May 17 – “An alien adventure”

So now I’m up to Day Three of the Road Trip Vacation 2014.  We crawled out of bed and made our way outside for a quick driving tour of beautiful downtown Marble Falls.  We glanced at the sculptures that line their “Main Street” and Chris took a few pictures of the little stone building that they used to use as the overnight holding cell for criminals.  Since breakfast was free at the hotel we never did get to check out the Bluebonnet Café.  Maybe there will be a next time, Marble Falls.  Now, however, it was time to depart for the metropolis called Kerrville.  Prominenet among the sights on this venture were goats.  Lots and lots of goats.  Oh, and wineries.  Not sure if there is a connection there or not.  Couldn’t really picture a wine orgy, or even a wine tasting populated with goats.  Funny picture, though.  Anyway, there were grapevines everywhere.  We thought about visiting a winery just to say we did, but never got around to it.  Maybe when we make that second trip to Marble Falls? 

We got to Kerrville just in time to be hungry, and Cracker Barrel was right on the edge of town, so we stopped to sample some native cuisine.  And right next door was the Kerrville visitors’ bureau.  Since we had no idea what might be nearby, we stopped in there, too.  The little old lady was passionate about her town, and we got several good ideas from her.  She was most helpful in showing us the way to the one sight I had heard about near there … Stonehenge, Jr.  More about that later. 

Our first stop was the Schreiner Mansion, where we talked to the two docents at length.  One of them was married to the former fire chief, and I had on my Galveston Fire Department hat, so she felt connected right away.  As a result we heard more about the history of the mansion and Kerrville than most of the citizens probably know.  We found out that this Schreiner guy owned just about everything in town originally.  It should have been Schreinerville, but some other guy had started and failed at a mill a few years before he got there.  That guy had already named the town after a friend of his, a Mr. Kerr, who never even came to the area.  Tough luck Mr. Schreiner.  The building was a lot like some of the old houses in Galveston, so we could even talk some basic antique architecture.  Boy, did we ever feel wise beyond our … capabilities.

That visit complete we headed out to the James Avery jewelry factory.  He started out of a garage in Kerrville and still has his complex there.   Not much to see as far as the jewelry-making part was concerned, but … yes, I did get Chris a charm for her bracelet.  I wanted one that we saw that was a fire department logo, but before we could pull the trigger someone had called in and bought it.  They said we could order another one, and I may in the future, but I wanted her to have something in her hands to show for the experience.  And she had already said it would “count” for an anniversary gift.  (Wait.  Anniversary?  Did I miss it?  Is that coming up?  Oh, yeah.  June 6^th.  That’s right.  Of course this is an anniversary gift.  I planned it that way all along).  We settled on a little sand dollar instead.

And then it was time.  The highlight of this leg of the trip.  The one thing that I imagined could hold a candle to the giant rocking chair experience.  We were headed to see … Stonehenge, Jr.  The alien adventure.  Located outside the city on the way to … I don’t know where … some guy had apparently been clearing out some land and had tipped over some really big rocks.  I guess he had been reading something about Stonehenge (or maybe he was unduly influenced by the aliens that built the original.  You never know).  But the idea struck him to make a junior sized version.  He even completed his.  It forms the complete circle and even has the altar in the middle (or is that some kind of energy beacon to send signals to the mother ship?).  Stonehenge, Jr. was so successful that the guy made enough money to take a trip.  He went to Easter Island and saw those stone heads there.  You guessed it.  When he got home he built two of his own Easter Island, Jr. heads.  Simply amazing.  Best part of the whole experience was that we were the only ones there.  We played hide and seek among the stones and I even stood on the altar and pretended to preach a sermon.  Kind of like I do every Sunday morning – pretend to preach.  It was all great fun.  For me, anyway.

After supper and a quick stop at a cowboy store to get me a new black hat, we drove up one of the steeper hills overlooking the town to see a big ol’ cross some guy had built.  There were also some bronze statues there of different events in the life of Jesus.  Pretty interesting stuff.  He has big plans for the site, too.  As soon as he finishes raising 5 million dollars.  Actually he’s more than halfway there.  We might just have to add this Kerrville place to our return visit plans.  It has been our favorite place so far.

Psalms 43:4 says, “Then will I go to the altar of God, to God, my joy and my delight.  I will praise you with the harp, O God, my God.”

Father, thank you once again for this chance to reconnect with Chris and think about random, strange things.  It has been refreshing.  Amen.