After our first night of “boondocking” (camping in a motor vehicle with no hookups, usually in a non-camping zone) Big Dog finally reaches M. Thank god she wasn’t dead in her house but staying at her ex-ex-husband’s house. (During her crazy period, M divorced her husband but is now back with him.) M tells us the door is unlocked so just go inside and help yourselves to whatever you need. We mostly need internet, but think it’s also a good chance to do laundry.
M’s house is tall and lovely, in a beautiful hand-crafted country style. Best of all, the heating is on and it is warm inside. C, the ex-ex comes by to give us the scoop – the fire, the cruise, M’s “land sickness” and bi-polar disorder. M is no longer able to drive, cook or look after herself but she’s on meds and her bi-polar disorder is under control. We all make plans to drive over to C’s house in the next town, Smithville, where M lives with C again.
In Smithville, they suggest we get some real Texan BBQ at Zimmerhanzel’s. The walls are covered in deer head trophies – I have never seen so many dead deer heads in one place. But the macabre and grotesque are overcome by the awesome BBQ!
The residents of Smithville are proud of their tiny downtown. Pretty and quaint, it’s been in many movies, the biggest of which was Hope Floats with Sandra Bullock and Harry Connick Jr.
M and C invite us to stay another night at M’s Bastrop house – inside, tonight – so we do, after dinner at Kay’s Café, another local diner. The entrée is beef tips with mushroom sauce over rice. It tastes just like the kind of meal I used to make decades ago. If only more restaurants would serve this kind of real home cooking!
