Camping, Princess Style

[JoNorvelleWalker]

Well that's that.

 

[Smithy]

Llano, Texas: a small and interesting town in the heart of the Hill Country. Every year when we arrive after months of living in a desert climate, I'm surprised anew at how lush, green and humid it is here. The flowers are almost entirely different than what we've been seeing.

 

 

 

One of the reasons we like it here is that the City has an RV park right on the Llano River. The wading can be good, and there's always something interesting going on. These days it's dredging the river, because the river provides the city's drinking water and the impoundment has been getting shallower by the year. The City of Llano is 5 years into a 10-year contract for the purpose. Unfortunately a severe flood in the fall of 2018 undid much of their good work (and destroyed this park) so a lot of progress was undone.

 

 

Another reason we love Llano is the Texas barbecue available. One of our favorite places is closed because the owners retired and sold a year or so ago -- I heard last year they were relieved to be done with the business, and I'll bet they're ecstatic now! However, there's still our other favorite, Cooper's Old-Time Barbecue.  When we come to Llano we figure there will be little cooking and a lot of takeout, out of sheer gluttony. This year we also figure we're doing our civic duty, helping them stay afloat. That's our story, and we're sticking to it. They've worked out a way to do takeout safely.

 

 

In two nights here, we haven't had to text our presence because someone spotted us coming in. They take the order, and a little while later come out with the bags and a credit card reader. We put the card in the reader, the waiter hands it back wrapped in the receipt. The waiter never handles the card. 

 

Portions are generous as always, and the free sides are plentiful if you ask. I'm in pinto bean heaven: pinto beans for breakfast! Gussied up with their barbecue sauce and some (quite unnecessary, but oh so tasty) sour cream. Burrp.

 

 

Dinner our first night here was beef ribs. I also got potato salad (not free), and free bbq sauce and beans. These ribs are immense; in fact, we weren't able to finish what we'd bought.

 

 

Last night we went for brisket. This time we got cole slaw for him, potato salad for me, more beans and sauce, and pickles and onions. I didn't ask for jalapenos (theirs are reliably VERY hot) or bread, but they gave it to us anyway.

 

 

We couldn't finish this either, and didn't expect to. It was very, very good. I cooked green beans as a nod to some sort of green vegetables; he had cole slaw.

 

 

As much as we want to go back tonight and keep stocking up, we'll probably work on leftovers tonight. If I get enterprising (more enterprising than I've been so far today) I'll work some of them into a pasta or potato dish of some sort. I have some extra incentive; along the river I found some sort of wild allium. Pretty good flavor, just begging to be added to food. I harvested a handful.

 

 

Edited April 23, 2020 by Smithy
Corrected card reader process (log)

[Smithy]

When we're in this area, we -- that is, I -- buy Lone Star Beer in bottles. It really isn't my normal sort of beer: not a very good lager in my opinion - but inside each bottle cap is a rebus. I can't resist.  Here are two from last night. 

 

 

 

 

[Smithy]

Leftovers tonight. I may or may not get around to posting a picture of dinner. In the meantime, here's tonight's rebus. I think it's easier than the previous two. (Since I didn't figure those two out until this afternoon, I figure they're harder. It's all relative! 😆)

 

 

[JoNorvelleWalker]

4 minutes ago, Smithy said:

Leftovers tonight. I may or may not get around to posting a picture of dinner. In the meantime, here's tonight's rebus. I think it's easier than the previous two. (Since I didn't figure those two out until this afternoon, I figure they're harder. It's all relative! 😆)

 

 

 

The powers that be.  If you have an accent.

 

 

Edit:  the earlier pictures were too hard to see.

 

 

Edited April 23, 2020 by JoNorvelleWalker (log)

[Smithy]

9 minutes ago, JoNorvelleWalker said:

 

The powers that be.  If you have an accent.

 

 

Edit:  the earlier pictures were too hard to see.

 

Yes on the answer, and I admit the earlier pictures aren't as high quality... not (she said defensively) because of my photography but because of the printing on the caps! Those pics were the best I could do. Lone Star really needs to hire Shelby for their artwork. 

 

If there aren't any cogent questions or guesses in the next day or so I'll start putting out hints...like what a particular symbol means. If anyone's interested, that is.

[Smithy]

Here's another attempt. Any better?

 

[Smithy]

I'm not usually big on buying packages of prepared vegetables, but I have made an exception for green beans. Green Giant seems to do a nice job on them. I'm working my way through the latest bag. There's little to do with them except rinse, do minimal trimming, and cut to appropriate size. That was the source of last night's green beans. Tonight I did more and incorporated some of the roasted red peppers in olive oil.. (..from fall 2018 ...all this time in the freezer!) Today's foraged wild onion greens went in, and as a flavor balance I added juice from my preserved lemons. Pretty darned good.

[JoNorvelleWalker]

13 minutes ago, Smithy said:

Here's another attempt. Any better?

 

 

Nope, thanks, I'll pass.

 

[munchymom]

I love the beer puzzles! A frank discussion and a brilliant deduction!

