Chicken Earl's

Wednesday January 27: Monday morning we awoke to no water – again. Thought the hose may have frozen, but it really did not get that cold over night. We soon discovered that the entire loop had no water (we did have a full tank so we could flush and wash) and figured that the problem was something more significant. About 9, we took a stroll to the shop and there we found the cause. The main water line where it crossed under the shop drive split sometime during the night. It took them until early afternoon to finally get it repaired.


Tom, one of the other volunteers stopped by about 10 to tell us that we would be working with him on painting some bath rooms. They have been re-habilitating the older ones and they need painting. There are three others that just need the trim touched up where they replaced the roofs. So we all met and looked over the job, gathered equipment and began painting after lunch on Monday. While painting and talking we decided to try “Chicken Earl’s” for dinner on Tuesday as it is famous around here for fried – now REAL fried chicken. Chicken Earl’s is nothing more that a kitchen in an old carnival food wagon like you would get elephant ears at the Randolph Fair. There are old tables/booth seats out in the open for you to sit on and it is surrounded by junk!

Tuesday we started about 9:30 and worked until noon before breaking for lunch. We heard on the radio that several volunteers were heading to Chicken Earl’s for lunch and that made us all anxious to try it. We finished up later than usual as Tom and Jon we doing the missed trim on one of bath houses so we did not head out until 5:30. We laughed about finding seating as we arrived and about all of the ‘stuff’ spread about. Imagine our shock when we walked to the window and were told, “sorry, we’re sold out.” They told us that during the off season (now) they buy and cook 150 pounds of chicken for Tuesday (that’s the only open day) and during the ‘season’ it’s 300 pounds. Now we have to wait until next week! It really must be something if they get by being open only one day a week.

This is Judy and Lois working on the backside of the bath house.

Judy is about to go up the ladder to paint the fascia.

Thursday January 28: Worked on painting in the light drizzle yesterday at bath house 16. Because of the weather we worked on the inside doing the trim around the door and windows. It was so humid the tape would not stick and the paint was slow to dry. In the evening the volunteers all gathered for a pot-luck and games – chicken foot and sequence. We all enjoyed it and plan to make it a weekly affair. Today it rained hard at times and the wind really rocked the trailer during the night. We did go over and paint some so we have more than enough hours for this week.

Lilly is right at home on our travels.

Friday January 29: A real storm rolled through last evening. The local TV out of San Antonio kept interrupting broadcasts with information about it and tracking and the fact that Uvalde and Real Counties were under a Tornado Watch. We had just gone to bed when it hit. Hard rain and winds lasted for about an hour then it got so quiet. It rained hard off and on all night, so no painting today. Will be a good day to take a road trip to Bandera.

Saturday January 30: We took a long drive yesterday. Our initial goal was lunch at a place called the “Apple Orchard” in Medina (they pronounce it Madena down here) but along the way took a side trip to Lost Maples State Natural Area, a park with hundreds of ‘lost’ maple trees. Apparently folks come from all over in November and December to see the leaves change and enjoy the colors. Of course it was hard to pick out the maples among the other deciduous trees. We enjoyed a chilly but good lunch (it’s an out of door café place and it was in the 40’s) huddled around there pot-bellied stove. Bandera was the next stop and it’s called the “Cowboy Capital.” It has lots of touristy shops and places to eat, all with the city cowboy in mind. We did find a shop off the main road that catered to the real cowboy/horseman. You could tell because it had working gear, not the rhinestone cowboy/cowgirl stuff.

Tried to get a picture of one pass we went through.

The road back was a winding two lane one that pretty much followed the edge of the hills back to Leakey. And that’s another strangely pronounced word. You would think it would be “leak ee” but here it is “lake ee” – oh well!

The day (Saturday) began with a pancake breakfast for the volunteers, cooked by volunteers. One couple is very proud of their apple/pecan pancakes so we all had to try them. After lunch we joined Ranger Frank for another long hike. He was going to do the same one as last week, but as two of the three people to do the hike had done the long one last week, he altered the course to take us to the highest spot in all of Uvalde County. Our site is located at 1410 feet above sea level and the highest point is at 1896 feet. On the way up we passed an overlook of the park below.

This canyon was part of a feeder trail to the Chisholm Trail.

Again we were on trails originally carved out by the CCC in the late 1930’s. This is the only original trail marker left in the park. By the markings, it was for both horses and man. The horseshoe and bare foot (see the big toe) were cut out of the cedar with hammer and chisel.

We will see what next week brings.