your man on the ground

New Braunfels & Gruene Photos

On the same trip during which my mom, sisters and I visited San Antonio, we also spent some time in the small Central Texas towns of New Braunfels and Gruene (Grüne). If I move back to Texas, the central part is where I would most like to live. While the landscape around Houston is pretty flat, this area of Central Texas is so hilly that it is also known as "Texas Hill Country." Central Texas is an area rich in rivers, lakes, nature, and what passes for culture in Texas ;-)

"Gruene" is a form of the German word for "green." In Texas, when we speak about the town of Gruene, we pronounce it "green." Texans also seem to have a problem pronouncing "New Braunfels." The most correct pronunciation I've heard sounds like "New Bronfels." Less elegant degredations include "New Bronsfel" and my least favorite, "New Bronsfels." The word is not spelled "Braunsfel" or "Braunsfels," people. Get it right! (just kidding, sorta) New Braunfels is named after the Prinz zu Solms-Braunfels, a German noble who came to Texas when land was given out free of charge to European immigrants. Here's a young German visitor's take on Austin (he mentions new Braunfels, as well -- all in German, though).

"Braunfels" is German for "brown rock" or "brown crag." "Wurst" is the German word for sausage. New Braunfels hosts an annual Oktoberfest called "Wurstfest" (sausage celebration). It's interesting to note the imprint German and Wend (German-born slavs) immigrants to Texas have left on the state -- in architecture, music, town and street names, as well as general customs.

Tubing is great! Rent an inner tube for a few bucks, throw it in the river, and float down to a central meeting point, near the Schlitterbahn (slide way, approx.) water park, where a bus picks you up and drops you back off at your starting point.

Schlitterbahn offers seasonal jobs to young, non-US citizens. Their busy season is over for 2004, but they start taking applications for Summer 2005 in January. There's also a new Schlitterbahn water park on South Padre Island, off of the Texas Gulf Coast, near Mexico.

San Antonio Photos

I went to San Antonio in August with my mom and sisters.

Kaktus Korral: Cactus ranch, period clothing & gun store. Only in Texas. Now, our Deutsch speakers might be asking themselves why the store's name is written in German ("Kaktus Korral" is German for "Cactus Corral" in English). I'm not certain about this, but my guess is that the spelling has something to do with the fact this part of central Texas was a popular area with early German-speaking immigrants to the USA.

We went to Mi Tierra for dinner one night. I stuffed myself with a combination plate that was delicious. Great Mexican food. Man, I miss it. The gentlemen carrying guitars are mariachis.

Views of Lake Travis (Photos)

Susanna was generous enough to put everyone up at her family's lakehouse. The house had an elevated deck (Terrasse) that looked out over the lake. The view was amazing. A few of us stayed up until dawn, laughing and joking about some utter nonsense. Fun...

That's John standing next to a University of Texas (UT) flag.

This was our view of the lake in the early evening.

We saw a few fireworks displays, but most were too far off. For some reason, most people in the area had done fireworks displays a day early, before we arrived.

This was our view of the lake at dawn. It was worth waiting up for. I like this picture.

Lake Travis Devil's Cove 4th July

I spent the 4th of July up at Lake Travis (outside of Austin) with some good friends and took a bunch of pictures. We (7 or so) stayed at Susanna's lakehouse that weekend (thanks again!). We spent most of the 4th out at Devil's Cove, a famous hangout area on Lake Travis where boaters make virtual islands by tieing their boats together in long, winding, continguous rows, or "chains." Once you're tied into a chain, the fun starts. No one cares if you get on their boat - that's the rule. If you hook up to a chain, you have to allow people to cross your boat so that everyone can go everywhere on the chain.

I had a great time out there. It was a really laid back atmosphere -- everyone was just there to have fun. While we were tied into the chain, I did some swimming and explored some of the other boats. It's probably the most jeopardy I've put my camera in, but all's well that ends well...

One note: We were out on the lake on a major national holiday. Some of these pictures include depictions of alcohol consumption, cigarette smoking, and bikini-clad bathers. If you are easily offended by that sort of thing, please take a look at my other Lake Travis Pictures.

Scott (l) was the self-appointed captain of the trip. "Master and Commander" might be more appropriate. John (r) was first mate I guess. The three of us shared a cool house near Westheimer Road (in Houston) for a couple of years in our mid twenties.

