It was a nice drive out to Wimberley for brunch on Saturday. Pretty soon it is going to be discouragingly hot... the place was crowded with members "the loafing class", prime parking at the town square scarce, so we first visited the Wild West Store just a few houses further down the road: We Buy, Sell, Trade anything! Ulli seems to always have something new and fascinating to look over, this time some old Indian jewelry (two necklace, one of bone, another silver) and a "new" deerskin shirt (made in Oregon). The boots and hats are about half (of new) price and 'good as new' mostly... we didn't linger to check out belt buckles and boots this time, however, as we were quite hungry... Walking back towards the square, my (by now) old friend Dave was sitting, as expected, on a lawn-char by the roadside, cracking pecans in front of his hatchback out of which he sells his "Best in the World" Cloud IX beef jerkey ($6 if he has to get up and get it, $5 if you get it out of the car yourself, and it's free if it's not the absolutely best you've ever had) wearing his trademark red mechanic's coveralls and his favorite beat-up hat. Dave was a paratrooper in Normandy on D-Day and lived all around the globe the next 50 years, a specialist in the installation and maintenance of large diesel engines... one of these days I'll put his biography (currently still in draft) on the web! unfortunately last year's pecan harvest was a total wash-out, otherwise I would let you in on my secret for the best source for pecans... (he only can get enough to make the pecan pies you can might enjoy in some Wimberley restaurant) well, that much for the hilights of my visit to Wimberley.... what, the Creekside Grill? Forget it! Overpriced pharmacy of wilting salad and lousy coffee. soup and salad for $9?!? the gaspacho tasted like a tomato run through a blender, and mentioning one thin slice of mushroom and cucumber as ingredient of "the house salad" seemed like an insult. The view on those two trees isn't that good ! I should have had the catfisch po-boy; at least it would have been $2 cheaper... <grumble>... sorry to say, but it's likely to be a never-again experience for me... (would you risk $15-25 on an entree?) I got tired waiting for my credit card to get picked up and run through the machine, I ended up paying cash (with a reduced tip) on the way out... oh, the drive back to Lake Travis, on highway 12 between 290 and 71, just before the Alpenhof restaurant I stopped at an unattended (honor-system) roadside fruit-stand and got a basket of tree-ripe peaches! Yammy! Best food-experience of the day!
Austin, TX