Llano, TX - Jan 2006

After leaving Brazos Bend State Park, we moved northwest and stopped at one of our favorite state parks -- Inks Lake, near Llano Texas. This was Mom & George's beautiful lakeside site. We were parked to the left and used the oak shaded area between the two coaches as our communal patio. What a lovely spot!

We enjoy staying at Inks Lake for several reasons -- the park sits on a lovely lake, there are several campsites right on the water, the deer are abundant and wander through the campground, there are several excellent hikes, the spring wildflowers are gorgeous and finally it's close to Llano -- home of Cooper's Barbecue and Chrissy's Bakery -- two of our favorite eateries.

Every morning and evening a trio of deer wandered through our campsite and nibbled their way down to the lake, got a drink and then made their way back into the trees. They definitely were comfortable around people and wouldn't move away until you got within a few feet of them. This is George encountering a deer on his way back from the showers (oh yes, another great thing about Inks Lake -- the park has very clean restrooms with great showers.)

We stayed at the park for about a week and went to Cooper's Barbecue twice. Cooper's is known throughout the area for their excellent barbecue. They have at least a dozen, huge outdoor pit smokers and cook up all kinds of wonderful meats including brisket, beef ribs, pork ribs, chicken, sausage (mild & spicy), pork chops and cabrito. In addition to eating our way through two visits, we also brought home several pounds of brisket (our favorite) to freeze and enjoy later.

As you drive into Llano and approach the restaurant, you can smell the meat cooking from at least a mile away. There is almost always a line outside and as you wait in line you are teased with the aroma emanating from the pits. The line can move slowly (no rushing allowed here) but the wait was made more pleasant as we chatted with the other salivating folks in line.

Once you get to the head of the line, you stand in front of an enormous grill that is covered in every type of cooked meat that they have. You point to what you want and let the server know how much you want and he carves the meat, dunks it in their oh-so-yummy, vinegar based sauce and slaps it onto a plastic tray. You carry your tray inside where the meat is weighed and you select your side dishes of cole slaw, corn and/or potato salad and then decide if you'll have room for some warm, homemade peach cobbler.

Fancy is not even in the vocabulary at Cooper's. The single-room dining area is filled with picnic tables and benches and, before you sit down, you get your own plastic cutlery, fill up your tray with a bowl of beans, extra sauce, pickles and onions and then you go try and find a spot to squeeze in at the tables. The tables have rolls of paper towels (much needed for the juicy ribs), bags of sliced white bread and huge jugs of burn-your-tongue jalapenos. The cliental at Cooper's is eclectic and it's not unusual to be sharing a table with a tatooed, leather-clad biker, a snap-shirted, clean-cut rancher and an Eddie Bauer outfitted hiker. Cooper's is definitely a tantalizing experience for all of your senses.

Our other favorite food place in Llano is Chrissy's Bakery. We stumbled upon it quite by accident, but are so glad that we did. In addition to heavenly cookies, lucious pound cakes, fresh donuts, rich pastries and chocolately, moist brownies they have the BEST sweet German pretzels. These pretzels are made from flaky pastry dough and have a wonderful blend of butter, cinnamon, brown sugar and pecans rolled into the dough and then they are shaped into a large pretzel-shaped pastry, baked and then drizzled with almond flavored icing -- what a delicious treat. We have been known to call up, order a dozen and have them shipped to us when we're not in Llano and we really need a Chrissy's sweet pretzel "fix!"

One last view of Inks Lake at sunset. A very peaceful spot and one that we highly recommend if you're visiting the central Texas area.