The Road Show has been keeping pretty close to home lately, but still has found a few weekends for some of our favorite drives.
One thing I noticed is that many towns are sprucing up and hoping to capture an influx of tourists and 2nd-homers. In Llano, the Super S Foods has had a major makeover, with newly painted walls and rearranged cold cases.
The animal mounts are fewer and more tastefully displayed.
Unfortunately, some of our favorite small restaurants have closed, due to high gas prices over the summer and now the economy problems. (At least one place closed more because of the food than the gas prices, we think...) Anyway, if you know and like restaurants in the Hill Country, make the effort to patronize them! The owners will certainly appreciate it!
One new place we found is the Alamo Springs Cafe, outside of Fredericksburg. Huge burgers and a jalapeno-cheddar bun that is fab. I didn't eat the whole thing!
Enchanted Rock is also a great diversion. We felt the need for some exercise, so made the trip recently.
The Rock is a huge, pink granite exfoliation dome, that rises 425 feet above ground, 1825 feet above sea level, and covers 640 acres. It is one of the largest batholiths (underground rock formation uncovered by erosion) in the United States. It also goes up the 425 feet in about a half-mile. We got up pretty quickly and then had an adventure (at least for me) walking down the back side which was pretty steep.
Another fun thing to do during the holiday season is look at the Christmas lights. Most of the Hill Country towns decorate their court houses and have lighted walk-through displays. We saw the ones in Mar
ble Falls and Llano. The invention of those lights in tubes has been great for these shaped displays.We also made a run up to San Saba- The Pecan Capital of the World- and went to several pecan distributors. The best thing is tasting the varieties before buying! We always end up with 10+ pounds of nuts and freeze them until we use them.
Llano River. Late Afternoon. Fall 2008.
