Super Target in Alamo Ranch...

It isn't like we haven't been into a Super Target before - after all, they have one just up the street at Bandera Pointe and another over off of Highway 151 and Loop 410, but now that we have our very own in Alamo Ranch, I might actually go there from time to time.

If you have been down to 1604 and Culebra, you can already feel the influx of traffic in just the past month or so. No, it isn't 1604 and Bandera bad or heaven forbid, 1604 and 281 horrendous, but still, you get the feeling that as more of these stores open, people fed up with the nightmare of trying to get through the choke point that is Braun and 1604, people will take advantage of the slightly better traffic situation on Culebra and Alamo Ranch.

So, enough about traffic. If you are like us and have put off going to the Super Target, there are a few reasons to give it a try. But I must caution you: the people who designed the parking lot layout at Alamo Ranch are probably descendants of the idiots who designed most of San Antonio's ill conceived, not even thought-out, traffic patterns (see the aforementioned 1604 and 281 comment). So as you drive through, be aware that at some intersections, there are stop signs, and some there aren't, but neither is intuitive. I predict numerous near-misses, crushed fenders and splatted pedestrians before someone figures out that allowing the parking lot planners to drink beer during their lunch hour is a bad idea.Once you have safely parked, you are free to move about the lot, cautiously! Welcome to Super Target.Okay, nothing special but I do need to point out two important things: The baskets and the carts. I think someone told me these shopping carts are like a fine Mercedes, and I have to report that I concur! Talk about a smooth ride. And no sharp edges for kids to get all scraped up on.Inside the store, the place was clean and well lit (of course). One of the downfalls (in my mind anyway) is that when I go into and Target, I feel like I am somehow being hypnotized. Am I the only one? Between the florescent lights, the red patterns and flying youngsters overhead, I just feel my head start to spin.Or maybe I just feel a little overwhelmed by not getting all the hip fashions and stuff. I do confess to liking Target's TV ads - I think they do a great job of making me feel like I need to get some of whatever it is they sell. But here is where I have to draw the line. Seriously. San Antonio is perpetually on the fattest city in America list. Who do the fine people at Super Target think is going to fit on this couch? I saw a lady at a taco place today who wouldn't have been able to get one of her thighs on this seat without some car jacks on either side to hold up the flesh. And for $199.99? Seriously?But in spite of Super Target being a little more upper scale than the Wal Mart I normally attend, I'm glad to see they still cater to common folk who are free to come in and shop comfortably, without bothering to shave their backs and shoulders. That's hospitality.Finally, if I hadn't given you plenty of reasons to visit, it is official, the Starbucks in Super Target is the closest one to my house, and my wife is pretty happy about that.

Hashknife Update: Yum!

My daughter made another trip into town this weekend and this time around, she had Garmin guide her to my oft-obsessed BBQ place, Hashknife on the Chisholm located just north of Mineral Wells and east of the town of Graford.

The lady behind the counter took notice of her immediately as she was still in her military uniform (apparently, there aren't a lot of bases in the greater Palo Pinto County area). When she ordered up six sandwiches and asked for them to go, the kind lady asked her how far she was going. Upon learning that San Antonio was the destination, she kindly placed the fixin's into containers and gave her a bag of buns for the trip. How nice is that?

Though I did consider getting up at midnight last night to dig in, I thought it better to hold off a little closer to noon today. I made it until almost 10am to be precise.

Anyway, I promise, this will be the last Hashknife update - my wife is considering putting me in for some sort of Barbecue Obsession Syndrome counseling.

Suffice it to say, even 15 or 16 hours later, it was some kind of Tasty Treat.

New Look Report: The Old Pearl Brewery...

This past weekend while my wife and I were driving around downtown, I saw the familiar smokestack of the Pearl Brewery which is quite visible as you come around 281 toward downtown. I had driven by many times but never bothered to actually drive down Grayson Street - which also tells you that I have never been to Nightmare on Grayson.

Anyway, I had read about the fact that the area was being redeveloped and was going to house several new projects, and I'm happy to report that things are coming right along.
As we drove by, it appeared that perhaps the new food school was having an event. Lots of people dressed up in chef clothes were standing out front having pictures made.
We also noticed the Farm to Table Cafe that my wife read about in the paper. I think we may have been under dressed, what with not having any overalls or boots on, so we opted for a different lunch option.
Anyway, I think this little development is yet another reason for people who live here to have a reason to enjoy our downtown. I think we need to have an ad campaign that says something like, San Antonio - it ain't just for tourists or something obvious like that.
If you get the feeling that I enjoy San Antonio and the surrounding areas, you are right.

Oh, two notes about the area. I think that the area in question could appear to some to be pretty seedy, but don't let that stop you from going by there (during the day anyway). I noticed there was quite memorial to TacoLand and the murder of the owner nearby.

