BBE 9 - The Hill Country

We stayed two nights in the Hill Country at Walnut Canyon Cabins, off Deer Road. There were two cozy cabins that the landowner rents to tourists for some extra income. It reminded me of the summers I spent as a teenager in cabins at the cow camps in the Sierras. There were even horses in a corral next to the cabin, and a Queensland Heeler dog running around.

This cabin was snug and new, though, and mice didn’t run across the beds at night. Oh, and there was an indoor bathroom. There was also a small kitchen with fresh eggs and sausage in the refrigerator. The owner keeps a flock of hens.

The cabin in the woods,



A view of the hills from the back porch.


Where the Cap’n and I sat for a while.


The horse pen. This shows what happens to the shallow topsoil when the grass is overgrazed (these animals are fed hay).


Reggie the llama, who lives with the horses.


There are a lot of llamas in this area. Some of them are used to guard sheep and Boer goats. Llamas were a fad in California 20 years ago. I once saw one that sold for $40,000. There isn’t $40,000 worth of usefulness in a llama. Or meat. Or cute, for that matter.

In the morning, the landowner stopped to show me what he’d just picked up at the post office:


A new batch of baby laying hens! (See, Uncle B, they’re still shipped in cardboard boxes.) These were from Murray McMurray. I correctly deduced the breeds, thoroughly impressing the owner. I don't know much about a lot of things, but I do know chicken stuff, folks. And I know at least a dozen kids who are even more knowledgeable. 4-H is great training for adult leaders as well as the kids.

We spent our first day in the Hill Country driving around in a big circle. The area near Fredericksburg is noted for its peach orchards, dating back to the days of the original German settlers. There are lots of little hobby farms and a few that seem to be big enough to keep a real farmer busy.

This was an interesting sight. We had to drive back and take a better look.


It was fish heads hanging on the fence. We guessed they were catfish. The one on the left was huge. We saw more fish heads hanging on another fence later in the day. Is this how Texans tell their fish tales? “You shoulda seen the fish that went with them heads, Earl! They wuz monasters.”

BBE - This Illustrates...

...why there aren't many tree huggers in West Texas.

BBE 8 - Fredericksburg

This is the main street of Fredericksburg. Please note all the cars parked along the street. This is the only photo I took of a Main Street that shows more than 3 cars on the street. Fredericksburg is pretty lively in comparison to the smaller towns in West Texas. It’s pretty much a tourist town, with lots of artsy shops.

This town is unique because it was founded in 1846 by settlers from Germany. It still has Bavarian bakeries and restaurants. Admiral Chester Nimitz was born here. The hotel that his grandfather owned has been turned into a WWII museum.

We found a couple of interesting sights in the town to share with you all (pardon me, that’s y’all). This area is popular with deer hunters. In one shop there were things made out of deer horns. In addition to hat racks and chandeliers, we found this - a Christmas tree made out of horns.


I don’t know how you’d store this with the rest of your Christmas decorations. My house is too small, I’d have to leave it out all year and use it for other things: hanging clothes to dry in front of the wood stove, as a chicken perch out in the coop, maybe as a shoe rack?

The next photo was taken through the window of a store that was being remodeled.


At first glance, it appeared to be a crime scene. The two fellows didn’t seem to be on lunch break. It must have been meditation time.

Fredricksburg is in a part of Texas known as the Hill Country. The elevation is 1,700 feet, and the area is similar to Amador or Calaveras county in California. The early settlers from Tennessee who first saw it thought they were in a perfect place. According to Robert Caro, in his book The Path to Power, “The Hill Country was a trap – a trap baited with grass.”

The hills had streams flowing from springs. There were abundant fish and game. The grass was knee high and stretched as far as they could see. ...”There was almost no brush, and few small trees – only the big oaks and the grass, as if the Hill Country were a landscaped park.”

