PARTING SHOTS: No, the first photo isn't Dolly.  The next are pics are of  the shelves at the Luckenbach general store and The Full Moon Inn and their Saloon & Restaurant.

Headin' Home...
Story & Photos by IRA KENNEDY

After a spell I meandered through the bar into the general store/postoffice
and out the other end.  A feller was sitting on the porch bench
and looked kinda conversational so I sat down nearby.
       "Bill Sumpter," he said introducing himself. "Name's easy to remember,
just think of the first of the month."  Apart from running Hunter's Heritage,
a welding business in Marble Falls, he is a cowboy action shooter
performing shootouts for the tourists in Burnet.    

aturally, It's all put on," Bill explained, "but it gives you a chance to shoot alot of bullets."
       We swapped a few Luckenbach memories and agreed that, today, the motorcycle crowd is doing more than their fair share holding up the tourist economy in the Hill Country. 
       Determined to be home before dark, Nigel the Land Rover and I headed out.  As I turned left onto the county road I recalled another old friend, Matt, living nearby so I hung a quick right to The Full Moon Inn.
       Matt's pet pig, Rooter, which had grown mightily since its piglet days, was sleeping on the front door mat and a fair portion of the porch.  After a little catch up conversation, Matt gave me a tour of the place which had undergone so much expansion since my last visit some four years ago it made the pig look like a piker.
       Matt was putting the finishing touches on his new restaurant/bar which gleamed like a silver dollar.   I reckon Matt heard that voice.  You know, the one that says, "Build it and they will come". 
       Matt has been in the same business in the same location since we met.  I reckon he is the top hand at hosting awsome Hill Country style weddings and private parties.  It's not just cause he's a friend that I'm lavishing all this praise on The Full Moon Inn.   It really is a class act.
       Back outside I spotted a '57 Rocket Oldsmobile 88 which look like it had just rolled off the assembly line.  Knowing my timing was all off  I needed one of those reality checks, and Matt assured me, ELvira was real enough. 
       On the road again, I was headed home when Nigel the Land Rover took the lead and turned off Hwy 16 toward Willow City and stopped at one of my favorite watering holes, The Knot in the Loop Saloon. 
       For a time I had the place pretty much to myself so I settled in with memories for company.
     All played out, and pondering Dazzling Dottie, Boots, Ollie and Hondo I was cowboy lonesome. So there I was at the shank of day, playing all of the sad songs and drinking the cheapest beer. 
       Then, from somewhere, faraway, Ollie's spoke up.
       "Relax, pardner.  We can go road trippin' again sometime.  Remember," he added, quoting a  men's room scribe, "reality is for folks who lack imagination."

           PAGE 1: HEADIN' OUT  /  PAGE 2: HONKY TONKIN'
PAGE 3: LUCKENBACH  /  PAGE 4: HEADIN' HOME

HOME  |   CONTENTS  |  LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

 
BOOKMARK THIS SITE
TYPE CTRL-D NOW

Texas Hill Country Wine: Torrie de Pietra Vineyards and Winery near Fredericksburg

Fredericksburg Texas