How to Marry a Cowboy - Day 2

Oh! We've had so much:



Just like every morning, we started out with a little exercise:



Waaaait...that doesn't seem right. Oh! Psych! We started with shopping and blueberry French toast! Yes, that sounds much more like us.

While we were looking for somewhere to eat breakfast, we "discovered" what we thought was a new store. Turns out the store, which is named Red, used to be at the other end of the street. I can't believe I'd never walked far enough to see it! I was missing out on so much! I took a ton of pictures, made friends with the workers, bought a gift and made mental notes to go back and buy about twenty more things! In fact, I'm so excited about this shop that I think that it will have it's very own posting sometime this week. Here's a teaser:



There's just so much more I can't wait to share! Moving on for now, though!

Hitting the road and leaving Fredericksburg in our dust, we made our way to Luckenbach.



We had a little errand to run there. It was a double secret errand, so I can't go into details. I had heard that Luckenbach is really not all that great, so I was expecting...not much. But there happened to be a classic car show there this weekend, so there were hundreds of people and live music and cool cars and, most importantly, a bull to ride.

Now if you read yesterday's blog already, you know that Brandi and I attended a rodeo last night. After watching, like, eight bull riders, we felt fairly confident that we could do better than that. So we did. We both stayed on for like...a full two minutes at least!




And with such grace, too! Let me tell you, the hardest part is getting on the bull in a dress. I mean, there is a very nice cowboy who lets you push off his shoulder and is nice enough to turn his face when you put your foot in the stirrup, but even then it ain't easy!

So, bull riding - check!

On to Bandera! On our way there we passed through:



and we waded through snake infested grasses to get this picture. At least they could've been snake infested. So I say, Snake charming - check! Of course Brandi was wearing her new:



So it wasn't a big deal for her. I was wearing flip flops.

Bandera claims to be the cowboy capital of the world...so perfect! (Stephenville says the same thing, by the way.) As we're driving into town, we passed a feed store. I pointed it out to my sister, and she says, "We don't need feed. We need a cowboy! Where's the cowboy store?" I'm a little crestfallen, but only for a minute or two before we round a corner and find:



Well, if someone had told us this was here we would've driven straight to Bandera! But the cowboys must've all been on bathroom breaks, because there were no cowboys in there.

There were cowboys at our lunch spot, though. Four of them right at the table next to us. Don't get too excited - there were handlebar mustaches and wives involved. Not exactly what we were looking for. But our drinks came in jars, so we feel fairly certain that Bandera has at least some claim on the cowboy/country title.



The day was beautiful again, but hot, hot, hot! We were getting awfully close to Garner State Park and we were pretty much ready to jump right in. We did stop for a few photo-ops along the way. At one point, Brandi got mad at me and decided to hit the road solo:



But we made up and drove the last few miles to Garner State Park - which is, I've decided, the best swimmin' hole I've ever been to. Just look!



It's just so beautiful! You can swim, or kayak or rent a paddle boat:



There is also a rope swing, but you can definitely add that to the list of things that is fun when you are small and NOT when you are - well - not small. When you are not small and you try to rope swing, you fall awkwardly into the water, you lose a flip flop, your bikini top pops off and the thirteen year old boy in line behind you laughs and doesn't even try to hide it.

I hate that kid.

After the rope swing incident, we got out and laid under the trees reading for a while. This is the view from my beach towel:



And because you haven't had enough pictures yet:




That sno-cone was so good! I'd been looking for one the whole trip. And there it was in Uvalde, Texas, which is where we are tonight. I'm blogging from a comfy bed in a clean hotel instead of from the McDonald's parking lot. This is just so much better!

Home tomorrow after a stop in Gruene! And probably the Pottery Barn outlet in San Marcos, 'cause I just can't see Brandi letting me pass that exit up.

Sweet dreams!