But the hills were already inhabited by Apaches and Comanches, who Caro says were “masters of human torture.” The settlers hung on, but by the time the problems with the Indians were gone, so was the grass.

The grass had taken hundreds of years to grow, to lay down a protective mat of roots over limestone. There was no brush because the tall grass competed with it, and because natural and Indian-ignited fires kept the brush under control.

In a few years cows had eaten the grass, rains washed away the soil, the brush took over, the second generation of settlers went broke.

Fredericksburg is sort of on the edge of the Hill Country, with some tillable soil. The German farmers didn’t seem to suffer as much as immigrants in other areas in the Hill Country. I found this interesting story that might explain why: German Immigrants.

BBE 7 - Don't Eat Here

The Ranch House Barbecue in Glen Rose was a strange experience. When we got there, the parking lot was full and we had to wait a little while to be seated, which is usually a good sign. It was fairly early in the day.

I forget what we ordered, it was something yummy like brisket or ribs, there were a lot of meat dishes on the menu. But the waitress soon came back and said they were all out of meat, except for sausage. Huh?

I don’t even remember what I had, it was marginal. Merlene had the sausage. A single, nondescript, little sausage that looked like it came from Costco, cut into slices. If I remember, it was on a paper plate with a few beans and something else. It looked more like a school lunch than a restaurant meal. It certainly didn’t match the fare on the other diners’ plates, which looked like they'd been heaped with all sorts of meaty, greasy goodies.

This place seems to have good reviews online from people who got there before the food ran out, but several reviewers (I read later) had the same experience we did.

BBE – Texas Bed Lizard

Luckily it was plastic, and my reflexes are pretty slow, or there would have been blood and guts.

BBE6 – Dinner With Amber

What a fun thing – to discover that you not only still like and enjoy your old friend's company, but you also like their kid!

On our way from Dallas up to McKinney on the first afternoon, we had stopped at Asel Art, then went just around the corner to meet Merlene’s daughter Amber for dinner.

Amber is a nurse and a teacher. In fact, she is “Teacher of the Year.” She’s one of those enthusiastic, straight-forward people who people enjoy being around. It’s easy to see why her students and her mom love her. By the time our trip was over at the end of the week, I’d heard countless stories that involved Amber and her sister Tanith (who is in California). I feel like I know them well. (Bob, Merlene also knows everything you’ve ever done, including those potty training stories I swore I’d never tell again.)

The Big Easy is the restaurant where we had dinner with Amber. It's in a strip mall and looks like a sandwich shoppe, but the food is New Orleans style and is very good. Merlene says Texas still shelters some refugees from New Orleans, and they get together in places like this.

While we were eating, four fellows came in carrying musical instruments. They set up in the corner and started playing light jazz. It would have been great if the three of us weren't having a great conversation. We had to talk louder.

Somehow I managed to get away without a picture of Merlene and Amber, so you'll have to imagine one. Think of dark, sparkling eyes and smiley faces.

BBE 5 - White Rock Lake

Not too far from Swiss Avenue is another Dallas treasure, White Rock Lake. There are some big, impressive estates along the road around this 1000-acre lake. One that sits on a hill, at the top of acres of lawn, is the family home of the H.L. Hunt family, called Mount Vernon. It resembles George Washington’s house.

When Dallas was growing in the early 1900s, it outgrew its water supply. So a creek was dammed and White Rock Lake was formed. Facilities at the lake were built by CCC crews. During WW II, the site was used first as a boot camp, and then as a prisoner-of-war camp for German soldiers (some of whom asked to stay when the war was over).

The Lake went through a period of disrepair, but in recent times has been refurbished for multi-use recreation. It’s beautiful. It’s used by lots of birds, too, some of them – cormorants and pelicans – seem strangely out of place so far inland.

Again, you can see better pictures of the area on the internet. This is the only one I took. All those little lumps in the trees are cormorants. I had never seen them in a tree before.



This blog site has some great Pictures of Dallas.