February 12, 2005

February 12, 2005

Hondo to Bandera, Texas & return

DAY 239

 

Today was cool, and raining lightly all day. I'm suffering from a lack of sunlight. There's only been one day of sunshine in 2 weeks.

This morning we did some more catching up on chores. Joanne did a bunch of laundry. I did some more outdoor chores, including trying to clean the big grease stain I made on the cement parking pad we're on. Last night I used the barbecue beside the trailer, on the concrete pad. The beef ribs dripped so much fat into the barbecue, it leaked out the hole in the bottom, and made a big greasy stain on the concrete.

For lunch, we had wrap sandwiches because Joanne could not find fresh bread at any of the three grocery stores she went to in Hondo yesterday. I guess they don't use bread around here. She bought both corn tortillas and flour tortillas. She also bought some salsa and guacamole. WHOA ... they must have a version of salsa for turistas, and another for the locals. She bought the salsa for locals. WHEW ... can you feel my heartburn ?

After lunch, Joanne wanted to go to what is commonly known around here as "The Cowboy Museum". It's real name is The Frontier Times Museum. It's in Bandera, 9 miles east, and 28 miles north of here. Bandera bills itself as “The Cowboy Capital Of The World”. We drove east on Hwy. 90 to Hondo, then turned north onto Hwy. 173 to Bandera. As soon as we turned north from Hondo, we were entering the area known as "Texas Hill Country". The landscape changed from flat, scruffy desert, to lush hills with trees.

The "Cowboy Museum" was interesting, but not quite what either of us was expecting. After the museum we walked up one side and down the other side of Bandera's historic main street. Interesting old "Western" style buildings. Take down a few of the neon signs, and you could shoot a Western movie in this town. We went into a few of the stores and did some browsing. I chose a Western style shirt to buy, but changed my mind at the cash register when the cashier insisted that it was not on sale, despite signage that indicated it was.

On the drive back to Lone Star Corral RV Park, Joanne wanted to stop in Hondo and buy "Texas Barbecue" take-out for supper. We weren't really sure what all these barbecue ( Texas ) / barbacoa ( Mexico ) restaurants are all about. As we drove by McBee's Bar-B-Q in Hondo on the way to Bandera, we could smell a wonderful scent of barbecue. We stopped in there on the way back home. We bought barbecued brisket, barbecued fajitas, baked beans and potato salad. It was interesting to note that the "standard" barbecue side orders here are baked beans and potato salad. In Tennessee, Mississippi, and Louisiana, they were baked beans and cole slaw. The barbecued briskets are similar to roasts, and the barbecued fajitas are similar to steaks. I guess they're meant to be sliced thin for heaping onto flour tortillas.

For the last few days, Joanne has had the radios in the truck and trailer tuned to a Mexican radio station. We don't understand a word, but the music sure is interesting.

DSK