We piled into Charlotte and took off on a trip to no specified destination. We went north, then east, then south and then west and, surprisingly, ended up where we started. The first town we encountered was Fayetteville, named for Fayetteville in the Carolinas but I can’t remember which one. It is a bustling metropolis of some 300 souls with the usual courthouse in the middle of a big square of businesses but instead of the courthouse being a big, imposing stone and brick structure, this Fayetteville courthouse was wood. There must be some unwritten law in these parts that all courthouses must have a big assembly of Seth Thomas clocks mounted such that they face all four directions from the steeple or cupola or whatever you call a structure on top of the building because, so far, there are courthouses with clocks at the top in La Grange, Columbus, Schulenburg and Fayetteville we have seen.. They are very nice, if not similar.
They can publish a tourist guide indicating that this area has numerous towns with merely two types of civic improvements; painted churches and courthouses with Seth Thomas clocks in their roof embellishments.
We left Fayetteville and went to Bellville which is actually in Austin county. Surprisingly, the city of Austin, TX is not in or even near Austin County.
Bellville is a nice little town with some 3000 folks but we did not see a courthouse with four Seth Thomas clocks nor any churches painted anything but white. Strangely, the courthouse in Bellville is a large, ugly, imposing structure of indescribable style that has been built directly in the middle of the road from Bellville to I-10 causing virtually the only traffic backup we encountered all day. Bellville is also home to an enormous bust of Steven Austin that is plopped down at the intersection of two minor highways. Austin must have been an ugly fucker or the sculptor intended to make a joke statue because Steve seems to have been given an enormous nose that appeared to be a cross between Pinocchio’s and Walter Matthau’s. The statue is made out of some type of yellow stone and gazes into a culvert.
The drive through the country around here is wonderful. The grass is emerald green, most of the farm houses are very nice, the town residences are mostly beautiful with Craftsman-type and late Victorian architecture and there is almost no traffic, even on weekdays. It is very scenic and it seems pretty clear why folks settled around here.
There does, however, seem to be one almost universal failing in these parts: Texans apparently believe foundations are extraneous and too expensive to build properly so quite a few of the structures we have seen have assumed a list to one side or another, including Fayetteville’s courthouse.
The power in our park took a hearty shit this evening and the park was full of workers digging and pulling feeders and playing with transformers and freezing because the overnight temperatures were in the low 30’s. We used a bunch of propane and ran the batteries low trying to keep the interior of the Invader warm.

Drove to see some more “Painted Churches” which, surprisingly, are painted albeit not too well on the outside. The first unit we saw was in an unmapped location in a town called Dubina, which means “oak grove” in Eastern European Bohunk or Czechoslovakian or Singlebrowvian.
The church was called Saint Bob’s or something and unscheduled tourists, like us, are apparently not allowed in because the building was locked. From my perspective, the outside looked just like a church with poor exterior painting.
From there we went to Ammannsville to see another church called Saint Somethingorrather’s which was not locked. It had much better exterior painting and, since it was unlocked, we could go in to admire the interior painting, as well. Not only was the interior painting, including detail work, quite nice but the windows and interior religious doodads were spiffy as well. Peg got pix of everything, I think.
Then we drove back over to La Grange to get a look at the inside of the courthouse which we could not access the last time we were there. It is pretty neat with lots of architectural stuff to make it interesting. Handrail assemblies at the stairs, the atrium concept and the interior fountain are spiffy and the transom doors are beautiful.
Peg then drove us into Columbus for another lookabout. We also got some ice cream at a place called “Dairy Cone” which also seemed to be surrounded by funny-looking neighbors. One guy was strolling around with the crotch of his pants directly between his knees and another guy had a do that made his head look like an elongated cylinder. Very weird.
On the way back to the Invader we wandered around on some country roads and only saw about 125 deer.

Crappy weather all day – cold, rain, no sun until about 10 minutes prior to sunset. We hunkered down in the trailer and watched movies and Top Gear reruns all day.

