Move to the Hill Country

Our move to the Hill Country was so exciting. Not only were we starting a new life, but we had realized we were modeling the behavior for our kids to see that life can be different and exactly as you want it to be. If you have not realized that our children need more models in their life, not more critics, it might serve you greatly to think about your actions. We all have our faults and our hang ups, but get clear that your children are watching and mimicking much of what you do in your life.

 We had discussed at great length what our options would be and even considered the worst case scenario. What we came up with was…

“Even if we have to wash dishes to survive, living in the Hill Country and having our life changed is worth it!”

And we made the leap!

“Creativity makes a leap, and then looks to see where it is.”
~Mason Cooley~

We had some friends who said they would help us, we rented a 25ft U-Haul, had two 16ft flatbed trailers, 2 pickups and a Trans-Am. We stuffed them as tight as we could with our belongings, what we couldn’t fit in we gave away, loaded up out two Great Danes and headed West!

We had scheduled to meet our new landlord in Bandera City limits and then he was supposed to lead us to where our house was in the country outside of Bandera. We pulled into town, called him and he met us at the local Dairy Queen.

A nice old guy, retired Chiropractor who had a ranch in the area and a bunch of rental properties. He told us that the place was towards Medina, instructed us to follow him and took off.

We followed and as we left Bandera, we followed HWY 16 along the beautiful Medina River and just absorbed the magnificence which is the Texas Hill Country.

The Texas hill County is like no other place I have ever seen. It has rolling hills, covered in Oak trees, Maples and cedar which makes the hills look like a multi colored rolling carpet and in the Fall, the colors change and provide a new view.

The rivers here are truly spectacular. Limestone bottoms, spring fed, crystal clear and even in holes as deep as 15 feet, you can see the fish swimming on the bottom. The water reminds me of the Caribbean without the salt.

The banks of the rivers are lined with 200 foot Cyprus trees that canopy the river and there are multitudes of grapevines that fill the canopy and some places look like caves of green and bark as you make your way through them.

There is wildlife everywhere; native whitetail deer, turkeys, doves, a variety of colorful songbirds, hummingbirds and an abundance of exotic wildlife. The Hill Country is full of large ranches that cater to hunters and tourists and they have imported exotic wildlife from all over the world to answer to hunters wants.

As a result of this “stocking” procedure, many of the species have escaped over the years due to floods that took out fence lines, car crashes, people cutting the fences, etc… Over the years, the exotic wildlife has grown to large numbers and its not uncommon to see large herds of Axis deer, blackbuck antelope, sika deer, red stags, elk, and every kind of ram or goat you could imagine. You never know what you will see as you drive around the Texas Hill Country but what you can expect is breathtaking beauty at every turn.

The winters are mild and generally there is one snowfall a year and one good ice freeze a year and it really only gets unbearably cold for a couple of weeks time throughout the fall and winter. The summers can be harsh and from about the end of June until the beginning of September, the heat can become unbearable.

The rivers provide great relief to the sweltering heat, but many years are drought ridden and the rivers can become so shallow that you can’t take part in activities on the river. Our first couples of years here, the rivers were magnificent!

The fall is rich with color as the maple leaves turn, the oaks leaves turn and the contrast of the green from the cedar makes it breathtaking at the peak times of the color. Lost Maples State park is a huge tourist attraction in the fall and people come from all over to witness the beauty it has to offer.

The people in the Hill County are different as well. You are commonly met with eye contact, courteous hellos and goodbyes and if you ever break down on the side of the road, don’t freak out when someone stops…They are just checking to see if you need a hand.

When we moved here, it could be 2:00am and when you pulled up to get gas at a gas station, they actually turned the pumps on for you without you going inside first. You didn’t have to worry about crime and it became a habit for us to not lock our house or our car.

A visit to a hardware store or grocery store can take over an hour longer than your expectation because of the chats and talks you have with clerks, managers or every day citizens here.

The pace is slower, kinder, and more genuine and that “Southern Hospitality” that is so often spoken of is actually witnessed in the Hill Country! There isn’t a lot of industry or career opportunities in these areas but overall, it’s just EASIER to live here.

I had my first epiphany about all of this one day while at a convenience store waiting to pay for some random item I was buying. The person in front of me was digging in their pocket for exact change for an item they were buying. I was still in my “big city” mode and was becoming frustrated with the time it was taking, even though it was mere minutes.

As the guy dug in his pocket to search for the change, I took a deep breath, rolled my eyes and thought to myself “COME ON!! HURRY UP!” and the guy looked at the store clerk and started to apologize.

