I know, way behind on my spasmodic blogging, but my Editor in Chief (now fired) managed to delete my 1800 word draft that I did covering our 2 day trip from Fredburg to Sedona!  Super AngryAnglo!!  Anyway, that and a really crappy internet service at the house means I have not been really motivated to turn out my normal scintillating prose.  We are now in our second day of really horrible weather – rain, and sleet with temperatures at 47’F/7’C for the high, and 34’F/3’C at night – which has driven me back to my blog!  This is the second attempt as the internet failed while I was on the blog site and I lost half of what I had written!!!

We ended our stay in Texas with a wine dinner at our favourite restaurant Valeria with Jim and Jerry, and Veronica, J&Js friend from DC, who is a sommelier and wine consultant.  Another convert to Valeria’s food and wine!  Then it was packing up the truck and saying farewell to our new friends, and our wonderful neighbour and my golf partner, T. J. Dooley, a one-time cowboy and one of life’s great characters.

We had a pleasant and uneventful trip staying in Van Horn, TX and Globe, AZ on our way through to Sedona.  Van Horn is a pretty nasty blip on the I-10 corridor in west Texas, about 100 miles east of El Paso.  It’s only saving grace is the El Capitan, a beautifully restored 1930s Spanish-Colonial hotel built to support the cattle and tourist industries.  Apart from being a really nice hotel it has a good bar and restaurant, which is vitally important as there is nowhere to eat and drink in Van Horn apart from petrol stations!!  Mae Mae, the bartender, a school teacher who works the evening shift to keep her mind off her Special Forces son who is somewhere in the Middle East badlands, produced some of the best Margaritas we have ever tasted.  So a few Margaritas, a good dinner with a pleasant bottle of Super Tuscan, and then Mae Mae Irish Coffees for desert meant we had a good night in Van Horn.

The next morning it was get through El Paso time.  I-10 runs straight through the southern half of the city and should be a breeze, but never is!  Road works and accidents means you end up stuck in stationary traffic gazing down on “the wall” and the Mexican side of the city, and this time was no different!  Then it was into New Mexico which is a bad version of west Texas with miles and miles of desert, complete with a huge Border Patrol check point that inspects all vehicles for drugs and illegals.  Yep, every vehicle travelling on I-10 gets checked!  Our stopping point that night was Globe, AZ so we cut across New Mexico on Rt 70 which was lots more desolate countryside until we hit the hills of east Arizona.  We stopped for lunch in Deming, NM at the Adobe Deli which received good reviews on various social media sites.  It is actually 9 miles outside of Deming at the end of a dirt road in the middle of nowhere!  An old railway carriage tacked on to an even older barn, covered in vines and overhanging trees, with large statues of horses, bison, and bears peering out of the foliage. When we initially walked in, we could scarcely see as there were no windows.  Stuffed animals of all sizes adorned the walls and ceilings and the place looked as if it was last cleaned sometime in the 1980s.   The place was bustling and it had a good menu and wine list. We shared an onion soup and split a roast beef dip sandwich – both were large and delicious!  We started chatting to a man at the table next to us and it turns out he was a local farmer whose father had emigrated to the States from Hungary back in the 40s.  Only in America!

Noftsger Hill Inn, Globe AZ

We had decided to meander across country and avoid Phoenix both because it’s more interesting off the interstates and also to avoid the highway shooter on I-10 / I-17 in Phoenix, who was up 7-8 hits at the time!  Globe is an old mining town dating back to the 1870s producing first silver, and then copper.  Our B&B, the Noftsger Hill Inn, was a 1900s school house built by the Old Dominion Mining Company for their workers, perched on a hill overlooking the old mine works. All the classrooms have been converted into bedrooms and as a result, our room was huge. We had a king-sized bed, a twin bed, a sitting area in the middle with couch, couple of chairs, coffee table and TV, plus a wardrobe for our clothing and yet another table and chair for our computer.  We even had a chalkboard in our room! The old coat room was the bathroom. Dinner that night was in the local Italian restaurant and was the worst food we have had on our travels!  A mediocre bottle of Chianti helped get through food that must have come from preprepared frozen stuff!  Looking around we noticed just about everyone was eating pizza – obviously the only edible product of the place.  Our breakfast next morning more than made up for dinner as our hostess produced fruit compote made from pears from her garden, a good frittata with local eggs, and fresh bread with home made jam – excellent!  The other couple at breakfast were Brits from Yorkshire!  He was also named Tony and worked for the Yorkshire Park Services and was on a busman’s holiday touring some of our national parks.

As the last leg of our trip into Sedona was quite short we decided to do more meandering and stopped at the Tonto National Monument to visit the Salado cliff dwellings.  On the advice of the site ranger we bought an old farts pass that was valid for life and gave us access to all of Arizona’s National Parks and monuments, all for the grand sum of $10!  The National Parks Service is really awesome and does a superb job managing and presenting their sites.

