205 S.W. Barnard Street
P. O. Box 1417
Glen Rose, TX 76043
800-575-2101
254-897-2929
Fax: 254-897-7729

Escaping city hubbub only as far as Glen Rose

09:09 PM CST on Friday, February 25, 2005

By BARBARA RODRIGUEZ / Special Contributor to The Dallas Morning News
GLEN ROSE, Texas -- It's not just prehistoric creatures and wild animals.
Although the two -- celebrated at Dinosaur Valley State Park and Fossil Rim Wildlife Center -- are good enough reasons to visit this Somervell County seat, 75 miles southwest of Dallas

The one-time Dr. Snyder's Drugless Sanitarium in Glen Rose has been reborn as the Inn on the River, a lovely place for a weekend getaway from Dallas. But for a weekend of little more than just sitting pretty on a lawn as lush as Gatsby's, I visit the one-time Dr. Snyder's Drugless Sanitarium. It has been reborn as the Inn on the River, a getaway guaranteed to put the apples back in your cheeks. I head to this Central Texas retreat when I need to settle back, roll up my pant's legs, and wade in the Paluxy River.

Glen Rose may not be glamorous -- even the Inn itself has a no-nonsense facade (but 24 splendid rooms), but it is here, just off the square, that I found the Texas answer to Hollywood and Vine: Hereford and Vine.

It's a corner of no particular distinction, as happily higgledy-piggledy as the rest of the town, ideal for hanging about. Sleepy, comfortable, homey. Just ambling around this country town, still studded with the weathered health camps that sprouted at the turn of the last century, I find my flagging spirits boosted, my city cares forgotten. Not to mention that shopping opportunities, including vintage boots and English antiques, abound.

But most of all I like to tuck away in a suite and linger over queenly breakfasts (or kingly or ridiculously grand), or slip off to the back veranda and watch butterflies hover and birds flit. Beneath three knobby oaks, slouchy ranks of lawn chairs as broadly inviting as grandmother's lap encourage all manner of sun-dappled sloth.

Anglers might try to get a line on the Paluxy's mossy-backed bass, then swap fish tales at Hammond's Barbecue, the place for ribs and rib-sticking peanut butter pie. Or, grab a burger in the tilted, wheezy clubhouse at Tres Rios, a 1920's YWCA camp operated as an old-fashioned fishing retreat. They even rent tubes and canoes to put in where the Brazos guzzles up the Paluxy and drinks in Squaw Creek.

Check out the bluegrass concert schedule, prowl for swamp rabbits, bounce barefoot across broad backed river rocks like giant clam shells or swim in a pool where the spring water rushes in as blue as the sky.

Late in the day, there's still time for the favorites. Drive out to Fossil Rim (three miles south on U.S. Highway 67) for a tour through an exotic wildlife sanctuary, where ostriches galloped after my car. Coon-dog the back roads through rolling red-dirt hills, track prehistoric behemoths at Dinosaur State Park. Or just hang out at Hereford and Vine.

Barbara Rodriguez is a freelance writer in Fort Worth.

WHEN YOU GO

The Inn on the River, 205 S.W. Barnard St. in Glen Rose, offers special packages throughout the year including: cooking school weekends, wine tasting events, romantic getaways, bird watching, spa and golf packages. Rates from $129 to $209. Contact: 1-800-575-2101; www.innontheriver.com.
Tres Rios River Ranch, 254-897-4253; www.tresrioscamping.com.
Hammonds Bar-BQ, 254-897-3008.
Fossil Rim Wildlife Center, 1-888-775-6742; www.fossilrim.com
Dinosaur Valley State Park, 254-897-4588; www.tpwd.state.tx.us/park/
dinosaur.
Local travel information: 1-888-346-6282; www.Glen Rosetexas.net.

They are here!

The cookbooks have arrived! We are taking advance sales for Christmas gifts. They will be shipped to all pre-orders on November 17, just in time for Christmas. Email or call the Inn today to place your order.

