Judy and Matt At Sea: August 2011

Friday, August 19, 2011

The Latest Texas Report from Matt

Well, we have been in our rental "casita" for a few weeks here in Boerne, Texas, and we are enjoying this delightful little town just north of San Antonio. We have scouted lots of areas north, east and west of Boerne and still like this great town the best. It is taking us a while to get used to the parched countryside, due to a severe drought the past year or so. Also, if we do settle here, you want to be "out of here" in July and August, not much different than Hilton Head and most of the USA. Three figure temperatures are not fun, but the relatively low humidity helps. We like to walk early, when it is in the 70's, but it is getting pretty warm by about 7:30. We spent a few days in San Antonio, doing the tourist things like the Alamo, etc. Great city that I lived in for about half of 1971. This was the town I came to after the Bronx and I discovered Mexican food! Put on 15 pounds in 3 months! The Mexican food is still great and we love the barbecue. We do the gym 6 days a week! I guess we have been away from really nice stores for about many years and just love strolling through Neiman Marcus and all the upscale stores in San Antonio. We don't buy anything that won't fit in our Chevy Suburban, but it is great to look. We discovered a huge Bass Pro Shop that has everything a real man could want. I roamed from the fishing section to the hunting section, gun shop, hiking stuff, etc. Attached to the shop is one of the best seafood restaurants we have every eaten in, including the wonderful ones we found in Florida. After our second meal there, including a stroll through the store, I told Judy "we have gotta move here!"

We have been venturing out from the Casita to look at homes this past week and it is amazing what you can get for your money out here. I think we are all trained to think east & west coast prices are the "norm." We have been impressed so far and we just may buy something out here in the future. A friend, who lives in Boise, told us not long ago, that we will know in our hearts when we find our next home and so far we have felt very comfortable in Texas. Very friendly real downhome people, prosperous economy and low taxes. What more could you want?

I have included some photos with this entry, but the blogspot people put the pictures in the darnest places, so the order may not make sense.

We are enjoying life, we are healthy and excited about Texas. Just need the Fall to arrive, cool down a bit and please God, SEND RAIN!!

Hope you are all well and email or call us sometime, y'all.

What more could you need?

The ranch casita with a disappearing lawn. Can't water with the drought.

Evening at the Ranch

The "Casita"

Matt's home away from home

Great seafood at the Bass Pro Shop

Matt checking out a deer feeder

Matt at the Alamo

Outhouse at the Bandara Gun Club. Door on the left is for "Pointers", the other for "Setters"

The Girls looking for their morning water

Thursday, August 4, 2011

FROM ONE HOT PLACE TO ANOTHER

Lots has happened to the wandering Hartnetts since our last blog. We stayed at the rental house in Sedona until July 31st. During the last few weeks we did a lot of sightseeing -- including Bearizona (a drive-through wildlife park in Williams AZ), Montezuma’s Castle (cliff dwellings from the 1400s), and other ancient Indian settlements, such as Montezuma Well and Tuzigoot. There is much to see there, but not a lot to do in the town. We now know why they call Sedona “Slowdona." Being there that long gave us a good taste of the area and we made the decision that we don’t want to live in Sedona. It is certainly beautiful, but not for us.

We decided that we wanted to go back to Texas (the Boerne area) to see if it might be the place for us to settle down. We had good memories of it from when we were there in May. We left early on Sunday (we got in the habit of getting up very early because it started to get light about 4:30 a.m.) for the long drive. We spent the first night in Roswell, NM then drove into Boerne Monday afternoon.

So far, so good. We are really enjoying it. The people we have met are just great and the food, just what we like. We have had 3 meals here -- Mexican, barbecue and hamburgers. We think we died and went to heaven. Our eating habits are why we must always be close to a gym.

The best news is we found a house to rent. It is called a “casita” which sits on 10.5 acres in the hills, about 6 miles north of town. It is adorable and has great air conditioning. The woman that owns it lives up the road about a mile and is so friendly and helpful. She recommended that we join the YMCA in town -- I told you we need to exercise. It is a very nice, fully equipped facility with friendly people running it. We also “joined” the brand new Public Library. It has only been open two months and is light, airy and full of books. We are starting to feel at home already.

Well, we must get down to what you are all thinking about -- the heat. Yes, it is hot. Yes, it is summertime and it seems to be hot almost everywhere. Sedona was surprisingly hot. The people down here think it is humid, but after Hilton Head, we don’t feel it at all. In fact, I think is it 103 right now and we just sat outside at a diner for our hamburgers at 2:00 p.m. They had fans on and it didn’t seem that bad. Of course, we would like it to be a little cooler. Everyone says that it is an exceptionally hot summer. Also, they are in the most severe drought they have experienced since the 1950’s. We think that if we like it now, we will love it when it cools down and they finally get rain.

We are very optimistic, but have not made any decisions. We will get settled in and then maybe start looking at some houses. The cost of living is very low here. Also, the 100 year old town (a “real” town with old buildings fully occupied, not abandoned, like some places we have been in the last year) is actually growing and prosperous.