much anything else you want to work with.
And for Chris, it meant he had a place to take this jeep carcass
that had been rotting away in the woods for years, combined it with bits and pieces of other junked Jeeps, and after rebuilding the engine, et al, ended up with this.
Of course this is nothing new for Chris. A while back he took a hulk of a boat that had been laying out in a field with a TREE growing out of it, and turned it into this.
Not only did he rebuild and re-fiberglass the hull, he also rebuilt the inboard engine and transmission.
In case you’re keeping score, it’s a 1977 16 ft. Century Arabian, with a Ford 351 Windsor (Mercruiser) engine, and a Velvet Drive inboard/outboard drive unit.
And more recently he took a pile of old drill pipe and turned it into this oversized set of wind chimes.
And it’s even tuned correctly.
Chris even built Linda a Salad Bar, or at least a Salad Bar supply source.
The chain link fence is there to keep the herds of deer out of the salad.
Of course, Chris’ hanger is not the only one that’s full of goodies. His friend Don’s hanger across the street, or taxiway, has 6 planes in it.
Including, on the left, an ICON amphibian like this.
Which fits nicely in the hanger because the wings fold like this.
After such a great time this weekend, getting to see everyone, and seeing what Chris and Linda have done with their place, it’s our turn to head back home tomorrow morning.
We’ve been staying at the Granite Rock RV Park, only a few miles from Chris and Linda’s, and we’ll definitely stay here next trip.
It’s a small (only 8 sites) family-owned park, convenient to everything here, and has great free WiFi. Well recommended.
We plan on leaving as early as we can tomorrow, hoping to avoid the going-home traffic south of Houston tomorrow afternoon. But we’ll see how it goes.
Thought for the Day:
I really wish Google Maps had an “Avoid Bad Areas I Don’t Want To Break Down In” routing option.
ghdg
Too Much Food !!
Today was another long and fun day, emphasis on the long. So I’ll just give you the highlights and flesh out things later when we get home Monday night.
The day started with breakfast at 9am at The Dam Grill. Now this is WAY too early for breakfast. For Jan and I, breakfast is more like afternoon or early evening.
Anyway, we met at The Dam Grill, which is right down the road from Reverend Jim’s Dam Pub, the Dam Vet Clinic, and across the road from the Dam Car Wash. Are you sensing a pattern?
Apparently it’s a requirement that if your business is located anywhere near Buchanan Dam, you have to have ‘Dam’ in your business name. But that said, The Dam Grill was damn good.
Landon had some asthma problems last night due to all the pollen in the air up here, so they slept in. So it was just the White’s, sans Morrison’s.
Later we headed over to the Comfort Inn in Burnet to meet up with Brandi, Lowell, and Landon, who was feeling much better. Then we all headed down toward Marble Falls, with our first stop at the Pottery Ranch.
Picture several acres, both inside and out, covered in pottery, large and small, metal sculptures, and pretty much anything else you can imagine.
Everything from rows of Mexican pottery,
and from a T-Rex,
to flying pigs and a red elephant. (Exactly how drunk do you have to be for your pink elephants to turn red.)
And even a field of metal bluebonnets.
And one of the small ones found its way home with us for our patio.
Then it was back to Chris’ for the afternoon, with Chris teaching Landon to drive on the golf cart. And he only ran into a few things.
Chris’ Backyard. Now wtih more daylight.
Then around 4pm we all headed off to the tiny town of Kempner for dinner at the Kempner Brick Oven, and one of the best German meals we’ve had in a long time. But more about that later.
But here’s the entire group including me this time.
Then it was back to Chris and Linda’s about 7, wrapping up with Linda’s delicious homemade Peach Cobbler with Bluebell Natural Bean Vanilla Ice Cream.
And we get to do it all over again tomorrow, but unfortunately starting even earlier, with breakfast at 8:30am.
Thought for the Day:
“Let us never forget this fundamental truth: The State has no source of money other than the money people themselves earn.” ~ Margaret Thatcher
kgjk