The other interesting place right up the street was called the Voo Doo Lounge. Nice. We didn't stop, but I bet you could get a cold beer on a hot day there.

And probably more.

Dinner Report: Steak 'n Shake, and a few others

Sunday morning after breakfast with my daughter, we made the trip back to San Antonio from Wichita Falls. I had planned all along to take IH-35 back to SA so we could see how the traffic flows now that a lot of the construction has been completed. Let me just say that traffic wise, the trip up 281 was a lot more efficient and far more visually stimulating.

We hit a lot of rain on and off, especially leading into Ft Worth. It did not surprise me one bit to learn of the devastating flooding up in Gainesville. Aside the from the weather, we got to enjoy quite a bit of bumper to bumper assholishness which proved both entertaining and frustrating, depending upon where I was in relation to the perpetrators. Call me immature, but I enjoy seeing a good case of road-rage between two other drivers when I can observe from a safe distance. It’s a little different when I’m the guy stuck behind an old man in a hat, driving 2 miles under the speed limit and refusing to get the hell out of the passing only lane. But don’t get me started.

We made three stops worth reporting on the way back, in West, Waco and Austin. We first learned about the Czech Stop in West, probably 10 or more years ago on a trip to north Georgia. Our kids were, well about 10 years younger, and we left SA extremely early in the AM. By the time we hit West, I was ready for some coffee and the kids were ready for some vittles. We had never experienced Kolaches before, and raved about them the entire way to Georgia.

Anyway, south bound on IH-35 we had just passed some rain and construction and when we saw the sign for West, I tapped a few clicks into the Garmin and got directions to the front door of Czech Stop. You can smell the fresh baked goods in the parking lot, if you can find a place to park. Even in the afternoon, the place is still crowded with travelers all having the same idea.

We didn’t even eat any of the $16.00 worth of heaven that we bought, still full from IHOP, but I can assure you that lunch for the next three days was pretty good!

Not a lot further down the road, we decided that we needed to make a quick stop into the Dr. Pepper museum in Waco. We’ve seen it and I’m sure it would make a good refresher tour, but my wife just wanted to slip into the gift shop to purchase a few shirts and a shot glass. The gal behind the counter was trying to be friendly, but she was an idiot. Something about a pen that my wife wanted to buy but preferring to let my wife use it to sign the credit card receipt, but not putting the pen in our bag when we were done. It got resolved and we moved on.

If you haven’t ever visited the DP Museum, don’t think that it is a waste of time just because you don’t drink Dr. Pepper. They have on display a really rich history of items about, well, DP but also about the people who made it. I wouldn’t make a trip to Waco just to see it, but if you are going up to join in the Branch Davidians, you wouldn’t be wasting your time by stopping by.

Have you noticed how crowded and crappy Austin is? Actually, now that they seem to have a handle on the road construction, we only had to come to a complete stop once. And the drive from south of Austin to San Antonio is a breeze.

We are huge fans of Steak n’ Shake so I knew from the word Go that we would be doing lunch/dinner there. I can’t wait for SA to get a Steak n’ Shake so we can have yet another place to make ourselves even more obese.

At any rate, my wife and I both ordered the steakburger and fries and a tea. Other than the lady didn’t give us any napkins or forks or anything, it wasn’t a big deal. The burgers are so good and the texture of the bread is so fresh and yummy. Geeze I’m hungry.

Anyway, on our way out, we ordered up some shakes to go. I paid at the counter and was waiting for the order when another customer came up and asked to speak to the Chef. The manager corrected him by suggesting that perhaps he’d like to speak to the “grillman”. Very nice.

So the guy at the grill looks up and I could tell that he was sort of nervous, perhaps a customer was not happy with a booger on his bun or some other minor infraction. Instead, the man told the “grillman” that he had driven all the way from Houston just to eat at Steak n’ Shake, and that his burger made the trip worth it. He then handed the guy a tip of at least several dollars.

You should have seen the look on the young Grillman’s face. He was happy about the tip but easily more pleased that someone took the time to pay him a compliment. And that’s the kind of thing that makes everybody happy to be at a restaurant. Good food and happy customers.

I would have stood up and reported that we were from San Antonio, but it seemed a bit done by then. Regardless, we hit 1604 just in time to see cars backing up in both directions for some big concert out at the Verizon Wireless Amphitheater. We were pretty pleased to be home and our dogs were pretty happy to see us.

*PETA: Of course we had someone take care of the dogs while we were gone.

Breakfast Report: IHOP on Father's Day

My wife and I wanted to get a reasonable start back to San Antonio on Sunday morning, but with it being Father's Day, we decided to at least stay long enough for breakfast with my daughter. We got to meet one of her friends who is also attending school at Sheppard, so we invited her to join us.

