Texas Vacation

We drove through the city of Houston and then Katy, TX and continued on interstate 10 until we reached the exit for Lucille’s truckstop.

Tate had talked to Pops and told him that we were to rest there and then Shirley would come up to meet us, he had taken our truck to get it washed.

We relaxed and waited. It wasn’t long until Shirley did come and shortly afterward Tate pulled in with our truck.

We had our old one mostly packed up and just needed to move everything into the other one. We moved some things around and worked on a couple of things right there in the truckstop parking lot and then we drove back to Tate and Shirley’s place.

Tate had promised Pops that he would give him a gun and allow him to walk the property in search of deer or wild pigs.

So while Pops hunted I visited with Tate and Shirley and then went to the truck to read for a while.

When Pops came back he was excited and was telling us about the big bucks that he had seen and all the places where the wild pigs were digging. He was happy. It was good to see him that excited.

Later Tate and Shirley took us out to eat at a Mexican Place called Chuey’s. The food there was good. There were paintings all around the place of some animal dressed in all different costumes. We couldn’t decide if it was a cat, dog or mouse. We even asked one of the waitresses and she didn’t know either.

We got back to Tate and Shirley’s and spent the night in our old truck because we hadn’t got all moved over yet and the bed was still made in the old truck.

That night I heard coyotes yipping and howling on three sides of our truck. It sounded like they were right in front of us so I got up and flipped on the headlights, but didn’t see any; however they did stop howling.

The next morning Pops took the gun for a walk again. He came back a little before lunch time and we all drove the new truck across town to a place that was going to put in a new windshield. While they were doing that we looked for a place to have lunch. There was some little shack that claimed to be selling BBQ and funnel cakes. But no one wanted to go there.

Tate spotted a place called Shobel’s. He pulled into their lot. From the outside of the place I imagined that it was going to be someplace that was very expensive. The place was right along the river in San Antonio and was beautifully landscaped with an outdoor space for dining too. The inside was all done in stone and heavy wood. The tables were rich wood and the floors were mesquite wood. There was a huge fireplace made of fieldstone. The ceilings were very high and they had two large Christmas trees all decorated. It was a gorgeous place.

We were seated and a cute, perky little waitress came over and took our order. We all decided on the buffet. It was $9.69 per person. They had catfish, smothered chicken, lasagna, homemade rolls that were so good, all kinds of vegetables cooked perfectly and soup and salad and an enormous dessert table with so many homemade pies, cobblers, and cake. Oh my! Oh my! It was so good. Everything was so good.

If you EVER, and I mean EVER visit San Antonio or Columbus, Texas, you MUST go to Schobel’s.

We again went back to Tate and Shirley’s. Pops again went for a walk around the property. While he was gone, the neighbors, Mr. and Mrs. Dietech, came over. Their names are Leroy and Maryann. He is 85 and she is upper 70’s and they came with ½ a coconut cream pie. They bought it and thawed it out but only ate half and couldn’t refreeze it so we benefited from that.

But while they were there they talked about the “cats” that are in the area and that they suspected that  had killed their calf. The “cats” are a couple of black panthers that have been seen around and that had killed the other neighbor’s sheep.

Leroy and Maryann were rightfully upset and wanted the cats killed.

We talked about many subjects and Leroy was telling about when he was in Korea during the war. He told me about how the soldiers wore their dirty, wet socks around their necks to dry while they marched around through the fields. He said that a lot of the time the temperatures were well below zero and they were not dressed to protect them against those temperatures. They would dig holes and climb in to stay warm.

I told him about the Korean War Memorial at Washington, DC and how it had impacted me and he said that he had never been there but would like very much to go there.

I really enjoyed the visit by the neighbors. They were so friendly and easy to talk to. We never did hear whether or not they found the calf, but we did see several Mexican eagles hanging around their property, which is not a good sign.

We spent one morning getting all of the tires switched from one truck to the other so our new truck would have winter tires. And several other things needed to be done, nothing major just time consuming but Pops didn’t mind because he would hunt in the mornings and the evenings. He saw deer and pigs each time. He never did see any of the cats though. We did see coyotes.

We ate lunch at two other places while here, The St. Hedwig Café where most of us ate Mexican food and then we ordered burgers one day from the Roadhouse. That place was interesting too. It was an old feed store which is now a restaurant. It has all old wood boards inside with deer antler chandeliers and wild animals that had been to the taxidermist. There was a coyote and a huge rattlesnake. I mean it was probably 5-6 feet long and 8 or 9 inches in diameter at least. They had it coiled with it’s fangs showing. They have some good food in Texas and some interesting places to eat.

On Wednesday evening I went hunting with Pops. It was a calm, warm evening probably around 60 degrees. We walked around the perimeter of the property and then settled in a field on a rock. We heard a deer snorting behind us but never did see it. When we were walking out that evening we did see three pigs that were too far away to shoot.

Pops got to hunt all week long while we worked on the truck in between. It was a most enjoyable and memorable week. I know that Pops loved being able to hunt in Texas. He is already telling me about buying his own gun to leave here. He has even shopped the internet and found a place in San Antonio that sells them.

I loved getting to spend so much time getting to know Shirley better. It was so nice to walk the property and see so many things that are so different to anything we have back home.

Tate and Shirley are such very good people. They are done to earth, good hearted people and I am proud to be driving for them.

We had an opportunity this week that will be in our memories forever. I sure hope that we get to come again and I hope next time Pops fires that gun and drops a deer or several pigs.

On Thursday evening I cooked a big pot of Ham pot pie. And I had picked up some fresh rolls at the grocery store. It was good.

The truck was done and we got a load picking up in Laredo and going to Iowa, so with full bellies and a great week behind us we slept well that night.

Our load did not pick up until Friday evening so Pops got to hunt one more morning. He had seen several large deer while here and on this morning he saw a 10 point buck and decided to shoot, but the gun misfired and he lost the opportunity. Oh well, it wasn’t meant to be, I guess.

Tate took our truck to have one more small thing done. And Shirley and I watched tv and talked. When Pops came back he showed us some pictures that he had taken. He had one of some barrel cacti. Shirley didn’t know that she had more of them so we decided to go for a walk. We walked around the entire property and she was showing me some of the landmarks that I didn’t get to see when I went hunting with Pops. Chucky decided that he was going to tag along and for an old dog he did really well even though he panted for hours afterward and slept most of the day away. Lucy didn’t go with us, she stayed with Pops while he worked on the truck. The dogs were enjoying being able to run loose and explore too. I think that Lucy hunted for critters almost as much as Pops did.

But it was now time for us to pull out and head for Laredo so we hugged each other good bye and away we drove.

We didn’t get but 8 miles away until we found out that our load wasn’t picking up until tomorrow and might not go at all. So we asked to be taken off that load in the hopes of getting something today.

We did get another good load. It picks up tomorrow in Pharr, TX. It goes to Grand Rapids, MI for Monday morning.

We already have a good facebook friend of ours (one that we haven’t ever met face to face) wanting to meet up with us in Michigan if we get the chance. I hope we get the chance, after all that is absolutely the best part of this job, getting to travel and meet people.