Fri, Jun 10, 2011

Friday, June 10, 2011

Today the high was 101 degrees, after being in 111 degrees two days ago it almost seemed cool… ok, it was still hot but you could breathe without burning your lungs. – Donna Downey

I needed to do some work this morning and we didn’t have a plan for the day so we had breakfast at the motel and then headed back to the room.  After a lot of deliberating we finally came up with a tentative route that would bring us back to Llano for the night. 

We took Ranch Road 1481 toward Kingsland and Cedar Park.  Don’t let the Ranch Road description fool you… this used to be a small road used by ranchers to come to town… now it is a mostly four lane fairly busy route.  By the time we got to Cedar Park it was time for lunch so we forced ourselves to pick a new restaurant.  We tend to go back to the same places once we find a good one.  J J’s BBQ & Catering was busy and they also had the one thing we had to have… shade trees in the parking lot.  It was already almost 100 but with the usual Texas breeze, the pups were quite comfortable with the windows down.  It was an excellent choice and one we will add to our list of favorites. 

After lunch we sought out a true ranch or farm to market road and ended up on a variety of very small roads in search of interesting communities.  The first was the Mahomet community first settled in the 1850s with little remaining but a beautiful old cemetery and to our surprise the Mahomet Christian Church (the same denomination where Charles and I worship in Meridian).  It moved to this location in 1899 and the historical sign says services are still held there. 

The second neat community we found was the Shady Grove Settlement not too many miles down the road. Again it was also settled in the 1850s along the Middle Fork of the Gabriel River.  Still there was a beautiful old church the Cumberland Presbyterian Church and an old Union Arbor built by several different denominations for camp meetings and revivals.  There was also a beautiful grove of live oak trees which I am sure provided much needed shade for many gatherings.   No longer in use, the church has become a community center and is the site of homecoming events.

The drought has had a devastating effect on the wildflowers normally seen all through the hill country.  There were virtually no bluebonnets this year or much of anything else that wasn’t in someone’s yard to receive the benefit of a sprinkler.  So we were surprised when we rounded a curve a few miles outside Burnet and saw a small field full of wildflowers.  There was no house in sight and they obviously had no source of water other than rain but they looked beautiful dancing in the warm breezes. 

When I got back to the room I had to identify them and I found out a lot of interesting facts about the Bluebell Gentian.  They were once abundant in Texas but because of their beauty passersby picked them and now it is difficult to find any growing in the wild.  Bluebell Gentians  are also where Bluebell Ice Cream got their name because they once grew in abundance near the Bluebell Creamery in Brenham, Texas. 

Emily Dickinson even wrote a poem about the Gentian:

            God made a little Gentian

 It tried to be a Rose and failed

And all the Summer laughed

But just before the snows

There rose a Purple Creature

That ravished all the Hill

And Summer hid her Forehead

And Mockery was still

We are back at the room debating if we want to get out in the heat again… but we are well tonight and hope that y’all are too!

Peace, Hope & Love,

Donna, Charles, Paris & Dodger