We spotted some elk near the road on our way to Ellinger about 15 miles up the road to eat things called kolaches that they seem to be quite proud about in these parts. They are little rolls with stuff in them, like sausage, another kind of sausage, cabbage-wrapped sausage and/or sausage and cheese. They are actually pretty tasty but there ain’t much meat in them and there is ample bread which I am not supposed to eat because I am an old, sick fart.
From there we went to La Grange primarily because there is a ZZ Top tune of the same name. La Grange is a very nice little town with some classic old houses that have beautiful architecture and a downright gorgeous courthouse. We met a TX doctor in the street in front of the courthouse who was a wizard on local Texas history and we got a few ideas from him about nice places to visit. One thing he mentioned were painted churches that we drove to in High Hill on the way to Schulenburg on our return route on I-10. The outside of the church was ordinary but the inside was gorgeous and the stained-glass windows (all from 1899) were beautiful.
In Schulenburg we took an auto tour that runs you by about 10 or 12 historic structures which are all pretty neat although we never found the last two.
We stopped at a BBQ place called Mikeskas which runs a Sunday buffet for $11. Good food. They probably lost money on me since they have lots of bread stuff I am not supposed to eat but they also had good meat of several varieties which I filled up on before meeting the owner and having Peg take his and my picture.
We only got lost a little before the Garmin got us back home to the Invader. Lots of deer on the entrance road.

Peg and I drove into Houston with the primary tasks being going to Costco in Katy to get my blood pressure pill Rx refilled and to get Peg new glasses. She has had funky vision in one eye ever since her retina surgery but the condition seems to have stabilized so she wanted to get glasses to attempt to unfuck it.
We had time to burn so we started out at Houston’s Bayou Bend, the estate of a woman with the unfortunate name of Ima Hogg. No shit.
She was nice enough to turn the estate over to Houston and it is now an art museum inside (that we did not see) and some really nice gardens outside through which we strolled a bit. It was very nice of her to give this to Houston because it is quite nice but they charge $5 a head to look at the gardens which is not a particularly good deal when so many other gardens are free.
From Bayou Bend we went a bit further into town to the fire station museum which was small. They only have 3 pieces of fire equipment but they have done the best they could with what they have. If you use the museum equipment as your basis, you might conclude that Houston went from horse-drawn steam-powered engines directly to 1940 pumpers with nothing in between.
We then went to Costco about 25 miles west in Katy, TX. Although we called in the prescription the day before, the pharmacist bungled the operation of refilling my prescription which was filled at Costco albeit in a different city. After initial denial, the pharmacist admitted he had not done the necessary stuff to get the Rx squared away. He finally did what he was supposed to do and then stated he would get the Rx filled in 5 minutes. 20 minutes later, he handed me the pills and charged me $29. From there I started my aimless wandering/shopping through the strange Costco and I was ultimately able to find all the stuff I needed except shredded stinky cheese. Peg was busy at the eye doctor and I finished, miraculously, a bit ahead of her. She took the prescription and went into the optical center and ordered glasses to be picked up in 7 to 10 days. Success, at last.

Driving day. Left Rockport and drove to Columbus, TX which is about 70 miles W of Houston. We were already reserved in at a TT park called Colorado River despite not being the real Colorado River. This park is quite nice and, since it is a TT facility, it is free.
We saw tons of wildlife on the way here: deer, cows, a caracara, several purrhyloxia birds, cardinals, black vultures (different than turkey vultures), crows, grackles, a myriad of other birds and another armadillo right outside our trailer. We have found out that the local Czech and German folks refer to the armadillos as Panzerschwein. Lots of brown squirrels here.

Woke up pretty early and drove NE to Aransas National Wildlife Refuge, home to whooping cranes in the winter. In summer, the cranes go frolic in Canada’s Northwest Territories but return here each year. Surprisingly, the first wild critters we got to see were 3 alligators, right across the street from the park visitor center. They looked like they always get left alone. They are big lizards.
Peg and I got to see some cranes but they were tiny white specks to the naked eye and slightly clearer and larger specks with our binoculars. We also saw our first armadillo grazing calmly right next to the park road. This one was a cute little guy. They are very strange creatures which share with humans the ability to be infected with leprosy.
Other than 3 alligators, some hawks, regular cranes, some whooping cranes and an armadillo, the rest of the 16 mile loop through the refuge was devoid of wildlife but still pretty scenic for a salt marsh. Peg and I took a ¾ mile loop trail through a section of the brush and found they also have very aggressive mosquitoes that bite even when you are moving and hang on like lampreys. Fortunately, once they are on you and have buried their little bloodsucker in your flesh, they can be easily killed with baseball bats.
We took a side trip through a town called Lamar on the trip back to the Invader. Some European woman we encountered in ANWR alleged there were numerous whooping cranes visible right on the waterfront. Of course when we arrived some 4 or 5 hours later there were two white specks at the far extent of our vision. They are pretty good sized specks since the birds stand about 5′ tall but there were none close enough to measure.