He dug, brought out a quarter, apologized again, dug back in his pocket, apologized again, and came out with the couple of pennies he needed. He looked at the clerk and said…

“Ma’am, I am really sorry…I don’t men to take so long”

And the lady behind the counter said…

“Honey, you don’t have anything to worry about….If you are in the Hill Country and you are in a hurry, you are in the WRONG PLACE!”

And when she said that, I actually giggled out loud at how stupid I felt. THIS is what I moved here for and I had so quickly forgotten.

The guy turned and looked at me while I was giggling and I agreed with the clerk saying…

“She is sooo right, you have no need to apologize!”

The guy smiled at me and left and I have never forgotten that day!

“Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience.”
 ~Ralph Waldo Emerson~

Well, as we pulled out of Bandera with our convoy of every possession we had in our lives, we started on the winding and rolling road of Hwy16 that leads to Medina. Five minutes, ten minutes…My God, how far out is this place?? There were fewer and fewer houses, larger and larger ranches and we were literally “in the middle of nowhere” when I finally saw his blinker come on. About 30 yards past the house was a sign that said “Medina County”….We were in Bandera alright, but just barely!

He turned into a short driveway in front of a house, right off of Hwy 16. It was a small house, stucco on the outside, tan and had a small covered area that was like a carport, completely covered in foliage. The front door of the house was about 20 yards from the highway. Across the highway was a large game fence with a huge open pasture and the Medina River. There were no houses on this large parcel of land that we could see and in the middle was one of those huge watering systems you see in hay fields.

A long piece of metal tubes, anchored at one end, the other end has a small wheel on it and along the tubes are sprinklers that water the fields. The river winded around the property, was lined with massive Cyprus trees and was absolutely beautiful. This was our new home!

Behind the house were four trailer houses which led up a hill from the highway. There was a large double wide trailer on the top of the hill, and as the landlord explained it, these were all his rental properties and he gave us the rundown on all our neighbors. Seemed like a perfect little place to call home!

We had a large portion of the front lot and there was a huge pecan tree in our front yard and a large oak tree next to our walkway in front of the house. If you sat on the front porch, you could see the highway, the big field with the sprinkler and the river… As a matter of fact, you could HEAR the river from the front porch.

The house was very small; 2 bedrooms, one bath, tiled floors, old carpet, a little kitchen with a breakfast bar and a stone fireplace that had some black soot on the front of it from many years of use.

The landlord explained that the house was a small store at one time and had been around since the early 1930’s. The master bedroom was really big but the guest bedroom was pretty tiny. The living area wasn’t real big but the house had a very “cozy” feel to it and Donna and I were tickled!

Once we paid the rent, established the rules from the landlord, were educated about where the closest store was, etc….we started to unpack and load everything we could into the house, and once we were unpacked, everyone that helped us move decided to go and check out the river.

It was explained to us by the landlord that our property went just up to the river but anything beyond that belonged to the big ranch that we could see and the property line was assigned by the fence. Down by the river the game fence ended and it was basically open to wander down the banks of the Medina River, so we did!

It was amazing! Peaceful, serene, crystal clear water, and right where our property stopped, there was a big deep hole to swim in… I went first!

As I jumped in the river, I could feel all the dirt and grime of the last ten years just washing away. There is something about water, something so healing and cleansing and it has an attractant that even the most fearful of people are drawn too.

If you think about it, even the most terrified of people with water still like to let the waves splash on their toes, or wade in the kiddy pool, or wander ankle deep into a lake or a river….there is just something about water that seems to draw people to it, and not simply because they are dehydrated….Maybe THIRST is a better word…Thirst for the cleansing of it, the freshness of it….A thirst to be close to what we are primarily made up of.

“In the world there is nothing more submissive and weak than water. Yet for attacking that which is hard and strong nothing can surpass it.”
~Lao Tzu~

Once we got moved in and settled, we had a party for all who helped us get moved up there with BBQ, beer and just great conversation and time spent with each other. Everyone got to explore different areas of our new “neighborhood” and Donna and I were just thrilled with this move, the location, the river…It was PERFECT!!

Then Monday came…

Sunday night, everyone left to go home and Donna and I were left to tend to the unpacking and organizing of our little home. We had come from a life with a TV in every room, two pagers each, one cell phone each, two computers, internet access, our home telephone, a convenience store just a block away, people on our neighborhood streets for their evening walks, burning houses, rescuing people from wreckage, high speed police chases, fights every day, rush, timelines, tasks, duties….to….NOTHING!!

Once we got everything unpacked, we realized our cell phones had no service, our pagers didn’t work, we didn’t have internet access, we had no cable hooked up yet and it was VERY quiet where we lived. The only thing we did have was an alarm clock radio that sat on our bedside table and it would get one station but even that station was fuzzy….However, the signal improved as cars would pass by on the highway.

