"I have some great
friends here, most of who I had to really show that I was here to be a
part of the community and that I loved and would showcase the house,
which is a historical house that is 130 years old," says Janetta.
"I've become great friends with the Publisher of the Taylor Newspaper,
Richard Stone and his wife, Tia Stone, and with Ian and J.D. who own the
Texas Beer Company and with Shannon who owns the great and famous music
club opposite from the Texas Beer Company on 2nd and Main. And to
let you know, the main street is basically 2nd and Main and 2nd street,
where all of the bars have live music every weekend. The park has the
live music concerts that draw 3,000 people, and the culture here is very
vibrant and young." Janetta gives me the numbers of the above
mentioned friends and I call and make appointments to go see each one or
chat on the phone. Below you see J. D. who owns Texas Beer Company
along with his partner Ian and as I walk in during the social distancing
rule, I am the only one in the bar with J. D. He lets me taste the
beer that he, as the brewer has made, and I love the stouts; 3 of these. The best is the Chocolate strawberry and the Chocolate pineapple! YUM!
https://www.texasbeerco.com/
https://www.texasbeerco.com/
KING GRACKLE CHOCOLATE STRAWBERRY STOUT
"I love weddings and Pecan Manor is perfect, although the guests do stay here, the wedding parties love to use the Manor to do their makeup and to dress for pictures. It has a perfect gentile feeling to it and the brides are just beautiful," says Janetta, who says, "I've actually had a blast-is that a old-fashioned word? A blast?" laughing she asks, "I guess, but I have. I've met people from everywhere, mostly America, yet I've had Canadians who somehow always know about the music festivals, and Germans, French, Italians, and one guy actually came here from Peru. He came for the music festival, one of the many festivals that Taylor seems to draw huge crowds for and he stayed here. He was a car enthusiast and I introduced him to my friend Jeff. Jeff restores very expensive cars such as Lamborghinis, Bentleys, Ferraris, you know the real rare ones. That is all he could talk about at dinner and soon everybody at the table wanted to go see Jeff and his cars!"
Here is my lovely host Janetta's southern hospitality at work! Always a beautiful porcelain coffee server with tiny southern porcelain cups and lively conversation.
Then mosey down to the Texas Beer Company and you have conversations such as here and remember these boys were the PAID CAMPAIGN MANAGERS OF AUSTIN FOR BOTH O'BAMA'S PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGNS.
"We usually have the entire bar full of locals, who love our famous BBQ and try one of our about 12 beers constantly on tap. With the stay at home order, most of these folks are just doing just that-Staying at home and Ordering...Texas Beer Company Beer, " laughs J.D. as he talks about his 3 year old company.
"I met Ian when both of us were on Obama's Presidential campaign team. We both worked out of the Austin region in 2008 and 2012 and that was a great time. We talked about perhaps starting our own brewery and finally bought the building in 2016 in Taylor. The place was totally run down and we pretty much generated a new life into the town of Taylor. We love the community and they are very supportive of us, the concept and the beers."
TEXAS, The longhorn beauty of America, has some very lovely cities.
From Houston Texas, with its huge sprawling totally surprising parks and greenery and neighborhoods to the Total Pleasure of San Antonio's Riverwalk, Alamo and GREAT Mexican inspired Restaurants,
you can come here during the month of April and find intense beauty and
calm while you're awaiting the plight of citizens around the world to
heal.
Where to stay in San Antonio while visiting the Alamo? How about
with your window view of the historic site right underneath you? Try the
very Treasured Historic Hotel Gibbs,
which is built in 1909 by Colonel C.C. Gibbs as San Antonio's first
tall building. "It used to be a historic office building that is
converted to a boutique hotel, " says David. It has a lot of character
and once housed unofficial Sheriff's poker nights! "The Alamo is one of
the most visited tourist attractions in the entire world, so we are used
to tourists from everywhere!" 
David, the manager of Hotel Gibbs the last 10 years, says that he
loves his city,"You know we are the only hotel that sits in the original
Alamo grounds. We are in the Northwest corner of the Alamo walls of
the original Alamo, and that combined with the fact that you can
actually see the Alamo Fort outside of your window, and we are a boutique
elegant hotel that is suprisingly affordable, is probably the reason
people love us. And we offer a great breakfast that no other hotel
offers. That could be the reason too!"
