Random=Better (Part 3)

Sunday morning.

Time to make the return trip.

Usually by this time, we have completely worn ourselves out doing whatever it was that occupied us during the weekend, and we sleepily make our way back along fairly conventional routes.

But not this time.

This time, we had things to see, and the energy to seek it out.

We first backtracked along the path from the night before, passing the huge entrance for Natural Bridge Caverns, and crossing over the Guadalupe until we were just northwest of San Antonio. Then the fun began, as I dug out the Roads of Texas and started plotting a course through the county roads that are merely unlabeled red quiggles in the regular Texas gazetteer.

Deep into the hills, passing deer fences and ranch houses, carefully navigating gravel roads, many twists and turns. We passed a guy on a motorcycle that seemed a bit lost, but before we could pull over to ask if he needed directions (since we had a good map), he revved up and was gone.

A brief look down a tunnel of shade, but it looked like it crossed a gully and the planks weren't in the best condition, so we went around.

I think we actually passed a local small winery -- not that it had a sign....but at the least, we saw fields of grapes going off into the distance -- we were probably following their back fence.

We explored for hours, then rounded a bend and found ourselves crossing the bridge at the edge of Blanco State Park. Good thing too, as we weren't sure when the last time was we'd stopped for a bathroom, and we hadn't yet grabbed anything to eat! So with a quick stop in a gas station, we opted to just follow 281 north for a while.

Well, not due north.

Brandy had asked about good barbecue places in the Hill Country on a forum she frequents, and she was enthusiastically directed to a place in Llano. Well, hell, it was only an hour out of our way! Let's go get lunch!

Cut west a bit, passing much granite, and only briefly got twisted in our directions coming in over the Llano River bridge (I think we ended up crossing it 5 times by the time we left town), and we found ourselves at Coopers BBQ.

This, folks, is not just a barbecue joint. This is an experience!

We seemed to have gotten lucky by coming in just behind the lunch crowd, as the line only went across the front of the building, rather than wrapping around it. The whole time, we were teased by the delicious aromas wafting over from the group of huge brick smokers. When we got up to the smokers, not even into the building yet, the guy opened the lid, revealing masses of meat, and asked us what we'd have.

"Um, brisket?"

He spears this 15-pound brisket and carves off a giant hunk. "About this much?"

"Uh...yeah, okay..."

"Sauce?"

"Sure."

He dunks it into this vat of the stuff and tosses it onto the tray. "Okay, what else?"

We continue like this for a few minutes, with ribs, sausage (jalapeno or regular?), sirloin (carved off a slab of meat as large as a brisket), chicken (I think he gave us half the bird).....By the time we actually went in the door, we must have had 20 pounds of meat on our tray. We handed it off once inside, and everything was weighed, priced, and covered in aluminum foil before being handed back to us.

Come to think of it, I don't think we even bothered with sides. We just got some sweet tea, made our way to the tin building that served as a dining area, sat down at a long bench table, where there was a roll of paper towels (no plates!), a loaf of bread, and a big jar of whole pickled jalapenos. Some onion and pickles from the side bar (we skipped the barbecued beans), and we were ready to dig in.

Oh, that food was incredible! We ate considerably more than was wise, seeing as how we were barely halfway home, and we still had a ton of leftovers to take back with us. We may have spent way too much on lunch (cause we got a bit carried away with our selections), but it was definitely worth it....so worth it.....*thinking back*....gotta go to Llano again soon....

Fighting afternoon and post-gorging sleepies, we got back on the road and worked our way back toward our normal route up 281. We stopped at the Hidden Dutchman, as has become habit, when I talked the girls into going off the paved road once more.

Wandering a maze of gravel, crossing briefly over pavement just to reach the next road -- it was so underused that Brandy felt compelled to point out that at points we were driving over grass that barely had tire tracks to follow.

Even better was when we discovered that the numbers on the signs didn't match the numbers on the map. Rather than let this stop me, I simply followed the orientation of the road's lines, figuring we'd still end up in the right spot.

"Um, Jacob? That's a riverbed down there."

"Yeah, we're supposed to cross it -- the road should continue on the other side."

"Jacob, that's a river BED down there."

"Yeah, but the road continues on the other side."

"There's no bridge, Jacob."

"Okay, I'll go scout it."

So we stop the car -- the girls already think I'm nuts -- remember when I said earlier that we were driving a luxury car? I walk out, and whatever river it is, it seems to be dry. I walk across, and sure enough, there's a road leading off on the other side. I kick a few of the bigger river rocks out of the way, and it's a flat surface -- sort of. I walk back up, Brandy takes the wheel, shaking her head, as I walk ahead of the car, guiding it along the safe path across.

That's right, folks, we forded the Bosque River in our Chrysler.

Once we finally got to the paved roads again (miraculously, right where the map showed we would end up), there was much rejoicing, and a resoundingly voiced opinion that we'd had enough adventure for one day. We made our way on up to Glen Rose, and finally back to home.

It had been a long and winding road this trip -- the first time in too long that we had just sort of wandered in whatever direction seemed interesting at the time. We got a bit caugt up in destinations for a while -- sure, it was along the lines of "Hey, we haven't been there before, let's go check it out!" and then plot the most interesting course we could. But this time, we didn't know where we were going, aside from "south"...that felt good to do again.

While not practical all the time (sometimes you can get screwed pretty badly when finding lodging at the last minute), it's nice to do now and then....a bit of adventure, a bit of wanderlust sated, just seeing what there is to see.

Yup, once in a while, random is better.