Adios, Bandera.

We are less than one week away from leaving a place we’ve been living for nearly two months, and I’m feeling rather sentimental. I’ve been trying to remember what led us to choosing Bandera, Texas as a place to spend the winter when we’d never even heard of the place, and I think it was a combination of things, though being closer to our son and his family in Austin was the primary attraction. But now I’m thinking it might’ve been Divine intervention.

Other than hoping that the winter here was warmer than what was predicted for Kentucky, I had no expectations of Bandera, which is probably why I’ve enjoyed it so. There really is something to be said about one’s serenity being inversely proportionate to one’s expectations. In other words, when expectations are high, serenity is low. And vice versa. When expectations are low, serenity is high.

Being in the Hill Country of Texas has been an experience unlike I’ve ever had. Both the locals and the scenery have a certain ruggedness, though each has its gentle side, too. I think of the two Second Sunday jam sessions we attended, and how mesmerizing it was to watch more than a dozen cowboy musicians come together to blend their talents into hours upon hours of sweet melodies and good, old-fashioned entertainment. These jam sessions were just one of the highlights of our stay, for sure.

As far as the people are concerned, I think the term they use for folks like us, “winter Texans,” illustrates their hospitality best. People here are friendly, look you in the eye when meeting and smile, and actually are welcoming to tourists. It’s nice to be welcomed.

One thing I didn’t count on by being in Bandera was reuniting with cousins I’d grown up with in St. Louis a long time ago…like in the 1960’s. Until I was age ten or so, my family and theirs lived within just a few blocks of one another and we were close, as in going to the same school and seeing each other most every day.

Of course, I knew that two of my cousins, David and Joel, had lived in the San Antonio-area for a long time, but until last summer when the latter came to visit (not me intentionally; Joel and his wife, Ellen, were in Nashville to see friends and Hopkinsville is about an hour away), I hadn’t seen either of them in about 40 years, maybe more. But since we’ve been in Bandera, we’ve seen them both. Yet another unexpected blessing of being here.

When our cousin Betty (who still lives in St. Louis) announced that she was coming down to Austin to visit her daughter in February, the planning wheels were set into motion. We–nine of us–had a little reunion in San Antonio the other day at Pearl (a revitalized area by the Riverwalk that once housed Pearl Brewery. It’s stunning, and surely has got to be one of the city’s crowned jewels.) and it was just like no time had passed! Family stories were told and there was so much laughter–LOUD, rambunctious laughter. The kind that makes you cry. The kind that makes you feel so good to be a part of something.

We still have a month to go before we head back home. Plans are cast in jello, but we’re for sure heading west from here. We have reservations for a couple of nights at Big Bend National Park, https://www.nps.gov/bibe/index.htm, and then we’ll spend a few days in that part of this ENORMOUS state. I understand that it’s so far from civilization that the night sky is vast and absolutely pitch black. The star-gazing should be fantastic!


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