Middle-aged woman wants bike...

Jeffrey, my oldest son, lives in South Austin and goes to school there, but works south of San Marcos on the weekends. It's a perfect job for going to school because he puts in almost a full-time work week for 2-3 days on the weekend, but has the rest of the week free for school. Since my house is closer to his work, sometimes he spends the weekends with me because he has to get up so early. His girlfriend, Erica, didn't have to work this weekend, so she came down with him and we bummed today while he was at work.

She didn't know what we were going to do, so I just said, "Let's go!" and we headed out the door. While we're driving around, she says, "Did Jeff tell you I want to get a motorcycle?" What a co-inky-dink, because this is where we were headed...Cowboy Harley-Davidson in South Austin.

I didn't just go here on a whim. My South Dakota friend told me that a woman who used to work at the Black Hills Harley-Davidson now works at the Austin dealership and he said I should go visit her, so that's what I did today.

Meg and I had a nice talk and compared notes about Paul (haha...all good, Paul), and she told me about the ladies group that gets together to ride every so often. Hmmm...that sounded kind of good. I've always ridden "two-up" as a passenger and have never even thought of riding my own bike. She also told me that women are better at riding bikes due to their physical build. I bet there are at least three million males who would disagree with this, but I'm certainly open to the possibility. Another woman joined us while we were talking and she told me that once I started riding a bike on my own, I would never want to ride with anyone again. Well, I don't know if I agree with that, but I guess it all depends on who you're riding with. I can imagine that I would love to be out on the open road with the wind in my hair and camera in my saddle bag. But there's also a very cool feeling about riding with someone. Anyway, this is all food for thought. I'm certainly not going to go out and buy a Fat Boy tomorrow and sail down I-35 at 80 miles per hour.

Harley-Davidson does an excellent job at marketing and their catalogs are top-notch. They tend to like photographing areas of Texas which I have become familiar with. This catalog photo was taken in Dripping Springs, Texas.

This is my photograph and is what it actually looks like today (after I changed it to black and white):

Here's their photograph of Gruene Hall...

And here's mine...

So, on that note, Erica and I did some looking around. I thought this one looked pretty good...I like red.

Erica liked this one.

And we both liked this one because of the matte finish.

None of them had prices, and I didn't ask. Maybe some other day.

So we decided to go to Gruene for lunch and Jeffrey was able to join us at the Gristmill. Here's the cute couple. (Last time I got their picture on my blog was when they were shoving food into their mouths, so they were very appreciative of a decent pic this time.)

Here's the view down to the Guadalupe River from our table. This restaurant is huge, by the way and can sit about 1,500 people. There are many different levels and indoor as well as outdoor seating. The food is okay, but their biggest draw is the atmosphere and scenery. Everyone has a great time at the Gristmill Restaurant.

This was over my shoulder...

And Jared to my left...

Erica and I walked down to the river. I was able to get a first shot without any tubers...

New Braunfels' finest just waiting for a mishap so they can go into action. (I can't imagine a more cushy job.)

Tubers...


And here's a view to "The Deck." This is a pretty famous biker bar, but I haven't been by here in a couple years since I was working on selling my house, then moving to San Marcos. This has really changed from what I can see to yuppies and tourists. Maybe it was just today...I don't know.

All in all, Gruene has changed a lot. It used to be a very small quaint area, but a ton of new homes, stores, real estate agents and souvenir shops have moved in since I was last here, so it has really lost its charm. I guess it's just another sign of the times, but I don't think I'll be going back again soon.

Little bit of this and that...

Well, it was a beautiful day here in South Texas and after spending the last few days under the weather with a stomach virus I decided to head out with my camera. I wanted to post some pictures of the Texas landscape around here for those of you who are not familiar with it. These pictures are right around the area where I live, but this is what you'll see for many, many, many miles from here as well.

Remember these old satellite dishes?? I'd never seen one this shape before. How aesthetically pleasing to the eye! Ha! Thank God they got smaller! Of course, someday I'm sure we'll be laughing at the ones we all have on our roofs now.

There is no shortage of these around here.