We stopped for lunch in Cottonwood, a town near Sedona, because we found a Persian restaurant there.  We shared appetizers of baba ghonoush, garlic potatoes, and hummus and it was the best we’ve had in ages! Turns out the restaurant is owned by an Iranian couple who emigrated to the States and ended up in the food and beverage industry because the husband, who had two degrees in computer engineering, liked to cook and was a good cook!  Had quite a wine and beer list with beers from Turkey, Armenia, Belgium, and Russia.  We tried the one of Turkish beers and a Russian Classic, both really good.

Suitably fortified we barrelled along Rt 89A into Sedona, which is quite spectacular as you drive through these huge red mesas silhouetted against a brilliant blue sky dotted with white clouds.  Completely picture postcard stuff.  By late afternoon we were unpacked, done grocery shopping, and was basically settled in our West Sedona town house.  So starts the second stage of our travels across America.

My last blog from Fredburg!  It’s pack out time as we hit the road on September 29 for Sedona.  As always the last days before departure are crazy, and this is no exception.

We hit the last wineries on our list – Pillar Bluff and Texas Legato – which are in the Lampasas area, north of Austin, and right next door to each other. Turns out they are owned by twin brothers, but they make very different wines.  We also found out these 2 wineries are on a dolomite dome, unlike the majority of the Hill Country vineyards which are on limestone.  As you can imagine different wines and far more minerally than normal.  We thought Pillar Bluff the best – producing Bordeaux style wines that were well above the average Texan wines.  The Texas Legato wines were good, but not as good as the brother’s wines next door! While chatting to the vineyard manager during our tasting we were asked if we had been to Pilot Knob Winery? This was an unknown to us and not in any of wine guides/books, so we got directions and headed out across country.  It turns out Pilot Knob is miles from anywhere, and after travelling some very minor country roads we picked up the Pilot Knob signs. What a find!  A young couple with kids running a vineyard and making wines.  Craig Pinkley is his own winemaker, but as he was born on small vineyard in the south of France, as the 4th generation of grape growers, it’s probably in his blood.  Small, 5 acres of vines producing about 1200 cases a year but their long-term plan is for 90 acres of vines.  Presently producing Cab Sauv, Tempranillo, and Viognier and making some seriously good wines.  Their Viognier Reserve is aged in acacia barrels – new for us – but according to Craig often used in France with Sauvignon Blanc and Viognier.  As we were well into our tasting Craig went into the cellar and came out with a bottle of his 2012 Cabinet Sauvignon which he opened for us.  A very good wine, aged on medium toast American oak, and produced with good fruit and medium tannins, so drinking well. I wanted to buy a couple of bottles to run past Jim and Jerrie, but it was no go as he didn’t have enough for his wine club. Finally he came out with a bottle of port made from Tempranillo, 5 years old from small batch traditional production, which would hold its own in a tawny blind tasting!  Definitely the best port we have had in the Hill Country, but at $60 a bottle it needs to be good.  Rounded off our day having a very late lunch at the Flat Creek Enoteca in Marble Falls.  A great stopping spot with good food and wine en route to home.

The next evening, Saturday, it was off to the Doss Volunteer Fire Department’s annual fish fry.  Doss is a hamlet of about 340 people 25 miles from Fredburg, but its fish fry draws a crowd and is known for serving cold beer while you stand in line for your fish.  As you all know I’m not a queuing person, and have been known to walk out of a restaurant when told there was a 15 minute wait, but figured free beer would dull the pain.  There was a group of us going – TJ our neighbour, Chuck & Kathy and Farmer Kevin, so we all met at Chuck & Kathys’ RV for drinks before heading out.  Kevin being the local, his family came to Fredericksburg in the 1850s, said this year it was being held in the new fire station which was on the outskirts of Doss.  A beautiful drive through farm country to suddenly find cars parked on the side of the road about a mile outside of town!  Kevin led us to the Church parking lot in the “centre” of Doss and we then followed the crowds down the road towards the new fire station.  As soon as we joined the queue, which was along the side of the road about 500 yards from a big tent, volunteers arrived with large plastic cups and jugs of beer!  During the hour we waited in line to get our food we never wanted for cold beer – brilliant!  No price for your food you just donate as you see fit, but as you have been drinking free beer for an hour+, and we all love our fire fighters, contributions appeared to be on the generous side!  They raise enough at this event to run the fire department for the year!  Potato salad, coleslaw, beans, tomatoes, pickles, bread, and a huge helping of fried catfish all go onto your plate, and after a few pints of beer it really hit the spot.  Huge crowd in and around the station eating, “visiting” and listening to a country & western band, that occasionally broke into polkas!  We found out later that week they had an attendance of 3,700 people – not bad for a village fish fry!

