DAY ONE: Thursday, 26
March 2009
Like what they’d done back in 2007,
my parents came to Austin for a just a few days,
before spending the remainder of their time in Florida with Aunt Dayle. Once again, it was nice to have them stay
with us at the house, as that just added to the time we’d be able to spend
together socializing and just hanging out.
Whenever they arrive, I’d always
ask Mum & Dad if there was anything specific they’d like to see or do while
they were here. Mum mentioned one
specific place she wanted to go, and looked at the Texas map at what compass direction she
hadn’t gone yet. I remembered when they
were down back in 2006 when we shot past the Shiner Brewery. It was too late in the day to take that tour,
and it was something I thought Dad would like.
And when Mum & Dad were down in 2007, Mum got to have fun with the
wine tour she did with Lee. With that in
mind, was there anything specific Dad wanted to see.
Dad did comment something he wanted
to check out, so we looked around on the Texas Travel website to see what else
was around there. Lee had found a couple
ideas out of a travel book she had, so we had the next day figured out. We relaxed, and put the jet-lagged people to
bed early, so we could have a nice full day tomorrow. As Aislynn was back from her trip to Europe,
she’d be able to keep an eye on the dogs while we were away all day.
DAY TWO: Friday, 27
March 2009
The first
stop of the day was on the way to Fredericksburg ,
although that wasn’t our target destination.
The reason I mention it (in addition so you, reader, have some idea of
where the hell I am), was on last drive out to Fredericksburg (2007) Dad had noted a road
sign to a particular place. That was
where we were heading now. The Texas town with the
smallest population: Luckenbach.
Now Mum & Dad knew a lot about
this tiny place due to it being referenced in various country music songs
(including stuff by Austin
fixture Willie Nelson, but generally stuff I didn’t listen to). Luckenbach has a population of about four
people, and consists of just over nine acres.
The town, or ghost town if you will, has an RV park, the remnants of the
post office, and a working saloon and general store. I don’t care what the origins of the place
were, there’s a saloon, I’m going to get myself a drink. I kept with a nice locally brewed root beer,
while Dad got his Lone Star fix on.
The general store and saloon first
opened in either the late 1840s or 1860s (depending on who you talk to), and
for the most has stayed in operation since.
The post office actually was a working facility up until 1971, when the
zip code for Luckenbach was retired.
Only eleven miles from Fredericksburg ,
Luckenbach probably would’ve then been absorbed by one of the surrounding
townships, if not for the actions of local rancher John “Hondo” Crouch. In 1970, Crouch (along with a couple
partners) actually purchased the rights to the town for a small sum of
$30,000. Not a bad way to start your own
dominion.
Mr. Crouch built a dancehall there
in 1973, an invited some country music artists to play there. It’s been a regular occurrence ever
since. Through that association,
Luckenbach thus got immortalized as a country music classic. I think that ended up being one of Dad’s
favourite places to visit on any of the trips he’s been here.
After leaving Luckenbach, we
continued westward looking for our next target.
Looking being the operative word here, because other than “near Hunt, Texas ,” the travel book
Lee was using as a guide didn’t give much of a direction. There were a few cryptic lines (like off of
Route 1340) which I tried to match up with the MapCo book I had with me. It’s easier to have Lee drive and me navigate
on trips like these. It looked like
all’s we had to do was “go up this hill and around this bend, and we’d probably
see a sign for it.” Once we crested the
hill, we realized why there had been no signs pointing to this, as it was
rather hard to miss.
The curved around this field, so we
got a clear view of our target:
Stonehenge II. Situated in the
edges of the Texas
hill country, this is a creation of the famous British stone circle, but at
only two-thirds the scale. It was nice
to have a sign at the side of the road to let you know the history of this. Back in 1989, a guy (Doug Hill) tripped over
a stone in his friend’s (Al Shepperd) field here, and then built an arch next
to it to make it more visible. After
comments were made about much the arch looked like the monoliths on Salisbury Plains,
a bunch of other arches were created to complete the circle. While there are a few real stones present,
most of the arches are made of hollow, wired frames covered in cement.
This was essentially an art project
someone built on their own property just to be fun. Does it appear slightly out of place, kind
of, but not really. Because the area is
pretty rural, it’s not like some homeowner’s association is going to come along
and complain about how it “doesn’t fit” with the rest of the neighborhood. It’s a novelty, and a roadside attraction,
which there aren’t too many left of these days.
In addition to the arches, as Mr. Shepperd had visited Easter
Island , there were also two statues made in the likeness of those
found on the remote South Pacific island.
The Easter Island statues (actually
called Moai, which I learned from reading the works of Thor Heyerdahl) were
constructed from the same material as the other stones.
Any one who knows me well, knows I
like to do oddball things, usually for no other reason than just the humor
value. I get that from Mum. She said her rationale behind this was to
“soak up the warm Texas sun, as it was so cold
back in New York .” Well, that and you were just being
goofy. Mum decided to lay down on the
real stone (the very one the guy tripped over years earlier), and pretend she
was going to be sacrificed by “those Druid folk.” Well, Druids didn’t sacrifice humans, but
there was no point in mentioning it because it’d spoil the fun moment.
While Al Shepperd died back in
1994, this site has been maintained strictly through donations, and his family
who still owned the land. There were
pictures of Mr. Shepperd’s wake being held here, so what a way to be remembered. As this was a close I was going to get to the
real Stonehenge in the foreseeable future, I
decided to soak it up as much as possible.
Stonehenge II isn’t oriented to solstices, equinoxes, or lined up to any
stars (the way the genuine article is), but it was never meant to be. We didn’t know what we were going to find,
because the travel book that Lee had didn’t have much information about it, but
it was quite the good find.
Because it was getting near lunch,
it was time to locate some place to get some nourishment. We hadn’t found any one to give
recommendations, we drove around a bit until we found a small café that looked
promising. What looked even more
interesting was the shop across the street, as it was filled with antiques and
hand-made artwork. I really dug the mural
which was on the side of the building, as well as the stone gallery to the
side. Was there anything we wanted, no,
but it was a great visual spectacle.
Since we were in the vicinity of Fredericksburg , we made a
quick trip over to the Fredericksburg Winery so Mum and Lee could pick up a
couple bodies to enjoy while they were together. In the same location, which also had a small
store with other trinkets in it, I saw something I wanted. I thought I could really get a lot of use out
of this at work, but unfortunately it was just a “display model,” not something
for sale.
More information on the places we visited can be found at:
Luckenbach: www.luckenbachtexas.com
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