Alrightey-then! Had enough of Texas scenery? Yeah...me, too. I was going to do a whole post on that, but that would have put everyone to sleep.

So as I was turning around to go back, I saw this little diner/store that's across from the huge outlet mall on I-35. I've always wanted to go in, so I took the opportunity today since my Texas scenery subject was quickly going down the blog drain. I'm glad I did, because it was a little walk down sign memory lane.

Remember these? Obviously, they didn't work because now we have the yellow flashing lights with the neighborhood cop sitting on a side street just waiting for the poor fool who's going two miles an hour over the posted 15 MPH school zone speed limit.

Being a St. Louis girl, I had to post this one. "Makes good food taste better." It's a good thing Budweiser has improved a tad on their advertising techniques through the years.

Another one from St. Louis, although I have never heard of Advance Mfg. Co. Just what the heck is "Hot French-Fried Popcorn??" Is that just another name they called popcorn back then? I get this image of them taking popped popcorn and frying it in a deep fryer...which doesn't especially sound very appealing.

I always liked the Pegasus at the Mobile stations...but I think I'll pass up the $4,995 price tag on this little piece of memorabilia. (By the way, prices on all these signs ranged from about $300 to $5,000.)

Not a very pleasant one.

A small steak with a Coke...80 cents. Now you can't even get the Coke for 80 cents.

This little number was $995...but I guess it dates back from 1936. Looks like it was used for target practice at some point.

Remember the Dr. Pepper slogan of drinking it at 10, 2 and 4? I had totally forgotten about that. "Drink a bite to eat." That doesn't even make any sense. Advertising had a bit to be desired back then. More on that later.


"Amos 'n' Andy." OMG, I haven't thought of that in years!! (Or maybe I blocked it out of my memory.) My dad used to love that show! (Which I'm totally ashamed to admit these days.) It's hard now to believe those days even existed...and now we have a black president. Thank the Lord times have changed. It's really hard to believe that was only about 45 years ago.

Kind of a strange Grape-Nuts ad.

Now here's advertising genius. Here's what the copy says on the ad:

"Why come back from lunch feeling drowsy? Choose a refreshing lunch, and be yourself. Bounce back to normal with an ice-cold Coca-Cola, the natural partner of so many good things to eat. An Ice-cold Coca-Cola is more than just a drink. It’s a very particular kind of drink—combining those pleasant, wholesome substances which foremost scientists say do most in restoring you to your normal self. Really delicious, it invites a pause, a pause that will refresh you."

I like the "wholesome substances which foremost scientists say do most in restoring you to your normal self"...that's a good one! You'd think everyone was a walking zombie after lunch unless you've had a Coke!

They had a little diner with the place which I should have tried, but feeling so much better after my stomach disorder, I had a craving for something across the street. I'm normally not a fast-food person and the only thing I ever get at McDonald's is their sugar-free vanilla iced coffee which is only $2.37 compared to Starbuck's $4-something. They are great. But I do love these...

McRibs...which only come out certain times of the year. I didn't eat the fries, though...too much after the stomach thing. I didn't make that mess with all the rib sauce...that's just how it looked when I opened the wrapper, I swear.

So now on to Gruene. We're doing a Secret Santa thing in the office, and Gruene is always a great place for gift-buying, so I thought I check it out...especially since I was feeling so much better and it was such a beautiful day.

Now you have to admit, this is cute. An Airstream bird feeder. You don't see those everyday.

These are also unusual. But it would have been kind of difficult to giftwrap and sneak into the office, so I passed on this one.

I didn't get anything while I was there but it was a great day to be out. Temps were in the 80's and the bikers were taking advantage of the weather.

Having spent most of my life in midwestern to northern states, I'm still not used to warm weather during the holidays. I wore flip-flops today have all my windows open tonight. At any rate, I guess I have to be thankful for not having a heating bill.

Happy holidays!

