Bandera, Texas – Part II
March 31, 2008
First, I thought I’d give a brief description of the Flying L. The ranch has been around for a while but it looks like they are adding units and amenities in the effort to grow their business. We stayed at their time share units booked through my parents membership in ICE. These are new condo style units that seem to be less than 5 years old. They also have older villas that are duplexes available for bookings to the general public. They have a nice 18 hole golf course, a kids activity program on a pay per day basis and evening entertainment included with all accommodations. They have two pools, an older traditional pool and a brand new water park with slides, a wave pool and a lazy river. The thing that tickled us, though, is that Bandera Proper has a smaller population at just under 2000 than what we tend to call the Sonoita area, which is really all of Eastern Santa Cruz County. It really was , for us, like going to a “Big Town” to go to a dude ranch. Eastern Santa Cruz county is around 2000 people, and I’m sure Bandera county must be over 5000 people. Heck, Bandera actually has a grocery store, a Radio Shack, and a Church’s Fried Chicken.
Another nice amenity in Bandera is the USA’s second oldest Polish Catholic Church, St. Stanislov’s. This beautiful church was where we attended Easter Sunday services. On Saturday night, we started off the holiday by decorating eggs, and on Sunday we got to church early so we could all sit together. The only problem was that for the Easter services they had added an extra Spanish mass, so instead of the English mass being at 11:00, it was pushed out to 11:30. Not really a big deal, we took our family pictures before Mass and also toured the historic Cemetery. After Mass, we headed back to the condo’s to change for the Crosby Family Picnic at Cousin Dixie’s in Bourne, TX. Our family hadn’t been out to the annual event since before Sean and Savannah were born. It was a really nice chance to catch up with distant cousins I hadn’t seen in a while and enjoy the wonderful food everyone brought. Sunday night was a quiet night where we mostly either watched TV or visited.
Monday was our big Bandera Shopping day. Steve, Sean, big David and Brett all stayed at the camp site and did a little fishing and computer work, while Anne, Mary Fran and I took the girls and little David shopping in Bandera. They had lots of Western themed gift shops. Mom had given each of us $25 from her small inheritance from Mama Frances so that we could all buy something by which to remember her and the reunion week. Savannah knew that she wanted to get a Webkins horse and name him Bandito. She was thrilled when she found a shop with a huge “We Sell Webkins” sign. She found a horse just like she wanted.
That evening, we had a picnic dinner at the RV park with Cajun Barbecued shrimp and a nice salad. The shrimp is actually baked in an oven but covered in a wonderful ketchup, Worcestershire, olive oil and lemon sauce. Mary Fran was able to fit a huge pan of shrimp right in her RV oven. The weather was perfect for out door dining.
Coming soon: Part III San Antonio: The River Walk and the Alamo.
Our Trip to Bandera Texas, Part I
March 30, 2008
We headed off to Texas last Friday for a one week family reunion/vacation at the Flying L Guest Ranch in Bandera, Texas. The trip started off very smoothly with me picking up Steve from work at 4:15 and our heading East on I-10 towards Texas. We made a longer than planned stop in Lordsburg, NM at the Love’s Gas Station. We got dinner at the Subway inside and there was quite a line and only one person making the sandwiches and one person working the register.
After we got our dinner, we were back on the road and made it all the way to El Paso before we were ready to stop for the night. We had a bit of trouble finding a room as the first three hotels we stopped at were filled, but we hit the jackpot when we tried the Hampton Inn. They only had one room available, a suite for $109. We gladly took it and enjoyed the added privacy of two separate rooms, and the extra space it afforded. It had a kitchenette and a refrigerator, as well as two TVs. We also liked that the sink was in a separate dressing area from the bath and toilet. Steve and Savannah enjoyed their free WiFi, and I took the kids down to the pool for a quick swim.
After enjoying the free hot breakfast, we loaded up and got on the road towards Bandera. The drive would have been rather boring had we filled up with gas in El Paso, but instead we decided to wait until we were a bit lower. Well, we ended up being a bit lower, and near empty, right in the middle of nowhere. It was a little dicey as the signs said that Ft. Stockton was 22 miles away and our on board computer said we had about 26 miles to go on our current amount of gas. Needless to say, we took the first Ft. Stockton exit and as we pulled into the gas station our computer said we had “0 miles” to go our our current tank. We all breathed a big sigh of relief.
We got lunch at “Kentucky Fried Bell” and headed East again on I-10. We enjoyed the increasingly beautiful scenery as we entered Texas Hill Country. We found the Flying L right away, and were very pleased with our roomy accommodations. We had the one bedroom side of the duplex with a King size bed, small bath, kitchenette, living area, two TV’s and a sofa bed. Mom and Dad had the two bedroom side with a larger bath, full kitchen, larger living area, sofa bed and a small bunk room. The kids took the bunk room.
Next we headed over to the RV park to meet my sister and see her camp site. I was pleasantly surprised at how luxurious and roomy her “pop-up” camper was, only to then be told by my Brother-in-law that this was actually a new camper that they had just traded in for on Thursday. The new camper is a hybrid, hard shell with two fold out sleeping areas, a sofa, kitchen table banquette, large kitchen and a bathroom with a complete door, toilette and shower. I never knew camping could be so luxurious. The new camper is really beautiful.
Coming soon – Part II featuring Bandera Shopping and Barbecued Shrimp.
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