View photos of the cookbook unveiling party

The first 100 cookbooks printed are signed by Chef Frank E. Woods and owners Shirley & Ernie Reinke. Each book retails at $19.95 plus tax (Plus $4.95 s/h).

This is "A Must Have" for all our guests, and a great gift for the chef in your life!

5 Great One-Night Stands

October 17, 2004

By Amanda Kingsbury / Fort Worth Star-Telegram Travel Editor -- Escape your commitments with these close to home, 24 hour getaways. You’ll never have to call them again (but we’re betting you’ll want to). 

I was late to work Monday. I called my boss and told him the truth -- that I'd just awakened in a strange room following a commitment-free encounter -- one of several I've had in the past month. I showed up. I had fun. I left. Didn't have to deal with any of those morning-after obligations -- you know, making the bed, pouring your own coffee, cleaning up after yourself in the bathroom.  No need here for your prayers, your disdain or your educational pamphlets, because my husband was also part of this quest for the perfect "one-night stand" -- a 24-hour getaway that's close to home but far from reality. 

We ended up in what seemed like our great-aunt's guest room, a rock-star hotel suite and a gondola. As our gondolier guided us along the smooth, black waters of the Mandalay Canal in Las Colinas, he told us that if you kiss under a bridge, your love will last forever. So much for being commitment-free. . . .

#1. Aunt Mildred? Are you listening?

If you just can't miss COPS on a Saturday night, you'll have to tape it -- there are no TVs in the rooms at Inn on the River in downtown Glen Rose.  Here, the nighttime entertainment consists of a river, a moon and your imagination. Couples sit in Adirondack chairs on a hill that slopes toward the water, drinking wine and gazing up at wispy moonlit clouds that form menacing faces, then dissipate. In these same chairs at sunrise, people read books and sip coffee under the shade of two 300-year-old live oak trees that preside over the property like watchful elders. 

The rooms: Small but womblike, with full, queen or king beds. There are also garden and upstairs suites. Each room is different, but all have touches such as antique armoires, down comforters and baskets of fluffy towels in the private bathrooms. 

The vibe: The inn's hospitable personality makes you feel like you're a family member in a big 2-story house -- only you don't have to talk to anyone else in the family if you don't feel like it. Some B&Bs force communalism; the inn offers many solitary spaces -- bistro tables throughout the well-groomed lawn, a chess table in the living room, white wicker chaise lounges on the back porch, where a ceiling fan creates a cool, Southern plantation-style breeze. 

The dish: The inn serves three- and four-course dinners ($39 per person; bring your own wine). A recent Saturday-night menu trumpeted crab cakes with Creole remoulade, a choice of grilled pork chops or shrimp linguine carbonara, and apple-cranberry crisp with vanilla ice cream for dessert. In the morning, bright and shiny guests eat fresh berries, sausage and waffles with warm peach compote in an L-shaped dining room with views of the sun-dappled back yard.
The shut-eye report: Sleep the sleep of the well-cared-for -- you'll even wish someone would come in, tuck you in and turn out the lights. 
What to do: The sidewalks in Glen Rose really do roll up at 8 p.m., after Two Grannies' Down-home Cookin' closes. Come early, and stroll around the town square, where the store window displays are invitingly decorated for fall.

The boom-boom factor: You sort of feel like you're sleeping in your great-aunt's guest room, and she's right next door, probably with her ear to the wall. Better grab that deck of Uno cards from the inn's game closet.

IN THE KNOW
Inn on the River
Inn on the River is at 205 S.W. Barnard St., Glen Rose. Rooms start at $129.
If you want to eat dinner there, make reservations when you call; they don't always remember to ask. 254-897-2929 or www.innontheriver.com 

#2  Tea and tubs for two. Ashton Hotel
#3  Buonasera! in Las Colinas. Omni Mandalay Hotel
#4  The Oz in Arlington. Sanford House
#5  Jessica Simpson slept here.  Hotel ZaZa