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 If you are not observant while traveling northwest on Highway 71, Smithville will be in the rearview mirror and so then you will have missed it all.  It's not on the main road but off to the south a block or so. We have driven past Smithville many times but this time, in order not to miss it, we decided to make that our destination. Smithville's main street runs parallel to the highway that runs north-south and therefore parallel to Highway 71.  Highway 71 connecting Houston with Austin runs on the north side of the Colorado River and Smithville is on the south side of the river.  This narrow separation from the main trunk line highway is what has spared Smithville from the ultimate doom of either death from isolation or ruin from big city influence.   We often travel miles and miles for a new lunch experience and this trip was no different in that it was a 90-minute drive to reach our destination of the Old World Bakery and Cafe.  The bakery part is ...

We are short of rain to the tune of about 10 inches so far this year, so the prospect of bluebonnet flowers next spring is getting to be doubtful. We had an occasion to dig a three-foot diameter hole in the side yard the other day and found no moisture to the depth of three feet. But we did get about an inch of rain in the last two weeks, enough to top off the collection system and to provide just enough groundwater to keep small plants alive.  The crape myrtle at the front gate, despite our giving it up as lost, has come alive again, so we shall keep it going with frequent shots of water from jugs brought from home.  Then there are the damianitas that seem to beg for droughty conditions as they are blooming like crazy with their yellow blossoms. Weather experts have said that Texas seems to have a drought about every decade, and to that, I would add, that each drought seems to last about ten years. But here's the bet:  Central Texas will end up the year with its average ...

It could be the phase of the moon, or it could be the combination of the moon and the fall equinox. but no matter what the cause, people were really talkative today, Wednesday the 28th of September 2022. We decided to journey off to Blanco because this small town, the ex-county seat of Blanco County is a friendly place and is the home of the Old 300 Barbeque shop.  I call it a shop because it is not really a cafe nor is it a restaurant.  It's just a place to buy barbeque plates or sandwiches and of course beer and the essential cobbler for dessert. Calling it a joint would be derogatory in our minds. We always opt for the pork loin sandwich that we share because one is too large for either of us.  We bypassed the cobbler because we had also planned to visit the gelato place on US281 that we had prospected for the last few years. We did justice to our sandwich outside on the front porch and made an offhand comment to an older fellow who was reassembling his leather get-up....

 Yesterday was one of our most important holidays, the Fourth of July, a celebration of the independence of our United States of America. The symphony was a combined effort of the choral group and the symphony of the Wimberley area. They carried off a fine performance all the way through. We even had ceremonies of the pledge to the US flag and to then to the Texas flag.  Plus, a presentation of the colors by members of the VFW, and a standing roll call of the veterans of all the armed forces each separately.  Except for some reason the new Space Force was not mentioned. All in the large auditorium of the Baptist Church--how generous they are!

 We have this great world atlas book published by the National Geographical Society, which by the way, we bought at the local library used book sale for $2. Probably this low price of the book pains the Society but it sure makes my reference to maps an easy task without having to wake up my computer. The book occupies a permanent spot on a book stand in our breakfast room, standing ready to supply map information on request. The book happened to be open to the page showing the whole of Antarctica featuring all the outposts and even some commentary of scientific significance. One such comment was on ice coring data of historic temperatures and carbon dioxide content.  I can understand how the CO2 content of the ice can be preserved over many centuries at varying depths, but I am unsure how the prevailing temperature of some thousand years ago can be preserved in the ice cores--but that's another issue that we will not get into here. So here is the comment on the data of the ice...

On seven occasions recently we manned a political party tent at the Wimberley voting location. It's the tent set up to provide information to voters who may need help in the voting process.  People like us took two hour shifts throughout the day.   We refer to ourselves as tent sitters.  The information we provide is a variety of documents ranging from sample ballots to information on county through state candidates.  Since this was a primary election, we could not express a preference for any candidate.  During the general election in November, we will be able to provide a spiel on why one should vote for our candidate, but not in the primary election. In Texas, a voter can choose any party to vote in the primary election, but come the runoffs, should there be any, the voter must then stay with the party chosen in the initial primary voting.  Then with the general election, everyone gets the same ballot no matter which party you chose in the primary....

Today was one of those days when the conditions are near perfect; 70 degrees and a clear blue sky and we feel ready to explore.  It's a toss-up between searching for some interesting place for lunch or finding some wilderness road that we have not experienced before.  Both are getting to be challenging because we do both quite frequently and we were looking for something never before seen. We looked for and found an interesting road thirty minutes away and decided to give it a go and explore that area. It was already 11 AM but we knew we had enough time to pull it all in.  One of our objectives was to find some old cemeteries that we could access. But we found much more than cemeteries. We found a remote road, easily driven at slow speed, and only lightly populated.  At one point in the road, we came across a historical marker sign and stopped to read it and look around.  Next to the historic site marker was a small wooden house with the door open.  Out thr...