Texas Hill Country Dope Fest! (San Antonio TX, “SATX”)

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
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The Texas Hill Country Dope Fest is in 1 week, on Saturday, April 6!

One week to go! Look for updates here in this thread. I will post when I’m there with Mrs. Bullitt.

If you’ll be near New Braunfels in Central Texas, we hope you can join us. No need to RSVP. Just show up.

What’s the Who What When Where and Why for this?

◆ WHO — Dopers in the Texas Hill Country + partners / spouses / friends
• Planning to attend are: @ThelmaLou , @FloatyGimpy , @JohnT and Inna, and Mrs. Bullitt & Bullitt

◆ WHAT — Dope Fest Texas Hill Country. Let’s meet IRL!

◆ WHEN — Saturday April 6, 2024, at 1030am

◆ WHERE — Gristmill River Restaurant & Bar, 1287 Gruene Rd, New Braunfels TX
830-625-0684; https://gristmillRestaurant.com
mail@grueneTexas.com

Here is a map to the restaurant ➜
https://maps.app.goo.gl/y2Yp4DPUYax8x5TT6

• Gristmill opens @1100 but a crowd is expected. They do not take reservations. Let’s meet up in line and start getting to know each other, then go in and enjoy lunch when they open. I plan to be there before 1030.

• Updates will be posted in this thread, for info like who has arrived, what am I wearing, where have they seated us etc.

◆ WHY — to meet up in real life, in 3D, and get to know some other Dopers who we talk with here; and also so we can fight some ignorance together :wink:

DOPE FEST!!

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I plan to be at the Grist Mill at 10 AM. Dopers attending please PM @Bullitt your cell phone number. We will need a group text led by Bullitt to be in touch in Real Time on that day. Wear a conspicuous hat and tell us what it will be. I’ll put us on the waiting list as soon as I get there.

Here’s what the area is expecting in the way of visitors and traffic. Take a moment to read the article. Although New Braunfels is a bit to the east of where it’s talking about. And we’ll be two days before the eclipse. Even so, I expect Times Square on New Year’s Eve-type crowds.

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Thanks, @ThelmaLou . Yes if you plan to attend please PM your cell phone number to me. I’ll create a text thread to enable us to communicate rapidly, in case the crowds that day dictate that we adjust our plan.

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Unfortunately it’s looking highly unlikely that I will be attending now as the weather in San Antonio is looking miserable and I can’t justify spending that much money knowing that I will most likely not get to see the eclipse. I’m am extremely disappointed. Attending a Dope Fest was the icing on the cake of what was supposed to be an awesome trip.

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You could always change your plans to go to a place where the eclipse will be visible and the weather will be good. Doesn’t have to be here.

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Plans have changed again, and I will be there!

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Yay!!

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Our Dope Fest is the day after tomorrow! Can’t believe it’s already here.

So far I have 6 people on the text thread. If you plan to come please PM your phone number for better coordination.

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Approaching lift-off.

When I leave home to drive to Gruene (pronounced: GREEN*, like the color) tomorrow, I’ll text everyone in the group text. When you get there, park anywhere you can find-- probably won’t be all that close to the restaurant. I plan to put us on the Gristmill restaurant waiting list as soon after 10 am as I can. The reservation will be in Bullitt’s real name. The restaurant opens at 11 am. Bullitt will be wearing a black cowboy hat; I’ll be in a bright orange canvas wide-brimmed sun hat. (There will be LOTS of cowboy hats.) BTW, my hair is snow-white, no longer the red of ThelmaLou’s avatar. Sigh.

BTW, the following interesting article about Gruene Hall appeared in the San Antonio Express-News this morning. I hope it doesn’t inspire a lot of people to drive up there tomorrow. There will already be a HUGE crowd, as there is every weekend when the weather is nice. And right now the weather is postcard-perfect-- 60s at night, low 80s in the afternoon. (Sorry for y’all still getting clobbered with winter weather.)

Gristmill website:

Gruene Hall is right next door to The Gristmill, as you can see from the picture.

Front of the restaurant:

* May not be the correct pronounciation for native Germans, but that’s how it’s said around here.

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Sounds good, @ThelmaLou . But I will be wearing a bright red San Francisco 49ers baseball hat. I did not bring my black Stetson. It’s too big to haul 2,700 miles in my car.

See you soon. Looking forward to meeting everyone! Look for me in a hat like this one:

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Some fine Dopers involved here and I wish I could join you, but I’m just about as far geographically from Texas as I am culturally. I think I’ve only been to Texas once. I think it was Dallas. It was summertime and my impression of it was “too hot”! I was at a restaurant on one occasion where it turned out that our waiter was from Canada. I asked him his impression of Texas. I think the answer was something like “too hot”! :smile:

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Well that was delightful! I thoroughly enjoyed myself. So nice to put faces to names.

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Yup, it was nice hanging out. I suddenly got a sense of how long 10 years was and how yet today was the first time I’d met anyone on the board. Thanks Bullitt for arranging this.

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Inna and I arrived a few minutes after 11, met everyone at a table overlooking the river. We talked all topics eclipse-related, Dope-related, life-related…

… we even talked about you. :stuck_out_tongue:

Got some pics made, the food was S Texas bar and grill (large portions), the company was lovely, a good time was had by all!

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It was fun meeting everyone. Food, setting, company-- all great! Thanks to @Bullitt for relentlessly promoting this get together. Wouldn’t have happened otherwise. :kissing_heart:

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We had 7 in our group today. It was great meeting these nice Dopers in 3D! The venue was very nice, and we had a table above and next to the Guadalupe River with a nice view. Nicely done, @ThelmaLou , and thank you!

Here are two pictures we managed to get of our group.

Before @Velocity arrived, from left to right: ThelmaLou, Bullitt, Mrs Bullitt, FloatyGimpy, Inna, JohnT

Velocity’s arrival completed our group.

From the left, seated — FloatyGimpy, Inna, ThelmaLou
Standing — JohnT, Velocity, Mrs Bullitt, Bullitt

Zoomed in

After lunch we walked over to some live music at the Historic Gruene Dance Hall next door (built 1878; claimed, oldest in Texas; wiki link)

At Gruene Hall (“Gruene” is “green”), on the wall are some pics of John Travolta from the movie, Michael (1996) which was filmed there and in the surrounding towns

All in all, a good day. Now it’s time for an eclipse. Woo-hoo!

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Ooh! Dopers are so cute!

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Clean us up, get our meds right, and we’re just like normal(ish) people!

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On the board we’re disembodied, faceless, (real)nameless peers, known only by what and how we write. It was a little Too Much Reality at our GTG for me to realize that I’m old enough to be the mother or indeed grandmother of everyone there. :open_mouth:

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Oh, Thelma you were my favorite face in that group(no disparaging the others) But I truly liked your face.
I’d like to know you in RL.

Have fun tomorrow. I’ll be thinking of y’all.

ETA…I think we have the same glasses too.