Our Butt Experience

The weekend of March 15-17 was a Butt day, Howard E. Butt  Foundation day to be more specific.  We got ourselves elected as assistant cooks at a weekend retreat for families from the school that Judy's daughter,  Kathy, teaches.  Kathy and her husband Phillip were the primary organizers of the event:

Apparently, anyone met the "cook" criteria, and, therefore, we were selected.

The H. E. Butt  camps (known for their  HEB groceries in the San Antonio area) are located in Leakey, Texas.  Leakey is about 100 miles north west of San Antonio.  The foundation owns 1900 acres with several camp facilities.  It is open only to those non-profit groups which meet their religious (Christian) leaning.  We were located on one of the medium sized camps--our group was about 175 people.  Each camp has a modern kitchen/dining hall , outside meeting area, and cabins (most were bunkhouses).  Most bunkhouse contained a dozen bunks and each cabin had toilet/shower facilities.  Our cabin (assigned by the gracious organizer) was the only one with two bedrooms, toilet, shower, dining room and living room.  Our "cabin" which we shared with John and Judy, had about 1200 square feet.  We even had laundry facilities in an outside room off the back patio.  We were housed as royalty.  The only down side to the accommodations was there was no television, no internet and no cell phone service.  We were roughing it!

While the 175 other people (toddlers to grand parents) were off doing whatever their schedule required, we were in the kitchen by 6:00 each morning until about 8:00 each night with a short afternoon break.  We assisted the real cooks (many come each year to this annual event)  with the preparation and service of the meals.  Unfortunately, cooks normally ate last and often the main entrée had "run out" by that time.  By Sunday, we learned to eat early.

The Foundation's grounds lie along the East Frio River.  Getting to our camp was somewhat challenging.  We rode with John who maneuvered his newer Lexus down River Road.  This road was really the river.  We drove down a marked lane in the river for a t least a 1/2 mile:

The designated road was to the right of the stone markers and was tight in many areas for two-way traffic.  The water in most areas was no more than 6 inches deep.  This was the only way into or out of our camp.  We were warned that if we had rain, we may have to wait a day or two for the river to recede.  We could not find anyone who could explain why the road was named "River Road."

The camp offered swimming and canoeing in the very picturesque setting.

 

 

As noted above, this camp is closed to non-Christian religions.  There were, however, signs of a Wiccan presence:

Non-believers were otherwise covert.