The other day my grandson, Dylan called me on his way home from work and we started talking about when we lived in Spicewood, Texas. We loved it there. It's where Dylan created most of his earliest childhood memories. Great memories of playing out side in the huge yard, riding his bike, going to the lake and hanging out with neighborhood friends. Sometimes it seems like it was just yesterday, other times it seems like a lifetime ago.
So it all began in March of 2001, I bought a house at 213 Vera Drive, in the small, quiet community of Spicewood Beach, Texas. Dylan was about 4 1/2 years old.
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| 213 Vera Drive, Spicewood Beach, Texas |
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The front porch
213 Vera Drive, Spicewood Beach, Texas
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My family at our house in Spicewood
Dylan, Adriane, Christian and Christina |
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Dylan in the front yard
213 Vera Drive, Spicewood Beach, Texas |
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| Christina and Dylan |
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| Dylan and Adriane |
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| Christian and Dylan |
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| Dylan in the living room |
Spicewood Beach is about an hour drive from Austin, meandering down Hwy 71 West of Austin. Austin is in Travis County and Spicewood Beach is in Burnet County. It's located on the Colorado River, between Bee Cave and Marble Falls along with many other beautiful lake communities.
I had been living in Austin in the very nice neighborhood of Barton Hills, off of South Lamar, close to Zilker Park with my kids Adriane, Christian and my grandson Dylan. I was looking to buy a house but my landlord wouldn't sell the house to me, so after Dylan had his tricycle and riding tractor stolen by a road construction crew out of our front yard, I decided it was time to move to a smaller community off of the beaten path.
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| Dylan on his riding tractor |
I have to back up here a minute, my family and friends first started hanging out in Spicewood in the 80's because Willie Nelson bought a country club in Briar Cliff. Looking back, I don't think we knew what we had. There was a swimming pool, Willie's Pedernales Recording Studio and a golf coarse at the country club in the community of Briar Cliff about 25 miles west of Austin. I worked at Willie's Pedernales Recording Studio in the mid 80's. I was the assistant to Willie's office assistant in the beginning of Farm Aid. My kids grew up at the country club, spending weekends and summers there. Many of our fondest memories were in Spicewood. I am writing this on the weekend that KUTX 98.9 is celebrating Willie's 92nd birthday so they are playing Willie music all weekend. All of these songs remind me of that time.
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Christian and Christina
At Willie's cabin in Spicewood
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Booker T Jones on the deck
overlooking the pool at the country club |
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| Booker T Jones taking Nita and Christina out to eat sushi |
Anyway, on my house search, I looked at a couple of houses in Wimberley and decided that the 2 lane, Ranch Road 12 wasn't a road that I wanted to drive daily. My friend Jody, who had been Willie's office assistant for years, talked me into looking at houses in Spicewood near her and the country club. That seemed like a great idea, not realizing that Spicewood covered a very large area. I found the the house of my dreams in Spicewood Beach, which was another 30 minutes past Briar Cliff. I didn't notice how far it was because it was a beautiful drive through the hill country.
Spicewood Beach seemed perfect because it was a place where Dylan would be safe playing outdoors. It was 5 miles off of Hwy 71 West down Eagle Bluff Road. At the end of that 5 mile road, you take a left into Spicewood Beach on Terrace and that street dead ends into Lake Travis at the bottom of the hill. I had only been about half way down that 5 mile road before moving there to go swimming at a beautiful swimming hole called Krause Springs.
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| Founded in 1955, Krause Springs is a historical sites
and has been privately owned by
the Krause Family for more than 50 years. |
So yeah, Spicewood Beach was definitely off the beaten path. The speed limit in the community was 20 mph and most residents drove golf carts because the only place to go was to the the golf course or the lake with the sandy beach where there was a fishing dock and a boat ramp. You could see beautiful homes built on the cliffs across Lake Travis. I felt that this neighborhood was going to be perfect for my grandson to play freely and for my dad to go fishing and golfing.
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Spicewood Beach Golf Coarse
with picnic cabanas on the beach front
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| Spicewood Beach Golf Coarse |
We moved in in early spring of 2001. It had 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms in the main house and had a garage apartment above the one car garage with a bathroom. Perfect.