If you meet David and his team of Sara, John, Josh,
Heather, Linda, JC , Jay, and Miquel (who is my busy friend always
cleaning in the morning!) and although they are on a small staff since
the country and the state is on a difficult time right now, you will
know that they are always ready to tell you about their city; its
tradition, and make recommendations. And since they are a captive audience, it is a great time to catch up on chatting about the world if you love
to talk. The hotel has a great fitness center on the bottom level and
it's rooms are very luxurious. I loved the hotel and the team.
https://www.instagram.com/hotel.gibbs/
I can literally see the Alamo from my window, and took about 25
pictures of it and the beautiful hard to describe beauty of Riverwalk. 
"Everybody is worried concerning the coronavirus, yet I believe that
San Antonio keeps a close watch on the activities and tries to educate
the public on how to take care of yourself and your responsibility to
others. Be responsible. If you want to come here and observe the rules
of cleanliness and space, we would love to have you and we're trying to
make it affordable and help the people around the world in America now
to be as comfortable as possible. I had a person with us awhile from
London who would of had to go into quarantine upon returning to England
two weeks anyway and decided he loved San Antonio and Texas so much he
wanted to just stay here another 2 weeks! I said alright and hope he has
good memories of America," says David the very happy and informative General Director of the Boutique Hotel Gibbs.
And if you do want to spend your quiet days in, there is no better place in America than
San Antonio, with its quiet beauty and charm. With usual rates up to
$300 during the April high season, now you can find rates from $59 to
$70 per night!
Come on! Turn the worry and negativism into positive rest time!
Alright ready for some RiverWalk and Alamo pictures! 
RIVERWALK SAN ANTONIO
Yes it is the real picture, and yet, honestly, during April 2020, the
empty walks near the river are so ethereal and quiet that you observe
the beauty more!
The three partners of the CompanyRYAN KEATING
RYAN KEATING
TANVIR AMAN
Say hi to Tanvir, who is a real kind, nice person who sponsored me
about 10 days in Houston as a stranded writer needing to write about
America, yet at the same time, everybody in the world is under the stay
at home order. What to do? Ask Americans to help each other of course!
HOUSTON TEXAS, Longhorns! Welcome
to the coolest trio ever, developing Houston with the concept of buying
a property as a homeowner and having the front part of your modern
eclectic 4 story property as condos that vacationers can rent out. 
I stayed here in a spacious room while everybody share the kitchen and television room. Since it
is in the "Time of Cholera" as it were, Tanvir had special coronavirus
cleaners everyday and limited the 7 bedroom and rooftop section to only 9
people. He is great, if the people violate by leaving dishes in sink or
going into somebody's space where they weren't supposed to they get
kicked out. Kind of the way a reality show is! Other than that it is
lovely.
What I found out about Houston Texas is that it is one huge town. Full of green lawns and neighbors walking pets, although you saw only a couple per 100 meters, you saw plenty of beautiful huge walking, jogging, biking paths leading to brooks with trails and huge green parks. Tons of em dotted everywhere in Houston. A total and complete surprise. The restaurants and bars are spaced far apart and either have a car, or in the time now bike bike bike and you can cover Houston in one day just moseying around.
DUNYHA PROPERTIES
What I found out about Houston Texas is that it is one huge town. Full of green lawns and neighbors walking pets, although you saw only a couple per 100 meters, you saw plenty of beautiful huge walking, jogging, biking paths leading to brooks with trails and huge green parks. Tons of em dotted everywhere in Houston. A total and complete surprise. The restaurants and bars are spaced far apart and either have a car, or in the time now bike bike bike and you can cover Houston in one day just moseying around.
The
people are super friendly. Kind Kind Kind. Loved the nature aspect of
the city and since all restaurants were only pickup, it was very
difficult to tell what they were really about. Yet, I am sure if you
check out Downtown or the Sawyer Field Yards, you will love it. Houston Sawyer Yards 
The cool artsy district of Houston's Sawyer Yards
If you want a real American Diner in Houston Texas, find one of the 3 Avalon Diners, the one on 2417 Westheimer anear Kirby & Shepherd.
"Whether you're single, or a mom and dad pushing the baby carriage,
or bikers or driving up in the car or just friends, young and of course
old can come safely here and eat well. I hope many people come from your
site and enjoy our food," says Bambi. 
The people here love Texas and gave a sponsoring free all day from 7:00 am 3:00 pm breakfast in coordination with the bank down the road. Have to ask Avalon
Diner to receive the name of the bank. And if you missed that day just
say you saw it on EmmeAnesBook and can you please have a free meal! 
Hungry? come to Avalon Diner and have the lovely team and boss and his beautiful wife give you some of their tasty food. 
I chatted with the owner on the phone, who is about the nicest person
you could ever meet until you meet his wife in person at the diner who
is nicer and more beautiful! She is a doll and very helpful and wanting
to share her experience and her husband's success with the people of
Texas and the visitors. "Come on down and we can help you!" she says.
