Would You Like a Hair with That?

Last weekend Jocelyn and I had nothing to do so I decided it would be fun to go on a drive to Llano. Llano is a little town about 90 miles west of here in the Hill Country. I had driven out there a couple of months ago when I went turkey hunting and all the wildflowers were in bloom which made for a very pretty drive. Marble Falls is also on the way to Llano and has a nice little cafe with good banana cream pie so it was a plan.

I looked around online and found some restaurants in Llano and other things to do. Llano is an old town that has some historic buildings and President Bush's favorite barbecue joint. The drive was enjoyable and quite green since we've had so much rain, but Llano was pretty anti climatic. We went to a little bakery that was also a historical monument. But it was nothing special.

Next we went to a rock store. Llano has a lot of mineral deposits and granite so I thought maybe the rock store would be nice. It wasn't. A couple of old hippies were running it, and one of them talked Jocelyn's ear off. That was funny. She was telling her all about how she got stopped by the Border Patrol and the impending police state we were about to experience due to Bush's draconian national security policies.

We got out of there quickly and decided to get something to eat at the Badu House. Another historical marker. It'a an old house made of granite that has been converted into a restaurant. I really like these kinds of restaurants. It felt homey and the people were very nice. We did have a minor incident involving a hair in our food though.
We ordered smoked bacon-wrapped jalapenos stuffed with cream cheese for an appetizer. They came out and and smelled amazing. The aroma of the smoke was delicious. We both started eating, and then Jocelyn noticed a long black hair on our plate. No big deal to me, but Jocelyn wanted me to say something. I hate inconveniencing people in any way so I didn't want to say anything, but Jocelyn insisted. So I got the waitresses attention and said, "Sorry to be so picky, but there's a hair in our food which my wife doesn't really care for." The waitress was horrified and quickly took away our food promising to bring back more. Jocelyn said that I shouldn't have blamed it on her, but I didn't care if there was a hair. I ate lots of hair on my mission.

Well the waitress came back and said that the whole meal would be free. We thought that was overly generous, but she insisted. So then I was glad that I had said something! The bacon wrapped jalapenos were delicious, but some of them lit me on fire. The first one I ate was a little warm, but the second one started a fire in my mouth and down my throat. They were so tasty though that I couldn't stop eating them; however, after Jocelyn got a hot one, she quit eating them.

Jocelyn asked the waitress to bring us some cucumbers because the chef had said that cucumber works to soothe the heat. I'd never heard of that working, but I gave it a try. Not sure that it worked, but that was the first time I'd ever eaten a raw cucumber and kinda liked it. I usually eschew all raw vegetables. Maybe I'll have to try some more raw veggies, but I doubt it.

Our main courses were good too. I had chicken fried steak with great mashed potatoes and the best haricot verts (green beans for the culinary challenged folks) I've ever eaten. We decided that a free meal was too generous just because of one hair so we left a large tip. The drive home was nice too, and we stopped in Marble Falls for pie. This little trip was a nice way to waste some time on a Saturday, but I doubt that we'll ever do it again. There's good fishing and hunting around Llano so I'll probably be back, but Jocelyn wasn't too impressed with the little old country town. No big surprise there I guess.