Let's Go To Luckenbach, Texas

Sunday was a leisurely day of sleeping late and taking our own sweet time getting ready. We were tired from five days of traveling and two days at the roping, and the time change didn't help any.

We hit the road for Fredericksburg about 10 a.m., stopping just inside the city limits at Das Peach Haus. Established in 1969 as a roadside fruit stand at a peach orchard, the little store is built of logs from a 147-year-old German cabin. The store sells its own gourmet sauces, salsas, jams, jellies and more. They had samples of some of their sauces poured over blocks of cream cheese. Spread onto crackers, they were delicious. They had a "Buy three, get our Original Roasted Raspberry Chipolte Sauce free" special, so I bought Harvest Peach & Hatch Pepper, Whiskey-Soaked Cherry Pasilla,  and Smokey Ancho Cherry. Annette bought a small piece of pottery that could be used for pouring syrup or cream.

Fredericksburg was covered up with tourists, and we had to park on a back street. It was safe, though, because it was across the street from the Lutheran church and right in front of the pastor's home. He walked up and welcomed us to town. Probably hoped we might be new congregants.

This is our third visit to Fredericksburg. On our first Texas Road Trip in 2015, I bought a beautiful watch with colorful stone inlays there. It was designed by New Mexico artist Calvin Begay. The fastener keeps catching on open-weave fabrics, so I went back to look for one with purple stones on a stretch band. Big mistake. I came out with a silver chain, gorgeous horse pendant and, yep, the watch I had hoped to find. The guy made me a deal, "giving" me the pendant (also made by Begay) and chain for buying the watch because I was a repeat customer. I'm sure he didn't lose any money, though. He probably has a hefty markup.

We stopped in another fabric shop, where Annette bought some western-print cloth to make a boot-themed quilt. I bought some western-print flannel to make winter lounging pants. We got out for a lot less money than what I spent in the jewelry store.

Elaine at Luckenbach

After leaving Fredericksburg, we swung by Luckenbach, the town made famous by the Willie Nelson-Waylon Jennings song, long enough to take photos in front of the old post office sign. Believe it or not, we didn't even go inside the souvenir shop. We wanted to get to Wildseed Farms before it closed at 5 p.m. Annette got two more prints by Georgetown, Texas, watercolor artist Kathleen McElwaine, and a table runner with bluebonnets on it. She had bought one of McElwaine's longhorn prints there last year, and I had managed to snag one of her originals at a gallery in Kerrville. I swear I didn't buy a single thing at Wildseed.

Annette in Wildseed's bluebonnet patch

Monday we left for home, perhaps stopping to visit a friend who moved from Ashville to a Houston suburb about a year and a half ago. We got home Tuesday about 8:30 a.m., spent Wednesday in a hazy and did absolutely nothing but download photos. I'll tell you about our two-day return trip in tomorrow's blog.