No sense in spoiling the good report from Denny's, we opted to check out an IHOP just off 281. As you might imagine, there was a line starting to form, what with people all wanting to get their feed on either before or after church, or just as a special treat for the Dads of WF. After a brief wait however, we were seated and our waitress, Miss Sunshine came to take our order.

I've never been a waitress (or a waiter for that matter), but I can only imagine it must suck. You have to deal with crabby people in a hurry, people who want way more service then they really need, and above all, you are on your feet the whole time. I get it and there is a special place in my wallet for wait staff who can get through all that and still put on a smile and at least attempt to be interested in their customers. Our waitress (as I said, Miss Sunshine) was a fairly attractive skinny blonde girl who must have been thinking about how she had been abused as a child or had just lost a favorite pet. She was not happy and there was no amount of being a polite customer that was going to help change her demeanor.
Please don't misunderstand; I am not, nor have I ever been one of those people who want to engage in idle banter with the waitress or be that creepy older fat guy who wants to flirt with the younger, prettier people around him. So this wasn't an issue of me being snubbed. My daughter's friend it turns out, comes from a family that owns a restaurant and she noted right away what a sourpuss this gal was. But, I won;t let a bad personality ruin my day, especially if the rest of the service is good. And, thankfully it was.

One entertaining thing while we waited for our breakfast was a very hungry fellow who was quite engaged in his job; eating! I know it's easy to poke fun at fat people and I only do it knowing that if you ever sat next to me in a restaurant, you might just snicker yourself, but this wasn't a case of a tubby guy wanting to lick his plate clean, this guy was all sorts of hungry. Case in point: who orders dessert after breakfast? Especially after eating a Rooty Tooty Fresh and Fruity? Essentially, breakfast at IHOP is dessert.

So anyway, Miss Sunshine brought us our meals and we were all pretty happy with what we got. I'm pretty standard with pnacakes & eggs, but the girls all ordered fruity waffles and such. We were pretty pleased and a session of picture taking ensued.

When everything was said and done, we got the bill and my daughter, bless her little heart, snatched the bill and paid. And I let her! I'm a good dad. Good & cheap!

I did however decide to leave the tip for Miss Sunshine and when my daughter's friend saw that I was not going to let our waitresses' sour disposition take away from her tip, she commented that I was a "very generous man". I then told her that our waitress was just upset because her pimp called and she had to get back to the corner at the end of her shift. Yes, generous indeed.

Bottom line: Thumbs up for the WF IHOP.


Friend Ouimet and daughter Roxanne -->

Trip Report: Up 281 to Wichita Falls

I had talked to a few co-workers about the best route to take from San Antonio to Wichita Falls, and the general consensus was that 281 was the way to go. Beside the fact that the drive would be much more scenic, the chance of encountering huge construction delays was somewhat limited. I have to say though, I was slightly concerned that we might find ourselves locked behind an Old Man in a Hat taking a leisurely Sunday drive, or even scarier, finding ourselves locked in the pokey of a small town, arrested by a Jackie Gleason looking sheriff upset that I was transporting contraband of some sort. But, neither of these things happened, and we had a great drive.

It doesn't take long, but once you get as far as even Spring Branch, you have shed the congestion and growth of that 281 and 1604 area which, in my mind feels like the last place I would want to live. Suddenly, the bulldozers and tree removal operations are gone, and the beauty of the Hill Country comes into view. There is no doubt why so many people choose to flee the city and move north to places like Boerne, even if it means a longer drive to work. Having said that, I'll stick with Silver Creek for the time being.

There are so many small towns worth stopping in along the way and certainly enough that you could make an enjoyable day trip, if only to the Dairy Queen, or a Chicken Express or better yet, the Golden Chick!
The first place that we came across that really looked like we had to come back for a weekend was Marble Falls. Even though it was raining, we could see what a truly nice looking town it was, complete with Lake LBJ and Horseshoe Bay. I had heard of Marble Falls before, but just never made the connection that it would be such a nice looking place. We didn't stop, but I suspect we'll take a drive up sometime.

We did stop in Hico, a small town famous for an incredible piece of artwork. Supposedly, this is where Billy the Kid ended up. As such, the fine people of Hico (pronounced High-Co, so say my wife) and Erath County have developed a town square including a saloon, a museum, a big huge spur
and a really, unique, sculpture of, according to the brass plate, Billy the Kid.
I was amazed to learn that Erath is one of 36 Texas counties that are "Dry", which means they do not permit the sell of liquor. I have often thought this prohibition of sorts was really, anti-American, and even, anti-Texan. Just becasue I choose not to drink does not give me any cause to take away from your good time. (Okay. That was just an example. I rarely choose not to drink, but you understand my point). So anyway, as I pulled into a parking spot so as to get a closer look of this work of art, it occurred to me that the people of Hico and Erath county were on to something.

