Texas Hill Country, part 1 (12-11-11)

    Before I discuss Texas Hill Country, I will explain why this post has been so delayed.  I made the mistake about 10 days ago of  mentioning that I hadn’t been sick, not even a cold, in about 6 years.  Well, of course, that was a dumb thing to say, since I promptly came down with my first cold in 6  years.  So, anyway, we have left hill country and have been in El Paso for the last few days, where we’ll spend Christmas with Paul’s mom.
      Texas is such a huge state that it is home to several different climates, depending on the region.  West Texas is arid, desert like, with some areas receiving as little as 12 inches of rain per year. The eastern, Piney Woods region, by contrast, is humid and can receive as many as 87 inches of precipitation every year.  It contains numerous forests of pine and hardwood trees-so different from  the deserts of the western part of the state.  The gulf coast is yet another region- one that remains warm all year, and is very hot and humid in the summertime.   Hill Country is sort of in the middle of the state and is known, of course, for it’s rolling hills and many rivers. Usually the weather here is pretty good, but during our stay, mother nature did not cooperate. We had a lot of raw, chilly days, and rain.  We were happy to eventually head towards the drier, western half of the state, but then, it rained, hailed and snowed here in El Paso last night.  Go figure.

     We spent a few days in Fredericksburg, a town that was settled in the1800s by German  immigrants.  This town really gives a lot of “bang for your buck”.  There are at least 6 museums, and an awesome downtown shopping area, full of unique stores and many restaurants, ranging from Southwestern to German food. We ate at a German restaurant with Julie and Mike, and then drove out to Luckenbach with them to listen to some guitar playing. 

 

Luckenbach is a very small unique town that is known for it’s music. It consists of a dozen or so old wooden buildings- one of which is a bar, and one is a dance hall.  Apparently there is music being played in multiple locations on most days, but of course the day we were there the weather was so cold and raw, they were only playing inside the dance hall.  We did enjoy listening for quite a while though.  

More tomorrow…..