My vision for this trip was to scope out Texas as a potential new home. I was checking out a residential community with acreage lots; someplace where we could build a new home snuggled into nature (more on that later). The interstate down to New Braunfels was the usual strip malls interrupted by the occasional large mall or outlet mall- no open space or scenery to speak of- so far I might as well be in California. I found the hotel in the back of a hotel cluster and rested up for dinner- Texas barbecue of course.
Next morning after the free hotel breakfast, it was off the the community to see how I liked it. Not much different from real estate sales offices elsewhere. Just with bigger lots. The salesman drove me around. On the way, I was immediately struck by the huge array of mailboxes near the sales office where apparently every resident needed to come for their mail. While we drove, he regaled me with features of the wonderful community center with pool and exercise equipment. There were several areas to tempt. As we drove I noticed that the lots were too small for real seclusion. One to two acre lots were much larger than my quarter acre California estate but still did not provide real privacy. Where the lots were vacant, it seemed like country. Where they were fully built it looked like a real estate development. I liked the general feel but I wasn’t ready to put down any money just yet. Maybe there were other options.
There was more research necessary.
Sure there were places to build the house of my dreams but once that happened would I like living there. How compatible was the Texas lifestyle with my own. Would I actually like living in Texas? And was New Braunfels the right place to focus? I set out on a one-day, whirlwind tour of the area I was targeting- Texas Hill Country with one question in mind. Could an old Missouri boy find happiness in Texas after 50 years in California? Inquiring minds wanted to know.
My rental car was equipped with satellite radio and from the multitudinous offerings I selected the Grateful Dead channel and headed west to Boerne (Burney for non-Texans). What I discovered right off was the Farm to Market Roads (FM). I didn’t then (and still don’t) understand the hierarchy of state roads but, at least in the Hill Country, a fair number of them are Farm to Market Roads. I understand that they were originally intended to provide a way to get animals and produce from rural farms to urban markets. Now they provided me a way to go country.
I bought a road map but primarily relied on the GPS in my rental car. As a result I have no memory of the road numbers along the way (more on that later) or any other useful navigational knowledge. It wasn’t systematic research- more trial and error. I just picked destination towns and followed the dictates of the GPS lady.
I got to Boerne and stopped for coffee in the historic downtown. It seemed so historic that the paved street seemed wrong. For many things in Texas, superficial judgments are misleading. I thought it was just another backwater Texas small town (more about that later). After coffee, I kept heading west across I-10 into the heart of Hill Country (missing the San Antonio sprawl, Mercedes and Jaguar dealers and complete rebuilding of the freeway into SA just south of my FM) . My expedition into the heart of Texas Hill Country continued while I pondered just how much civilization I could give up with 24/7 Grateful Dead streaming through my brain.
I got as far west as Leaky (Lakey to non-Texans) which I decided was too far out to consider as a home and turned around. I had planned to stop at some recommended eateries gleaned from Texas Monthly but I seem not to have the knack of discovering out of the way places, apparently permanently scarred from watching Deliverance as a younger man. I am also reluctant to stop when on a roll and it never seems to be mealtime when one of those places was in range. I kept driving, first east, then north with a goal of spending the night at Round Rock, touted as a good retirement community on the outskirts of Austin. I passed through Burnett but only stopped for gas as the rain continued. I made it to my hotel ready for bed.
The next day, I had an afternoon plane to catch but I wanted to check out some condominiums on Lake Travis even though they were on the upper limit of my budget and were in high tax Travis County. I never actually found them but I did confirm that Austin and surroundings were very California-like, something I found both comforting and ominous. I tried to have breakfast at Cracker Barrel but the line was too long so I settled for IHOP.
I dropped off my rental car, said good by to the Grateful Dead and waited for my flight back to Sacramento. Looking back, it is clear that this trip accomplished little besides an introduction to Texas. I knew very little more than before about living in Texas but I had seen it, driven a part of it and confirmed that there was some level of civilization present. Was it enough to go further? Obviously it was but at the time , I was uncertain. After 50 years in California, was it possible to make a better life in Texas? Maybe for me. I was ready for a new adventure. But how about my wife?
