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As I've bitched previously, the camp-out I was planning to attend this past weekend had been canceled. So we were without plans, and I had asked for both Thursday and Friday off. Then Aisha done told us about the alternative plans for hanging out at the Dabbs Hotel in Llano. We were able to snag a room for Saturday night. We might've gone Friday, but we'd already scheduled a D&D game. I had been nice and went into work on Thursday, but about halfway through Friday I saw that no one had taken my day off, so I asked one of the nicer supervisors and she seemed to wonder why I even came to work in the first place. So I split early and did a bit of shopping and prepping for the trip.
One of our regulars double-booked himself and couldn't make it for D&D, so we noodled with our characters and played Settlers of Catan. I won! It was like the second time I'd ever played, and I got stuck being orange. They have the weirdest player colors. Most games that have 4 player options have red, green, yellow, and blue, but not Settlers- red, blue, white, and orange. I think it's a plot to get you to buy expansion sets. Anyway, it was maybe the second time I'd won that game so whee.
We awoke Saturday and it was cold and stormy. We screwed around and eventually loaded the car, and got on the road to Llano (70 miles WNW of here) around 1pm. By then the front had blown through and it was clear and warming up nicely. I wanted to get going so we stopped for lunch at Sonic and ate in the car. We ended up enjoying a very nice drive through the Texas Hill Country, my very favorite part of the state. There were wildflowers blooming all over the place, especially firewheels which are my favorites after bluebonnets. There is something wrong with the oaks around Bertram, they all looked to be dead or dying which was somewhat alarming. I saw a billboard for oak wilt, so I guess it's that. What a bummer. Some of those oaks looked pretty old.
We got to the hotel around 3pm, and there were just people wandering around and no real check-in procedure to speak of- just pick a room. They were all garishly colored rooms about 10' by 12' at most, with room enough for a double bed and maybe a small table and a chair. You'd think we'd pick the room with the best color, but not when some of the beds are on spindly legs with wheels on 'em- that was right out. We shook all the bed frames of the unoccupied rooms and ended up in the Yellow Room; how cheerful! I was not totally surprised, because I was seeing so many yellow flowers on the drive up I remember thinking to myself "it's going to be a yellow weekend" and not being sure what that meant. Now I know.
The fellow who ran the place described it on the phone as being 'like the place in that Bob Newhart show', and I think he was stretching a bit. It was built in 1907, and is a 2-story wood-frame place with a few rooms downstairs, more upstairs, 2 bathrooms, and a kitchen with a screened-in porch dining room with a 'mess-hall' sort of dining arrangement. It was less New-Englandy and more old-west, with a million pictures in the mess hall of the hotel back in the early days and the owner as a young man and things like that. I don't think there was a light bulb of over 25 watts in the whole place- everywhere you looked there were little tiny light fixtures with wee little lights in them, that looked like shells or little houses or candle flames or what-have-you. It was very charming. While I could complain that the bathroom on the upstairs floor was shared by many (and me without a bathrobe) it was still closer than it would have been at the camp grounds, and a lot nicer. Anyway, so we picked our room and unloaded all our stuff and broke it in, and went wandering around outside.
There was a multi-layer backyard, with tents pitched everywhere. First layer had some more porch and tents and flowers and trees. Second layer, flowers, trees, tents, and a koi pond. Third layer, pecan trees surrounded by honeysuckle, tents, and chairs on a circle for hanging out. That was the end of the 'official' yard but it continued on down to the Llano River, with a path that led down to a bit with a fire ring and more chairs, and plenty of native foliage and lovely rocks. The section of the river this place claimed was a couple hundred yards away from the dam, so it was pretty shallow but still quite swimmable and full of fish. There were these interesting layered dark grey rocks made of this sparly stuff, with veins of pink granite and white quartz running through them. There was all manner of wildlife; water birds (the much-beloved (by me) redwing blackbird among them), snakes, lizards, and all that. There was an excursion out to nearby Enchanted Rock, but since we'd just gotten in we weren't disposed to leaving right away. So we farted around 'til dinnertime, which was a pot-luck. Hub had made a big batch of veggie chili and there were other tasty things. Interestingly, the best was a plain ol' salad someone had made, with (I think it was) spinach leaves, avocado, onion, and a stray mushroom and tomato wedge here and there. No one brought dessert; I guess OTO potlucks are different than Pagan pot-lucks that way (and why the OTO crowd seems thinner than the Pagan crowd, come to think of it).
The company was excellent. As just mentioned it was mostly OTO folks, who are all quite a nice bunch of grown-ups. This is why I have ditched the Pagan camp-outs, because the drama got to be too tiresome. It doesn't hurt that there's not 1000+ people like at Flipside. I like my events to be nice and small. I have high hopes for Becca's camp-out in a couple of weeks, which she says will be attended by maybe 100 people and it's nicely unorganized and drama-free.