Sunday it was off to Alexander Vineyards for their wine club members’ lunch and to pick up our wine allocation.  After Claude gave us glasses of his pink bubbly we found a table under the oaks, and ordered plates of paella from the chef working a huge paella pan under another oak tree. Pink champagne, a well made paella, and an excellent flamenco guitarist, made for a rather pleasant lunch.

Next on the to-do list was dinner at Otto’s, reputedly one of Fredburgs better restaurants.  Can’t make a reservation!  Give me a break, this is not NY or London, this off season Fredburg!!  Typical AngryAnglo attitude on entering the restaurant, and ready to head for the bar to blow $100 before dinner, but no, they were really nice and seated us immediately!  We had a pro of a waiter who rounded up our cocktails while handing out the menus and wine list, which put me in a good mood – duh!  Started off with Flammkuchen, a super thin flat bread loaded with 3 different cheeses, mushrooms, and caramelised onions – seriously good – and I would say enough for 3-4 people!  Now in a really mellow mood!  Then it was into Texas Quail, and Duck Schnitzel washed down with a rather good bottle of Italian Pinot.  I was not into dessert so our pro waiter rounded up an Irish coffee for me while madam tucked into their Foie Gras Creme Brule with Pomme Frites!  A great meal, a pro waiter, and good wine, so the AngyAnglo was now less angry!

On Sunday it was off to SA to meet Jim & Jerrie for an exhibition at the Briscoe Museum of Western Art.  Checked into Hilton Homes2 Suites, and then Ann walked us round in a circle for half an hour trying to find the museum!  After that It was a well deserved lunch on the River Walk at Zocca with pints of draft Stella before we found our way back to the Briscoe. The Cowboy Returns is a photo exhibition of Bank and John Langmores’ work, and John, Bank’s son, gave a slide show talk after which we toured the exhibition and museum.  Jerrie knew Bank from her previous life in Texas and said his work was outstanding, and it really was!  The museum is in the old library and all the stair treads are lined with buffalo hide – how Texan is that?!  The museum has an excellent collection of spurs, saddles, and weapons, as well a large scale model of the battle of the Alamo.  After that it was back to J&Js’ hotel, the oldest in SA, for cocktails before heading to Zinc for dinner.  A bistro type wine bar, with an excellent wine list but so-so food.  A great trip.

Back to Fredburg for one night to repack and load up with wine and goodies before heading over to J&Js’ new house in New Braunfels to offload and head out to SA airport to pick up Scott and Lisa who flew in for three days of cooking, and eating, and drinking too much!  Crammed the 6 of us, plus luggage, into the Pathfinder and it was off to La Fonda on Main for lunch.  A great old school Mexican restaurant.  Ann, Jerrie, Lisa and Scott got stuck into the Margaritas, which they seemed to enjoy!  I had Hake Ceviche with Guacamole – outstanding!  Back to the house and Lisa produced a 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle of Charleston, one of their house warming gifts, which was immediately opened and construction continued for the next 3 days!  The next day while the girls were off doing art galleries in SA we prepared an amazing dinner under the directions of Chef Bethel – roasted tomato amuse-bouche, stuffed Texan Quail, Veal Chops with a Mushroom Gratin, all complimented by a double magnum of 2006 Patrica Green Pinot Noir.  Oh yes!  Did lunch the next day at the Antler Cafe so Scott and Lisa could experience their awesome Chicken Fried Steak.  Scott actually had the Hamburger Steak, which I understand is up there with the CFS!  Our evening’s entertainment was a marathon viewing of season 1 & 2 of the Wallender series on Jim’s huge new TV set-up!  Of course the time flew by and before we knew it it was Friday morning and we were all heading home.  It was a memorable gathering, and Chef Bethel’s new kitchen is a dream!

Last night we tried Hilda’s Tortillas, 5 mins drive from the flat.  What a spot – really good food – ice cold dressed Modelos – and a pretty good country & western singer.  The place was hopping and this was a Tuesday night!

As this goes to press we have packed, and half packed, boxes and suitcases around the flat, and it looks as if we have seriously decreased the amount of stuff we arrived with!  This time we should get everything in the Pathfinder and not have to ship boxes to Sedona. See the next blog!

First you will see there are new blogs which are out of sequence, so have fun with that.  It seems they were published as “pages” which don’t actual post on my blog for whatever reason, but now that is sorted things should come out on schedule?

