Cowboy Capital of the World

18 – 19 Jan

The area west of San Antonio is known as Hill Country, and we passed a number of signs for Ranches along our route.  We stayed a couple of nights at Bandera, a town that calls itself ‘Cowboy Capital of the World’.  It is a fairly small town and they have made a good attempt to keep some character even though they attract tourists. 

They have a Square on Main Street which shows the various Ranch Cow Brands and where an Historical Re-enactment Group act out a gunfight every weekend.  The Sheriff got shot a number of times and on one occasion he ‘died’ on the seat that we were sat on!



We sat in the sun on the bar veranda, drinking iced-tea watching the activity on Main Street.   

Harley-Davidson bikers from Corpus Christi had come up for the weekend and were cruising around.  We spotted a horse and also a mule being ridden through the town.  Alison chatted to the horse rider who mentioned that around a hundred of them ride together into San Antonio for a festival in February – a distance is about 50 miles over two days.

We spent the evening in the Silver Dollar Saloon and played pool, whilst a live band played Country & Western music.  This is not the height of the tourist season and it was a good atmosphere as the place filled with ‘locals’, who we noted came in the back door so they didn’t have to pay the cover fee.