On the Katy Prairie

I have a confession to make. As we were tooling around Oil Field Road in Katy, I asked Sneed to stop so I could take a photo of a flag that was waving gently against a gorgeous blue sky. He went a bit further down the road, turned around and pulled off to where I could get a good shot. Imagine my embarrassment and dismay when I turned on the camera and realized that the photo chip was still in the computer from when I downloaded last night's photos. So the following photos are all Sneed's and ones I would have taken but blew the chance. Bummer!


L>R...Gray Vervain ~ Purple Gerardia

The Gray Vervain was blowing in the breeze where we had stopped. I don't think I would have been able to capture anything without it being blurred. Sneed did a superb job. ~ We saw Purple Gerardia last week but I wanted another photo of it. Sneed didn't realize that there was a spider resting on the petal until we got home and looked at the pictures. He loves to take flower photos with bees or other insects on the flower.



This farmer was actually piling up his bales of hay to remove them from the field. We have had so much rain that there is an overabundance of hay this year and most hay bales just sit in the field and rot. Sneed thought that the tractor had broken down in the first photo as it sat still for some time. Once again when we got home we realized that modern technology had intervened and the farmer was talking on his cell phone.



I spotted this Crested Caracara, a bird of prey, while it was sitting high up in some trees. When Sneed backed the truck up, it flew away but we followed it and it lit on a telephone pole. Not the best backdrop for the bird but it was interesting to see it at close range.

Crapitto's - W O Bentley Birthday Celebration

Aside from monthly get-togethers for breakfast the second Saturday of the month, we haven't had any car events since May when we had a picnic in Brazos Bend Park. As the weather has been getting a mite milder (low 90s rather than high 90s), the time was nigh.

September 16 is W O Bentley's birthday so in honour of the event, Sneed arranged a dinner party at which we were to dress as if we were coming to a party after Bentley won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1924. As the 16th was a Thursday, the party was arranged for Saturday, the 18th.

Funny story. On the 16th, Thursday, Sneed got a call from Crapitto's verifying that the party was on Saturday. A few hours later, he got a call from one of our members who rather embarrassingly confessed that he and his wife and their guests had dressed and gone to the restaurant to have a good time. They enjoyed dinner then but didn't join us on Saturday. It pays to thoroughly read the invitation.


Swish, swish went the wipers after Sneed had so expertly washed and shined Marque earlier in the day. The rain kept falling as we traveled down to Sugar Land to pick up Karen and Danny. By the time we reached the restaurant, the rain had ceased.


L>R...Carolyn & Richard, Stan ~ John & Evie, Mike & John ~ Beryal & John, Betty & Carl ~ Shari, Merwin & Mai, Wim


L>R...Beryal & John ~ Andrew & Dana ~ Shari & Wim ~ Bea & Joy ~ Roger & Mirelle


L>R...Karen & Danny, Anne ~ Cathie & Dan, Sharon & David ~ Karen & Danny, Anne & Sneed


The 'dressed' ladies L>R...Shari, Dana, Beryal, Joy, Bea, Anne, Karen, Mirelle ~ Dana went all out with her Cuban foot back seam stockings.



Our menu. I and the others who decided to have the Cappellini di Mare were gastronomically delighted. Not only were the four grilled shrimp as good as or better than pre-oil spill days, but the jumbo lump crab meat was pure perfection. The angel hair pasta with sauce was prepared expertly and the amount of crab meat in the sauce exceeded anyone's expectations.

A fun night was had by all. We hope W O was looking down from above and reveling vicariously with us.

Another Day, Another Loop

This loop, even though we had to backtrack quite a bit as there was no way to know that we would be driving on dirt roads which is a huge NO-NO in the classic car world, seems to be doable. It's on some roads we've never been on before today and has lots of open pastures for wildflowers to flourish. We're excited about this new route.

Now for some scenes along the way.


The requisite flower photos ~ Purple Gerardia (I know it's pink but the color ranges from pink to purple) ~ Erect Dayflower ~ ?


We came over a hill and saw something in the road ahead. What a pleasant surprise. I asked if they were out for a Sunday drive and they said yes. Sneed thinks they may have been camping and were coming home. Why else take along your own Port-A-Potty?


Snow on the Prairie really does look like snow on the prairie ~ And it's even prettier with a cow, or is that a steer since it has horns?, among the flowers.

Grandparents' Day at Dickinson Elementary

Sneed was able to make it to Grandparents' Day but couldn't stay to get the picture taken with Aedin. Through his computer wizardry he was able to put himself there.

