Willow City Loop and Pedernales Brewing Company…

 

Our last few days in Fredericksburg, Texas were unseasonably chilly as a cold front blasted through this area. With the front came lots of thunder and lightning which always provide a beautiful backdrop to any nighttime sky. Since there were no severe weather warnings issued the storms and their much needed rain in drought stricken Texas could be fully enjoyed.

As the storms passed intermittent rain continued to fall but it did leave open, non-rainy times that we took full advantage of. One such time we decided to drive the Willow City Loop that our friend Carol back in College Station told us about. It seemed like a nice thing to do in case the skies opened up again as at least we would be in the CRV.

The drive was through some of the beautiful granite country of Texas. The winding road meandered through a lot of private land and it provided one scenic vista after another of rolling granite hills, idyllic streams cut through granite and limestone as well as occasional bluffs that looked as if they were a part of New Mexico rather than Texas. We saw a few wild Turkey, lots of deer and a lone Grey Fox darting across the road in front of us. A really, really nice looping drive….

After the drive we decided to check out the other microbrewery in town. It is located just a few miles south of Fredericksburg and is called the Pedernales Brewing Company. It is normally open only limited hours but since it was craft beer week they were open this day. Marking the entrance is a large replica of one of their bottled beers laying on its side and a short drive down a dirt road ends at their brewery.

We parked out front and when we entered into the tasting room we found it was typical of most other breweries we have visited with a few tables and chairs, a bar, large open windows to the brewing vats and an area to purchase T-shirts and the other brewery paraphernalia. They offer a what appeared to be an 8.5 ounce taster glass allowing for large tastes of each beer for $10.00  (and keep the glass) or their special in honor of craft beer week was $3.00 pints which appealed to us even more.

The star beers we sampled were the Lobo Negro a dark lager beer and their Seasonal Dunkel beer. As we sat at our table with cowhide covered bar stools we admired how nice their bar was with their labels on display as the backdrop to the bar. The table beside us was full of people carrying on a lively conversation and as we found out a bit later most, if not all, of them were partners of the brewery. They take great pride in letting visitors know they produce classic lagers and not the quickly produced ales many others are serving…

After sharing a few stories about us and them as well as their brewery they discovered Sharon is a handwriting analyst and after she analyzed a few of the writings we were all laughing and carrying on… What a nice bunch of people and what a fun time we had there… they even invited us over to Hilltop Café for some live music by one of their friends but it was getting late and we were heading out in the morning. Maybe another time…

As morning came we packed up and headed a short distance of less than 65 miles westerly to South Llano River State Park. As we left we wondered if the beautiful Fredericksburg area might just be a place we could settle down after we finish our full time lifestyle… Something to think about, for sure…