Travel
Pack Up, Weekend Wanderers
(Page 2 of 2)
Eat Mexican food from Casa Rio while cruising down the river in a barge or sip fantastic gaspacho while sitting outside the Kangaroo Court. The River Roost has passable Italian food, and if music with your food is in order, try the Villa de Pancho.
The Landing is my favorite place in Texas. In an old building on the river below the South Presa Street bridge, you will hear Dixieland as Sweet Emma Barrett, Louis Armstrong, or Delbert Weems would want it played. The father and son team of Jim Cullum Sr. and Jr. and the rest of the Happy Jazz Band lay it down as good as anywhere in the world. Pizza, popcorn and drinks go well with the music.
La Mansion and the Posada del Rio are two fine hotels on the river. Park your car at either and forget it until departure.
San Antonio is unique for many things aside from Paseo del Rio. Missions are synonymous with the city. The Mission Trail leads to Missions San Juan Capistrano, Espada, Conception, and San Jose. Each of these four is still an active parish and San Jose is a National Historic Site.
HemisFair Plaza, site of the 1968 World's Fair, is still growing and adding attractions. The Tower of the Americas rises 750 feet above the Plaza. Its revolving restaurant and observation level overlook the Texas Hill Country for a radius of 100 miles.
The Visitors and Convention Bureau (602 HemisFair Plaza Way) can provide you with information on all activities any weekend you visit San Antonio.
If you haven't been here for a few years, you won't believe it. And you won't wait long to return.
ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST—
AN HOUR AND A HALF north of Del Rio, the Dolen Creek Ranch is laced with deep canyons and clear running springs and streams. Its over 56 square miles of area is open for year-round hunting, fishing and camping. Hunting has been strictly controlled since the founding of the ranch in the late 1800's. Guides and transportation are furnished and you only pay for game killed.
Get rid of your frontier sissy image by staying in the bunkhouse (ten beds; bring your own bedding) and eat family style at the headquarters. If the bunkhouse is full, nearby camping facilities are available. The restrooms have been updated from Old West style and are complete with showers.
Exotic game requires no hunting license, only a healthy bank balance. Stalk the wily Corsican Ram ($150), Aoudad ($750), or Fallow Deer ($500), as well as turkeys, javalinas and white tail buck and doe. Check your wallet before firing. Reservations are necessary, as is a $50 deposit per hunter. Send it all to Dolen Creek Ranch, 310 East 17th Street, Del Rio, 78840 or call John Finegan (512-775-3129).
RODEO
June and July are the most popular months for this Western tradition, but during February two of the biggest rodeo and livestock shows in the country premier in Texas. Every section of the state has a rodeo—more than 150 are held each year—and the calf roping, steer wrestling, bronc riding, and bull riding is among the best in the world.
In the Dallas-Ft. Worth area, rodeo fans can go every Saturday night of the year to the Kowbell Rodeo in Mansfield, south of Arlington. Indoor events start promptly at 8 P.M. and usually run for about two hours. During the summer, the Mesquite Championship Rodeo, just east of Dallas, operates every Friday and Saturday night, April-Labor Day.
The 41st Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, giant of Texas rodeos, begins on February 21st this year for an estimated 700,000 fans. It's Houston's largest civic event and is superlative in every way: world's largest calf scramble contest and the highest rodeo purse in the world (over $100,000 going directly to the cowboys), etc.
San Antonio's Rodeo and Livestock Show runs from February 9-18. Last year 399,000 saw the show.
HOW YOU GONNA KEEP THEM DOWN ON THE FARM AFTER THEY'VE SEEN NEW ULM?
BOTH JIMMY THE GREEK AND Jew Louie would give good odds that you've never been to the Parlour at New Ulm or eaten barbecue at Birkelbach's Cafe in Roundtop. That's because when you head out of, or into, Houston on Interstate 10 you blissfully speed past these places located just 20 miles to the north. Instead, turn north at Sealy and again west on FM 1094 for 30 miles or so and suddenly you're in a time warp. The beautiful, rolling country settled by Germans, Czechs, and Poles hasn't changed much in half a century, thanks to the absence of highways and developers.
From New Ulm northwest to Austin some say the best BBQ in the world is found. They're probably right. On a cold afternoon wander into Kreuz's in Lockhart, 30 miles south of Austin. The smell of burning cedar logs and beef cooking will immediately tell you you're near the real stuff. The City Meat Market in Giddings; the Grade A Meat Market in Brenham; Prouse's Meat Market in La Grange; and, of course, Birkelbach's (only weekends) in Roundtop serve up the best beef and sausage in their areas.
