Living at 213 Vera Drive, Spicewood Beach, Texas

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. 

213 Vera Drive, Spicewood Beach, Texas

The front porch
213 Vera Drive, Spicewood Beach, Texas

My family at our house in Spicewood
Dylan, Adriane, Christian and Christina

Dylan in the front yard
213 Vera Drive, Spicewood Beach, Texas

Christina and Dylan

Dylan and Adriane

Christian and Dylan

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. 

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.

Christian and Christina
At Willie's cabin in Spicewood

Booker T Jones on the deck
overlooking the pool at the country club

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.

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. 

Spicewood Beach Golf Coarse
with picnic cabanas on the beach front

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. 

This is the back patio and upstairs garage apartment

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.

The Front of the house

We had the most amazing morning glories

The Front of the house and porch

Huge Rose Bushes

I created mosaic walking paths in the yard

Our canna lillies were the tallest I have ever seen
with morning glories in the background
in the front yard

This was on the side of the house
Dylan and our very tall canna lilies

Dylan in the Garden

Side of house

Dylan with Iris plants transplanted
from grandma's house

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. 

Dylan in his happy place,
playing in the shade of the the big tree
on the side of the house

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. 

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.

Grandma and Dylan washing dishes

Mom and Christian at Christmas

Grandma and Dylan

Grandma and CiCi

Grandma and Dylan

Rachel, Adriane, Christian, Camille and Cayce

Dylan's 5th birthday party
Cayce, Camille, Christian, Adriane and Dylan

Kitchen Window

Christian and Christina

Dylan writing letter to Santa

Dylan

 and Christina

Dylan Christmas

Adriane and Christian Christmas

Dylan at the bar

Billy Doss and Dylan

Mosaic tile I did in one of the bathrooms
I am happy to say that the new owners left
all my tile work there.

Dylan in his bedroom

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. 

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

The fishing dock after 2012

This is the before and after

of the front yard

In Memory of Pope Francis - December 17, 1936 – April 21, 2025

There seems to be profound messages that come when people cross over. I woke up this morning to the sad news that Pope Francis, the extremely progressive and compassionate leader of the Catholic Church, passed away this morning. 

Pope Francis
December 17, 1936 –  April 21, 2025

It seems appropriate that he would pass away the day after Easter Sunday. It reminded me of when Pope John Paul II passed away on April 2, 2005, six days after Easter. My mother was terminally ill at the time and she didn't seem to be afraid of the transition she was going through. 

For instance, a few weeks before Mama passed away, she had a dream about the Virgin Mary. In the dream Mary asked her why she was wearing a Willie Nelson bandana with braids on her head, because after all, Willie isn't a Catholic. In her vivid dream, my mother told the Virgin Mary that Willie wasn't a Catholic but he was a very good man. Then after Pope John Paul passed away, she very clearly thought it would a good time to go and she wanted a pretty burial casket like his. She passed away 10 days later on April 12, 2005. It seems that when one gets to be that age, there has been enough time to think about how one prefers to exit stage left and everything seems very clear.

My father had passed away suddenly on August 20,2001. I had a dream that morning that someone had stolen the hand carved chair that he had made as a young man in the Civilian Conservation Corps Camps in the 1940's.When I woke up, I sat up to make the chair was still there in my bedroom, it was there but I still felt something was terribly wrong. I received a call at work later that afternoon with a message that my father had passed away suddenly of a heart attack.

I felt the presence of my father for weeks after he passed away then on the morning of September 11, he came to me in a dream and told me he was going to have to go help some people. I started crying in the dream and he told me I was strong and I was going to be okay. I was working at the newspaper at that time, my mother was staying at my house for the weekend and I remember dropping her off at "Jim's" restaurant in Oak Hill for my sister Nita to take her home with her for the week. When I got to work, the news on all the TVs in the newsroom were reporting that  two hijacked airplanes crashed into the North and South towers of the World Trade Center in New York City. Almost 3,000 people died. It was just like my dad to be there for those who crossed over the morning of 9/11.

Today Pope Francis has crossed over but I can't help but believe that his soul knew that he could accomplish so much more from the other side during these difficult times. Pope Francis led and lived by example. He consistently focused on the needs of the poor, migrants and other marginalized groups, challenging the church to be more compassionate and proactive in addressing social inequalities. He focused on social justice, inclusion and the importance of caring for the marginalized and vulnerable. He spoke out against climate change and war, urging the world to address these challenges with urgency and compassion. He introduced significant changes to the Catholic Church, including loosening official attitudes on divorce, de-emphasizing conservative sexual morality, and promoting a more open and inclusive approach to LGBTQ+ Catholics. So now, after his death, his teachings, writings and actions will continue to inspire and guide Catholics and others seeking to create a more just and equitable world. Pope Francis's legacy will serve as an example for future generations of leaders in the church and beyond, encouraging them to be bold, courageous, and committed to making a difference in the world. 

May the spirit of Pope Francis live on forever.