 Donna and I, after unpacking, sat on the bed in our silent abode, trying to listen to our radio, and asked each other…

“Did we do the right thing?”

This was quite an adjustment and a huge shift from the life we were living before and fear started to set in. Funny how we can get so complacent in misery that we find comfort in drama, adversity, difficulty, struggle…It becomes part of you and when you separate from it, its scary….Even as dysfunctional as it was, out life had a sense of security.

We struggled for a few weeks with this new found peace and slow motion life but anytime we questioned our choices, we sat on the front porch and looked at the scenery in front of us. No way had we made the wrong choice…No way!

Donna and I spent many hours and most of many days exploring our new surroundings. Every single day we walked across the street over to the river and to what laid beyond that fence, and every day it was something even more spectacular that we would discover.

We would go fill up our vehicle with gas and then have an intention of getting lost as we drove around. Every mile we clocked on our vehicle was just more evidence of this being the right choice!

I had cashed in my retirement from the Sheriffs Department and made sure all of our bills were covered for a year, took us completely out of debt and we started over, from scratch, anew, and happy to be doing it.

I tried a few different jobs, I even tried going back into law enforcement for a small city outside of San Antonio but quickly found that my passion for the job was clearly gone. I was miserable!!

After much conflict with the chief over what she thought was ethical police work, I refused to comply with her desires to write traffic tickets to the elderly people that lived in our community for minor infractions of the law. The laws were created to manage people, not harass them and she could not grasp this distinction and asked for my resignation. I refused, let her terminate me, sold all of my police stuff and bought a canoe and eventually a kayak. We were still fine financially so we just “LIVED” for three or four months.

I went to work for a Rehab Center in Hunt Texas where I was a patient advocate and absolutely loved working with people who were overcoming their adversities and starting their life new and fresh. Other than the “addictions” they were suffering from, we were like minded people (and even like minded in some addictions). It was a great job but the limits put on the residents as well as the staff by the administration was so defeating to the purpose of grasping the magic of your life, I grew tired of it.

I only lasted at that facility for about 9 months. I look back at my time there and am thrilled at the people I was able to work with and some of the friendships I created that are still great friendships now. I stopped smoking cigarettes while I was there and really embraced all the positive things that came from my experience there and let the negative stuff just BE.

After my time there, I decided to take another break, bought another kayak and just became a river rat. I was kayaking and on the river every day for almost three months. I kayaked all the rivers in this area and even a few that were an hour or so away…I was becoming a river guru and I loved being on the water.

I was finding that my job hunt was very limited based on my experience. Although I had led large scale investigations, arrested thousands of people, managed riots and disaster responses, been in multitudes of life and death situations, trained many deputies, had 400 hours or more of courtroom testimony time, outside of law enforcement, those skills are not valued or necessary… I was VERY limited as to what my future would look like professionally and was coming to dead end after dead end.

I had met and become very good friends with a guy on the Medina River. He was a college student, majoring in History, at a University in Kerrville and was a really interesting guy and great friend. He had a shady past, was raised as the “white kid in a black neighborhood” in Florida but had traveled all over the United States and had even hiked the entire Appalachian Trail from end to end. He was very liberal minded, politically informed, educated about history and enjoyed much of the things I did…We hit it off and spent a lot of time together.

One day, when kayaking the river and having one of our many life discussions, I was expressing to him my concern about what my future held for me and he said…

“Brad, why don’t you go to college?”

What a great idea this was and it was in that moment that I realized again that my life and how it unfolded was up to me to create and the “rules” state you have to have an education to be a “professional” so I followed the rules and in January of 2003, I enrolled in Schreiner University to get my bachelors degree.

“Education is a better safeguard of liberty than a standing army.”
~Edward Everett~

I hear people many times who state things like…

“I am not smart enough for school” or “I am too old to go back” or “School is just to long to take on, I have things to do” or “its too expensive” or “I have to work” or whatever the excuse might be.

One thing that every single person living in the United States can do is get an education. There are more ways to support yourself, live and manage your life as a student than you can imagine. Like anything else great, it comes with some risk and some struggle….But in all reality, what in life doesn’t?

After going back to college, I found that there is no better time than now, no better time than this instant and the only limitations we truly have are those we create for ourselves….So if those statements ring true for yiou or you have similar excuses…guess what…

Your right!!

Your right because YOU said so, not anyone else! It’s much easier to create an excuse than it is to create your greatness but when you limit yourself to a particular belief, you limit your experience the word has to offer you. One thing is for sure, you will definitely never know any of that as a truth unless you try….And many, they prefer to not try and then settle for what life “does” to them rather than making life work for them.

Let life happen TO you or make life happen FOR you…

Again, what do you choose?