Mona’s Yacht Club / Camp Pedernales in Spicewood, Texas was a special kind of place. It was located on the Old Ferry Road where the road ends at the Pedernales River. If you went by water, it was six miles west of Pace Bend Park on Lake Travis. Mona Miller and Sonny didn’t have a lot of business and that was the way they liked it. You were either lost or knew Mona to be there. My brother Roger Bowles, and I knew where Mona’s was.
Her business was on the property where our father and grandmother were born. We fished there for forty years, and our family lived there for one hundred years before we were born. It was a story tellers paradise with cold beer. Willie Nelson and Darrell Royal bought the fishing camp as a place to hang out away from the crowd. Over the years Mona and Sonny and I became good friends, they introduced me to Willie. Everyone that knew Mona liked her and appreciated her kind heart. Sometimes she could be a bit cranky.
One day I came in from a day of fishing on the water. I was hungry for one of her famous hamburgers. I said, “I’m hungry for a hamburger.” Mona shook her head, “No hamburgers today.” I asked “Why?” She said, “no buns.” No problem, just use sliced bread. She gave me a cold stare, a little bit agitated about my questioning her. Mona said, “I’ll make you some enchiladas.” I responded, “I want a hamburger on sliced bread.” Mona reached down under her cabinet. I thought she was going for a gun. Instead, she slammed down a loaf of bread that was hard as a rock and green with mold. “That’s all the bread I got! The bread man passed me by this week. I’ve sent Sonny to town for groceries don’t know when he will be back.” I said, “I guess I’ll have enchiladas then.” The other regulars had a good laugh. That’s the way it was at Mona’s Yacht Club, and everyone loved her as she was. RIP Mona Margaret Miller 2008.