Road Trip 2018 - Day Three, Moving On To Louisiana

Today was another day for covering a lot of distance. We moved on from the Texas Hill Country on to Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Louisiana is one of a few states Captain Spouse has not been to and one of only two states I had not been to. Well make that only one (Alaska now). It was around a six and a half hour drive. We are staying in a very nice Airbnb apartment here for a couple of nights with one full day to check out the town.

Before we left the Hill Country, there was one last town we wanted to visit, Gruene. As it was Sunday morning, we had the place pretty much to ourselves which was good because it was clear that when it got busy it would be like the other towns of the Hill Country that had turned us off. More on this below with pictures. But first time for a little rant.

Please take the following with a grain of salt for it is totally unscientific and based on literally two days of experiential data.

What the heck is wrong with a certain class of man in Texas. I speak of the male who lives in the highly populated areas (I will define them as Austin/San Antonio/Houston as we were not in or near Dallas/Fort Worth) who feel the only way they can prove they are 'a real man' or 'are some kind of stud' or 'my XXX is bigger than anyone else's' is by buying the freaking largest, most powerful pick-up truck they can and then driving it at obnoxious speeds, tailgating other people in intimidating ways, trying to show how big their whatever is?

It was weird. You know these people are not the kind who use their pick-ups for real work. We were all over West Texas where people work hard at agriculture and oil & gas and no one drives like that. In fact we've been all over the West and Midwest and never seen this behavior. And you know what? As soon as we got over the border to Louisiana, the behavior disappeared. People still had the big trucks  and liked to drive fast but felt no need to intimidate anyone. They were content to let the traffic open up before picking up their speed again. Toward the end of our day after 3 hours driving in Louisiana, someone big ass truck was again barreling down on me riding my tail. I got over. Texas license plates.

Pictures

Sunset from our hotel in New Braunfels

Welcome to Gruene and its famous Water Tower

Things start slowly at the General Store in a town with a zillion restaurants and bars

Getting to work for the Sunday Brunch rush

The historic (well everything in the town is historic!) Gruene Mansion Inn

Vasily, if you are still following this, see, I learned!

Always love catching people

Saw this group of ladies

And was taken by their boots

Turns out they are a family from Omaha

Three Generations!

The Mom was on her way to Albuquerque for the Balloon Fiesta with her husband

I educated her on the State Question (red or green) and the way to show you really know (Christmas - red and green!)

Windmill

Misc

Road Trip 2018 - Day Two, Into Texas Hill Country

Today, we covered less distance and spent time wandering. We made our way from Abilene to the San Antonio area focusing that part called the Texas Hill Country. The distances were longer than they looked like on the map. Weather was not in our favor and it was rainy and not ideal for taking pictures. We actually like a number of the towns we saw on our way south before we got to the hill country. Many of the notable towns in the Hill Country area were way too touristy for our taste.

Our first stop was the town of Winters, home of the...

...Fighting Blizzards!

We had had no intention of stopping here but something was going on or had gone on for the main road was festooned with brightly colored ribbons...even though there was practically no one on the street. It was as if they were having a celebration when all of a sudden the alien mother ship arrived and abducted you all.

But it was so colorful and the combination of all the color, the wind and the lack of people, made it a good photo moment.

Next we were in the town of Ballinger (home of the Fighting Bearcats!)

There was some interesting 19th century buildings but what really caught our eye was this grain elevator, which was quiet and almost deserted on this Saturday morning.

It was getting close to 1 PM when we finally got to the gateway to the Hill Country, Junction, Texas.

The Hill Country is BBQ central

Had to have some for lunch

The Pit Master

I was anxious to try this as I have been doing so much smoking

We had brisket and ribs

There was no rub on either

It was clear that they had brined both

The could be sauced if you wanted but I don't like a lot of sauce

Their original sauce is vinegar based but they have a red sauce as well

It was very good

But I have to say that based on this, I think I do a pretty credible job myself

Finally we got to the Hill Country itself

As I mentioned earlier, many of the towns were just too touristy for our taste, but the town of Kerrville (Tivy High School, the Fighting Antlers???) was an exception with a nice set of architecture and a minimum of tourist kitsch.

Tomorrow we will be heading on to Louisiana