Smoky and Shann's Excellent Adventures: Back to the Basics

On Monday morning, March 27, we left San Antonio with Fredericksburg our destination. Because the shortest distance between these two places is only 70 miles, we decided to take an alternate route through Luckenbach, Texas. It was a few extra miles but well worth the time.

Luckenbach, if you haven't heard of it, has an eclectic history. You can read the whole interesting story on the Luckenbach, Texas, website, and I encourage you to do so. Afterwards, I bet you will want to visit there, too, if you are in the area.

The current population of Luckenbach is officially listed as 3 on the sign, but that doesn't count the free roaming hens and roosters or the cats who live in the bar. We loved the mailbox with its separate container for bills. No wonder life is so good there!

Cat no. 3. Let us know if you want
to see the other two.

Luckenbach rooster, who crowed while the
cowboys sang!

You'll find a dance hall, a bar, a general store in the building that once was the post office, the Lone Star Cafe -- where they serve real food, including some incredibly yummy apple pie fries (granny smith apples, fried, covered with cinnamon and sugar, and dressed with caramel) -- and a great outdoor area where musicians gather. You can hear live music every day.

Lone Star Cafe, where the food was yummy.

Lone Star's Apple Pie Fries!

Luckenbach Dance Hall, empty (almost) the day we were there but rocking
most weekends.

Luckenbach general store, the post office in a previous life.

Note sign over door about not writing on the store. Note writing, which was
literally everywhere on the building's porch.

Back in the mid-1970s, Bobby Emmons and Chips Moman wrote “Luckenbach Texas (Back to the Basics),” which became a massive hit for Waylon Jennings & Willie Nelson, and this brought Luckenbach to worldwide fame. While we were in Luckenbach, we found a copy of "Ultimate Waylon Jennings" because it had that song on it. We later learned that Willie Nelson returns to Luckenbach each year in July along with about 1000 of his friends. Now wouldn't that be a great time to visit.

Music happens every day.

Sitting under the live oak trees, playing
the guitar -- what could be better?

By mid-afternoon, we figured we had better move on down the road, so we headed out of Luckenbach toward Fredericksburg.

One last side trip was a stop at Wildseed Farms, the largest working wildflower farm in the nation. Here we saw our first view of acres of blue bonnets and poppies, both red and white. This definitely got us in the mood for more flowers.