Spent a week in Texas

[martyb]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ziggy29 The odd thing is that I've driven that stretch of 71 quite a few times but I don't ever remember seeing any signage or advertisement for the place along the highway. That's probably why I never knew it existed.

The deal with Smithville (my wife's hometown) is that the old families which are still largely in control (meaning have the $$) of Smithville, don't want too much growth. They want to keep it a small town, instead of what has happened in Bastrop since Austin started moving that direction. So....hardly any growth. There's very little of Smithville to be seen on Hwy. 71. I remember when they built that stretch of highway....which bypassed the town. That's the way Smithville wanted it. To get to the actual town of Smithville, you turn off Hwy. 71 onto FM 230. That will take you across the Colorado River (a second time, it's very curvy) and will bring you right past the front of Zimmerhanzel's. After you eat bbq there, you can turn left and you'll be in downtown. Before Hwy 71 bypassed the town, all the east-west traffic passed right through Smithville. This place truly is an example of a sleepy little town. It's nearly exactly the same as it was when I met my wife in 1991(working at HEB in Bastrop). The only new business to speak of in that town are the ones you see on the highway....a motel, a convenience store, and a hospital. Otherwise, almost zero change. Many of my wife's family are still there.

[Accidental Retiree]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ziggy29 We live in Llano (at least until next week) and our favorite (so far) is City Market in Luling, particularly their sausage. (Haven't done all the "trinity" in Lockhart yet, Smitty's, Kreuz and Black's.)

I have tried Kreuz and Black's by ordering and having sausage shipped to California -- well, DH and brother did it. Neither sausage compared to my memories of Luling's City Market sausage, and when I returned there this past Monday, I found the sausage was as good as I remembered.

The whole trip, one week, 1025 miles, Austin, down 71 to Houston, Beltway 8 to Pearland, back down through Sugar Land to Needville, up to Cypress, on to Luling, Lockhart, and back to Austin; down through San Antonio to Alice, to Corpus, over to Port Aransas, through Beeville on back to Austin, was terrific.

One highlight was definitely the Lockhart sausage from City Market. YUM.

[Idnar7]

Anyone familiar with Earl Campbell's brand of spicy sausages/links? I used to find it in grocery stores in Austin in the '90's. Thought that was great sausage to grill/smoke. Google shows it is now produced by J Bar B, Texas's largest sausage producer. Located in Waelder, TX.

[lark_L]

I'm WAY jealous. I grew up in Waco, but Mom was from Fredericksburg and Dad was from Kerrville, so we spent a lot of time in the Hill Country. My aunt married a rancher when I was 11 and we spent a lot of time out in the country on his place between Ingram and Harper.

I'm in Iowa now and need a Texas Hill Country fix in the worst way. Not too long (hopefully) and we ER and goodbye snow and ice.

[Lazarus]

Quote:

Originally Posted by lark_L I'm WAY jealous. I grew up in Waco, but Mom was from Fredericksburg and Dad was from Kerrville, so we spent a lot of time in the Hill Country. My aunt married a rancher when I was 11 and we spent a lot of time out in the country on his place between Ingram and Harper. I'm in Iowa now and need a Texas Hill Country fix in the worst way. Not too long (hopefully) and we ER and goodbye snow and ice.

I grew up in North Missouri I need a midwest fix. I live in Texas now. I like it here but miss home.

[GolfingDuo]

Hi we are new to the forum. This summer (yes we know it is the hottest time of the year) are planning on visiting San Antonio. The reason for our visit is one just a vacation which we have not done in a couple of years and two we are nearing retirement and San Antonio is our choice of retirement location. We live currently in central Massachusetts and have a decent retirement as I am military and federal technician with two decent pensions. We will look around at different options to living there and come back home to discuss it further.

So I guess as I have read the River Walk and the Alamo are two. Another is shopping and one store I plan on visiting is Paris Hatters. I am also considering Hill Country Retreat as it is a 55+ comunity by Del Webb and relatively new. As it stands we probably will be able to buy into a home with no mortgage and such so it is all about location for us.

So the time frame we plan to go is early July and we will be there just under a week. We like to golf as our name implies so I am considering that as an activity but we are flexible with that since it will be the hottest time of the year. I expect we will spend a good deal of time driving around so I am thinking outside SA proper and maybe even metro. What suggestions?