I am not the sole arbiter of good taste when it come to art, or anything else - hell, you should see what I wear in public sometimes. But you don't have to dip a crucifix in a cup of pee to for me to see the difference between good art and bad art. This sculpture looks as though it was either crafted by one-armed third graders or a group of really liquored up blind guys. (Please, no offense to any of the groups I may have just offended). I mean, seriously, had the plaque not identified the mass of hardened fecal matter as Billy the Kid, I might have suspected it was an interesting shaped meteorite that had fallen upon the town of Hico and warranted a night of binge drinking. So, hats off to the town fathers who voted to board the wagon and allow no further art displays.

Now there I've gone and yammered on about the Billy the Kid sculpture when there was a town with an almost equally offensive site to tell you about. Mineral Wells.

This is somewhat interesting to me, now that I have had a few days to digest what I saw and actually do a little research on the topic. As we first drove into town, it looked quaint, but slightly larger than some of the smaller towns we had passes through during the trip up 281N. As we approached, I honestly thought we had stumbled upon one of those facade towns created by Hollywood so that you could shoot some sort of horror film. I fully expected bats and even zombies to approach our vehicle at the first stop light.

The reason for this was the long vacant, and on the market if you'd care to make an offer, Baker Hotel. Along with the Baker, there is also the Crazy Hotel which is still occupied as an old folks home. Not suggesting that any of them are crazy, mind you. Compared to the rest of the landscape, both before and after our brief trip through Mineral Wells, the place just seemed totally depressed and, even without a huge sculpture of Billy the Kid, ugly. But as I say, now that I have had a few days to digest it, I think Mineral Wells deserves another chance, and I think I would enjoy a day trip just to take some pictures and explore the place a bit more.

The last place to tell you about before our arrival in Wichita Falls was just north of Mineral Wells and frankly, I don't think it was in a town at all. I have been doing some research since Friday to find any reference to this place with no luck, so I'm guessing that it is either new, or recently underwent a name change. The name of the place was the Hashknife on the Chisholm, and my wife and I both agree, we had the best, bar none, Chipped BBQ Beef sandwich, EVER!

There was another restaurant just across the street and it was really a flip of a coin as to which one to eat at. Luck was with us. According to the wife of the cook/owner, the name comes from the brand used by the great great-grandfather or something like that, who used to run cattle along the Chisholm Trail. But the only references to Hashknife I could find on the Internet were in reference to a ranch in Arizona. But I could have gotten it wrong. There is a Hashknife Bed & Breakfast in Abilene, but I have no idea if it is related. If you have some info, please let me know - I'd just like to be able to tell people exactly where it was and more about it.
We ordered the chipped beef sandwich, potato salad and a drink for about $6.00 each, and it was well worth it. We did wonder about whether it was chipped beef or chopped beef, but I guess they can call it what they want - it was good! And the potato salad was out of this world.

I don't mean to prattle on about this, but this place had it going on. We didn't indulge, but they had some nice looking pudding (that the owner gave free to some customers) and some cobbler that looked very inviting. Before we left, a young lady came in and ordered some ribs to take to her parents. When I got a look at the slab being wrapped in foil, I almost felt like staying for another round of eats. But we had to move on. After we ate, my wife got such a kick out of the poster in the Ladies room, that she had to take the camera with her to pee. Thankfully, there were no equally proportioned pin-ups in the Men's.

Seriously, if you have been to this place or know more about it, I'd love to do a follow-up report.

With lunch out of the way, we made the easy trip into Wichita Falls and just before we got to the base to see our daughter, I stopped in at the Texas Welcome Center. I couldn't let it go by without mentioning the lady (who I'm sorry I didn't get her name) who was so polite and truly helpful. We explained that were were in town for the weekend and asked what there was to do; she gave me a map and circled poiints of interest and directions and such. Just a wonderful representative to greet people visiting Texas and I intend to write a letter to the state agency that runs the place. This lady was great.

That's it for now. Tomorrow, I'll try to tell you about our visit to Sheppard AFB and a few of the places we saw. How was your recent trip?

Our Trip to Wichita Falls and Back...

My wife and I had a great trip up 281 to Wichita Falls and back down IH-35 via Ft Worth, Waco and Austin back to San Antonio this weekend.

I'll tell you about it as soon as I can.

How was your recent trip around this great state of ours? Got any pictures or stories to share?

Happy Father's Day

We are on the road up in Wichita Falls, TX near the Oklahoma border visiting my daughter. I have lots of news to report when I get home; the drive up 281, our visit to the town of Hico, sites around Wichita Falls, plus, I should have an update on Baby the Swan in the next day or so.

I've already called my Dad to wish him a happy Father's day, have you called your's. Uh, assuming he is still alive and all.