Adventure 70: Hill Country RV Resort/Post C

Sunny Bunny

Sunny skies encouraged us and the strong winds didn't prevent us from logging another twenty miles.  The countryside was much the same, but the sunlight made everything a bit more attractive. Today, I was looking at gates, lots of pretty cool gates replete with "Don't Mess with Texas" attitudes coupled with proud American ethic. Down wind was pleasant, up wind not so much, but we enjoyed the ride regardless. After a scrumptious lunch of Semel sandwiches, we ventured out to explore historic Gruene, a town just outside of New Braunfels that has kept its old buildings intact and turned them into tourist attractions. We walked the streets with every other Texan in the area. We're new at this retirement thing, so we haven't yet learned what my cousin Douglas call the retired man's schedule (If we had, we would have waited to tour Gruene on Monday). Nevertheless, the place was pretty cool. Live music wafted through the air from at least two establishments, the shops were full of enticing trinkets (My favorite was a small wooden Christmas ornament shaped like the state of Texas. A small replica of a handgun was glued to it, and the inscription said, "We don't call 911 in Gruene"). By far the coolest place was the garden of metal sculpture and pottery. All kinds of neat yard art could be purchased there. I always like to check out the woodworking shops to see if my friend Dave Ulmen can be matched. Not to worry. This guy's idea of a wine wave was a piece of barn wood with a hole drilled into it. He did make some nice rocking chairs, and he had an impressive selection of polished live boards that were for sale to make table tops out of. The Bunny and I aren't really good tourist trap shoppers, but we do like to eat so we searched out another Texas BBQ joint called Coopers. A local told us it was the best place to go in New Braunfels. We've eaten at four or five Texas style BBQs now, so we've started to rate our favorites. So far, the best beans we found were at Wright's (The place infamous for Frac's goring), the best brisket was at Johnny's in Seguin, the best smoky flavor was on the brisket sandwich at Rudy's in Corpus Christi as were the ribs. (We don't usually like to go to chain restaurants, but if the Rudy's in Corpus is indicative to their chain, I'd be forced to recommend it), and we are looking forward to a few more samples before we leave Texas. After our mid-afternoon lunch, we had to have a sweet treat, so we made our way downtown to Naegelin's (Again) for a Cream Horn and a piece of fudge. Then we walked through the old neighborhoods toward the Comel River which winds itself along one edge of New Braunfels. One whole side of the river is a park, and it appears that tubing the river is big fun and big business. There were at least four places within a mile that rented tubes. The attraction is a concrete shute which swivels around the falls. It looks like you guide your tube into the shute and it spits you out below the falls. Then you climb out and go up river to do it again. My guess is the place is packed during the summer months. To end our exploring for the day, we took the long way back to the RV park in an attempt to find more riding roads. No luck on that score; we keep running into an arterial that we could ride, but it wouldn't be our first choice (Too busy, narrow shoulder). We plan to scout out Canyon Lake tomorrow after church, which is about fifteen miles away, and is supposed to have a nice RV campground and likely some good riding. I can see why people settled here. The hill country is attractive, the river runs year round, and the soil is rich. The first immigrants were mostly Germans, and in keeping with that we are going to be Lutherans tomorrow. We're going to the big church downtown (St. Paul's), and we'll give thanks for the nice day today, all the nice days before today, and any nice days we'll be blessed with in the future, but we don't count on those. All we know is that life is good, especially today.

 Right at home with her German countrymen, the Hunny Bunny whipped up a batch of fresh Semel, some topped with poppy seeds, some with sesame seeds (I like both).

 These two guys had little interest in a couple of seniors wearing spandex, even though I gave my best "Mooo…"

 Lots of rusted cars pass as yard art in Texas.

 Merry Christmas, Texas.

 The Gruene Mansion, now a bed and breakfast.

 Very reminiscent of my hero, Alexander Calder. The three rings were swinging back and forth perpetually. Unseen at the bottom are the counter balances.

 Displays like this accentuated the garden.

 Hey, Sawyer, Emily, and Sarah: look at Rudolph! You know what? He asked me a question:  He said, "Hey, Pop Pops, Do you know what Santa does with his suit after Christmas is over?" I replied, "No, Rudolph, what does he do?" Rudolph says, "He puts it in the Claus-it."

 You can see what Mimi thinks of that joke.

 At Cooper's, you walk in, get in line, choose your meat. They weigh it, give it back, and then you choose your side dishes.

 We chose brisket, baked potato, slaw, and beans. Notice the tea.

 Cooper's has been in business since 1953.

Tubing Run. In you go-spits you out.

The swing on the porch of the Tolle House faces West toward downtown and overlooks a long oval park that leads to the roundabout in the middle of the town square.