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We passed up a 4th of July church picnic in Weimar because of the forecast of bad weather (and it was true to the forecast).  That made us very eager to go to one this last Sunday.  So, we consulted polkabeat.com  and lo and behold there was one listed in the schedule for the 15th---how could we be so lucky?  It was to be at the St. James Catholic Church on College Street. So off we go at 9:15, down through Luling to Gonzales only to find that there was no church picnic.  A parishioner said that if there was to be picnic, no one had told them. So, since we had decided on the way down that it might be a no show, we vowed not to be upset.  So, we hunted for a restaurant for lunch. Gonzales has not been discovered by the chain restaurants (thank goodness) so it was a tough search. There appears to be nice Italian Restaurant on main street, but it looked to be more than we needed. So, we settled for a Whattaburger and coffee from the Circle K store on the ma...

This book fair was not vigorously promoted in the newspaper, but we found it at the Wimberley Community Center.  Right off, we need to say that this was one of the best book fairs that we have attended in this area--or anywhere for that matter. There were about 50 authors present and had the presentation of their work well organized.  Most of the authors were middle age or older.  Many authors focused on fiction and about the same number on children's books.  There were a few who wrote "historical fiction", but not nearly as many as wrote pure fiction.  One author wrote small format travel guides of Texas.  These might be classified as non fiction, but except for this one author, there were no non fiction authors. We bought two books, one from author Bob Doerr and the other from Larry Lee Farmer. Larry was an interesting salesman for his four books on display.  He told of his wanderings along the hippie trail in the 1970s.  He said the hippie tr...

We stopped a the city café in the small town of Flatonia for many years, but this served buffet style café folded up and now does not exist.  So, we know Flatonia cafes and coffee shops.  Now, however, we headed for the Sacred Heart Catholic Church Picnic last Sunday.  We had been to this church picnic many years ago but so long ago that we had difficulty recalling the date. The church is located about 5 blocks south of I-10 on Highway 95.  We arrived not long after the 11 am starting to serve time, found a short line to buy tickets.  From those already eating, we decided they started serving earlier than the 11 am posted time. In line, we were just ahead of the local policeman, so we probed his mind to fill us in on the local police activity.  He said that about half their police action was due to locals, the other from those passing through on I-10. With all the nefarious activity that goes on in big cities, can you not imagine all the miscreants travel...

We needed a slab of black walnut to make a table from a fantastic piece of walnut left over from our Arkansas log.  The mill in Cedar Park is one of the best places to buy wood of this type so off we went yesterday.  Its about a hours drive to there from our base. We always look for other things to see and do while on trips like this, so we decided to have lunch at Coffee Dog in Bastrop.  Found it after having not been there for some time and had a good lunch and good coffee.  I think we are the only people who drink hot coffee in Texas when the outside temperature is 100 degrees. While dining, we checked the internet for museums in Bastrop and chose the County museum in the old section of Bastrop.  It is not a large museum, but a good one covering the history of Bastrop County and its historical events of Texas. Here are photos of two of many displays; This one is a map of Texas showing the area of the state where there were many longhorn cattle running wil...

We have attended many of these church picnics in past years and don't seem to get weary of driving 90 miles for lunch.  Well, its more than lunch, its to get revitalized on the norms of rural America, many  of the norms which seem to have been lost in urban areas.  This day, in Shiner, was the picnic sponsored by the Sts. Cyril & Methodius Catholic Church. This is no small production.  It is held in the American Legion Hall in Shiner.  Its a great place to have Memorial Day Picnic as this hall is a good reminder of the contribution the military people have made to the security of our nation.  Last year the church served about 10 thousand picnic goers.  This year the price had risen from $8 to $10, but still a bargain for this great picnic. Here is a photo of the picnickers inside the hall. This is mainly Czech and German country with a dash of Polish.  They seem to enjoy their ethnic differences.  As we were in line, the ticket take...

The last weekend in April found us at the Wimberley Art Fest on the grounds of Rio Bonito.  Rio Bonito probably is the best layout for an art festival that we have ever experienced.  It has ample parking, well organized and the art stalls are located among a huge grove of pecan trees.  All on the bank of the Blanco River, We cruised through all the booths quite rapidly as many of the artists were hawking their stuff that we were not particularly interested in.  We came across the wood turners father and son by the name of Graham.  The younger Graham is the fellow we bought the American elm bowl from in Lockhart a year or so ago.  Someday we will have to visit the elder Grahams shop in San Marcos to see his setup and to deliver some blocks of wood for his use in turning some items for his sales. We nearly bought a giclee print from a lady, name of Wilkerson, from New Mexico, but decided not to because it would have only limited value in our displays ...

You may recall the museum display of some 2000 reamers, or "juicers" as we always called them---the kitchen device that you use to squeeze the juice from a half of an orange..  That display is enough to draw one to this museum, but we read more recently that the museum is the new owner of a vast collection of hand painted Japanese porcelain cups, saucers and tea pots. So, a trip to Cuero on the 25th of March,  but first lunch now that we have arrived in Cuero about noon. We went to a place familiar to us, the Main Street Kaffee haus and bakery.  The special for the day was either barbequed beef on a waffle or barbequed beef spaghetti.  I advised the congenial order person behind the order counter that both sounded horrible.  Dee made amends for me by saying that I was a traditionalist when it came to barbeque.  I picked up on that and ordered a bbq beef sandwich. It was good.  Here is  the inside of the self order café. The café is owned by ...