Beware of this pair when they're flying the skull and crossbones. Meredith, on the right, is John's wife. Shannon is her younger sister. They offer no quarter.

Gulf Coast Photos

We spent some time bay fishing this Summer on the Texas Gulf Coast.

The shot was taken from the front yard of our bay fishing guide's house / inn, where we also spent the night. It was nice, with comfortable bunks and several bathrooms. The food his wife cooked was excellent... Pancakes for breakfast and fresh seafood for evening meals.

We went fishing in the boat pictured here. According to Marvin Strakos (our fishing guide), German and Czech immigrants made up much of the post-Spanish, early European population of this area of Texas. Mrs. Strakos was born in Texas, but her family was originally from Germany. When she was younger, many of her family members still spoke German regularly amongst themselves (years after moving to Texas).

Texas Ranch Photos

Craig and I spent some time out at my dad's ranch one afternoon in July. The "ranch" is a few acres with a pond, 40 cows and an unfinished house near Brookshire, west of Houston.

The speed limit at the ranch is 15 Miles Per Hour, but the roads are pretty bumpy, so you probably wouldn't want to drive much faster than that, anyway.

The horses ignored the water, but they couldn't resist the sweet feed that we had for them.

My Siblings and I

I have one younger brother and two younger sisters. We all went bowling one evening this Summer when Craig and I were visiting our family in Houston.

Craig - He's the musician of the bunch (I play a little piano, when there's one around). He joined me in Vienna about 3 years ago, and now he has a great girlfriend, plays guitar and bass in several bands, and works as a tutor, English teacher and guitar teacher. I'm proud of him - he's doing really well.

Me. I'm told that my bowling form is pretty entertaining to watch. In this picture, you can see my fierce glare of determination, as if I thought I could knock down all 10 pins through will alone.

L. is learning to drive. My mom tells me she's doing a good job. I'm just glad I'm not living anywhere near Texas right now. (Just kidding, sis - I love you!)

S. - she's the youngest of us all, and is thankfully not yet learning to drive (officially, though I have a few pictures of her driving a car -- I may post them soon).

Downtown Houston Photos

Johnny Sal and I got together one evening and went on a "photo safari" in downtown (Stadtzentrum) Houston. That included drinking a couple of beers and wandering around downtown looking for interesting stuff to take pictures of, all while catching up with a good friend and enjoying some sorely-missed Texas humor.

To start off the tour, allow me to introduce you to Johnny Sal. John and I have been good friends since we met 7 or 8 years ago while studying at University of Houston. In this picture, he's DJ'ing at the Drink Bar, our usual hangout at night in Houston. Though not taken on the same night as the photo safari, I threw in this and the next picture so I could introduce you to the safari-ers...

That's me in front, wearing one of the €2.50 T-shirts I picked up in Thailand a week or so before this picture was taken. Sal is on the turntables behind me, and Hill and Roca are standing in the background.

How to Eat Boiled Crawfish

The day after I took the Paris photos, and two days after I took the last Bankgkok photos, I arrived in Houston, Texas, the town where I was born, or my Geburtsort. It was May 26th or so. My good friend, Matthew Walker, and I visited the Magnolia Bar & Grill for a few Texas beers, some excellent boiled crawfish and live zydeco music. Crawfish are also known as crawdads, mudbugs, crayfish, Flusskrebs (German), écrevisses (French) and probably a host of other regional names. Here are some of the photos I took that afternoon:

There's Matt. He's usually pretty laid back, but he gets serious when it comes to crawfish. I can't blame him.

Crawfish massacre. These are crawfish heads - what's left of a crawfish after you eat the meat.

Texas Countryside Photos

I went for a drive out west of Katy, Texas one afternoon in late May or early June. I wanted some pictures of the countryside around where I grew up.

When I was a kid, Katy was a mix between a small but quickly expanding suburb to the west of Houston and an older farming town populated by rice farmers and "country" people. Maybe I should say it was a segregation of suburban yuppies and country farmers. My family lived in the suburban part for a few years. We had our own schools (Taylor), and they had theirs (Katy High - Texas high school football champions several times in the past).

Now Katy is a monster. It was the fastest growing city in America several years in a row. Around 12,500 people live inside the Katy city limits, but more than 164,000 people live in the surrounding suburban communities.

I took most of these pictures in the rural area west of Katy, where the suburbs have yet to conquer the countryside:

Even the country folk need their Coca Cola.