All our required stuff was done for a while so today was dedicated to aimless wandering. We bypassed our usual home-cooked breakfast and got a pretty early start. Our first stop was at Shipley Bakery in Columbus where they offer some tasty sausage rolls. Peggy popped inside and snagged a few and quickly returned with her loot.
The sausage rolls might be kolaches, local specialty baked items that are basically a puffy piece of roll with a meat core, with or without the addition of cheese, jalapenos and other things I can’t remember. The meat does not stick out the ends; the things look like rectangular dinner rolls on the rack. I am certain they are bad for me because they are very savory.
We started our exploring in earnest by cruising the streets of Columbus admiring a few of the stunning residences downtown. Then we hopped on a two-lane blacktop west to Hallettsville, another small rural Texas town with the city hall at the center of a main square surrounded by business storefronts. They remind me of towns I passed through on vacations when I was a kid. It is nice.
From Hallettsville, we took more pleasant narrow two-lanes to Schulenburg, another town with a city hall in the middle of a square and businesses facing the square. In all the other little towns we have visited in this area, the city halls have been impressive domed structures with clocks facing out from the cupolas. Schulenburg’s city hall is a low, government-looking masonry structure with a flat roof. No clocks.
From Sculenburg we got on US-90 and headed back to the Columbus area and our traveling home. Since we got such an early start (due to a psychedelic sunrise), when we returned to the Invader, it was not yet noon. We decided this was unacceptable.
We made preparations and soon departed for Attwater Prairie Chicken National Wildlife Refuge about 35 miles southeast. The visitor center is near the south border of the refuge so we approached from the southwest. That drive took us through some gorgeous Texas prairie and forest areas, over many small rivers and alongside many ag fields. Just before entering the refuge, we stopped to admire about 100 sandhill cranes with their spiffy red topknots that were browsing a rice paddy.
Attwater Prairie Chicken NWR is a recent addition to the list of federal refuges. There is a small visitor center, a 5-mile driving loop and some trails. We took the driving loop and we spotted a bunch of hawks actively hunting, some soaring black vultures, four deer and many lightning-fast songbirds but no prairie chickens. Maybe next time. There is no entry fee at the refuge.
We took the long way home on the back roads. We like the back roads.
The sunset was stunning again this evening. Got great sunsets and sunrises in Texas.
See today’s pix by clicking here

Today we had some mundane stuff to address. No matter how much fun you can have traveling, you still need to do the laundry every so often. We were lucky when we arrived at the facility laundry and found all machines available. While we waited for the machines to give our clothes a whirl we walked to the activity center to use the wifi.
The wifi…uhh….well…sucks. When the system lets you log on, it stutters a bit before reporting that all websites in the world are not able to communicate with you. Sometimes it doesn’t even do that. If you need wifi while here in Columbus, don’t come to the activity center at TT Colorado River.
After the laundry was done, we took our mirrored bedroom closet door to a local glazier, Columbus Glass, in Columbus. Through poor interior design, the mirror had cracked. When we took the mirror into the desk, the nice lady greeted us and then told us that they could fix the mirror. She even told us how much it would cost, installed, and that we could wait or they could do the work and call us when it was done. We left the door.
We headed down the road to the HEB and picked up some groceries. Before we could get out of town, the glazing outfit called and said the work was done and we owed them less than $11. Columbus Glass was great. I wish all RV repairs were performed as well and priced like this place.
Our pesky errands completed, we headed back to TT Colorado River. The bird and other wildlife abundance here is amazing. The river right outside our window is very nice and the sunrises and sunsets here are spectacular. We are pretty content here.
See pictures of today’s fun by clicking here

Today was a travel day. We gathered up all our stuff and put it away, disconnected from the utilities and left the Leander KOA. Before we could leave the Austin area, we had to deal with the grim reality of the mystifying Texas toll roads, seemingly endless highway construction projects and towing a big trailer through a maze requiring multiple quick lane changes where the maximum distance between vehicles is 4 feet.
The toll road system has signage that is suggestive, at best. The toll road signs are mounted on posts near the toll road with obscure directional arrows such that idiots, like me, can never be sure they are taking the correct ramp. The only way to tell that I was positively not on the toll road was that there were traffic signals on the cheapskate sections.
Many taxpayer dollars are being spent to ascertain that all the toll-free sections of Austin limited access freeways are restricted, narrowed, detoured and liberally supplied with temporary road surfaces installed by dropping the paving material from a bomber flying at 60,000 feet. The reason for all these conditions is apparently so thousands of tons of heavy equipment can be cheaply stored alongside the alleged improvements which extend throughout the metropolitan area. We did see some pickup trucks with emergency lights flashing from their lightbars but no actual activity by any workers. We thought this strange since we passed through their terrifying funhouse before noon on a weekday.
After an almost unendurable passage through Austin’s labyrinthine roads, we broke out of the metro area onto TX-71, a wide, mostly multi-lane highway extending east-southeast toward the Houston area. The road surface is a little rough and the bridge approaches are potholed along this stretch but the highway is very wide so sharp-eyed drivers can maneuver around the bottomless paving defects.
After a hundred miles of pleasant driving, we came to Columbus, Texas, a quiet little town maybe an hour west of the Houston metropolitan area. Near Columbus, we pulled into Thousand Trails Colorado River RV Campground. We have been to this particular campground before and we loved it since they have large spaces, nicely landscaped grounds and an extraordinary variety of wildlife. Last time we were here we spotted armadillos, deer, bluebirds, black vultures, cardinals, pyrrholoxias (birds – sort of a gray cardinal), yellow warblers and meadowlarks, Carolina chickadees, big fat squirrels and turtles on the banks of the adjacent Colorado River, not to be confused with the real Colorado River in Colorado.
We found a spot backed right up to the river and set up for a one week stay. It is very quiet here; about the only things we can hear are a bird symphony, the rustle of the water flowing by and occasional distant train horns. It is very nice. Not long after we settled in, we spotted meadowlarks, warblers, bluebirds, black vultures, fat squirrels and a wandering herd of deer before the light failed. I can hardly wait for daylight in the morning.
Pictures are available. Click here