trip to Utopia, TX with Jennifer [day2]

We stayed at Utopia on the River.  A really nice Bed n Breakfast Inn.  

Neither of us slept really well.  That's a given.  First night in a new place.  No room darkening shades or material to keep out the moon and filtered light through the wooden mini blinds.  Not the comfy bed I have.  But I did bring my own pillows.  Yup.  Always do that.

We woke up with enough time to get up and get going so we wouldn't miss brunch.  Jennifer was faster at this process then me.  I probably needed an attitude adjustment due to my lack of being rested, as I was begging for room service that didn't exist.  LOL!

Breakfast was yummy!!!  Eggs cooked how you liked, sausage patties, grits, and warm peaches. I had never had warm peaches.  They are canned peaches with a bit of cinnamon and sugar. You are supposed to eat them over biscuits, but since I don't eat wheat (at least as much lies within me) I just had a bowl of warm peaches.  Quite yummy!  Warm peaches are good.  You must try them!

We then toured the property...walked down to the river, listened to the brook, gazed at the pretty water in which you could see all the way to the bottom, watched the reflection of the trees in the water, watched birds, hiked over rocks, gazed up at the tall -VERY TALL - trees, listened to the breeze rustle through, and just relaxed.  

Cypress Tree on the Sabinal River

see VERY TALL tree?  and mini Misty at the base of it?

NOwhere we had to be.  NObody we had to talk to.  NO time constraints.  NO cell phone service.  Very spotty internet service [I couldn't get it to work at all on my phone which is just as well because the temptation to work would have been pretty high].  We could just wander aimlessly and take our time.  We, or more accurately I should report Jennifer, took pictures as we toured.

The reflection of the trees in the Sabinal River

We eventually went back to our room and got ready to go tour the town.  The small town of Utopia.  We saw items we saw coming in at night now in the day time.  We wanted to check out a few of the places in the movie and also see the sights of the town.  We wandered around checking out the little town that had only a few stores, the General Store, Lost Maples Cafe, the Library, the bank, the Senior Center [which by the way had the most cars in attendance in the parking lot], the school, and the Methodist Church.  The little church was just as it was pictured.  Lovely little place.  The door was open and you could walk in and inspect it.  I tried out the bell chimes.  Really cool!  Then we continued out of town and took out to tour the countryside.  We stopped and saw blue bonnets...gorgeous patch of them along side the road.  

Misty and The Bluebonnets

Jennifer and The Bluebonnets

As we continued along the roads we traveled, there were tons and tons and tons and tons and tons of bikers.  We went to Kerrville and ate at Rails a Cafe at the Depot, a place Jennifer found on Yelp that had outdoor patio dinning for the lovely weather we wanted to experience and was rated with lots of stars.  It was a very yummy fresh green salad and a delicious glass of red wine.    We sat on the patio for about two hours and enjoyed the weather, our food and conversation.  We discussed many things, including one event that happened in our friendship in 2007.  Jennifer had the chance to explain what was going on more behind the scenes that I wasn't aware of, though she thought I was, and how her communication was taken by me.  It was a time of sharing, revealing and encouraging as we learn to understand each other more.  I was grateful for the opportunity and for no bitterness on either side even if both of us were hurt, there is always room to be loving and share in each others lives.  We toured some more and headed back to Utopia.  We ate dinner at Lost Maples Cafe.  I ordered the special of Shrimp with a Baked Potato and Cole Slaw and it came with two Hush Puppies, absolutely the best I have ever eaten.  Might just convert me to like Hush Puppies as I am not a Hush Puppy fan!!!  Our experience there gave us much laughter.  Our waitress was the sister to one of the guys who was cooking.  They were having words with each other.  I presume Mom told them to knock it off as "she" had tables to wait and they could resume their words at home after work.  Wish I could remember exactly how it was said and what all was said as it was downright hilarious!  You knew you were in a small country cafe for this to be happening.  We attempted photos of the two of us outside before leaving but with the dusk lighting and self portraits that I can't seem to manage nicely without creating a double chin, it made it challenging and we gave up.  We then headed back to Utopia on the River, our Bed & Breakfast for another night.  We crawled in bed and Jennifer poured me a glass of red wine that I had brought [I had been given it on Wednesday when a Provider Relations Representative for one of the main healthplans one of my client contracts with gave it to me as a gift because of the HUGE recoupment fiasco they have done in a one week time with no notice that has created a cash flow crisis, which was done against state and federal laws that we have been trying to get to the bottom of] and I brought that with me, I thought it would be fun to share it, and we did.  While we were in bed, I asked Jennifer if she would want to read my list of 15 lies I had created to bury the next day at Buried Lies Cemetery in Utopia, TX, and she did.  I was not prepared for Jennifer's response.  She was floored at my list because she was only thinking of the things that came as baggage from your childhood as was in the movie [I won't spoil it in case you haven't seen it and want to].  I told her but that isn't all the lies I have in my life, though believe me there is a good stash of them from my childhood that haunt my life daily.  She stated this is one reason she likes Bible Studies is because of the sharing and input you get from others.  She had never seen it the way I saw it and truly was amazed at my list.  She agreed that I was correct that childhood lies are not all there is and made her own list the next morning.  She didn't share it with me [didn't need to] but I know that the exercise for me was an incredible experience and I hope it was for her too!  I must tell you to write them out...was HUGE!  I truly want the experience to be a fresh new start at least on these 15 lies.  When they occur, I want to tell myself that I have buried those lies, they no longer are alive.  The are dead.  They can never be retrieved.  I believe this will give me the courage to learn the truth and fight the lies.  More about this process and all that in another post.

We then called it a night, grateful for the relaxing experience we had had thus far, safety on our trip, encouragement we both received in sharing and hoped that we both would get a better nights rest the second night.  

...Don't forget, Jennifer took most all of the photo's on the trip, so I will insert more pictures later.