Poteet and Bandera, Texas - Sunday, Apr. 6

Bob got up this morning and wanted to walk. He went outside and about two minutes later he returned. It was pouring rain. He did some work instead.

I slept in, then got up, showered, and made pumpkin pancakes served with cinnamon applesauce and fried eggs. Shortly thereafter, at the crack of noon, we headed out to explore a part of Texas we hadn't spent any time in.

Poteet, Texas is having their Strawberry Festival this weekend. I told Bob I wanted to stop at a roadside stand and buy strawberries. As we drove south on Hwy 16, we saw stand after stand with strawberry shortcake, but no stands just selling strawberries. Finally, as we got closer to Poteet, there were strawberries for sale. We bought a half flat.

Upon entering Poteet, the first thing we saw was the Strawberry Festival - Ferris wheel, rides, booths, and food vendors on both sides of the street outside the festival grounds.

Something we found rather interesting is that the Poteet Strawberry Festival has free parking, but right next door to the free parking were lots charging $10. The free lot wasn't full so we weren't understanding why people were paying $10 to park.

We drove around Poteet and found a couple of interesting things...there was also a water tower painted like a strawberry, but we weren't in a good place to take a photo of it.

Cute tile artwork

Double click to read Poteet's history

From Poteet, we traveled south on Hwy. 16 to Pleasanton, then northwest on Hwy. 173 to Bandera, "Cowboy Capital of the World." Being Sunday, there wasn't a whole lot going on, but we managed to eat lunch, walk around, look in a couple of stores, and take a gander at the courthouse and Western Cattle Trail Plaza.

Lots of cattle were moved north from Bandera over the years. I put the history markers in the blog because they're quite interesting. You can double-click to enlarge them.

Courthouse

We had lunch at Busbee's Bar B Que: two turkey plates. Wonderful mesquite smoke scent greeted us as we entered the door. When you go for BBQ in Texas, don't expect anything fancy. The food is served on styrofoam plates or butcher paper. In some BBQ restaurants you order your meat first (by the pound), then go into another room where you order your sides then choose your seat. At Busbee's we ordered our meat and sides at the same window. You usually get a couple of pieces of bread, some pickles and onion slices to accompany your food.

Artwork in an outside cafe.

After lunch, we headed to Costco for a few items and made our way home. I spent time cleaning and cutting our 1/2 flat of strawberries: some are in the refrigerator and I froze some for use in the future.

That's our Sunday. I'll back track to Saturday on Monday's A-to-Z Challenge for words that start with "F."

I have a couple of left-over photos from Saturday showing the architect-designed birdhouses and some other botanic garden photos.

An unusual "bird house."

The Egg Nest "Fallen" - see explanation below

Explanation of The Egg Nest bird house.

Another architect-designed bird house.

Bob contemplating the wildflowers.

The cuckoo house.

View from The Cuckoo House

Bob framed by the wisteria arbor.

Another "bird house" - this one uses recycled products.

A garden on a rock wall.

 Travel Bug out.