Lunch Report: OST, Bandera, TX, By Way Of...

Sometimes, ya gotta have a back-up plan. And sometimes, you need a back-up to your back-up. Today was one of those days where I made a fairly amateur mistake in seeking out a place for my wife and I to try.I had done a little research on the Google and found a place called Cora's 471 Grill that according to their web page, has been around since 1932. That's a long time to be in bid'ness on a lonely stretch of road, but if you believe their web page and signage, they also have the best nachos in Texas, so they may account for the longevity.Of course, I'd be telling you about Cora's right now if their business hours matched what their web page proclaims, and they opened at 11AM on Saturday's instead of 5PM. Maybe another time. My amateur mistake was not calling ahead to verify. This is not the first time (nor the last I suspect) that we drove someplace expecting it to be open, only to find out that had we called in advance, we could have saved a trip. But, I do like the drive, so what the heck. These are a few shots taken along FM471 between Rio Medina and Castroville. The view from an air conditioned truck is mighty fine.

With Cora's out of luck, I did have a back-up in the form of a Diner in Castroville, but come to find out, they are open on Sundays, but not Saturday.

On to the small town of Hondo where we have had some good dining experiences; Hermann Sons and McBee's to name a few. So the funny thing was, we thought we would let Garmin pick out a few potential places, drive by and then choose what looked good.

The first place we picked was called Olivia's. We followed the directions on Garmin to an empty lot that looks as though it has been cleared to make something else. No sign saying, former home of Olivia's or anything. I seriously believe the answer is that the address is wrong in Garmin - and on Google. Garmin told us to go onto J street and that was where we found the empty lot. Google says it is on 18th Street, but to be honest, we drove down 18th Street and didn't see it there either. Who knows? Perhaps a reader will tell us what we missed.

If that wasn't bad enough, we went with our second Garmin choice, a place called Hi-Way Drive-In. The first clue we had a problem was when the British woman in my Garmin told me to take a street heading away from the highway. Would it make sense to name a place Hi-Way Drive-In and not be on or near the highway? This time, we ended up in front of someones house. And I couldn't even smell a fire going, so we thought perhaps we were in the twilight zone or something.Instead of driving around in Honda for hours, and let's face it, you could probably do it and see the place several times, we decided to get on Highway 173 and head north to Bandera. I love the drive between Hondo and Bandera because it looks to me like some place they could film an old western flick. I can just see Clint Eastwood or John Wayne riding on a horse along these small hills. If you live up north and see this, yes, it really is this dry and brown, and wide open out here.Once safely into Bandera (my wife kept mentioning snakes and stuff along the way), we quickly decided to go into Old Spanish Trail. OST is at the intersection of Main Street (173) and Highway 16 which means, you can't get in or out of Bandera without seeing it. Of course, as many times as we have been to Bandera, we thought that we had eaten there before, but when we walked in, realized we had not.We took a seat in the John Wayne Room where the walls are covered in pictures of mostly The Duke, but many other famous cowboy actors.The rest of the restaurant has a similar feel about it. Cowboy related memorabilia, a bar where you can sit on a saddle instead of a stool - what fella wouldn't want to sit there after a long day of cowboying? Good stuff.Just looking at other people's plates, the servings looked fairly good sized. We had heard good words about the Chicken Fried Steak, so my wife was all for it, but opted to get the Kid's meal version (to which they had no problem with). Obviously, the kids in Bandera eat a lot, because the CFS was enough for an adult. She got the mashed potatoes with gravy and a roll (though we may have had to pay extra for the roll). The mashed potatoes were excellent, gravy was awesome and the CFS was a treat. She said it was a bit chewy, but the hunk I had was pretty darn good. Better than Lulu's? No. But worth every penny.My dinner came with a trip to the salad bar. No complaints from me; it was clean, filled with the stuff they put out, and there didn't appear to be any little kids rummaging through it. I could have used some chopped up boiled eggs, but I need to lose a few pounds anyway.I opted for the Catfish and shrimp combo and was more than pleased. It came with the aforementioned salad bar and I got the mashed potatoes. The three pieces of butterflied shrimp were not only well-sized, they were great tasting. The catfish was cooked just the way I like it - very close to what the folks at Clear Springs do. For the $12, I might have liked one more catfish nugget, but what the heck, Bandera is a tourist place. I did wonder why they added a bed of lettuce and tomato to the plate when a salad already comes with the entree, but who knows, maybe the cook was giving me a hint: More salad, less fried food.

