In my mind there is no more glorious time in the Texas Hill Country than spring wildflower season. The peak months are typically Mid March to Mid April. The intensity of the show is dependent on cold wet winters and spring showers. 2017 has been a pretty good year. Last weekend I asked a friend to join me for a mini adventure to a tiny brewpub I had been wanting to visit since another fellow beer drinker told me about it a couple of years ago.
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| SH 71-Near Llano |
We left Spicewood late morning heading northwest on 71 to Llano, the county seat where we stopped at the local park to view the rehabilitated Roy Inks bridge before heading north on 16 toward San Saba. The park by the bridge is a nice place to picnic and in the last couple of years they have been dropping chunks of native rock for anyone making a creative effort to build rock art features.
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| Roy Inks Bridge-Llano |
We discovered an unusual style house for rural Texas on 16 just south of Cherokee, Texas. I was convinced the original owner had come from the east coast. When we got to San Saba we turned west on 190 and immediately stopped at the
Wedding Oak Winery sampling room and tried some very tasty wines. I was surprised when my favorite happened to be Viognier, a white wine.
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| Wedding Oak Winery-San Saba |
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| CR 204 near Harkeyville |
We headed west looking for CR 406, a road that would take us to an old historic truss. We missed our turn, but made our way back using CR 218. The bridge is a beautifully restored Pratt through truss over the San Saba River. We spent quite a bit of time walking across the bridge and back, admiring the beautiful portal bracing and never seeing another car. We still had another bridge to find before we made our way to the brewery. I had no cell service and no gps to assist us. We had the paper map above, but it didn't give us all the road names or numbers. Luckily we missed our turn to keep going due west at Rochelle, which landed us in Brady, the county seat of McCulloch County. Had we not missed our turn earilier, we would have missed a beautiful Mission Revival train station on the north side of the town.
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| US 190 |
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| McCulloch County Courthouse-Brady |
Just outside of Brady we headed north on 283 and turned left at 765 toward Fife. We were looking for Waldred Road to no avail. At the first decent dirt road heading north approximated 2 miles we we turned right (CR 220 north of the Colorado River). I had heard the bridge was a gigantic five part through truss and we wondered if such a bridge could be on this dirt backroad. After approximately five miles we were thrilled to find we had indeed picked the correct road!
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| Waldrip Truss |
On to the Eola School and Bright Brewing for our reward. But there was one last discovery near Millersville when I saw a unique building in the distance. It turned out to be the old Hartgrove Gymnasium, built in 1938-39 by the Works Progress Administration. We had some good beers at the old schoolhouse, talked with a local and two Texas Poet Laureates before making our way home. It was a lovely day for a ride and discovery. Where to next time?
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| Eola Schoolhouse Restaurant and Bright Brewing |
We discovered an unusual style house for rural Texas on 16 just south of Cherokee, Texas. I was convinced the original owner had come from the east coast. When we got to San Saba we turned west on 190 and immediately stopped at the Wedding Oak Winery sampling room and tried some very tasty wines. I was surprised when my favorite happened to be Viognier, a white wine. 
On to the Eola School and Bright Brewing for our reward. But there was one last discovery near Millersville when I saw a unique building in the distance. It turned out to be the old Hartgrove Gymnasium, built in 1938-39 by the Works Progress Administration. We had some good beers at the old schoolhouse, talked with a local and two Texas Poet Laureates before making our way home. It was a lovely day for a ride and discovery. Where to next time?
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