From our digs at Bay View RV we drove to the Corpus Christi Museum of Science and History in downtown CC. There must not be too much science in this part of the world because most of the science exhibits were pistols, muzzle- and breech loading rifles, cannons and a truly great collection of minerals and crystals. They have some nifty historical stuff, too, like stagecoaches and wagons. I give the place a B-.
From there we wound around on some extremely circuitous Corpus Christi streets before heading back home through Ingleside where the waterfront is decorated with offshore platforms and really enormous cranes on barges and
pulled up to the docks. There are even bigger dockside cranes; the biggest I have ever seen. They are also building a huge tower structure that appears to be about 300′ or more across the base and shaped like a skinny pyramid that looks like they will float offshore and then stand up in deep water. More giant cranes in the yards here.

We drove the loop from Fulton to Rockport to Aransas Pass, over the free ferry to Port Aransas on Mustang Island, south to Padre Island National Seashore. From there we drove into (actually, sort of around) Corpus Christi and Portland and finally back to Aransas Pass to close the circle.
Peg & I both liked Fulton but Rockport is a conglomeration of really big beach houses owned by the affluent. Aransas Pass is unremarkable but the free ferry to Port Aransas is great fun and the wait was short. Port Aransas is about half Fulton and half Rockport.
The PINS is a big salt grass prairie which means it seems to be an enormous bog. There are tons of birds but the seashore looks very similar to other beaches with shitty surf.
The roads we took to skirt Corpus Christi were uncrowded. We shot right through. CC is an ordinary looking part of the world; no nifty architecture was noted. We did get some pix of a house being built in Rockport with a bit of masonry and a ton of Styrofoam wall units. No shear transfer or framing hardware could be detected. Don’t kick the walls when the place is done unless you want to make two rooms into one.
We made the return trip to the Invader through Fulton where we bought diesel for $2.449/gallon and stopped at the Boiling Pot for seafood. It was tip-top. The restaurant itself is decorated with extensive graffiti provided with by an international clientele. The tables are covered with butcher paper and they tie a bib on the customers because the food is messy. We had a Boudin sausage which was a bit lively followed by shrimp in the shell, corn and potatoes which they bring in a bowl and just dump onto the table. There are two or three sauces included along with melted butter for dipping. They also serve you bread with about ¼ pound of butter with which to lube it. We chased it all down with porter. Lucky they bibbed us up in advance because after pinching off the shrimp heads shit squirts everywhere. About $40 takes care of two adults.
On the way from the restaurant to the Invader, we decided to take a look at the Fulton Airport to see if we could find out what was making the droning noise we could sometimes hear in the RV park. The airport access road has a cattle guard; a concept we have not noted before in our travels. We did not find any aircraft-related reasons for the racket but we did discover a gas flare running in the trees between the airport and the campground. When we shut off the engine, we knew right away what was making the noise – the gas flare. There were houses near the flare. They must really appreciate the constant loud screeching of the flare which additionally provides illumination after dark from the pillar of fire atop the stack.

Driving day. We left San Benito and Fun N Sun for a little backtracking and ultimately on to Rockport, TX to the Bay View RV Park. Rockport is probably 40 minutes NE from Corpus Christi on the north end of the intracoastal waterway that extends from here back down to Brownsville. When we first arrived they assigned us a spot that was short and sloped left-to-right such that nobody would have sufficient blocks to lift both left tires about 4 or 5 inches. We drove back to the office and asked if we could just pick an empty space and they said okee-dokee. We ended up going to another loop and pulled into a beautiful site in a canopy of oaks. There were great doggles around which I promptly bribed with Pupper-Ronies. They dogs all thought I was a stand-up guy after that.
Peg got out the anti-gravity chaises while I hooked up the utilities. We spent a good part of the afternoon taking it easy in the the dappled shade of the oak canopy checking out the dogs, squirrels and birds.
Late in the afternoon Peg asked me what was the dull roar that you could hear when everything else was silent but I didn’t have the answer. It sounded like a distant plane engine but it never got closer or further away. Strange.