Texas Paradise

I found the land that Pat Green, Cory Morrow, and Charlie Robinson sing about in their songs. It is the patch of grass anywhere between San Antonio and Austin. I see why such pride is taken in Texas. A native Houstonian myself, Texas pride was more of something I had because it was there for the taking. Living in the hill country here, however, develops of swell of emotions that I can never know. This is the part of Texas that is sacred to many and considered to be Heaven on Earth.

The Fourth of July weekend brought with it Texas Traveling. I had planned on going to Lake Buchanan for the Fourth and ended up going to Lake Travis in Austin and Medina Lake in Bandera as well. Lake Travis was a random trip. My summer friends here in San Antonio needed to fill a few seats on their list for a rented party barge. The guy planning the trip has a house on the lake and thought it would be fun to invite a few people over and spend a day on the lake. Well, it was a lot of fun. We got out on the lake Saturday afternoon and went to a nearby cove. The cove was full of wake boarding boats, people, and music. It was like something you see on MTV. It was one of those few times that I felt like I was in college, and I love being reminded that I am in college because it goes by so fast and its presence felt is burdenless. The day was ended by a few people going to 6th street in Austin and a few people, like me, who were too tired and crashed on the floor while watching Harry Potter. I was awoken by a phone call at 3:30 a.m. It was my uncle asking where I was because I forgot to let him and my aunt know that I was not going to be in that night. I forget that when living with people you can’t just go somewhere and not tell anyone. Since Junior Year in high school I have just done my own thing and I forget that people like my aunt and uncle will stay up worrying if I don’t come home at night.

Sunday morning I drove the usual route to Lake Buchanan. It is a wonderful trip from San Antonio. Usually I have some Texas Country music playing in my car as it putters and spits and races up and down the Texas Hills and over the Texas Rivers. It is scenic and places within me a serene and tranquil feeling of ease. The drive is a good buffer between a chaotic week and a slow weekend. Most of the day there was spent with family: Aunt and Uncle, cousins, and 2nd cousins. That night was spent lying on the water front deck gazing at the stars and shooting stars in between rounds of explosive and colorful fireworks. All three of my 2nd cousins, ages 2, 5, and 8 at some point found there way to laying on me. Carefree I was. Lake Buchanan is much prettier than Lake Travis. Its scenery is the cause of that. Surrounded by ridges, the very tail end product from the Ice Age. It is a large lake, one of the largest in Texas. It has many islands, with sandy beaches. But all are patrolled regularly and camping on them is forbidden. This was a complete turn off to me. I don’t like the regulation of unused land. There are no houses or facilities on it, so why not let a few people camp there and make use of it?

Monday morning, my cousins invited me to go to a lake northwest of San Antonio. They were invited by a business friend to come and enjoy the lake toys, water, and food. I went not expecting anything really and just spending more time with my cousins. The entire length of the trip I could not stop looking out of my window. The land is beautiful. It is entirely different from the land I know of San Antonio, the land that I break my back over. This land, just as rough and harsh, is pure. Very few buildings in sight, I saw rolling hills of land and trees. The stark contrast between the tan sideoats and brown tree trunks, dark green tree leaves, and sea green rivers was captivating. This land is rewarding. The breaking in of this land is like the breaking in of a wild stallion, with the trials of pain and time, affection grows and the land is loved.

At Medina Lake, we arrived at what were the remains of a college party the night before. About 20 college-aged kids and the business friend of my cousin were in attendance. I was glad to make more friends that day. We rode wave runners and basked in the sun. I met a Spurs dancer. It was an interesting thing that happened. Before that fact, she was a Hispanic looking girl who was wearing a Corona bikini (slightly on the trashy side), younger than me (which I still find strange), and was a 6 on the 1-10 hotness scale with an added pinch of sex appeal. After that fact, my perception of her subtly and slowly, but without a doubt, changed her to a 9 that overflowed with sex appeal and the bright yellow bikini added definite bonus points. It was a strange observation in myself. I was completely aware of the change in me. I didn’t do it on purpose, in fact there was little to no rational thinking behind it. It just sort of happened. I guess that is what happens to a girl when she meets an average guy who happens to be a doctor or in some other well off profession that would allow her to spend his money and never have to work again. Attraction all the sudden grips tight. Anyways, I completely avoided her after that knowledge because any conversation started after that would be tainted with motives and, whether true or not, would be looked upon, by me at least, to have started solely based on the new information at hand. And to me, that would be pathetic. In the end, the day wrapped up well, numbers were exchanged and new friends were made.

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I feel that I must retract what I said before about the San Antonio land being useless. I did some asking around and found San Antonio’s history. San Antonio was never farmed and I have suspicion that it is because of the untamable and dry Earth that lies beneath it. However, it was a very large cattle ranch community mostly run by native Mexicans. It was free land then and The Republic of Texas was not formed yet. Many people used the land to feed their cattle and goats. Soon after that, missions, like The Alamo, began to grow and establish themselves here. The free land brought in land-hungry Europeans, and these people were mostly German and Irish. Thus, giving this region a very diversified culture. It has become known for its American living with a Hispanic feel.

A bit more on history, the people here, like everywhere else in Texas, wanted to form a government apart from Mexico. The Texas Revolution was the result. This is where The Alamo comes in. The Battle of The Alamo was actually lost to Santa Anna and the Mexican Army; every defender of The Alamo was killed. But it demonstrated such great heroics by William Travis, Jim Bowie, and Davy Crockett, who gave there lives in the battle, that the Texans would never forget it and would actually use the memory of this displayed bravery as motivation to win the revolution. Some time later, the Texan Militia comprised of 800 men, led by Sam Houston, silently crept toward the Mexican Army and discovered Santa Anna and his 1600 men engaged in a siesta. The militiamen then awoke the sleeping Mexicans by screaming, “Remember the Alamo!” and slaughtering the General of the Mexican Army and in essence winning the war. It was 1836 that Texas became its own self-governed country called The Republic of Texas. 9 years later, President Polk illegally annexed Texas into The Union.

An Interesting Fact: I discovered this browsing through a time line of Texas History. Mexico had once made it illegal for Americans to migrate into its Texas Territory and had difficulty keeping them from crossing its border.