We are all on course to close out the Fredericksburg flat on September 29 and head for Sedona.  Of course we can’t get a set time for Cort to pick up the furniture on the 29th, but hopefully it will not be too late!  Then there is car packing!  We haven’t done a truck load-out for 6 months, so a dry run will have to be done to see what will fit.  Still remember our first load-out at Scott and Lisa’s!!  Our future homes are all rented furnished so we won’t have the leasing furniture,TVs, and power issues that we had with Fredericksburg.  We have now booked everything through to the beginning of July 2016 – organised, or what?  So we are in Sedona until December 31 and will therefore spend New Year’s Eve on the road heading for California.  We will spend a week at a vineyard in Adelaide – outside Paso Robles on the Central Coast – then a week in Kelseyville in the northern CA wine country – before heading to OR.  We have 3 months in a flat in Tualatin – a suburb of Portland – for the winter months, then move on to a house in Carlton in March for another 3 months stay. Carlton is a town of 3,000 people, but has 10 tasting rooms and 40 wineries in the county!  Jim and Jerrie have already made a booking for a week!  Oh yes, we have our first guests booked in to the Sedona house, so remember it’s first come, first served y’all.

Apart from our hectic life of eating, drinking, going to the gym, and playing golf (Tony), book club (Ann), we’ve had to visit local sites before departing the Hill Country; like the Nimitz Museum of the Pacific War.  Very impressive – complete with fighter planes, tanks, a miniature submarine, and extensive film shows and photos.  It even had a small exhibit on The Chindits and Vinegar Joe Stillwell.  Pop loathed Vinegar Joe because he refused to move his troops into Burma to support the British, resulting in many of Pop’s beloved Gurkhas getting killed. The tickets to the Museum are valid for 48 hours so you can thoroughly cover the museum, gardens, and Admiral Nimitz’s home nearby.  Our next tourism visit was to LBJ’s ranch and the Texas White House just down the road from us in nearby Johnson City on the banks of the Pedernales River – well worth a visit. On the grounds of the ranch are the one-room schoolhouse Johnson attended as a boy, the Johnson family cemetery, Johnson’s birthplace, and the home of his grandparents. The Texas White House was quite small and spare considering it was the base of a president who often ran the country and hosted international luminaries at his home (and when compared to the homes of more contemporary American leaders). In the collection of his cars there was a Lincoln open-top hunting car complete with gun rack and bar!  All The Way with LBJ!

Ann and Jerrie made a day trip to Austin to visit the LBJ Presidential Library. I had to drive her to Johnson City to meet up with Jerrie and used that as my excuse to have a chicken fried steak breakfast at the Country Cupboard. Their sign says, “World Famous Country Fried Steak – Over 3 dozen sold.” I think World Famous is pushing it, but not a bad brekkie!

Notched up a few more local eateries – Cranky Franks BBQ – only open for lunch and very much a local haunt, which had seriously good brisket. The Navaho Grill – considered one of Fredericksburg top restaurants – which was very good, but our visit was a little strange as we were the only diners in the place!  The fried avocado salad was outstanding.  Then it was El Gallo with the Newcomers’ Dinner Group – always a wacky, but interesting gathering.  El Gallo is a family run Mexican restaurant that has been going for 20 years, but is dry!  However, Nancy our group leader, had arranged for us bring our own adult beverages. We had to keep our booze out of sight and sipped wine from plastic tea glasses – very funny.  Good cheap Mexican food and good company.  We took TJ our neighbour as he had not heard of the Newcomers.  He was soon bonding with the other folks and will hopefully keep going after we leave.

Had Chuck and Kathy round for dinner. I cooked Quail Confit and Ann made a fabulous English Trifle – great fun.  Met a couple, Stephen and Donna Hugly (whom we had previously met a few weeks ago at August E’s when having dinner in the bar) for lunch as they were in town to meet with their contractor on the construction of their retirement home.  Stephen’s a Brit and they are a really nice couple who we will hopefully keep in contact with, especially as Stephen is going to plant grapes on their property!  Looks as if they will visit us in Sedona.

Jerrie organised a few days in a cabin on the Frio River, her family’s summer retreat for many years, where we had a cabin slap bang on the river in a gated complex.  School was back in session so things were nice and quiet most of the time, except for pair of Mr & Mrs Rednecks who sat in the river every day playing country and western music and drinking! We normally went in closer to the rapids where the rushing water drowned out the music and which allowed Ann to lie in her floaty and read – tied off to a convenient tree. Tubing is big in the Hill Country rivers so we had groups of tubers coming through which was extremely entertaining. They all had coolers in tubes with them so nobody had to sober up on the trip. Mind you lying back in your tube and drinking will not cut it, because if you don’t follow the water run you’ll end up in the shallows or stuck on the rocks.  We found out from the locals that tubing from our spot to the next exit point, Neal’s Landing, was 4 hours with a set of rapids that should be walked.  So watching the tubers come through our bank of rapids, getting stuck, falling flat on their backs on the slippery rocks, while still drinking, would result in at least a 20% mortality rate. The local pundit said don’t miss Neal’s Landing because after that you are in wilderness and there is nowhere to get out of the river. Bet the mortality rate goes up after Neal’s Landing!  We had planned to go to Neal’s Landing for dinner one night to eat their famous chicken fried steak, but they were closed – very annoying – so we had to stay in and eat our meagre supplies with the limited wine we had bought.  Yeh right – it was the Bethel/Hendeys, so though we got through the wine we still had enough food to feed 2-3 tubing groups!  The only damper on our fabulous stay was that I found out iPhones don’t like being submerged in the Rio Frio.  I rushed off the a grocery store about 4 miles away to buy rice, and when I was paying the young lady at the desk she looked at me with a straight face and asked if I had gone in the river with my phone?! There were no straight faces when I relayed the story back at the cabin – everybody was in stitches!!  Jim said he intended to create a new dish in my honour called iPhone Risotto.  Warped sense of humour!

