Spending Time With Old Friends

After taking time to do laundry and pack a suitcase, we headed west to find our way to Canyon Lake, Texas. Only made one wrong turn! Our friends, John & Irene Cyburt, had invited us to join them at a time-share in the area. Over the past few years we have had trouble 'connecting' for when we are home they seem to always be traveling. This worked out great as we had a few days to 'waste' before flying to Phoenix for the KOA convention.

We have never spent any time in the Texas hill country and found it to have a beauty all it's own. The first day we just 'crashed', doing nothing at all. The late nights during the Alumni convention were catching up with all of us. We did drive over to check out the local golf course and spotted several deer wandering the course. Irene and I headed to San Marcos to check out the outlet malls and, much to our surprise, we found two sitting side-by-side! 280 shops! We couldn't even begin to do it justice! Irene found some great bargains; I just did lots of looking, although I did buy one Christmas present and myself a new pair of SAS shoes. They are never on sale, but when I can get 3-4 years wear out of them, they are worth the price.

That evening we ventured over to Gruene (pronounced 'Green') to the Old Gristmill Restaurant. This place was just beautiful, built around the remains of the old mill, sitting right next to the water tower. The old town has been restored and before and after dinner we wandered through the shops. Super was great - and worth it - just to dig in to the largest order of homemade onion rings I have ever seen. If you are ever in the area, don't miss this town & restaurant . . . and the onion rings.


A day for sleeping in, as we waited for 10:00 a.m. to roll around so we could sign in on another conference call with the Home Ofice. Then we headed out to explore Fredricksburg, TX. We planned our route through the infamous town of Luchenbach - which has two whole buildings, and a population of 3! Met a couple of interesting characters and a very friendly cat - and snapped our picture in front of the post office. Found our way to the Cotton Gin for lunch - a delightful treat for our taste buds. We dined on seafood gumbo, salad, quiche, cajun chicken, snap peas & rice. At the end of our meal, the very attentive waiter brought us each two 'warm from the oven' cookies! What a lasting impression!

As part of the restaurant complex, they have 7 log cabins which can be rented for a 'get away.' One was open for touring, and we old campground owners found them to be 'over the top', packed with great guest amenities. Then we trekked to downtown Fredricksburg, and spent some time wandering through a very upscale antique store, where John & Irene stumbled across a couple of 'finds'.

After a quick stop at the Wildseed Farm (not much in bloom this time of year), we made it just in time to catch the last bus of the day for the LBJ Ranch near Stonewall, TX. A very interesting tour, even though the Texas White House is not yet open for tours. Lady Bird passed away just this last July at the age of 93. Both she and LBJ are buried in the small family plot under a grove of beautiful oak trees. We found it all surprisingly simple, not what one would expect of a presidential home.


Back to the condo to grill hamburgers and whip up a small batch of nachos (Roger was having withdrawals). An episode of House - and we girls called it a night.

Today finds the guys headed out to New Braunfels to the Bandit Golf course - ranked #5 in Texas. We girls are headed back to the outlet malls and we'll meet the guys at some point for a late lunch/early dinner.