We started out Saturday morning in cloudy, windy
weather with sprinkles on the windshield as a cold front blew in the day before
we departed. We left home about 10:00 am
and headed southeast through San Marcos and Luling where we took the major US highway
183 to Gonzales and Yoakum. The sun had
come out past Luling and the sides of the highway, and pastures to both sides,
were full of spring wildflowers, especially bluebonnets, Indian paint brushes, Indian
blankets, verbena, coreopsis, wine-cups, primroses and many others in a sea of
color. Spring was in the air with trees
budding out and new migrating birds filling the skies.
We skirted Gonzales and stopped in Yoakum for
gasoline and lunch. Unfortunately Yoakum
doesn’t have many options for food and it didn’t look as if there would be many
along the road in front of us. So we
stopped at a small, dirty dive called Jenny’s Tacos and had an acceptable lunch
of fajitas and tacos. At least we didn’t
get food poisoning. The rest of the
drive was through flat farmlands with little to note. We drove through Edna and south to Palacios
where we had reservations at the Peaceful Pelican B&B where we had stayed
before.
Rita had lived in Palacios at two different times in
her life and had graduated from Palacios High School so she knows the area
well. We drove around the small town
which, like many small Texas towns, is being slowly deserted and dying. Their main industry is shrimping but new
regulations have cut that enterprise down by a third we were told. During WWII there was an Army Air Corps base
there and before that war there was a large Baptist encampment there which
brought several families to the area.
The Baptist encampment is still there but doesn’t draw the crowds it
used to in summers.
We unpacked at the B&B and dressed for the
reason we came to Palacios. We were
invited to Thelma and Benny Orsak’s 50th wedding anniversary
celebration. Rita went to high school
with Thelma and I first met them in Houston where they lived for a couple of
years after they married which was just two months after our wedding. We thought the party, organized by their two
sons Benny Jr. and Russell, would be relatively small. We were surprised that about 300 people
showed up. Rita says that’s what happens
when you live all your life in one area – you can get all your friends together
in one place easier.
Both Thelma and Benny come from Texas Czech families
and most of the crowd fit that group as well.
A Catholic mass started the celebration with a renewal of vows and
communion. Then the chairs were cleared
off the dance floor and a big table was set up with good Czech kolaches baked
by the local women. Also a beer station
was mobbed by the men folks. A buffet
dinner was served and people sat at tables on the edge of the dance floor. The stage was set up by the Texas Sound Check
(play on Czech) a local band that Benny Junior plays and sings with. A grand entry dance started off the music
which probably lasted long into the night.
Rita had previously broken her left humorous bone near the shoulder
socket and had her arm in a sling so she didn’t feel much like dancing. After conversations with Thelma and Benny
plus some other people we met, we left rather early and retired to the B&B.
Sunday morning we leisurely got ready and went down
to the dining room where our hostess, Edith, serves breakfast. We sipped on coffee and talked with her for a
long while before eating breakfast.
Other guests came down as well and we had a nice conversation with a
lady and her daughter from California and another couple about our age who are
from Yorkshire in England but have lived in Sugarland, Texas, for the past four
years. The only other guest was a nice
young man who works for the US Fisheries and who is scheduled to go to sea for
30 days checking on the shrimpers.
Finally we checked out late and headed west along
highway 35 through Point Comfort (where Rita’s parents lived when I first met
her), Port Lavaca and our destination of Rockport. The weather was still overcast with patches
of spring like fog and a bit cooler than normal for this time of the year. We arrived in Rockport too early to check
into our Hampton Inn hotel so we had a light lunch at Alice Fay’s in the
adjoining town of Fulton. I chose
wrongly. While our fried shrimp wasn’t
too bad the rest of the meal was not good with an iceberg lettuce salad that
looked days old. The place was also dark
and dirty – a good place to avoid in the future.
We drove around Rockport and stopped to wander in
and out of some of the shops open on a Sunday.
Finally we checked into the hotel and watched a bit of HBO, which we don’t
get at home, before our dinner reservations.
We ate at Latitude 28˚ 02’ Restaurant where we have had good meals
before. We weren’t disappointed as we
had another great meal. We both started
with delicious cream of tomato soup with hot fresh bread. Rita had a shrimp casserole while I had the
catch of the day, grouper. We had
glasses of fume blanc and a desert of key lime pie with coffee to end the meal. All was delicious.
Monday we had the breakfast buffet served by the
hotel and were away soon after. We took
back roads through Refugio and stopped in Victoria where we hadn’t spent time
before. First stop was a quilt store in
the suburbs. Rita had heard good things
about this store and came away pleased and with a bit of material. Then we drove into the historical downtown
area and had a good lunch at Fossati’s Delicatessen which they bill as the
oldest deli in Texas. I think it was established
in the late 1880s and is still in the same building today featuring one of the
few remaining spittoon bars – a drainage trough just above the floor and all
along the bar.
I had a “Dutch lunch” because that’s what we had at
my grandparents’ house growing up. It
was a combination of sliced ham, turkey, salami and different cheeses served
with pumpernickel bread, cold slaw and potato salad. It
went well with a cold Shiner bock beer. Rita had their special sandwich of the day and
root beer. After lunch we walked along
the historic area reading historical markers and photographing old houses, the
courthouse, and town square. After that
we hopped into the car and drove the historical trail which features several
nice old mansions, some dating back to Sam Houston’s visits to Victoria. Eventually we drove home through Cuero, which
used to be a large turkey farming area, Gonzales, Luling, San Marcos and Wimberley.
That evening we had a strong storm blow through with
lightning, thunder, hail, rain and winds.
Luckily we didn’t suffer any damage and welcomed the much needed rain
even though it was sparse.
Tuesday Rita had surgery to place a metal plate and
screws into her left humorous at the Seaton Hospital in Kyle near our
home. All went well and she is
recovering at home as I write this.
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