Texas Hill Country! Oh yes.

Can I just say that the first thing I did before I wrote this post was re-open my book and I just so happen to open to page 303 and you'll never guess what's on page 303...not in a million years, so don't even try.

Count Dracula's Castle in Transylvania, Romania. Talk about epic!! I can't wait to go there.

So I have been epically lazy and procrastinating like a champ with this blog so thanks to Amy for calling me out on it. I promise to work on that from now on.

Okay so what I really am writing this post about I am so incredibly excited for. The very first place I get to mark off!! 1 down 999 to go. Texas Hill Country Page 715 in the book.What better way to start my journey than in my home state, THE GREAT STATE.

The plan was to go floating down the Guadalupe River and hang out in New Braunfuls with some friends. My family has a time share in Canyon Lake which sits right on the river. I am incredibly lucky to have an amazing friend named Amy Jones. Now Amy and I weren't always so close..in fact we started out hating each other...despise may be a better word. Let me tell you we did some damage to the 5th grade classroom. But what great girl friendship doesn't start out catty? That's just the way it is. The coolest thing about her and I is that we both have the travel bug. So any chance we get to take some random trip or mini vacation together...we hop on it.  We had a decision to make...we could either take the 35, which is the most popular, fastest, and industrial way to travel from Dallas down to the New Braunfuls area or we could take some random Texas highways through some little towns, possible dirt roads and the history and scenery of Texas Hill Country. You can probably guess which one we took.

We started our journey out in Denton, Texas. The list of towns we went through on the way down and back include: Cleburne, Glen Rose, Hico, Hamilton, Johnson City, Lampasas, Llano, Dublin, San Saba, Stephenville, Fredericksburg, and Luckenback. And I'm definitely forgetting some.
Hill Country was absolutely breathtaking. The rolling hills and beds of wildflowers create a rustic beauty that is quite abnormal for Texas considering most of the state is flat. I wish I could have been there through bluebonnet season because I can only imagine how beautiful the land would be with blankets of bluebonnets.

 In fact I just googled 'bluebonnets in hill country'...yep, next year it's a must. Even though I saw no bluebonnets I did see tons of other colorful wildflowers.

Driving through the hill country was incredibly peaceful. It was refreshing to be in open space with no buildings, houses, or any human creation of any kind. For the most part it was just open untouched country. Sometimes I feel like all the human establishments I'm surrounded with have depleted the country of its beauty. I was relieved, it reassured me that humans haven't completely ruined the world we live in. More than once we found ourselves windows down, hair blowin', and Dixie Chicks "Wide Open Spaces" blarin' out of our speakers.

Blanco was a fun little town there was an town Ice House I wanted to stop in so badly but unfortunately we didn't get around to it. Johnson City is the birthplace of president LBJ and they are sure proud. There's a huge sign right as you drive into the city limits that let's you know. There's is a random exotic zoo right outside the city as well that if you blink you'll miss the sign. Hamilton, Glen Rose and most of the towns we went through were lined which chic boutiques, antiques stores, art galleries and gave off a very old timey feeling.  Most of the buildings were old and worn but that added to the feel of the towns. While most of these towns were settled by German immigrants and continue to hold on to German-esque traditions, Dublin was most definitely where the leprechauns landed. It had such an Irish theme to it the main street was called Patrick street and shamrocks seemed to be the logo of every business in town. The luck of the Irish definitely helped this little town out though, because they are the home to Dublin Dr. Pepper. The oldest Dr.Pepper plant and the only one to still use real cane sugar...and any true Dr. Pepper lover will go crazy over some rare, good ole Dublin DP. Fredericksburg allowed us to have some AMAZING real Texas BBQ lunch. We stopped at Cranky Franks and it was delicious!!! We also enjoyed some local brew. The Golden Ale from the Alamo Brewing Company from San Antonio.

Luckenbach.

DUH we stopped there.

13 miles outside of Fredericksburg off ranch road 1376 in Gillespie County is the Luckenback Town Loop. Growing up in Texas everyone has heard of Luckenbach...its a Texas Legend thanks to Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson. Their song "Luckenback, Texas ( Back to the Basics of Love)" is a classic. Literally nothing but a retired post office, general store, music stage, and a saloon this unincorporated community has created a huge name for itself, especially in country music. It's a popular biker rest stop and has the Guinness World Record for most guitarists gathered playing simultaneously for five minutes. 1,868 was the official count of August 23, 2009.
Okay now think about that for a second....that's just ridiculous and incredibly loud... I bet the poor squirrels still are scared to death and will never come back.

We stopped here for a cold Shiner, chatted with a guy named Randy who was so intriguing. He and his biker friends were traveling all of Texas in a very short amount of time. He has also traveled the world and gave me a couple places to stop when I am in Europe! His stories were inspiring. We also got to enjoy an underground country artist who was very talented. Look him up if you're into it www.thomasmichaelriley.com. 

Everybody has to go to Luckenbach at least once in their life...

 "Everybody's somebody in Luckenbach"

Just one of the locals.

Now once we finally got to our timeshare we met up with my friend Jordan Hartsell and prepared for the epicness of floating the river. Three girls in a liquor store buying three 12 packs of 3 different beers, wine, and two different flavored vodkas...
Need I say more???
The night before we went out for drinks at a bar called Daisy Dukes and had a great time with some great cowboy eye candy. We also ordered some pizza from Fox's Pizza Den...they made a ranch pizza...what geniuses they are.
The next morning when it was time to float we got our tubes...plus an extra for our cooler! Our friend Jeremy drove down to float with us and we delegated the job of bartender to him...tying the cooler tube to his. We trusted him with this huge responsibility and he definitely came through for us, loyally tossin us a cold brew everytime we yelled "BARTENDER!"

Good thing I had a waterproof phone because it came in handy for pictures! We met a group of about 7 military guys floating and they were quite fun. We spent the day soaking in the sun, drinking beer, and floating and it was an absolute blast. Lots of splashing, tube tipping, dunking, and the occasional annoying the people around us. We found a random rock we could all stand on...gave it the official name of Party Rock and took a little bit of a break at one point. A break from floating at least...all the other festivities continued.

That's Hartsell for ya, no lie.

The philosophy of the river

Trucker hat status.

Those boys we found came in handy.

That night we headed into Gruene and went to the famous Gristmill...You can't go to Hill Country and not eat at this restaurant. Its a necessity.

 There's a live band that entertains you in the waiting area and a bar for your pre-dinner drinking preferably an ice cold Shiner. And of course there's room for two-steppin All the food is great and according to the french fry connoisseur, Caitlin Collins, they have the best fries in Texas.  She drove down to hang out with us for the night. Jerry Jeff Walker was playing at the famous Gruene Dance Hall but it was sold out...sad day.

The Crew + the random military guy friends

All in all Texas Hill Country was an experience I'll never forget...there are somethings you just can't miss out on and this is one of them. I am so glad I decided to make it first off my checklist and I will definitely be going back again. I actually knocked out two birds in one stone this trip because I also ventured to the San Antonio River Walk and I'll be writing about that one soon.

Shout out to Jordan's ridiculous tan lines, Amy's crazy love story, Caitlin's loyal drive after a longs days work, and Jeremy's awesome sleeping arrangement.

1 down 999 to go...gotta start somewhere...