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We always have had an interest in geology and now we are digging deeper into caves, springs, and sinks.  This topic is high on our list because we live in an area where the geology is primarily limestone and with its karsty formation, there are a lot of caves and sinks.  Springs are a bit scarce as water is rather scarce most of the year. Longhorn Cavern is north and west of Kingsland, and is now part of the Texas Parks system.  The cave is rather unique in that it is one of the few caves in the state that is the result of an underground river that hollowed out its channel and formed the cavern.  All of that process of forming happened thousands of years ago.  The cavern can best be described by imagining a river of water flowing toward its junction with another river, but in the last mile of this river, it drops down into a hole in the limestone and flows underground for the remaining mile and then empties into the main river.  There it would flo...

Off on this nice day to visit the old town of Yoakum.  Yoakum is like many towns of this size, they grew to moderate size in the mid 1900s, then plateaued and now are not growing at all.  Yoakum has a central area that consists of old brick buildings that are mostly unoccupied or are occupied with marginal businesses. We attended a church picnic in Yoakum a year ago, but that was the Lutheran Picnic and this one is sponsored by the Catholic church.  We first drove directly to the Church, but this was not the place where the picnic was held---it was at the Community center in the old part of downtown, along the rows of warehouses paralleling the railroad tracks.  This town was once a shipping center for agricultural products, like especially tomatoes.  Now there is little of that produce and so the warehouses sit there rather bleak looking. The dinner was the usual, beef stew, sausage, smashed potatoes, sauerkraut, and bread.  And don't forget the desserts...

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...