No complaints at all. Parking could be an issue but usually if you go to Bandera, you are going to shop anyway, so you can always utilize the free parking in other areas and just walk. I would gladly take friends or family and check out some of the many other things on their big menu.

Trip Report: Lytle, Natalia, Devine...

You'd think that we would have something better to do than jump in a little truck and head southwest of San Antonio just for a little drive, and today, we did. We drove through our neighborhood seeking out garage sales, and I must report that the pickin's were mighty slim. So, on a whim, I said, "Let's go to Lytle", and my wife simply responded with , "Let's go!" We took Loop 1604 from the GNW and headed south through Atascosa to I-35. At this point I usually insert a comment about how nice it is to drive just a few minutes and be out into the country. I won't repeat it this time, but you can appreciate the feeling (unless you live in a really huge city, or you already live out in the woods and are only reading this blog during your monthly visit to civilization).Directly west of San Antonio along Highway 90 is a town called Hondo which we have visited before, and today, we ended up there for lunch. I'll tell you about that later. But to orient yourself, check out the handy map provided by our friends at Google Maps, and appropriately annotated by Bill Gates and I using PowerPoint.I had originally thought of this as being a very brief trip down to Lytle, perhaps lunch at some undetermined restaurant, a few pictures of the things we find interesting and then back home. I also can tell you that I was eager to see first hand the evil Cabaret that has opened outside of the greater Lytle Metropolis, and get a picture of it. I did. You can read more about that over at Strange in SA.From I-35 south, we headed down 132 which is also US-81 and for those that live there, Main Street. Lytle looks like a typical small town farming community, but a lot nicer than many of have seen in South Central Texas. Of course, I love the older buildings along the main drag, but the mixture of new homes tastefully interspersed among the older neighborhood just a few blocks in town was a welcome sight for someone who would like to move outside of San Antonio, but not feel as though either everything will be brand spankin'-cookie cutter-new, or completely run down shacks inhabited by folks hiding from the law. Think Christine. If you need to mail a package or a final resting place, you can do it in Lytle.Okay, one final shot at the goofy Cabaret thing. The place is not only out of town, but by my calculation, it was also in the next county. When someone in Lytle says, Not in my backyard, they ain't kidding!Just a stones throw down the road from Lytle is a tiny place called Natalia. It is probably much bigger than what you pass on 132, I mean, there is so much farm land out there and just wide open space, but to the Saturday afternoon drive-by, Natalia looks pretty small.Sure, they have the post office and even their own memorial to those who have served. Very nicely done and well maintained. This alone is worth a trip to Natalia.I noticed this tiny little chapel and I swear, I think I have seen this thing in another small town. And if you look at the picture, it looks as though it has been moved. Who knows? I know it is tall enough to walk in, but seriously, you'd have to go outside to change your mind.Further down the road is the town of Devine. I really enjoyed this little place. We have some friends who live just on the other side of I-35 and it is easy to understand why they are willing to make the commute to San Antonio for work.And these people put on a serious flea market! We didn't stop, although we seriously thought about it. This is sort of interesting. You know how sometimes, some guy will open up a business and it does so well, he decides to open up another one right across town? Well, it turns out that some lady named Ruthie knows a good thing when she sees it. Hence, two lounges less than a mile apart. Technically, that is across town.Devine does have your standard items - the water tower labeled appropriately, and a big huge bank. We actually stopped in the parking lot of the bank and purchased some Girl Scout cookies. The taste just the same out in the country as they do in the city.One thing that you don't see everyday. A motorized wheelchair junkyard. I guess I just didn't realize there was such a market.There is an intersection of Highways 132 and 173, and when you head back north, before long, you will make your way to Hondo - and that is what we did. The drive is wonderful. Open farmland and the occasional house. About half way to Hondo, you can begin to recognize the change in landscape. Off in the distance you can see the beginning of the Hill Country. On such a beautiful day, it is a crime not to own a convertible anymore.I only post a handful of pictures on these little reports, but I often take close to a hundred pictures in just an hour or so. I have a method where I transfer the full-sized photos onto a portable hard drive, then delete the images on my 1gb disk for the camera. Apparently I forgot to clean up the disk, so by the time we got to Devine, my disk was full. First stop in Hondo was the Super Wal-Mart where I purchased two 1gb SD disks for $18.00. How did the people of Hondo survive before Wal-Mart?

Once in Hondo, we were simply famished. I'll tell you about the vittles next time.