4th of July in Gruene

Happy Fourth of July! I had the day off…oh, that’s right…I’m unemployed. I have every day off now. Speaking of unemployment, I have to attend little employment seminars once in awhile at the local workforce center to maintain my benefits. I went to a group meeting on Thursday and the “group” consisted of me…no one else attended. That morning, my son had seen on CNN that the unemployment rate in the U.S. was 8.5 million. When I told him that I was the only one at the seminar, he said, “So the other 8.4999 million didn’t show?” Funny kid. I will go into the ramblings of unemployment in future blogs, but today is a July 4th report from Gruene, Texas.

I’ve already mentioned that Gruene is a touristy little town just northwest of New Braunfels. A fellow laid-off friend came out my way so we met in Gruene, had lunch and cried over a Dos Equis. Well, actually, we didn’t cry at all because it’s hard not to have a good time in Gruene ‘cause everyone’s just so darn happy. So, I’m walking past the General Store and I see this. Hmmm. (Remember that you can click on the photo to enlarge it to really see how well "endowed" this bike is.) More on this later.

We had a couple burgers at Janie’s Table…a little place along the river.

I had to take a couple pictures of the tablecloths there because they're exactly like the ones used in restaurants on Isla Mujeres. Even though Gruene’s a nice place, I’d still rather be on Isla, so the tablecloths enabled me to pretend for about 45 minutes.

Then we walked around town for awhile. Down to the Guadalupe River to watch the toobers and rafters.

No toobers here, but it's pretty.

“The Deck” is where the bikers hang out and watch the toobers come down the river. You can see some pretty interesting bikes (and bikers) here.

I didn't actually take this yesterday, but it's my favorite biker picture. Unfortunately, it's hard to see the spikes pierced in this Bandido's lips, but they were there. There were no real interesting characters or bikes out yesterday...except for the "Babe Bike."

Or if you want to consider this interesting.

Sign on the deck of The Deck.

See the plaque in this tree? This is right in front of The Deck. It’s kind of hard to read because I was shooting in the sun, but it says, “High Water Mark – Oct. 17, 1998.”

Now, that doesn’t mean much to just see the plaque. But when you look at it from this perspective…

…it’s a different story. See where I’ve added “Flood Line” in red? That’s how high the river got in the flood of 1998. Hard to believe. It has flooded a few times since then, but nowhere near where it got back then.

A guy had a couple of parrots which he was letting people hold, and I caught this beautiful little girl. She doesn’t seem too sure about the whole deal, but she sure is a cutie.

The music coming from Gruene Hall sounded interesting, so we thought we’d step in and take a peek. I’ll repeat myself again and say that Gruene Hall is the oldest dance hall in Texas and it doesn’t look like any improvements have been made on it since it was built in 1878. Despite the fact that it doesn’t have air conditioning, it is always packed.

There was no cover charge, so we moseyed on in and sat at one of the picnic tables that look like they’re probably the same ones from 1878. The band actually turned out to be great and we stayed for their whole set. They were called “The Band of Heathens.”




People enjoying the music.

(Sorry for the quality of the photos…it was dark in there.) Don’t know exactly what to call the kind of music they were playing…country rock probably comes the closest. But when their set was over, everyone clapped and pounded the tables for an encore, so they played one more song. I almost bought one of their CDs but I reminded myself that I’m unemployed.

Even the little ones enjoy Gruene Hall.


I like the neon signs they have there.

So when they were finished, another band started setting up on the other end of the hall.


We stayed to see whether they would be as good. They weren’t, so we headed out…along with just about everyone else.

Lots of empty beer bottles to clean up.

So, I'm on my way to my car and see this...

Ahhh...the owner of the "Babe Bike." Notice that there is no passenger seat. No REAL babes on this babe bike. No siree bob…this man rides alone…wind blowing through his hair…at one with nature and his babe bike. In fact, this has impressed me so much, I think I'm going to buy a Harley and have scantily clad men painted on it.

(Gag.)

On a final note…one more picture of a neat sign.

Lizards are pretty plentiful here in Texas and later that evening I got a shot of the real thing on one of my plants. Cute little guy and a very polite poser. My camera lens was literally one inch away from his nose and he stayed right there for me...most likely because he was scared out of his little lizard mind.

Felt kind of bad about his missing tail, though.