Luckenbach, Texas

Everybody's somebody in Luckenbach or so they say (population of 3). The tiny town was established as a Trading Post in 1849 and consists of a Dance Hall, Beer Joint and General Store on 10 acres surrounded by huge 500 year old oak trees and two creeks. Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings brought Luckenbach to its ultimate worldwide fame with their hit song "Luckenbach Texas" #1 on the Country Charts for six weeks. I am actually starting to enjoy country music - help!!!

Palmetto State Park

Life's better outside (especially when it's warm)

Today we took our bicycles and toured Palmetto State Park, one of the many state parks in Texas. This park was named for the dwarf palmetto found in the swamps in a 289 acre tropical refuge in the middle of the brush country.

The San Marcos River also flows through this park about 14 miles south of Luling. We're looking forward to the canoe trip!!

At a bend in the San Marcos we came across trees full of roosting buzzards. It was an impressive sight but these birds sure are ugly!

Sienna

Sienna is sooo cute, I couldn't resist posting this.

Let's Rodeo San Antonio!!

The San Antonio Rodeo was awesome, billed as "more than an 8 second ride" it was voted the best large indoor rodeo of the year for the third straight year. Just a side note, if you like trucks, you have to come to Texas and if you REALLY like trucks, visit a rodeo!!! We arrived at the AT&T centre at 9:00am and didn't stop till 5:30, should have worn our pedometers. We were a little underdressed in our sneakers and tee shirts considering most people wore cowboy boots, jeans (high waisted none of those low rise ones) with belts loaded down with silver, fancy western shirts (long sleeve only), more silver, and to top it all of a fancy stetson (with more silver).

The laser and pyrotechnic show was amazing and the opening ceremonies were impressive. We saw the bare back riding; steer wrestling; tie down roping; team roping; saddle bronc riding; barrel racing and bull riding. However the best event, in my opinion, was the Mutton Bustin'. This even was open to children between the ages of 4 and 7 weighing in at less than 50 lbs. The contestants rode sheep and the object was to stay on as long as possible. The little guy who won was only 5 years old and he clung to his sheep like a burr. In fact he refused to let go as he started to slide sideways and actually pulled the sheep over. These are the future rodeo stars!!! The picture doesn't do it justice, it was sooo cute.

We also spent a lot of time checking out the exhibits - lots of silver; hide covered furniture; interesting stained glass and lots of stetsons. The fudge was delicious too!!

I was on the edge of my seat during the 6 horse hitch demonstration. They did consecutively smaller and smaller figure eights and then charged at full speed around the arena - the dirt was flying from the wheels!

The grand finale was Ronnie Milsap in concert. Ray loved it but I'm not quite so enthusiastic. The sound on my ipod was a lot better and there's no screaming and yelling in the background. Guess I'm getting old.

Flea Market

We arrived at Bussey's Flea Market with great expectations. 20 acres and over 500 vendors but the only bargain we found was a camera tripod for $2.00 and a spiffy dog crate for my friend's puppy. Overall we were disappointed, the armadillo was pretty neat though.

Bastrop and Old Friends

Today we visited Bastrop, a town about an hour's drive NW of Luling. The Visitor's Center was very impressive.

The town has changed a little over the years as you can see from the before and after photos of Main Street.

There are still many beautiful old homes.

We had lunch with Franchesca, an old friend from Mexico, at the Roadhouse. It's been more than 4 years since we've seen each other so had lots of news to catch up on. It was great to see her again and the Roadhouse serves the most amazing jalepeno and cream cheese hamburgers - WOW!!