Bluebonnet Festival in Burnet, Texas

Yesterday, we loaded up 17 residents and our social director on the bus and drove to Cedar Park, Texas just west of Austin.  There we boarded the Austin Steam Train, The Hill Country Flyer bound for Burnet.  The railroad was built in 1882 from Austin to Burnet.  When the capitol building was being built it was extended to Marble Falls so the pink granite could be brought to Austin for it’s construction

We were booked on the Silver Pine car which was a first class coach car with very comfortable seats, air conditioning, water and snacks and a very accommodating volunteer.   All of the cars are from different train lines and different years.  Those made in the 20’s  don’t have air conditioning.

 

This was the door to our compartment.

Here are some of our group before we left the station.  That’s Erin standing.

    

We passed through the settlements of Walkerton, Block House Creek, Leander and Bagdad, and Short Creek Canyon before crossing the South San Gabriel bridge and it’s 300-foot-long trestle.  Here we are approaching the bridge.

And here we are going over it.

There is not a lot of water in the river due to the severe drought that we have had for the last several years.

All along the way we saw beautiful bluebonnets like these.

         

      

There were bluebonnets along the tracks as well as in the fields.

 

There were also beautiful patches of yellow flowers.   

After the South San Gabriel River we passed through Liberty Hill, Grover and Shin Oak before arriving at Bertram.  The Bertram depot was built in 1912 in Orange Grove, Texas and relocated to Bertram in 1998.

 

Bertram has some very interesting old buildings.  We will probably come back to some of them in the future.

This is the door to the adjoining car.  Between the two cars is where we took most of the pictures.

Between Cedar Bark and Summit we climbed 500 feet.  Next we dropped down into Airy Mount and Burnet.

 

More bluebonnets along the tracks.

Summit is where freight trains leave half of their load before going back to Burnet for the second half as it is a 2% grade.  There is also a RIP (repair in place) area here.

   

Here is another train trestle.  We would never made it under with our motorcoach.  (The motorcoach, by the way has sold.  Yea!!)

The engineer  backed the train into Burnet and we disembarked.  After a short walk on some gravel we arrived to the block-paved area.

 

In the parking lot was a bus to the Highlander Restaurant.  Quite a few of our group boarded it.  We had a very good buffet luncheon for a very reasonable price.

The bus dropped Wayne and I off at the festival area.  We walked one side of the courthouse and partway down another before heading back towards the train.

 

On the corner by this historic old building was a beautiful metal sculpture of bluebonnets.

 

This yard had really nice metal sculpted bluebonnet yard stakes and some with bases.  I just couldn’t decide where I would put one.

There was a food court, carnival, and arts and crafts booths all the way back to the bandstand area in front of the train.  We stopped at the chairs in a shaded area and people watched until time to re-board the train.

  

After we got back on the train I took pictures of all of our group.  Here is Erin our fearless leader.

Some one took a picture of Wayne and me.

Here are Penny and Peter.  He is a resident and she is his friend from Pflugerville.

Here are Margaret and Doris.

Here are Evelyn and Mary Lou.

Here are Lyn and Claude.

Here is Lynda.   She has two white poodles that we are trying to set up a play date for Trouble with.

Here are Betty  and our next door neighbor, Mary.

  

Here is Howard.

  

Here is Mary Alice.

 

Here is Kay.

Here is JoAnn.

A fun trip was had by most.  The train also does Murder Mystery Trips and we have talked to Erin about doing one in June.