Southwestern Winter

“One’s destination is never a place, but always a new way of seeing things.” -Henry Miller

We’ve been in Bandera, Texas four full weeks now. The weather’s cooperated with my wanting to be outdoors as much as possible, so the pups and Dave and I have done a fair amount of walking around town and exploring. It’s fun to get off the main drag and see where the real people live.

I especially love that aspect of being at this particular RV park, Pioneer River. We’re within walking distance of a beautiful city park, the downtown business district, and my recovery meetings. That last one is a bonus. Being able to go to meetings regularly was an important part–if not the most important part–of deciding where to spend the winter. That, and being relatively close to Austin, where our son and his family live.

Bandera is a small town (pop. 957), but its heart is big. On Sunday we attended a fund-raiser for a local woman, a horse-and-carriage operator, who’d been tragically rear-ended and killed a couple of weeks ago. The heavily publicized event attracted so many people that volunteers were outside barbecuing chicken, brisket, and sausage most all afternoon. Food, a 50/50 raffle, and a silent auction were all a part of the fund raiser. Music played and people danced. Out front were an almost equal number of horses and motorcycles. For being a somber cause, the atmosphere was light-hearted and very genuine, and one that we were happy to be at.

Yesterday we met up with some old friends who were in town for a Winnebago-owners rally. Ann and Tom live in Clear Lake, near Galveston Bay and the Gulf coast of Texas. Our paths first crossed more than twenty years ago when we all lived aboard our boats. They were retired and cruised full-time, whereas Dave worked, I was a homeschooling, stay-at-home mom and our kids were young. They went from boating to RVing like we did, and our paths continue to cross from time to time.

We met for lunch at a place we’d eaten at once before, Brick’s. It is unassuming as it sits behind a motel on Main Street, along the Medina River. It’s one of those restaurants with a huge menu featuring unique items like fried green tomato BLTs. Yesterday I ordered the Dr. Pepper hamburger, a hamburger patty topped with melted cheddar and jack cheeses, fried pickles, onion straws, and Dr. Pepper barbecue sauce. “Oh, my!” does not begin to convey how absolutely wonderful this hamburger was! So much so that I spent the better part of the evening looking at recipes for Dr. Pepper barbecue sauce.

Turns out that the reverence to Dr. Pepper is not just because it was originally concocted in Texas, but because it’s the oldest soft drink in America, beating Coca-Cola by a year. A pharmacist in Waco, Charles Alderton, came up with the recipe, but it was the owner of the drugstore Alderton worked at, Wade Morrison, who came up with the name, hoping to impress the father of a girl he planned to marry. Alderton was more interested in medicine than manufacturing a soft drink, so he just gave the recipe away and Morrison is the one who became rich. Like the recipe for Coke, the one for Dr. Pepper exists in two parts, each part in two separate bank vaults in Dallas. Morrison’s marriage proposal wasn’t accepted after all, a decision no doubt made before the mother lode was discovered and most likely regretted in hindsight. I find local folklore interesting!

I was lucky to have a dad who was an excellent chef and was, in a culinary sense, absolutely spoiled. I place a high standard on food and truly believe that good food is love, so we’re on a mission: eating our way through Texas.

We don’t eat out all that often because we like to cook, too. And to that end, we patronize Bandera Meat Market at least twice weekly. Given all the cattle in Texas (not including Libby, of course), the beef is excellent! On the occasions we eat out, we’ve been relying on the Trip Advisor app, paying special attention to reviews of restaurants with one dollar sign and at least four out of five stars. Good cooking need not be expensive and besides, we prefer going to where the locals go. Because they’ve helped us so much, I try to be diligent about writing reviews for Trip Advisor afterwards. What goes around comes around.

That’s the story from Bandera. Next week ought to be interesting…Mardi Gras is a BIG DEAL here, and the shops and restaurants along Main Street have had the purple, green, and gold decorations up for a couple of weeks already. It seems like Christmas was just yesterday. A pet parade kicks off the three-day celebration, and we’ve got a bag-full of decor from Dollar Tree to dress up our pups! I can’t wait to see how cowboys celebrate Mardi Gras. Variety is definitely the spice of life.


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