How I Moved to a Town I’d Never Visited … or So I Thought

Like most people, our looking back on 2020 offered a different perspective and getting close to our adult children became a huge priority. We had moved from the Dallas area in 2016 to Chattanooga, Tennessee, for my husband’s job, leaving behind amazing friends and our two adult sons. Four years into the journey, the realization that we’d see our kids only a few times a year became abundantly clear. That was not enough for us or for their younger sister.

So we looked at a map of Texas, figured out where we might be able to purchase some land to build on with room for a horse to stand in a pasture behind a house, and started making some calls. The first was to a real estate agent named David, who knew a thing or two about ranch land in Texas Hill Country. 

We mentioned a town we had considered and he suggested another. That led to my husband booking a flight to meet with David and walk some land with our middle child, who lived about ninety minutes north. By March 2021, we were officially the owners of five acres of land basically overrun by cedars in a newly developed community complete with a community pond and a cattle-guard/gated entrance. Signs along the roads cautioned: Loose Livestock. 

We hired a builder, found a floor plan online, and began the process of clearing the lot/building a house from several states away. Two years after buying land, we moved in. 

Since that time, people have asked: How did you find Burnet, Texas? I would shrug and say, “We just made some calls” and that I had never even been there until after our lot was purchased.

And then one day, while organizing some of my published articles into a digital portfolio, I came across a travel piece I had written years ago (when I worked for a magazine based in Dallas), about the Bluebonnet Capital of Texas. I had taken part in a media tour to a small town, stayed at a resort, toured a famous cavern, eaten at local establishments, and visited historic sites. I remembered the trip. The name of the town didn’t stay with me. Burnet, Texas. Where I now live. 

In fact, while touring the town’s infamous Longhorn Caverns last summer with some of our kids, I said to my girl, “Look! They also have that weird dog formation like the one we saw in Carlsbad Caverns.” She said to me, “There’s not a formation of a dog in Carlsbad.” And that’s when I realized: I had been in this cave before. To add insult to injury, she bought a T-shirt in the gift shop with the dog in pop art graphics to wear in my presence.

So, I can no longer brag that I moved to a town I had never before visited. It’s just that this town was once a tourist destination for me. Burnet looks a lot friendlier, quaint, and welcoming now that it’s home.