Weekend in the Country

Jacob and I joined our friends for a much needed long weekend. Both of us have been pretty busy with work, and we were able to get some rest from the craziness of the city. After packing up our bags and snacks (banh mi sandwiches and coconut water), we headed out for Flatonia, Shiner and Moulton. We were in town for Flatonia's annual Czhilispiel Festival which is when the town gets together for live music, carnival rides, games, fried foods, and a chili and bbq cook-off.

Our first stop on our adventure was Shiner, Texas. We stopped at the Spoetzel Brewery where they make Shiner Bock. I likened the experience to the time I was riding on a tour bus in the Tuscan countryside where we found the quaint little city that made Monelpuciano d'Abruzzo. We unfortunately missed the tour of the facilities, but we were given four tokens so we could sample various brews: Black, 101, Bock, Cheer, and Blonde. Mmmm! It was a nice reward for our 2 hour drive to the country. It was nice catching up with our friends under a large oak tree while we felt the nice breeze and sipped on our brews. Ahhh!

Afterwards, we explored downtown Shiner. We checked out Antiques, Art, and Beer which had an interesting melange of "country" items like koozies in sequins or camo, wind chimes, and jewelry made out of bottle caps. We all imbibed in another drink at their bar which had a very extensive collection of beer. I decided to try out the Shiner Oktoberfest.

Since our bellies were full of beer, we decided to get an early dinner at the Shiner Restaurant and Bar. Jacob filled the jukebox up with some good tunes ranging from Willy Nelson, ZZ Top, Hank Williams, Johnny Cash, Stevie Wonder, and Journey. We tasted some refreshingly sweet sangria, and enjoyed our gastropub fare. We really enjoyed trying Alex's sandwich which is titled The Best Sandwich in the World on the menu. It is a blt with a chicken fried steak place in between three pieces of bread with white gravy. Jacob and I shared the bacon and cheese stuffed avocados and had the shrimp penno with pecan pesto. We were impressed by the adventurous menu.

Afterwards, we drove into Moulton to check into our accomodations at The Rehmet Bed and Breakfast owned by Cindy McIntosh, the Mayor of Moulton! We stayed in the Century Oaks Suite, and the best thing about this room was the bathtub. The bathroom was bigger than my kitchen back home. As you may already know, I am a big fan of baths. So, Jacob and I came prepared. We brought a cassia candle, epsom salts, bath fizzy, mint mask, and exfoliating cream. I think I ended up taking FOUR baths this past weekend. It was so refreshing and relaxing.

The next morning we decided to do a little workout to help balance out our countryside drinking/eating fest from the day before. We decided to go for a run and explore the neighborhood- we ran up a very long gravel driveway taking in some beautiful wildflowers, cactus, cows and a rising sun. Then we ran up and down some various streets. The houses reminded me of the old cottage homes that still exist in the Old Sixth Ward of Houston. We ended our workout with sit-ups, push-ups and planks. Yeah, we're hard core.

Cindy and Mac served us breakfast in their dining room. It was probably one of the nicest breakfasts I've had in a long time. Time for breakfast is such a luxury, and Cindy does a great job. And, I loved all the details she put into our meal: beautiful place settings with gold-colored chargers, dainty clear and green napkin rings, green glasses with coordinating glass coasters, and classical music playing in the background. We ate fruit, egg and sausage casserole, apple dessert, and toast. It was a good start to our day.

While Jacob did some work (the work of a teacher is endless) on the porch, I played some chess, read, and enjoyed a bath. I sat on the porch working on a drawing of the Pearl Beer sign. The warehouse across the street from the B&B used to serve as a storage unit for the Pearl Brewery. We spend a little bit of time catching the end of the UT/Iowa State game. (boo!) Then headed to the festival in Flatonia.

We took a walk around to check things out, and traded in our currency for beer and food tokens. We were fascinated by the egg toss. Just a contest where two people toss a raw egg between each other as they further their distance after each try. Yeah, this is the country. I loved it. We caught up with our friend Yushan who was sampling one of the fair's shrimp poboys. We decided to take some silly pictures on top of a giant chili pepper and watched Jacob win a stuffed monkey at the balloon pop booth. We enjoyed live polk music and some cheap beers with funnel cake under the beer tent.

I volunteered to be a chili judge which was an interesting experience. They take judging very seriously! No making faces, no commenting about the chilis, and no sunglasses are allowed. We were asked to judge from a scale of 1-10 on five criteria: red color, aroma, taste, after taste and consistency. Unfortunately, I didn't give any of the 11 samples a 10, but I did get pretty full on some free chili. They even had beer, crackers and cheese, and encouraged us to clear our palettes with the brew. LOL.

After chili judging, Jacob and I nerded out and played chess then went for a walk. Alas, we were full of beer and food again. We took some more silly pictures with our friends. Afterwards, we decided to hang out at the Hackeberry House for a while. We watched the ending of the OU/Mizzou game. Hooray for the Mizzou wine! While the rest of the crew went back to Flatonia, we turned in early. If you had an awesome bathtub in your room, you wouldn't want to stay out late either. heheheh

The next morning, we had breakfast again with Cindy and Mac and we checked out. We caught up with our friends for a bit, and headed back on the I-10. It was a super weekend! And, it was nice to slow down the pace a bit and just enjoy some time with friends. If you have the chance, you should plan a road trip some time and get in some much needed downtime, too.