Anyway, hub and I went down by the fire ring and they were having some kind of OTO thing so we trekked down to the water and sat on the rocks and looked at the sky and smooched and snuggled. Some drumming started up and I drummed for a little while too. The stars were many and varied, and visible almost right down to the ground. We decided to turn in relatively early and have more B&B sex (on a squeaky bed with a noisy plastic mattress cover; sorry neighbors) and get a decent night's sleep more or less.
One of our regulars double-booked himself and couldn't make it for D&D, so we noodled with our characters and played Settlers of Catan. I won! It was like the second time I'd ever played, and I got stuck being orange. They have the weirdest player colors. Most games that have 4 player options have red, green, yellow, and blue, but not Settlers- red, blue, white, and orange. I think it's a plot to get you to buy expansion sets. Anyway, it was maybe the second time I'd won that game so whee.
We awoke Saturday and it was cold and stormy. We screwed around and eventually loaded the car, and got on the road to Llano (70 miles WNW of here) around 1pm. By then the front had blown through and it was clear and warming up nicely. I wanted to get going so we stopped for lunch at Sonic and ate in the car. We ended up enjoying a very nice drive through the Texas Hill Country, my very favorite part of the state. There were wildflowers blooming all over the place, especially firewheels which are my favorites after bluebonnets. There is something wrong with the oaks around Bertram, they all looked to be dead or dying which was somewhat alarming. I saw a billboard for oak wilt, so I guess it's that. What a bummer. Some of those oaks looked pretty old.
We got to the hotel around 3pm, and there were just people wandering around and no real check-in procedure to speak of- just pick a room. They were all garishly colored rooms about 10' by 12' at most, with room enough for a double bed and maybe a small table and a chair. You'd think we'd pick the room with the best color, but not when some of the beds are on spindly legs with wheels on 'em- that was right out. We shook all the bed frames of the unoccupied rooms and ended up in the Yellow Room; how cheerful! I was not totally surprised, because I was seeing so many yellow flowers on the drive up I remember thinking to myself "it's going to be a yellow weekend" and not being sure what that meant. Now I know.
The fellow who ran the place described it on the phone as being 'like the place in that Bob Newhart show', and I think he was stretching a bit. It was built in 1907, and is a 2-story wood-frame place with a few rooms downstairs, more upstairs, 2 bathrooms, and a kitchen with a screened-in porch dining room with a 'mess-hall' sort of dining arrangement. It was less New-Englandy and more old-west, with a million pictures in the mess hall of the hotel back in the early days and the owner as a young man and things like that. I don't think there was a light bulb of over 25 watts in the whole place- everywhere you looked there were little tiny light fixtures with wee little lights in them, that looked like shells or little houses or candle flames or what-have-you. It was very charming. While I could complain that the bathroom on the upstairs floor was shared by many (and me without a bathrobe) it was still closer than it would have been at the camp grounds, and a lot nicer. Anyway, so we picked our room and unloaded all our stuff and broke it in, and went wandering around outside.
There was a multi-layer backyard, with tents pitched everywhere. First layer had some more porch and tents and flowers and trees. Second layer, flowers, trees, tents, and a koi pond. Third layer, pecan trees surrounded by honeysuckle, tents, and chairs on a circle for hanging out. That was the end of the 'official' yard but it continued on down to the Llano River, with a path that led down to a bit with a fire ring and more chairs, and plenty of native foliage and lovely rocks. The section of the river this place claimed was a couple hundred yards away from the dam, so it was pretty shallow but still quite swimmable and full of fish. There were these interesting layered dark grey rocks made of this sparly stuff, with veins of pink granite and white quartz running through them. There was all manner of wildlife; water birds (the much-beloved (by me) redwing blackbird among them), snakes, lizards, and all that. There was an excursion out to nearby Enchanted Rock, but since we'd just gotten in we weren't disposed to leaving right away. So we farted around 'til dinnertime, which was a pot-luck. Hub had made a big batch of veggie chili and there were other tasty things. Interestingly, the best was a plain ol' salad someone had made, with (I think it was) spinach leaves, avocado, onion, and a stray mushroom and tomato wedge here and there. No one brought dessert; I guess OTO potlucks are different than Pagan pot-lucks that way (and why the OTO crowd seems thinner than the Pagan crowd, come to think of it).
The company was excellent. As just mentioned it was mostly OTO folks, who are all quite a nice bunch of grown-ups. This is why I have ditched the Pagan camp-outs, because the drama got to be too tiresome. It doesn't hurt that there's not 1000+ people like at Flipside. I like my events to be nice and small. I have high hopes for Becca's camp-out in a couple of weeks, which she says will be attended by maybe 100 people and it's nicely unorganized and drama-free.
Anyway, hub and I went down by the fire ring and they were having some kind of OTO thing so we trekked down to the water and sat on the rocks and looked at the sky and smooched and snuggled. Some drumming started up and I drummed for a little while too. The stars were many and varied, and visible almost right down to the ground. We decided to turn in relatively early and have more B&B sex (on a squeaky bed with a noisy plastic mattress cover; sorry neighbors) and get a decent night's sleep more or less.
