prairie point

the dabbs

I really feel the need to comment on the place where we spent our weekend. The Dabbs Railroad Hotel is unique. The original twelve tiny rooms were just the right number for a train crew to overnight when the Dabbs was built in 1907. A couple of the rooms have been converted into bathrooms with indoor plumbing and the inkeeper reserves two for his own use. That leaves eight rooms plus a "sleeping porch" for guests.

The two story wooden building fronts on an unpaved alley in the small central Texas town of Llano just a block off the main drag. Behind it is the Llano River where you can fish or swim, or just sit and enjoy a glass of wine in the moonlight while listening to the water splashing over the rocks.

The best part of the stay though was the "biscuit show" as Gary, the innkeeper, calls his breakfast. Seated around the big table in the dining room there were grey-bearded bikers, fresh-faced yuppies, college students with tattoos and piercings, and ... us.

To see such a diverse group eating and talking together reminded me of a family reunion. And in a way I guess it was. As Gary put it, we were all part of the Dabbs family now. With no locks on any of the doors, communal bathrooms, no check-in or check-out times, it felt more like a home than a hotel.