Drove home via Bandera so we could introduce J&J to the meat market there.  Loaded up on Texas Akaushi steaks and garlic pork venison sausages.  I was restrained from buying quail stuffed jalapenos, and skewered quail legs.  Boy, what a great butcher’s!

August has been hot, with a string of days at 100’F+, but low humidity, so not too bad.  One small thunderstorm in the last 30 odd days and that’s it for rain.  The humming birds have still been flocking the feeder and keeping us entertained, though I think they may have started their migration back to Mexico as there appear to be fewer birds in the last few days.

Getting hectic as we wind down our Hill Country sojourn. Two more Hill Country wineries to visit and we’re heading for those on Friday. Saturday there’s a fish fry to benefit the Volunteer Fire Dept. in the community of Doss. We hear they give you free beer while you wait in line for your fish so we’re going. We have a trip to San Antonio with J&J for a Western photography exhibition at Briscoe Western Arts Museum followed by dinner at a yummy SA eatery to yet to be selected. Then Scott & Lisa and us are all staying at J&Js’ fabulous new house for a few days when there will be an excess of cooking, eating, and drinking – yes!  And finally, the Italian wine dinner at Valeria in Boerne.  I tell you retirement is not for the weak!!

We hiked the Enchanted Rock with our local friends Chuck & Kathy who have their RV parked on a friend’s farm about a 5 mins drive from the flat.  They retired to Ecuador but after 3 years found it rather quite and a bit boring so decided to come back to US for a rethink.  Hence the RV on the farm while they decide what to do – an RV version of the Holland/Hendeys! Enchanted Rock is the spirit ground of the Tonkawa Native Americans that rises to 1825 ft and reputedly has creaking sounds, caves, and “ghost fires” on top. It’s part of a 1600-acre park, and is a huge pink granite dome, with trails to the peak and throughout the park. The rains had postponed previous plans to do the climb and our Friday jaunt had a 40% chance of rain, but it turned out to be a truly spectacular day, warm, sunny, with a lovely breeze. When we checked in at the park centre we found out the summit trail was the only one open, all the periphery trails had washed out and were under repair, so the summit it was.  Basically a 600 ft  scramble up the granite slopes dotted with weathering pits formed by the flaking granite and filled with water/soil that supports cacti, yuccas, shrubs, and grasses.  In some of the bigger pools we saw what looked like tadpoles, but were later told they were a type of shrimp!

Behind on blogging as always!  It’s been over a month since we got back from our Sedona trip and all sorts of stuff has been going on – all I have to do now is figure out what we all did and whether its worth recording.  Middle of June we went down to San Antonio to stay one last time with Jim and Jerrie before they finished packing out for the move to the New Braunfels house.  All their stuff was having to go into the garage of the new house while the contractors sorted out a few glitches like hot water, fitting the fridge, freezer, and wine cabinet, etc., etc. Ann fitted in a hair appointment with her hairdresser, and then we all went out for dinner to Cured, a really good restaurant in the old Pearl Brewery complex in down town SA. The restaurant is in what was the president’s office and admin building, so lots of character.  It is basically a meat place, with a couple of fish/veggie dishes for the wimps of the world.  The charcuterie was up to the Craig Diehl’s standard, and Ann’s steak tartare was rated one of the best ever.  I had Pigs Cheek Poutine!  Amazing! Came in a not so small cast iron pot and was enough for at least 3-4 people – truly delicious and a memorable dish to say the least.  We then did another 2 trips moving J&Js’ precious stuff in the Pathfinder to the New Braunfels garage, so by the end of June they were all moved; not actually in the house, but all moved!

Neal crossed the pond for Mark’s birthday and the bro’s had a week of bonding and playing golf.  Scott stood in for me in the Hendey Flask, and won.  Not sure how that happened as the boys normally enforce some pretty tough handicaps. Scott said we either had to rename the Flask or adopt him!  As he played in my place I think my name should go on the Flask with an asterisk!  Mark then pointed out there weren’t any names on the Flask as Neal (IC Flask engraving) has really fallen down on the job.  I bet Neal leaves it for me to do when we are in sunny England next year!!

