Jenn Dolari @dolari@driveinsaturday.org

Where I am now.

Some things never change. 30 years later, it still takes an hour to get out of UTSA.

Good night.

Once there, we were broken hearted to find out that the park is only opened Saturday and Sunday.

We got some food, had a picnic at a local quiet parkas a consolation prize. We took a side trip home that was not only fairly quiet, but skipped a few towns I'd hoped to hit. But it was a nice trip and, not being in the Hill Country gave me the Big Sky I miss. I love the mountains of Washington, but that Big Sky...I miss it.

2/2

Today's Texas Adventure

Dad wanted to see Fort Inge, one of three "points"that make up the town of Uvalde (Fort Inge, Uvalde and Uvalde Junction). It was one of a line of forts designed to protect white pioneer from the Comanche on the area.

We headed out and stared fairly leisurely, but ends up skipping a few hours of cities as time began to dwindle. Uvalde is a long way from San Antonio.

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Some sit down restaurant food, my first since coming to Texas. And likely my last given some of the looks I got at the restaurant. Thankful it was to go and that person was leaving.

I finally got some catfish. Folks got chicken fried steak. I miss southern cooking. The jerks, not so much. Just wish there weren't so many of them and things weren't so bad that I need to worry about them.

THE EYE WATCHES. ALWAYS WATCHING.

Okay, Texas, now you're just showing off.

What's neat about D'Hanis is that there is a very large brick company just outside of the town, and you can find D'Hanis bright red brick all over the Hill Country and this part of the "coastal plains." I love seeing how everything in "New D'Hanis" is bright red.

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Our next stop was Old and New D'Hanis. A tiny town founded in 1847, and 175 years later is slightly less tiny, mostly because the townsite moved a mile over when the railroad bypassed the old town, and the old town never went away.

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Hondo, Texas - not a ghost town but a pretty thriving little place. But I get the feeling that Radio Shack is probably a ghost town. And my dad's dentist was on this hotel back in the day.

A lot of these trips aren't actually in the Hill Country, but in my dad's and his brothers' stomping grounds, on the southern edge of the Hill Country.

Get a load of that sign. It caused a lot of commotion when it went up in the 40s. They added a "please" and that made everyone happier.

The 1881 ghost town of Dunlay. It was part of the railroad. Not much else to it, honestly. Oh wait, my uncle walked home seventeen miles from here after his truck broke down. So there was a little more to tell.

Where I am now. Also feeling 100% better!

An actual image of my blood pressure at the end of Tuesday's Very Busy Day.

Speed Limits in Texas are nuts. It was 70 on this not-a-freeway up to this sign....

Since 1981, we planned to live here. Since 1992, I planned to retire here. We fought to take our thirteen mile view and make it home.

Forty two years later that dream is over. We signed the sale paperwork yesterday. This loss hurt.

Dreams are for other people.

The ruins of a very old lake house.

Today's Texas Adventure

In 1854, Lyman Wight and a small group of Mormons settled in a bend of the Medina River roughly on the Castroville/Bandera road. They were they for just four years before moving on.

They must have made an impression because many of my old maps and newspaper articles mention the "Old Mormon Camp." There wasn't anything left of the camp when Medina Lake inundated it nearly 60 years later

With Medina Lake nearly empty because of the drought, Dad wanted to see the town site. I did warn him there was nothing left of the town, and that even looking at the town site may not be possible because it can't be seen from the road, but we went anyway. What we did catch glimpse of were the Mormon Bluffs, which were directly above the town site.

Either a graphic designer thought this was a good idea, or was forced to use it by the client.

Twenty eight years ago, when this was a small dirt county road in the middle of the woods, I committed to my transition.

There are still a few clues that this was the place. And I felt it was important I come here before it completely disappeared.