Jan 1/2 2011 - click on picture for a larger size - Ft Worth tomorrow

I will try and catch-up on my story it would be shorter but I am long winded.

Morning breakfast at the Hilton buffet. I noticed a new item on the buffet table, the attendant mentioned its name to someone else, I didn’t understand it. But why not try it, looked like an egg dish with the fixings in it. After the second helping I decided to ask him what it was, he told me but that didn’t help. What’s in it? He mentioned some ingredients and I asked for a piece of paper to write it down on. He said, I’ll do that for you. I went back to the table that over looked the river walk. A couple minutes he came with the ingredients listed, some partially spelled. He said that they would send me a copy if I gave them my email address, I did. Two minutes later the executive chef came to the table, dressed elegantly in his whites. I explained that I thought the dish was delicious and thanked him for allowing the recipe to be given, a small amount of chatter and off we all went. I thought I would post the latest blog material and check emails. There it was already sitting in my in box. It is not entirely descriptive but you can get point of the dish. Chilaquiles‏: Cut two Corn Tortillas in half and then Julienne the corn tortillas and fry until crisp and put aside. Sautee diced onions, diced tomatoes and diced Jalapenos in butter and add scrambled eggs and cook until desired temperature. You can add fried corn tortilla strips to egg mixture when eggs are cooked and fold in some shredded Cheddar cheese and chopped Cilantro. Put on plate and enjoy, a side of Picante sauce also goes well with eggs. James J. Bocanegra | Hilton Palacio del Rio | Executive Chef. All you have to do is make an accompanying side dish of warm tomato slices to garnish it like they had available. In my email I thanked him glowingly and ask him to pass my praises to the management.

Before we leave San Antonio and visit our friends we stopped at the San Antonio Art Museum, in an old brewery.

We took about three hours of time to walk through it. Starting with early world art, saw more carnelian stone used in early jewelry.

My favorite piece in the exhibit was a Tomb figure of a Camel and Rider (2 ½ ft tall), following taken from the info by the piece: from the Tang dynasty, 618 to 907. The camels appeared frequently in the tomb arts of medieval China. The two-humped Bactrian camel provided an important transportation link between China and points west along the famous Silk Road. Foreigners who served as camel grooms, such as the man depicted  here, brought, new goods and cultural trends to the Tang dynasty.

To my offspring and theirs, to show my acceptance of cats in the real world.

The subjects that caught my eye this time around were the amount of beads used throughout the ages. This was an early Egyptian one ring-beads..

This was colored fine sand art recently acquired by the museum, missed out on where from but by some monks.

Again a favorite piece of art this one by an unknown artist, late 19^th century. Made of wax, wood, cloth and paint. The card mentioned that: Like costumbrista paintings, these wax figures were made to record physical types, occupations, and regional dress of the late 19^th century. Maybe we should make these of our 19^th century German-Bohemian Tracht? Much more to see and learn from.

Later that afternoon we arrived in Historic Gruene pronounced Green not Gru-en within New Braunfels TX. This place was an unexpected delight, but I should have known it would be good because if Mark and Priscilla have stayed down here three different times it has to be good. The GPS found their spot and the door was open, as there was no snow blowing at the time. It has three bedrooms, but Priscilla had moved her entire sewing room from Round Lake IL to the third bedroom. Mark also trailered his Harley down, put 2,500 miles on it last year, great roads to follow. The living room overlooks the Guadalupe River through the sparse underbrush to the beauty of the river below. We talked and decided it was time for dinner. Off to the Gristmill River Restaurant & Pub. The men started with a Shiner Bock beer, very pleasing to the palate. The stand-out of the steak, hamburger and fish meals were my Gruene beans, there own richly flavored tomato and bacon green beans.

The town originated in the mid 1840’s by Ernst Gruene. It has now become an attraction for thousands of people, even on the cooler 60 degree day there must have been that many. Now think how can you squeeze that many in a four block area? Well the Gruene Hall takes about three hundred.

Started the day with home made breakfast, fried bacon, eggs fried in their grease, toast and homemade raspberry jam. Yummy.

Off for a tour of the area. Took the river road, curvy, hilly and beautiful Mountain cedar trees line the roads. We viewed the Canyon Lake dam which encompasses 80 miles of shoreline. Then time to eat, stopped at Granny D’s on the Canyon Lake road. What a hoot. The lunch was just fine, some tried their first deep fried okra, this was tasty and not rubbery/slimy as I have had before. The waitress asked if we wanted black-eyed beans? Turns they give them with a meal on Jan 1 as a wish for good luck. Of course I took some.

We stopped at the Comal River, the shortest river in the state of Texas, mind you they normally brag about their largest everything. It runs for a mile or so to the Guadalupe River. I comes out of the side of the hill producing 300 million gallons of fresh water per day. I tasted it from a fount there and it was silk smooth water, no hardness or taste to it.

Wurstfest is held in New Braunfels yearly, this year it will be Nov. 4 thru 13, 2011. The building looked as though it could house two football fields? Reportedly 10’s of thousands of people attend.

We travelled back to Gruene and took in their sites.

Gruene Hall musicians playing mid afternoon to a packed house. It is the oldest hall still functioning in Texas. Amateur to seasoned western stars perform there. Mel Tillis will play there Jan. 22^nd, Mark has a ticket. I saw him in Oahu in the mid 60’s, 1960’s.

One of the original mansions in town used as a B&B.

Some unique pottery, nice serving dishes. The store is run by three potters, and has a small portion for outsiders but they are Texans. What a great historic town to visit,

Priscilla decided we needed to eat and what a salad she put together, lettuce, sliced cauliflower, tomato, avocado, and broccoli, sliced Swiss cheese, ham, parmesan cheese, with a muffuletta olive mix. We tried watching a couple bowl games but tiredness overcame us.

This morning after some oatmeal we sat around and talked. Priscilla is making a patchwork quilt and she cut squares. As noon approached and this leg of our journey is coming to a close we ate at the Friesenhaus German Restaurant, started with a half liter of Hofbräu Dunkel, from German, brought back memories of Leopold’s beer when we visited them in 1993. Schnitzel and pork roast were menu favorites, along with a bowl of gulasch (their spelling) soup. Sauerkraut and red kraut were highly sweetened, spaetzles were of the noodle kind, have only had this variety once before. We ate, conversed and departed till next time.

A couple road mentions. Coming towards Waco, again the traffic slowed down to a crawl then back to 70, again for 20 miles or so. We did come across a bad accident, cops and ambulance had not made it and a couple cars were backing up in the blocked lane to assist. People had just started to get out of the 3 or 4 banged up cars and an SUV, one vehicle had its engine running at full speed. Everyone seemed to be moving. We are staying at the Hampton Inn we stayed at a week ago in north Waco. I have run out of thoughts and words! This has taken 2 hours minus 2 minutes. jerr 24 minutes to upload pics, slow system.