Managed to tweak my back on the driving range – see what practising does for you – which rather hampered life – and one reason why the blog is so behind.  That’s my excuse anyway.

We attended the Fredericksburg 4th of July Parade which was great fun.  Small town America is live and well!  The parade runs down Main Street, which in the centre of town is highways 16, 87, and 290, so not sure where all the traffic went for 2 1/2 hours?  All the old streets are really wide as they were built to enable an ox span to turn round in one move, so the locals park their trucks along Main Street (diagonal parking no less) the night before, then come back in the morning and set up shop in the beds of their trucks – lawn chairs, coolers, flags, the works!  The bulk of the parade was a lot of old tractors and trucks, the local schools sports teams, and one very good jazz band.  However, the highlight was a chap in full cowboy gear riding a long horn steer – only in Texas!

Did another wine trip to visit the wineries of Fall Creek, Perissos, and Flat Creek – all around the small town of Tow on the banks of the Colorado River.  Of course we had to have one winery that decided to close for the days despite all information saying it was open, which was Perissos.  Drove up to their closed gate so it’s ticked off the list, even if we didn’t taste their wine.  Pretty country. and the wine we did taste was very good.  Fall Creek is one of the original Hill Country Wineries started in 1975.  Originally had 60 acres under vines, but that has now shrunk to about 20 acres as it is cheaper to buy from contract growers.  Good Sauvignon Blanc and Viognier at very good prices.  We tasted Flat Creek’s wines at their Enoteca in Marble Falls – the actual vineyard is about 25 miles west on the Colorado River.  A real enoteca as it is a tasting room, wine bar, and restaurant.  Had a super lunch of house made mushroom pate, and small “lunch” pizzas – super thin crust and really good.  During lunch we were introduced to the owner Rick Naber, who then did our tasting.  Rick was with Peter Kiewit a Texas oilfield engineering company which I knew from my Dresser days – so some oilfield bonding before the wine!  Rick was a great host and our shared tasting turned into a 2 hour sampling of all their wines, plus a number of South African and Italian wines he imported.  Like many wine makers Rick is proud of his wines, and once they find out you know about wine things develop!  But like all Texas wine makers he produces a number of semi-sweet, and sweet wines, as well as port, which are the real money makers for them.  Wonder how many years before that changes – if ever!!

Had a memorable dinner out on the farm under a huge oak tree with Kathy, Chuck, and our neighbour TJ.  The balls I had gathered from Farmer Kevin’s young cattle had been sitting in the freezer until we could find a time when we could all get together.  So Chef Chuck fried up a mess of balls – really!!  Marinated in buttermilk, then an egg wash, a dusting of flour, and into the frying pan.  Talk about crunchy, creamy, delicious balls!  Only way to describe them is a fried light foie gras. Hey, you can tell they were good because Ann even had some!  TJ who was a cowboy in his mad youth and had eaten prairie oysters many times, said they were the best he had ever had. The balls were followed by jalapeños wrapped in bacon and pork ribs – all done on the grill by Chef Chuck while we gave encouragement and drank lots of beer and wine!

Last week we went to New Braunfels to stay with J&J in their new house!  They have 2 guest rooms both with ensuite bathrooms, which are fabulous to say the least.  After we had checked in to Bethel Manor we took Jerrie out for lunch and left Jim slaving over a hot drawing board.  As Jim is not big on Asian cuisine we took the opportunity to try out a Japanese spot – A-Tan.  We did good as they say as the food was excellent.  We just ate a bunch of appetizers washed down with glasses of white wine; all very good but the stand out dish was Spicy Tuna Wontons – a flat square of crispy wonton layered with mildly spicy diced tuna, which had been torch seared – delicious!  Oh yes, we had Fried Oysters as well so as not to break the trend.  After lunch we raided Jerries favourite bakery for breakfast goodies. For dinner Chef Bethel worked his magic on the grill with salmon and fresh corn, while Jerrie whipped up a gratinated baby tomato dish that went so well with the salmon and corn. Such fun, and their new house is brilliant – just works so well.  We are now seeing how many times we can visit J&J before we leave!

