Bunk House Weekend
We had a Family Get Together on April 20 – 23 at the River Crossing Bunk House on the San Saba River in Voca, TX. It’s not often we can get together with our daughters and their entire families, with everyone’s busy work and school schedules, not to mention the 500 miles between us. However this weekend aligned just right, with everyone taking off work or school to make the gathering happen.
Our weekend was reserved for family time, but I managed to slip in visiting two local attractions. Both in neighboring towns Llano and Brady, TX.
We left Houston at noon on Thursday and traveled northwest via Hwy 71. When traveling this route, it’s a must to swing into Hruska’s for kolaches and pastries. We stopped for lunch in Austin at Jack Allen’s Oak Hill for southern comfort food with a Texas twist.
We arrived in Voca late afternoon and were immediately greeted by all the grandkids who traveled from Lubbock. What a feeling! Our Houston grandkids were coming up the following day.
The Bunk House rental sleeps 20 people comfortably, and is often used for reunions or retreats. It has a pool, large fenced yard for the kids to run around, and plenty of room indoors to play or relax. They had various board games available and a foosball table in the upstairs loft. The house has wi-fi and all the bedrooms have TVs in addition to the main living room. They have a fully equipped kitchen and two dining tables. I would recommend the River Crossing Bunk house for any family reunion.
The guys went hunting early Friday morning at a family friend’s place nearby. They were in search of turkeys and wild hogs.
I headed out to Brady, about 20 minutes away, to visit the Heart of TX County Music Museum. It was okay, a slight disappointment for me personally. I didn’t recognize some of the old timers in the museum. However it was a free 30 minute tour, so worth the time.
My oldest daughter and her family arrived late Friday afternoon from Houston, and the household grew to 18 people and included all of our 9 grandchildren. The house was full of laughter and crazy kids running around playing.
On Saturday morning the house quickly filled up with the aroma of fresh brewed coffee for the early birds, and eventually the aroma of bacon woke up the late risers. The kitchen had the neccessary tools to prepare breakfast, but the stove was kinda fancy. My oldest daughter and my younger daughter’s mother-in-law found it challenging to turn on the oven. They had to resort to reading the house information booklet and pushing a variety of buttons to get the oven turned on. But thankfully they figured it out after some frustration and laughs. We served a full breakfast complete with sausage, bacon, eggs and biscuits for all 18 house guests. Everyone’s bellies were full.
After breakfast, my oldest grandson was going to head down to the river to fish. He planned to take just one of the young kids with him. But the others got wind of the adventure, and before long he was forced to take four of them. Thankfully two adults joined in to monitor. Two of the youngest kids began to get upset about being left behind, so my oldest daughter took them out for a nature walk to pick wildflowers.
On Saturday afternoon, Grandpa and I went to the Crawfish Festival in Llano. It was a huge festival full of music and food. I ordered barbecue in addition to the crawfish. We were there for the daytime festivities, which were family friendly. Unfortunately we missed seeing Randall King who was scheduled to play later that night.
Saturday night everyone gathered for a barbecue party at the friend’s hunting place. My son-in-law smoked a variety of meats including deer back strap, deer & pork sausages, boudain, and pork chops. We also had crawfish brought from the festival. We were stuffed!
The grandchildren wanted to feed the goats on the property, so naturally I tagged along. We rode on a small trailer pulled by a 4-wheeler to see the animals across the property. The ride was bumpy but all the grandkids loved it! Even the 1 year old jumped in as he didn’t want to miss out on the fun.
As the kids were feeding the goats corn, we could see dark skies and lightening in the far distance. The wind began to pick up so we knew it was time to head back. Shortly after, as we were all back together at the hunting place, it began to pour. And pour hard! We all had to run back to the vehicles for shelter, and we decided to head back to the Bunk House.
We found the Astros game on the TV and after that finished, we tuned into a basketball playoff game. Everyone took turns showering in the two bathrooms. We lounged around in our pajamas not wanting the day to end.
Sunday morning, we loaded up and said our farewells until the next time. We felt Blessed to have a large family with kids running all over the place and making special memories together.