On our little trip to Fredericksburg, in the Texas Hill Country, we took a road trip to Bandera which is the Cowboy Capital of Texas. Teddy had been longing to buy some arrowheads that he had spotted at the huge Antique mart a few years back. It’s possible that they were the same ones but arrowheads are plentiful in this part of Texas. As we were browsing, I spotted the mart cat and just had to pick him up for a close cuddle. He was a snuggly, if heavy, brown tabby cat who purred even when I handed him to Teddy. His cuddles lightened our hearts somewhat. The staff told me they would sell him for $99.99… I might have bought him if they weren’t joking about their much loved mouser.
We had lunch at the down home restaurant, filled with locals before we took the back road to Medina, on our return to Fredericksburg. We spotted this old girl on our way back to the car – I want one just like that…
Medina is a small village, famous for apple orchards. I was desperate for a good coffee and to my astonishment, I found the best latte west of Austin. Core Coffee shop was so unique. It was run as part of an evangelical mission and the coffee was from Honduras. Every single item in the restaurant had a religious theme – from the crosses on the wall and mugs to the bible on the coffee table. There were even scriptures in the immaculately clean ladies bathroom.
It was a huge improvement on the generic Starbucks and the staff were charming and friendly. It was not a rich community but it looked like a lovely place to live. The light was so bright that I struggled to get a decent shot of the main street so I sepia-ed the second shot. It could be from the 1950’s.
Texas Landman business in Medina. The building is made of local limestone.
Medina Main Street
Always save the tree!
I am a map reader and find it impossible to follow a GPS instruction so I noted that the road from Bandera to Medina, then Kerrville, looked remote and interesting. As we were driving away from Medina, I spotted what looked like a deer fence around a ranch. Then I saw a striped animal – it was a Zebra in the middle of Texas! Then I realized it was an exotic animal fence but why just one Zebra? He looked so lonely – maybe there were other friends beyond my view. Then we started to climb dramatically. There were switchbacks and very steep gradients with road strips that warned me I was going too fast at 30 mph – that ain’t happened before! It was too dangerous to really look at the view or stop for many miles.
Finally, I found somewhere to stop and take in the view. No tourists – just trees and hills. A little piece of heaven. Well it might have been Heaven if my passenger had stopped cringing every time I turned a precarious corner – “Watch the edge!” is still ringing in my ears. 😀
Postcards from Kerry 