Very kind and sweet. and her name is a hoot, BambiLyn, yes just the way
the deer is! http://avalondiner.com/
Says Larry,
"Right now we have a small team such as tonight only me and one of my
team members. I try to do that to show the city that we are conscious
of social distancing and to encourage people to behave responsibly and
come into the store. Usually we have samples for everybody to try, that
is a big part of the Kilwin's philosophy, actually, yet with the
Stay at home order and cleanliness rules, we don't do tastes or samples.
But, as you can see, Kilwin's is made up of 3 sections always. The
fudge and confectionary in the front, the caramel apples and candy and
the ice cream. The ice cream has 32 flavors and all homemade. The candy
and chocolates come for our main factory and they ship these to every
Kilwin's store and the fudge we make ourselves. You can see my team, I
think you saw a girl making the fudge on the weekend, performing in
front of you. That is something fun that we do, too."
109 South Alamo, San Antonio, opposite THE ALAMO!
And of course when my writing, instagram "girls" learn of the Dream Board they decide to do one: Here's to Jesus:)
"Easter is fast
approaching and we do have that big Easter Chocolate Bunny in the middle
of the store, yet if that is a little too big to eat, we have smaller
bunnies too!"jokes Larry.
Larry, being a very religious person who encourages his team to create a DREAM BOARD which shows their faith and helps each member to direct their dreams and goals to what they want to achieve in life.
"I try to help each one in reaching their dreams and I tell my team
that Jesus is the one who owns the store. That is important to me. To
share my faith with my team and to encourage them to do the same.
The Kilwin's in San Antonio is a bit bigger than some in the sense that
it has the great rooms where my team can relax and reflect on life and
for us to have fun."
"Don (Don and Katy Kilwin since 1947) is still in Michigan and is
still actively involved in the process of Kilwin's. He is very
accessible and easy to talk to and lets each owner of the individual
stores run the stores the way that they want to, yet provides the great
recipes that are always the same for each and every item." 
Larry
is very involved in the community of San Antonio, and along with his
team, sponsors events and helps out in all ways that he can. "Most of the events that I sponsor do have to do with faith and community spirit since I believe strongly in my faith."
A
Spirits Distillery, A gorgeous elegant restaurant sitting with windows
to the giant copper stills and a Beer Brewery, right here in the heart
of San Antonio. 
The 5th Family Legacy, since the 1830s, at MAVERICK WHISKY...
WE LOVE MAVERICK AND WE LOVE WHISKEY and being at Hotel Gibbs, we love the location of Maverick Whiskey, too, which is straight down the street about 100 feet!
"The only place that you can actually find our Whiskey is here. We are the only location in San Antonio and the world where Maverick Whiskey is to be bought. Last year me and my wife opened the restaurant, too. It is the first time that we have been in the restaurant business, yet the people love the elegance of the old fashioned wild western feel to it and they sit on top of the distillery where they can actually see the process of the spirits being made," says the fun owner and 5th family of Maverick's to be distilling their famous whiskey. "I'm a doctor at the hospital and that is my profession and today my distilleries are actually making sanitizers for me to donate to the local hospital." he tells me as he first shows me the gorgeous cool place and then runs off to help out at the hospital of San Antonio.
"The only place that you can actually find our Whiskey is here. We are the only location in San Antonio and the world where Maverick Whiskey is to be bought. Last year me and my wife opened the restaurant, too. It is the first time that we have been in the restaurant business, yet the people love the elegance of the old fashioned wild western feel to it and they sit on top of the distillery where they can actually see the process of the spirits being made," says the fun owner and 5th family of Maverick's to be distilling their famous whiskey. "I'm a doctor at the hospital and that is my profession and today my distilleries are actually making sanitizers for me to donate to the local hospital." he tells me as he first shows me the gorgeous cool place and then runs off to help out at the hospital of San Antonio.
https://maverickwhiskey.com/
All the big boys & the bad boys & I guess Calamity Jane drank Whiskey in the Westerns, Johnny Cash drank Whiskey & I'm pretty sure if Hemingway had it anywhere around him, he drank it too. So you're definitely in that category if you sit at a Dark Mahogany Wood bar, with its brass adornments and dark lights, hushed whispers of people making deals, or at some dive bar pounding away before a Disturbed Concert of which afterwards the last thing to have happen to you is actually BE disturbed. The same is with Maverick, you have all the ancestor's pictures on the walls, posed as Matt Dillion from the olden days, with the Sepia tone aura transporting you away from the modern world for awhile. And PS the Whiskey is great!