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| This is the back patio and upstairs garage apartment |
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Photo of the garage apartment
from the backyard |
When my parents came to see me in the spring of 2001, my dad stood on the top deck overlooking the lake and told me "You did really good CiCi!" I tried to talk my parents into selling their house in Amarillo and told them they could have the primary bedroom and I could have the bedroom above the garage. Unfortunately, my father passed away at the end of that summer, August 20, 2001. I had spent the summer planting a garden, lots of flowers and shrubs.
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| The Front of the house |
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| We had the most amazing morning glories |
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| The Front of the house and porch |
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| Huge Rose Bushes |
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| I created mosaic walking paths in the yard |
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Our canna lillies were the tallest I have ever seen
with morning glories in the background
in the front yard
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This was on the side of the house
Dylan and our very tall canna lilies |
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| Dylan in the Garden |
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| Side of house |
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Dylan with Iris plants transplanted
from grandma's house |
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Dylan in the backyard with palm trees and canna lilies
Besides the huge yard with a beautiful garden, Dylan had a tree swing and a sand box. He spent most of his free time out in the shade of the big tree on the side of the house playing in the dirt or helping me in the garden. |
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Dylan in his happy place,
playing in the shade of the the big tree
on the side of the house |
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| Dylan slip sliding away |
Dylan and I took long walks collecting beach rocks. We used some of the river rocks to tile a border in the shower in one of the bathrooms.
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| Upstairs Garage Apartment |
After my dad passed away, I thought it would be a great idea to take one of my dad's fishing poles so Dylan and I could go fishing. Bad idea. We went out on the fishing dock with an earthworm from the compost on a hook and immediately caught a fish. I didn't know what to do and Dylan was standing there yelling "Put him back in the water!" Fortunately, a neighbor was there to throw the fish back in the water.
Here are some more family photos at our house in Spicewood. Lots of good memories there.
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| Grandma and Dylan washing dishes |
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| Mom and Christian at Christmas |
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| Grandma and CiCi |
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| Grandma and Dylan |
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| Rachel, Adriane, Christian, Camille and Cayce |
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Dylan's 5th birthday party
Cayce, Camille, Christian, Adriane and Dylan |
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| Kitchen Window |
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| Christian and Christina |
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| Dylan writing letter to Santa |
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| Dylan
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| Adriane and Christian Christmas |
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| Dylan at the bar |
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| Billy Doss and Dylan |
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Mosaic tile I did in one of the bathrooms
I am happy to say that the new owners left
all my tile work there. |
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| Dylan in his bedroom |
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| Dylan playing with his trucks and tractors |
So I owned that house for about 7 years. I sold it around the same time that I retired from the Austin American-Statesman, thinking that if I didn't have a reason to go to Austin every day for work, I would in fact become a hermit.
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| Dylan at the mailbox |
Timing is everything. I put my house on the market and went to St Louis to see my son Christian and my grandson Andrew. The very first real estate agent who looked at our house, put an offer on it, which was a for sure sign that it was listed for way less than it was worth, after all the improvements done to the house and lawn.
At any rate, I am convinced I have an army of angels watching over me. We had a great 7 years there. A few months after I sold the house, Spicewood Beach was severely affected by a drought and by 2012 it was the first Texas community to completely run out of water. The town's wells, part of the Lower Colorado River Authority (LCRA) system, were completely depleted due to the drought, forcing water to be delivered by tanker trucks. I've heard several theories on why Spicewood Beach ran out of water. Some think the wells suffered because water was stolen. Others blame the Lower Colorado River Authority for mismanagement. Some say the LCRA just sold too much of the water to outside contractors. Some think it’s all three. But everyone seems to agree on one thing, they never thought this would happen.
I've never been back to Spicewood Beach since I sold the house but my grandson and his grandfather Davis went to the beach to go fishing, only to discover there was no water.
Here are photos comparing what Spicewood Beach looked like when we lived there and after the drought. It is very sad.
The fishing dock when we lived there from 2001 - 2008
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| The fishing dock after 2012 |
This is the before and after
of the front yard
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