A Friday Grandpa Venture

After the good rain on Thursday night this seemed like a perfect time for a road trip. We stopped in Grandview at the church where I got caught in the office for a while to help scan a picture for an article in the paper. There was lots of activity in town for the first day of the spring version of Antique Alley. Darlene Wier was selling furniture in the church parking lot as they prepare to sell their house and move to the city.

We turned off "Antique Alley" at FM916 and headed west with little traffic (only a few gas well maintenance trucks). First stop was at Boney Joes in Rio Vista for drinks then we soon crossed the Nolan River. This would be the first of several river crossings today. We slowed down at the bridge over Lake Whitney at Kimball Bend. The lake is full to normal level now. This (Brazos) was our second river of the day.

Morgan was a bustling town today with 2 cars at the grocery store! Soon we were crossing the Bosque River at Meridian. There is a new stop light at the intersection of FM174 and SH6. We passed the entrance to Meridian State Park and remembered those annual Thanksgiving week-end camping trips of many years ago. Spring is a wonderful time to drive through the hill country. There was a strong north wind blowing as we started our trip.

Before long the hills around Cranfills Gap came into site. We noticed a steeple a few blocks off the highway and decided to check it out.




I am sure the St. Olaf Lutheran Church must have been the center of activity in this small Norwegian community.












We thought about getting something to eat but it was still a little early in the day and after all Lauren would have said,"Grandpa wouldn't eat at a place that looked like that!" Grandma said, "It doesn't have any windows!"








State Highway 22 soon took us beyond the Leon river and into Hamilton.






Storm's Hamburgers was near the edge of town so we pulled in for lunch. I ordered the chicken fried steak with gravy and it was very good. Jerry had chicken bites. We ordered medium drinks but they brought two large drinks. Jerry had to use both hands to lift her drink. Lynne would have been happy here!




Just west of Hamilton FM 218 turns left off State 36. Then Ranch 2005 turns left again toward Goldthwaite. It is now time to get out the camera for some wildflower pictures.




Here are some more pictures of wildflowers by the road. There is a slideshow option.


We saw several old barns along the way.







We saw some goats with their guard donkey.




This barn was only about 3 feet tall! It must have been for goats.



Cowhouse Creek and the Lampasas River were in our sights before our next town. We stopped at the courthouse square in Goldthwaite. I met Sue Ellen here near this civil war monument one year when we were going to do some caching at Colorado Bend State Park.










Might be some good food served here next week-end.



From Goldthwaite we headed west again intending to go to Regency. I couldn't remember how far it was before we were supposed to turn onto a county road so I took one that looked promising - for a while at least! Then it began to get more narrow and less traveled. I had not loaded the local roads into my GPS.


Water had been over the road in several places from the rain last night. We splashed mud on the car but didn't get stuck.



We saw cattle grazing the lush spring grass.



Then we came to the end of the road. I could see the Colorado river valley at the back side of the ranch but we had to turn around and go back to the highway before heading west again.


More to come later .......................................