An International feel to a drive around Texas Hill Country

We really enjoyed our full-hook-up site in Blanco State Park. Based on its name, Blanco is obviously a town with Spanish roots. Even people like us with limited Spanish skills know that Blanco means "white" in Spanish. So we're counting it as one of our stops with an "international feel" today. Now we must tell you that Blanco makes the list of the "most mispronounced Texas city names." Instead of the predicted Spanish pronunciation of /Blahn-koh/ the locals actually say /Blank-oh/.

After our snowy day of rest in Blanco, we made a chilly loop through Texas Hill Country.  Driving 24 miles from Blanco brought us to Luckenbach, Texas. We hummed all the way down the road, as this town was made famous by the song from Willie, Waylon, and the boys. We didn't expect much activity on a cold Monday morning, and we didn't get any. The post office/general store was the only thing open today.

Even though the sign on the front of the general store reads, "Live Music Daily," the only performer on stage today was wearing gloves. So we're a bit suspicious that she wasn't really playing that metal guitar.

This little town is known for hosting famous and not-so-famous country singers. Last time we visited here, we found a circle of people playing guitars and singing under these old oak trees.

We also found that Luckenbach can handle a more formal performance, as we poked our head in to see the indoor barn with a lighted stage.

In our quest to visit many new-to-us Texas state parks this trip, our next stop was nine miles down the road to Old Tunnel State Park. For visitors in January, the only thing to do is the one-mile nature hike through the trees. But from May to October this tiny park hosts international visitors from Mexico.

During those months you better have reservations to get inside this state park. People flock here to see the three million Mexican long tail bats fly out of the old railroad tunnel each evening. You can barely see Denisa in the upper left-hand corner of the picture below. It must be quite a sight to stand there and watch three million bats spiral out of that tunnel in a counter-clockwise direction. The Mexican long tail bats make their home here in the summer, gobbling up 25-27 TONS of insects during each of their sunset flights.

Besides Mexican bats, our drive today brings us to another international visitor. The tiny axis deer are also called "spotted Indian deer" because they were introduced to this part of Texas from India in 1932 as a game animal. We didn't get a good picture today, but we've seen these tiny deer in this area many times before. An adult female is only 28 inches tall at the shoulder, and they keep their spots their entire life. So the adults are often mistaken for a fawn.

Besides the tiny axis deer, we also saw herds of white tail deer. Hill country should be called deer country!

On this international drive through Hill Country, we saw evidence of the area's strong German roots. The narrow paved roads we are driving have old signs written in German.

This road is part of the "Country School Trail" which leads drivers to many of the one-room rock school houses that were built by those German settlers in the 1800's.

Driving on to Fredericksburg, we stopped in at the new Texas Rangers Heritage Center. The planned museum is still in the works, but the just-completed pavilion and bell tower are beautiful. 

We stood beside the statue depicting the changes of the Texas Rangers over time.

Right next door is Fort Martin Scott, another of the old Texas forts built in the 1800s. It was a quick walk through the surviving buildings, because it was cold and windy in Fredericksburg this afternoon in January!

We thought about eating at one of the traditional German restaurants in this traditionally German town. But we ended up with yummy sandwiches at the Dutchman's Meat Market instead. We made a walk down Main Street, where we found that our favorite bakery closed just minutes before. We got another feel for the international influences in the area by standing in the Marketplatz beside this weihnachtspyramide in downtown Fredericksburg. This Christmas pyramid is a fore-runner of the Christmas tree. It was made in Germany, and has been displayed here in Texas since 2009.

So even though we are still in southern Texas, our big coats and gloves make it feel like we are somewhere up north. And given the international feel of the sights we have seen today, we could be anywhere in the world!