On our way back from J&J’s to Fredericksburg we decided to visit a new winery – Lost Maple – just outside Bandera – The Cowboy Capital of Texas. Didn’t see a single, solitary, cowboy, but did see an Indian with a dog, and found a fabulous butcher.  Walked in to be faced with a tray of tomahawk steaks about 3 inches thick, 12 inch long bone, and weighing in at 2-3 lbs each, and Texas Akaushi rib-eye and fillet cut to order!  We walked out with 3 different types of house made sausages, and a pack of spicy jerky for Heath. (We always travel with a cool bag these days in case we come across such finds)  Then on to Lost Maple where we did a tasting.  There main grape is Lenoir, which in my opinion produces a pretty funky wine, and not something I would choose to drink.  However, it seems great granddaddy came from France and planted Lenoir (Black Spanish) for family consumption.  It’s a native grape that cross-pollinated with an unknown Vitis vinifera and is resistant to both Phylloxera and Pierce’s Disease, and was the root stocked that was sent from Texas to France when their vines were wiped out by Phylloxera in 1800s.  Lost Maple is very proud of their Lenoir wines, but their saving grace in our opinion was their Syrah – really good.  However, couldn’t buy any as the label had yet to be approve by the ATF!  We meandered back through the hills, really big hills as at one time we were at 2,200 feet. We drove over to Leakey, then north east and along the Guadelupe River through the picturesque little towns of Hunt and Ingram. Lovely trip until we tried a short cut on the outskirts of Kerrville where the GPS took us through a housing development. No problem getting in, but the exit gate required a security code to open. So frustrating!  We could see the road we wanted about 10 yards ahead, but there was no way around that gate and no emergency call button. We had no choice but to double back.

On one of our trips to Boerne we found a new restaurant called Valeria tucked away in a small strip mall on the outskirts of town.  What a find!  Chef Kuhn is a farm to table man, and actually draws his meat ( Mangalitsa pigs) and vegetables from the Kuhn Family Farm outside Boerne.  A fabulous lunch and an excellent wine list.  Had a chat with Chef and it turns out he worked in NY, San Francisco, and London before turning to wine and being the sales manager for a CA winery, when he travelled to London, HK, and S’pore.  What a background for a restaurant.  As a result of the lunch we were invited to their first wine dinner, which we attended with Jim & Jerrie.  Probably the best wine dinner we have had!  7 courses with wine for $85 pp, what a deal, food, and wine.  There were two outstanding dishes – Pork Belly with chicarone, and fresh tagliatelle with truffles!!  Everyone ooohing, slurping, and licking their plates!  Olivier Bougoin was the wine guy – a Frenchman from Paris who moved to Texas 15 year ago – I know, go figure!  All the wines were French from 3 different regions and all excellent.  Jim and I were not sure on a couple of the pairings, but when we had the dish with the wine they worked so well it was amazing.  Chef Kuhn is doing a cabrito dinner and another wine dinner before we depart for Sedona, so stand by for further hyperbole on his food and wine.

Just signed the notice to vacate our flat on September 30, so 2 months left before we head to Sedona!  It really is amazing how time flies when you are having fun, and we still have about 4 restaurants and few more wineries to try before we leave. Oh the pressure!!

Our Humming Bird feeder has been busy and there are birds on it constantly, complete with the territorrial dog fights. Some times we have 3 birds at once feeding – obviously a family dinner.

As we go to press we have our first day of 100’F – with 26% humidity!  As we are at 1700 ft it has got to be a tad warm down on the plains!!  Also, not a drop of rain in July!  Would be nice to have a Charleston style thunderstorm.

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!

We’ve been having strange weather!  Cool, windy, rainy and thunderstorms – some almost up to Charleston standards.  This is big sky country, so mist shrouded hills and lovely cloud formations are rather spectacular, and keep getting “beautiful” comments from Ann.  Sitting on our balcony with a glass of wine in the evening watching the distant hills appear out of the mist and then disappear again is rather pleasant.  As I write this we are having another round of storms with torrential rain and the drainage area down the side of the flats, normally dry, is now in full flood!

Last Thursday was the start of the Farmers Market in Fredericksburg, held like all events at Market Platz.  It’s an afternoon/evening event from 4 to 7 pm – civilised!  We were surprised how small it was and the fruit and veg were pretty limited, but maybe that will change as the season develops.  Bought strawberries, goat cheese, coffee, and pastries so a pretty good haul. They had a pizza oven going and were flogging margarita piazzas at $9 each – smelt good!  There was a wine stall, but it was from one of the “lesser” wineries, so no real temptation to linger with wine and pizza.

