We are back in Fredericksburg after our road trip doing all that stuff we hadn’t done for a week like going to the gym, jolking, golf, etc.  Took the Pathfinder in for a real clean as the front was a total mess of bug splatter from the Texas/New Mexico/Arizona deserts.  Some were obviously big bugs!  The car detailer was a chap called Billy Duncan who originally hailed from Glasgow and has a London double-decker bus outside his shop – good landmark!  It was a week for meeting Brits as I met a lady here in the apartment complex who was trying to walk her rescue dog which preferred sitting in the shade to actual walking. On commenting on her sensible dog, we identified mutual accents which turned into quite a chat.  Small world syndrome – Pauline originally came from Great Yarmouth and ended up in Texas after marrying one of their oilmen.

Tropical storm Bill slowly churned through the gulf and made landfall south of Houston and then moved up through San Antonio and Austin dumping a bunch of rain on the eastern side of Austin – anywhere from 6-10″.  Missed us, but then a different storm came barreling out of Mexico and gave us a couple of inches water!  Jim & Jerrie are scheduled to move to the new house in New Braunfels at the end of the month, so we had planned to pop down to San Antonio to see them and go out to dinner.  Actually the trip was driven by Ann getting her hair done – true! That was put off for a day as parts of SA were badly flooded by Bill.  J&J say the move is on schedule, but it looks like everything will go into their garage, while they go into the local Days Inn!  Contractor issues and the bad weather have pushed things back so it now looks as if they will be settled in about the middle of July.  It will be an awesome house – only to be expected – especially by anyone who had seen the remodelling of their Arlington pad.

Anyway, the weather allowed us make our dinner reservation at Cured, one of J&Js’ favourite restaurants. It is part of the old Pearl brewery in downtown SA, situated in what was once the admin building and president’s office.  A meat lover’s paradise, though the menu has enough seafood and vegetable dishes to keep those culinary wimps happy.  We started with a big charcuterie plate  – 9 items, plus pickles that was seriously good – pushing Craig Diehl that’s for sure.  Only item we all thought was a miss was the Whipped Pork Butter – basically whipped lard and rather tasteless.  However, picking a main course was tough as there were 7 items on the menu that I really wanted such as Roasted Bone Marrow, Chicken Fried Chicken Livers, Cured Foie Gras, Blood Sausage, and Lamb Liver Toast!  In the end I went for the Pork Cheeks Poutine – I mean pork cheeks are a rarity, but pork cheeks poutine – how often are you going to get a chance to eat that?!  It came in a mini cast iron dutch oven and was an enormous portion – at a rough guess enough for 3-4 people!!  Ann had the Wagyu Beef Tartare, which she said was the best she has had since Beijing, while J&J both went with Smoked Lamb Ribs; declared seriously good.  Jim was in charge of wine so we had a couple of good bottles with our dinner.  We need to return so I can knock a couple more items off the menu before we head to Arizona. A little shopping at Costco and Trader Joe’s the next day, lunch at Taarka, our favourite Indian spot, before heading home. Good trip. We’ll be back to help J&J with the actual move as the Pathfinder will be used to move paintings and treasures that nobody wants movers to get their paws on.  Maybe another Cured visit?!

A few weeks ago I found that when standing on the patio I would suddenly have a humming-bird in my face, who’d hover and whir gently before zooming off.  This happened on more than one occasion so we figured that a previous tenant probably had a feeder for them.  Found a made in Texas humming-bird feed at HEB, filled with instructed strength of sugar-water, and hung it out  – instant humming birds!  There are birds feeding constantly during the day and even have 2 birds feeding at once.  Other times it is aerial tag – great entertainment.

Hit the driving range only to have my back go out hitting wedge shots – must be getting old!  Ice and some pool exercise to try and get back to normal.

Went down to San Antonio on the 27th to help J&J move treasures to the new house.  Put everything in the garage with all the other stuff, and then did a house tour.  Contractors still touching up and cleaning out, but looks really good, such a livable house.  All on one floor with fabulous guest quarters – 2 bedrooms each with their own bathroom – so we intend to do a guest test for them as soon as we can!  J&J then took out to lunch at 188 South in downtown New Braunfels.  It’s a very nice Italian restaurant which makes all their own pasta, which is excellent.  So it was 3 pastas while I had the Clams & Mussels – the best I’ve had for a while, with a lovely light spicy broth.  Their bread is toasted in the pizza oven, so ate far too much with my clams and mussels.  NB was packed with the great unwashed heading to Schlitterbahn – a huge water park – and lugging tubes to float the Comal River, the only one open at present, as the others are still in flood status.  Then it was back home via Blanco, a small town on the river of the same name that was hit by the Memorial Day floods.  On the back road from Blanco to F/burg you could see all he damage, and at one low spot about 50 yards of guard rails was completely flattened, with trees and debris!

Cloudy but not raining as we go to press!