Now that we are out and about doing stuff in the Hill Country we have discovered that it is a necessity to check that the spot you are about to visit is actually open.  Accepting the times given in their brochures, local guides, websites, etc., is not the way to go as we have found to our cost.  Wineries, restaurants, shops, all have some odd hours to start with, but then they will close/not open on some whim.  So far we have not been able to determine what causes these spontaneous occurrences, but we do now call ahead to make sure they haven’t gone walk-about.  There is a coffee shop down town on Main Street, just about bang in the middle of town, renowned for their coffee and beans, whose hours are 9.00am to 2.00pm Wednesday through Sunday!  I mean – are they running two businesses, doing the school run, and looking after Mum, or running a coffee shop?!  This appears to not be unusual and we have, on a number of occasions, driven quite a distance only to find the winery or restaurant closed even though they are supposed to be open.  About 80% of the wineries are only open Thursday to Sunday, which I suppose is understandable as they are going after booze tours and SWDs (Sweet Wine Drinkers), but restaurants and shops as well?  Doesn’t make business sense to me.  There is a restaurant with a good reputation, and supposedly a stellar wine list, in a place called Welfare, which is not on any maps that we have, and which our GPS says doesn’t exist, called the Welfare Cafe – catchy! We went looking for the Welfare Cafe one day as it was obviously going to be a bit of an exercise to find it. For some odd reason there is an exit sign on I-10 for Welfare so we started there, and after much meandering found Welfare and the Welfare Cafe.  It’s one of 4 buildings and was once the Welfare general store and post office.  You’ve got it – only open Friday to Sunday – from 6.00pm to 9.00pm!  Now this place is 12 miles to the nearest town of any size, Boerne, (pronounced Bernee) and 30 miles from Fredericksburg, and not open for lunch, so the chances are we’ll never eat there.  I mean who wants to do 12 miles of Texas farm roads at night after dinner, let alone 30!  Unless you are local who really knows the roads I bet you will be like us and never eat at the Welfare Cafe.

As mentioned, we have been doing local stuff to find out as much as we can about our new community and its people.  In the last week or so we have done the Hill Country Wildflower 5K/10K Run/Walk (we did the 5K walk) which had about 350 participants of all ages.  Great fun and very well organised, and of course the weather was perfect!  That same night we attended the Fredericksburg Volunteer Firemans’ Fish Fry at Market Platz.  This was a big bash with raffles and auctions for such goodies as shotguns, rifles, pistols, and bows plus a bunch of other boring stuff, as well as live music – country that is!  We got there relatively early, but still had a wait to get our fried catfish, German potato salad, and beans; all rather good, with the potato salad being excellent.  Only one beer tent so getting our Shiner Bocks took time. Great people watching while we ate and listened to country music, and yes, the weather was fabulous. (What is that thing they call humidity?)  A reassuring turnout of people of both sexes in jeans, boots, and hats. As we were leaving there was a queue half way round the market square – amazing.  We later found out over 750 people turned out for the event, and this is in a town with a population of 10,000!  We made the trek down to Boerne to get the Pathfinder put through its 15K service – what a service centre – enormous. Huge waiting lounge with TV, magazines, WiFi, and a Starbucks coffee machine that served 6 different types of coffee in 3 sizes!  Quite a pleasant wait.  Then off to Little Gretel for lunch – a Czech/German restaurant that has been there forever so one of those places you have to visit.  Everything comes with sauerkraut – even the fish and chips!  Next day it was the Willow City Loop to see the best of the Hill Country’s wild flowers.  Willow City is comprised of a general store, feed and grain store, and a bar – all basic needs covered!  The loop is a 15-mile circuit through farm country with cattle grids and signs warning of flooding every few miles as you cross a series of streams and rivers.  Beautiful country side which is obviously at its best in the Spring.  After the circuit we headed off to the Bell Mountain Winery, where tastings are by appointment only, and were met by Evelyn Oberhelman who owns the estate with her husband Robert.  A real character and very chatty and informative.  Beautiful location with 55 acres under vines – Cabernet, Merlot, Chardonnay, and Riesling, with Syrah and Malbec being picked this year for the first time.  First wines were planted back in 1983 so it’s one of the oldest Hill Country wineries, which came out in the wines we tasted which were from 2007 & 2009. The 2007 was a Riesling – a 13 year old wine that was amazing – certainly didn’t show its age. Next big event was the Fredericksburg Newcomers dinner at the Alamo Springs Cafe.  Another converted general store out in the boondocks 12 miles south of Fredericksburg, which appears to be the only building left in Alamo Springs.  It was quite an event with about 40 “newcomers” packed into the back room of the cafe – pandemonium with a noise level through the roof – fun crowd!  The cafe had actually won number 3 spot for the best hamburger in Texas in the 2013 Texas Monthly Food & Wine competition, so we both had burgers, which were huge and fabulous. There were coolers of beers and racks of wine to which you helped yourself and then paid for at the end of the meal – way to go!  It turns out “newcomer” means anyone not born in Fredericksburg, so there were people there who had lived in the area for 20 years, but still rocked up to the dinners. We like the Alamo Cafe as it is open from 11.00am to 9.00pm 6 days a week, however, we will still call to double-check that it’s not having a spontaneous closing.  Friday was the art walk through the downtown galleries, which we enjoy as there are two galleries which are really good, and both serve good wine and excellent snackies.  Once again great people watching with lots of local ladies done up to the nines and wearing some pretty spiffy boots. Plus there are no open container laws so you can do the tour wine in hand.  Saturday it was back to Market Platz for the library book sale.  On our way across the market square we passed a Texas Rangers gathering for what looked to be a lunch.  Some seriously large side arms being carried in western and shoulder holsters by some very big gentlemen with badges on their shirts.  Is Texas not great?!!  The book sale was not bad – we bought books – but not a patch on the Charleston event. There were about 10 people dragging huge trolley bags loaded with books who had mobile scanners on their phones to check the on-line prices of books. Then it was on to the Comfort Antique Fair – quite an event for a little town like Comfort – with one stand having half a dozen bobbies helmets from a variety of English constabularies! We ate lunch at a local diner, which turned out not to serve booze – purely BYO – then back to the flat.  This time by some seriously minor roads – not even 2 lanes in most parts – and once again crossing numerous streams by narrow bridges which are just concrete over a couple of drainage pipes a matter of inches above the water.  Very pretty, but would be something of a challenge after heavy rains!  Knew we were really out in the country when we saw bullet holes in mail boxes and “road may flood” signs.  Just love it!!