[Smithy]

8 minutes ago, munchymom said:

I love the beer puzzles! A frank discussion and a brilliant deduction!

 

You got them!

[Smithy]

 

It was only after I took this picture that I realized Lone Star Beer bottles come with twist-off caps. There will be no bends in future photos, I promise!

[Smithy]

It was an interesting sort-of lockdown day, but I'll have to tell the stories tomorrow. 

 

 

In the meantime, here's another rebus.

 

[JoNorvelleWalker]

43 minutes ago, Smithy said:

 

It was only after I took this picture that I realized Lone Star Beer bottles come with twist-off caps. There will be no bends in future photos, I promise!

 

By the way, I noticed the solutions are on the Lone Star website.

 

[Smithy]

1 minute ago, JoNorvelleWalker said:

 

By the way, I noticed the solutions are on the Lone Star website.

 

 

Well, of course...but where's the fun in that? 😆

[chromedome]

8 hours ago, Smithy said:

 

It was only after I took this picture that I realized Lone Star Beer bottles come with twist-off caps. There will be no bends in future photos, I promise!

 

For the benefit of anyone too young to remember such a piece of vintage tech, the thing at lower-left is not a light bulb but a vacuum tube.

[Smithy]

1 hour ago, chromedome said:

 

For the benefit of anyone too young to remember such a piece of vintage tech, the thing at lower-left is not a light bulb but a vacuum tube.

 

My darling commented on that too, wondering whether the puzzle-makers have something against the younger generations. 

[chromedome]

7 minutes ago, Smithy said:

 

My darling commented on that too, wondering whether the puzzle-makers have something against the younger generations. 

The same thought had occurred to me. "Put that in your pipe and smoke it, you young whippersnapper!"

 

It could also say something about their target demographic, I suppose. I can remember many places I've lived where the older men typically drank the same one or two brands while younger drinkers had different ones.

[Smithy]

Miller's Meat Market & Smokehouse is another favorite place in Llano. They've been around a long time and probably don't need our financial support, but we do like their products. Come in through the front, and you're in their market/deli area. Go around to the back at the right time of year, and they'll take your game for processing. (We've never had occasion to use that service.)

 

 

They are set up for curbside pickup from an online order, but customers can also come in and pick out what they want. I didn't see many masks there, but the social distancing was evident. There was a large pump-bottle of hand sanitizer at each cash register.

 

They offer quite a variety of sausages and cured meats, and all the materials necessary for making one's own sausage. I was tempted to buy sausage casings, but have no idea when we'll be getting around to trying that at home. A Texas company named La Boucherie specializes in frozen Cajun dishes - crawfish-stuffed chicken, for instance - and Miller's carries a pretty good line of their stuff in the freezer department. We won't be making it to the Gulf at all, much less to Cajun country, so I scratched the itch here.

 

 

 

 

 

They also have a gorgeous deli counter.

 

 

I was there specifically for the Gator Tooes and Brisket Poppers. If they'd had Armadillo Eggs I'd have gotten some of those too.

 

Not shown: a fair amount of produce for such a small store, and a pretty good selection of wine and beer. We didn't need any (you heard it here first). This was the total haul:

 

 

The poppers and toes will be dinner one night on our way home. Maybe 2 nights.

 

[Smithy]

Across the way from Miller's is a sit-down restaurant, The Hungry Hunter. We've never been inside, nor were we in its previous incarnation (I think this was the place) as an Italian restaurant. We're too comfortable, even in normal times, sitting on our deck and eating take-out or else eating our own cooking. We favor take-out from places that can do what we can't - or else can do it much, much better. Like Cooper's and Miller's.

 

 

I do wonder whether this one will survive, though. Even at the best of times we've never seen many vehicles parked there. Maybe we've simply never visited at the right times.

[Smithy]

Ready for another rebus? Or are y'all getting tired of them?

 

 

[Smithy]

See what we scored at the grocery store yesterday!

 

[Smithy]

On 4/20/2020 at 6:34 AM, suzilightning said:

@Smithy, cleaning out my mailbox came acrossa title you might want to check out for next season;  The Outdoor Kitchen:Live-Fire Cooking from the Grillby Eric Werner and Nils Bernstein.

 

I checked on The Outdoor Kitchen: Live-Fire Cooking from the Grill [A Cookbook] at Amazon, and it does look good. It's quite new! Maybe I can talk my library into purchasing it; in the meantime I've saved it to my list.

 

Thanks for the recommendation!

[suzilightning]

14 minutes ago, Smithy said:

 

I checked on The Outdoor Kitchen: Live-Fire Cooking from the Grill [A Cookbook] at Amazon, and it does look good. It's quite new! Maybe I can talk my library into purchasing it; in the meantime I've saved it to my list.

 

Thanks for the recommendation!

You're welcom.  Here's to your library opening up soon.

[Kim Shook]

I'm very excited.  I got both of the last two rebuses and I am normally terrible at such things.  Thank you to @chromedome for the hint about the "tube"!