A wonderful, little-known characteristic of the German country is that almost all grocery stores have beer bars stashed away somewhere among the food, feed and shovels. Roundtop may have more of these per capita than Munich. Any Saturday afternoon drop in at the F. & M., Schultze, or Etzel Groceries or the Roundtop General Store and pick up on the BBQ, a hot domino game and a cold beer. For a nickel, Mrs. Betty Schatte, who runs the Roundtop General Store, will give you vanilla, chocolate, peach or a fruit-spectacular ice cream cone as she tells you the history of the building, which was once a dance hall, then a funeral parlor, and now is soon to include an art gallery. Among the clutter you can find tall wood-burning stoves for sale and read messages to neighbors written in chalk on the backs of upturned, new shovels.
Between La Grange and Brenham, there's Wessel's General Store at Rutersville, run by the two Wessel brothers for over 70 years; and Benny Weber's Place in Carmine, complete with a coconut sent in 1944 by Benny to his family during World War II. Benny beat the coconut home after the war because the postman thought it was a Japanese bomb. Three miles east of La Grange on FM 159 eat the best catfish around at Harry and Lynn's Cafe.
The Ponce de Leon Award goes to those who can find the B. A. Albers General Store in Waldek. The reward for the search is seeing the most authentic 1860 general store in Texas. Above the bar a sign states: "Prohibition Elections Can Come at Any Time in Any County. Protect Your Right to Drink Beer. Pay Your Poll Tax!"
That brings us back to New Ulm, 23 miles west of Sealy. Wilbert Goebel owns and operates The Parlour, an ex-funeral home transformed into a restaurant and a summer-only outdoor beer garden. It's a beautiful, spacious place with beer and good food served every Thursday, Friday and Saturday beginning at 4 P.M.
The fount of knowledge in this area is Lon Taylor, curator-in-residence at the Winedale Museum, a few miles east of Roundtop. If you get lost or want further information on food, history, cemeteries or any of the local citizens, Lon is the man to talk to.
Winedale includes a 19th Century Stagecoach Inn, barn and Lauderdale House beautifully restored down to the last detail and managed by the University of Texas.
Across from the restored buildings, the Winedale Cafe, operated by Lee Wagner and his daughter Marilyn, serves up fantastic hamburgers everyday except Monday. Camping, fishing and water skiing can be pursued behind the cafe and a duplex is available ($4 for one room; $7 for both rooms per day), but call the cafe first.
TENNIS, TEXAS STYLE
Tennis is very chic these days. To perfect your style or to begin learning the game, reserve a weekend at one of the top training centers in the country. You might as well learn from the best, so T-Bar-M Tennis resort (five miles west of New Braunfels on State Highway 46) has thoughtfully provided John Newcombe, three-time Wimbleton Champion and 1970 World Champion, and Tony Roche, 1970 Pro Champion, to get things rolling. A minimum of 20 hours (videotaped so you can correct your errors) in stroke analysis, basic fundamentals, mixed doubles and singles, strategy and exercises help build your confidence on the court.
It's all very casual and T-Bar-M has thought of everything—husband and wife clinics, Ms. clinics only, children's instruction, or whatever you want.
Accommodations from bunkhouses to private villas are available. Write T-Bar-M Tennis Ranch, Box 469, New Braunfels, 78130, so you won't be fiddling around with something as gauche as golf this spring.
HOME ON THE RANGE
WHAT MANY CONSIDER THE BEST way to see the beautiful Central Texas hill country and rough it comfortably is a stay at Mayan Dude Ranch or one of the other ranches around Bandera. Drive up from San Antonio over State Highway 16 through the picturesque town of Bandera. Cross the Medina River and follow the signs to the Ranch. Here you stay in your own cottage, enjoy cowboy breakfasts, swim, hike, ride horses, go on hayrides. You can eat at a different location on the ranch each night to a different menu—Oriental, Mexican, fish fry, steaks, barbecue, or Hawaiian.
To meet the non-dudes, visit the Purple Cow in Bandera where big Bud Merka holds forth amidst a pitch game and a lot of low talk. If you want to Put Your Little Foot or learn the Cotton Eyed Joe, Ten Pretty Girls or the Schottische, Mayan wranglers will teach these dances to you at the drop of a bandana.
Sleeping accommodations, three family style meals each day, two horseback rides per day and all scheduled activities are included in Mayan American Plan rates.
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