Friday was road trip!  Wanted to cover a couple of the more distant wineries and also visit Pontotoc vineyard in Pontotoc as we really like their wines, and wanted to see the house and vineyard. We did our due diligence and checked places that would be open!  Our trip would be north to Llano and San Saba, then across country to Pontotoc, down to Mason, and back home. We made Mason our last stop to check out Sandstone Cellars and then have an early dinner at the Mexican restaurant next door, as we had reports it was really good.  Llano turned out to be a sleepy, somewhat rundown town on the Llano River, but had a nice town square with an imposing red sandstone courthouse.  Picked up maps from the information center, as Ann had recently found out that Texas is producing individual county maps which are really good. We like maps as they provide cross-country routes that our great GPS does not know about until you are actually driving them!  Then on to San Saba to check out the Wedding Oak Winery at their tasting room in the centre of San Saba.  Arrived at lunch time so asked if they did any bread and cheese, and was told by our delightful tasting hostess to pop next door to Oliver & Co who would put a cheese plate together for us.  Went to Oliver & Co who couldn’t have been more helpful and put our snackies together and then said for us go back to the tasting room and they would deliver in a few minutes, all for the grand sum of $20!  So back to Wedding Oak where we tasted the whites – not bad – then selected glasses of their Albarino and Mausanne/Rousanne/Viognier blend to go with our lunch, which had just been delivered to a table in their Tuscan style courtyard!  The sun came out and we had a very pleasant time snacking and sipping wine, before heading back in to taste the reds. (we packed up half our cheese and crackers as it was too much to eat!)  Wedding Oak is only 3 years old, has 4 acres of vines, but they bring in grapes from the Texas high plains and California; producing about 4,000 cases a year.  Penny Adams is their wine maker – the first women wine maker in Texas. Pretty good wines, but like so many of the Texas wines they are just too young. However, their pricing is reasonable – running in the $20-30 range.  We made a quick tour round San Saba, the Pecan Capital of the World. It appeared to be a nice little town with quite a bit of restoration work going on in the downtown area.  Stopped off at the G&R Market, touted for its meats, which appeared to be true as we left with two huge pork steaks!  On to Pontotoc via some serious back roads, which still had speed limits of 60-65mph! Gotta love Texas! Pontotoc turned out to be a small dilapidated village, where we found the tasting room of Dotson Cervantes Vineyards, which also has Pontotoc Vineyards wines, in an old strip of buildings that were once the post office, general store, and a theatre.  What an experience!!  When we walked in there was a tall handsome black chap behind the counter wearing a black cowboy hat with a pheasant feather in the band, talking to three others, all about the same age – 60s plus.  Everyone was drinking wine and it turns out the three were not customers – they were just there to drink wine and bullshit!  Our host it transpired was Alphonse Dotson owner of Dotson Cervantes and its wine maker.  A retired defensive tackle from Oakland Raiders who after 15 years of the good life in Acapulco decided to return to Texas to grow grapes and make wine.  What a character!  We were there for more than an hour talking to Alphonse about how he got into the wine industry and tasting his two wines. The white – 2012 Texas Gotas de Oro – a 50/50 blend of Chardonnay and Muscat Canelli that was extremely good, and would work wonderfully with Asian food. Then the red – 2008 Something Red – a 50/50 blend of Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot – a huge wine that is drinking now but would be good for another 5 years plus. Not a young wine from young vines!  Alphonse’s vineyard in Voca was started in 1996 and is now producing 1200 cases a year.  During our “tasting” Alphonse’s buddies kept popping in for refills, so got chatting and found out one of them was an ex-Baroid mudman so we swopped Magcobar – Baroid stories and oil patch stuff before I was dragged off to Mason.  What a great time!  We will return for another wine tasting session in Pontotoc before too long, but next time Ann will be driving, as I will need to spend some quality time with Alphonse and my new oil field buddies!  Sandstone Cellars in Mason is somewhat different from Pontotoc!  The tasting room was opened by the lady running their wine bar next door, who unfortunately knew very little about the wines, but found one of the owners Manny Silerio who was great.  Sandstone is a tiny winery producing about 400 cases a year, and usually only makes one wine a year.  Don Pullman is their wine maker – one of the top wine makers in the Hill Country – who also owns Akashic Vineyards in Mason.  Sandstone even made it into the 7th edition of Parkers Wine Buying Guide.  Good wines, but once again young, which Manny said was due to his limited production – his wines went too quickly!  Manny and his partner Scott Haupert also own Santos Taqueria and the Sandstone Cellars Wine Bar all in one neat strip.  Good marketing as Mason county is a dry county, despite the amount of grapes they grow, so you can get a bottle of wine to go with your meal in Santos, or food from Santos to go with your wine in the wine bar!  We ate in Santos which is a small down home Mexican spot.  Order at the counter and then your food is delivered to your table.  Manny had recommended the gorditas, which were new to us, but turned out to be delicious.  They are corn or flour cakes stuffed with meat – I had the brisket and Ann had the pork – which came with refried beans and rice.  The rice was superb – fluffy and aromatic – some of the best we’ve ever had.  Would go back just for the rice, but the gorditas are pretty awesome.

Saturday, it was off to Boerne for their Preservation and Historical Society House Tour – 6 houses in downtown Boerne from the 1800s and early 1900s – very enjoyable with a couple of really nice houses.  Bonded with a couple of owners on the “restoration” process involved in old houses!  Had lunch at The Creek restaurant, an old house bang in the centre of town on the Cibola River.  Lovely setting with good food and excellent service, but the wines prices were ridiculous.  A good day trip, though Boerne was packed!  Has a smaller population than Fredericksburg, but seems much larger, so must have a bunch of surrounding communities as it’s only 40 mins from San Antonio.

Still raining as this goes to post!

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!!