We visited Aedin, Dylin and Olsin at their lunch periods. The object being that the grandparents' hit up all the fast food places near the school to bring lunch for their grandchildren and then sit at the teeny tiny tables with them as they eat. Olsin's lunch was first at 1055, then Dylin's at 1110, and Aedin's at 1120. The school takes the photos, prints them, and then gives them to the children to bring home. Pretty nice memory of the year.

After Aedin's lunch, she showed me her classroom and the bulletin board outside on which she used the first letters of her name to write memories of her trip to California. In case you were wondering about the letter D - Doing my best not to lick the yummy cupcakes...that's in reference to Annemarie and Brett's wedding. They had cupcakes instead of a cake. The last letter is W for her last name. Watching the gulls fly by as they were looking for fish to eat.

Dylin loves her Mommy

Today I picked up Dylin and Olsin from school. Dylin came out reading a paperback book. How like me at her age. I had to call her name for her to bring her nose out of the book. I didn't have the camera at the ready then, so recreated the scene at home.




I love playing with long hair and Dylin was a willing subject. It's definitely not perfectly centered and she has a lot of short wisps that wouldn't stay put, but she liked the end result too.

Time for a Picnic

It was so nice this morning, we decided to take a picnic lunch to Brazos Bend Park. Seems like everyone else had the same idea as there was a long line to get into the park. Once inside, we found a picnic table across from Elm Lake. It was cool sitting in the shade of a pecan tree and quiet even though there were a lot of people there.

Afterward, we took a short, very short, walk. The temperature zoomed up to 90+ and it wasn't so nice anymore.


A posing immature heron and some Tropical Sage

The Loop de Loop

OMG! We're having a clement day in K-town. Decided to take advantage of the cooler than usual weather and take a trial run of the proposed loop tour for the Austin RROC Inter-regional Meet planned for next spring.

We found our retirement home on one of the back ranch roads. It even has a welcoming wreath on the door - barely seen in the photo but I know it's there. And a bit further on, we found our new mode of transportation fully equipped with the American flag on one side and the Texas flag on the other.



You may ask why are we driving the route 6 months in advance. Well, the best laid plans don't always come to fruition. First of all, the area we planned to drive was mostly treed with no open fields which negated the real reason to have the run...that is to showcase Texas Bluebonnets gracing field after field. Secondly, it took us over 3 1/2 hours to negotiate said back roads which at times crossed cattle guards through working ranches and one lane bridges some wet and slippery. That 3 1/2 hours was just to get us to the venue for lunch. So, we now know we have our work cut out for us to plan a new route through different territory.


We stopped in Blanco for lunch at the Redbud Cafe. Sneed had his "usual", a tuna fish sandwich, which he said was every bit as good as the one at Panera Bread. I opted for a bowl of Hatch Green Chili (according to the gal behind the counter that's a mild chili) Potato and Corn chowder with a chunk of great tasting bread. Yum.












Across the street from the Redbud was the old Blanco County Courthouse first used in 1886. It was only used for four years as an election moved the county seat to Johnson City where the new courthouse, bottom photo, was built.









According to the itinerary, lunch was to be at the Oasis with views of Lake Austin enhancing the dining experience. Perhaps we can still route the tour there as the scenery was breathtaking. The houses built into the hills rival those on San Francisco's and Santa Barbara's hillsides.



Since we had already stopped for lunch, we limped back to the Austin Marriott from whence we came a mere tired duo 5 1/2 hours later.

On the way back to Katy, I was looking for a beautiful bush of very white Snow on the Prairie I had seen on the way up to Austin. Believe it or not, I spied it on the other side of the divided highway and asked Sneed if he would turn around at the next available opening. Much to my chagrin, the next crossover was right there - less than a football field from where I had asked and he managed to get into the left lane, braking to get into the opening from 70mph. The crossover was rather gravelly and I thought we would be going into the ditch. His adept handling of the truck was evident but I could have waited for the next opening. These flowers when viewed from a distance and spread across a vast area do look like snow.



Returning to Katy, Sneed suggested we try the Indian vegetarian restaurant, Udipi Cafe. Glancing through the window before entering we knew we had made a good choice - the place was chock full of Indians. Our selections were quite tasty but more than either of us could finish so we brought home lots of leftovers. We now know that one meal would suffice for the two of us.

Thus ends the tale of our 13 hour round trip. Good night = ) And yes, *sigh*, I haven't finished the NV/CA trip yet. Having to sort through 1000 photos (can you believe that? yes I can) has me bogged down. Ha ha, it's bogged my blogging...but I shall prevail