Our last full day here in Columbus was filled up by more wandering on back roads that, somehow, ended up with us passing by Bellville Meat Market again. It was great since we got to go in for another very tasty barbecued brisket sandwich and Peggy’s selection of a barbecued baked potato. I also was able to stock up on their fabulous bacon, sausage and steaks before heading into terra incognita, for us.
We were treated to more fabulous roadside Americana, wonderful old Texas residences and, to make it even better, the Texas wildflowers are popping up everywhere. The well-mowed roadside margins are ablaze with flowers of all colors. Texas weeds are quite attractive.
Check the pix. Click here

Yesterday, right near our campground, we spotted some Texans engaged in a weird activity involving bows and arrows, little plastic rods, horses and archery targets. The Texans had jabbed the plastic rods into the ground and, apparently, they were to mark the boundaries of the course. On one side of the plastic stick-lined pathway, some archery targets were set up on stands and about 25 yards apart.
After waiting a bit, we got to see some caballeros and cabelleras ride down the path at a gallop, firing arrows at the spaced targets. Some of the riders were quite good at skewering targets while others were not too talented. It seems strange, in a state where there is a long history of wiping out Indians with firearms (and smallpox), that folks would decide that a bow and arrow is a suitable horseback weapon system. Almost all the folks on horseback that we saw had either blonde, brunette or red hair. There was one guy with black hair flowing behind him in a big ponytail and he seemed to be the best at this quirky activity. The light haired folks I suppose would be Windians or Wannabe Indians. It was great fun watching these folks and I am glad I am not required to flee from these folks, particularly on foot.
We also found a small but handsome gopher snake in our campground. He was soaking up some rays in the road so we left him alone.
There’s a Windian picture if you click here

Our days here in Columbus are drawing to a close. We will reluctantly move on toward the east next Monday. One of the prominent names we have encountered in our aimless wanderings during the last two weeks here is Schobel. The Schobel family owns and operates Schobel’s, our favorite breakfast haunt in Columbus. On the wall of their dining room are jerseys of 3 Schobel brothers who played ball at TCU and subsequently in the NFL. Today we found Schobel Road and wandered its length to check out the estates of these Texans.
It appears they live pretty well because the ranches or game farms or exotic wildlife killing fields are quite spiffy with beautiful, massive houses, ponds, gorgeous pastures full of flowers, big thickets of oak and juniper and no uninvited guests because they are all gated. The road is currently lined with bluebonnets and a whole bunch of other red, yellow, pink and purple flowers we can’t identify. The redbud trees are open for business and we ran across some quite healthy clumps of wisteria gone native. The Schobels have carved out some spectacularly scenic terrain for their lives here in the midst of the similarly gorgeous area near Columbus, TX.
See some of the Schobel’s part of the world. Click here

The last few days I have been pretty inactive, other than having Peggy explain our income tax burdens looming in the near future. She has been dutifully figuring out the bizarre and arcane tax laws for this year. Although we can hardly be classified as affluent, the IRS and FTB refute that and taxed our meager income anyhow. The assholes even charge tax on Social Security.
Peggy finally finished the tax form preparations and we were free to go fool around. On our way out of the campground, we passed by my favorite lightning-struck snag and some Texans engaged in an activity that was hard to accurately describe. It looks like they ride a horse across a pasture between two lines of skinny plastic rods. While riding, they attempt to skewer archery targets with a bow and arrows. Folks that are unmounted wander about the pasture and shoot more arrows into what appear to be gunny bags full of watermelons. It seems strange that Texans, who spent a hundred years shooting Indians to eradicate them would take up the weapons systems of the defeated as sport.
We headed north from our campground and drove into La Grange so Peggy could visit the Texas Quilt Museum. She said the museum is fabulous for those interested in this kind of stuff. She also wandered next door to the museum where she found a fabric and yarn store. Unable to resist buying something in a fabric store, Peg returned to the truck with a small bag of treasure.
After La Grange, we returned to the Warrenton / Round Top area of Texas where vendors are setting up what must be one of the biggest antiques / swap meet / Americana get-togethers in the state and maybe in the U.S. There are massive tents and pavilions set up for miles along TX-237 starting south of Warrenton and quitting north of Round Top. Once we finished gawking, we felt we were due a reward so we went into Teague’s Tavern in Round Top. It really isn’t much of a tavern because they only had two beers on tap. However, the bar also sports an Emmy which was won by the bar owner for news reporting during Hurricane Katrina. It is a very impressive statue.
We always try to check out all the Texas historical landmarks along our routes. Texans are very big on history so they have installed cast aluminum signs on posts wherever anyone has ever lived, worked, built structures, fought Mexicans or slaughtered Indians, who, according to the signs, were always the aggressors. Today we went by a historical marker carved out of a nice slab of granite that commemorates the plainly noteworthy construction of a sewer system in 1937. Maybe we won’t stop at all the markers in the future.
Check out some of the pictures we took today. Click here

Our initial intent was to go see Lake Fayette near La Grange today but we were almost completely foiled. According to our maps, many partially paved or dirt roads lead to the lake shore but our maps were plainly wrong. We tried many approaches from the east, south and west but ran into dead ends and locked gates in every case. We were starting to suspect that there really was no lake because we couldn’t even get a glance of a lake despite there being a nearby big blue patch on our phone and GPS devices. Finally we found a place with the redundant name of Park Prairie Park and we able to drive right down to the shore of what is a very warm but quite scenic lake with the exception of a giant coal-fired power plant on an adjacent stretch of land. The lake is warm because it is the power plant’s cooling reservoir.
Since the lake turned out to be sort of a dud, we decided to go check out some more Texas rural architecture. In China, the concept of feng shui is adhered to quite closely and one of the rules is not to build houses in such a way that a person in front of the house can see through it to the rear of the house. In Texas we have found few houses that allow vision through the house but there are millions where you can see the back yard from the front yard because hardly any structures have a foundation and one can look right through underneath the building. I imagine that generates considerable substandard feng shui. Almost every house is built either on wood sleepers set directly on the soil, stacked concrete blocks set directly on the soil or boulders set directly on the soil. There seem to be no continuous perimeter or wall footings here. Cast-in-place concrete foundations are right out. Many older houses have collapsed due to failed foundations. However, many beautiful houses still exist, perhaps because all the money they saved on the foundation can be used for wonderful gingerbread, great balconies and many cut glass windows.
We also found a delightful assortment of Americana along these country roads. We also found a way to Peters Barbecue in Ellinger where the barbecued brisket is fantastic. As usual, the Peters Barbecue original building and numerous additions of unregulated construction are without foundations.
See weird stuff. Click here

Our typical strategy for dining on the road is to never go to the same restaurant in any locale more than once but, like any unreasonable policy, we violated that concept by eating at Schobel’s in Columbus for the 3rd time in 2 weeks. We are naughty. Again, the breakfast was terrific and the cost quite reasonable.
Since today is my birthday (a big 164 years!), I got to choose the day’s activities and selected going exploring. We decided to go west from Columbus today, taking old US-90 to the adjacent town of Weimar. There’s lots of German and other northern European families living in that area. The houses are quite orderly, the churches are well maintained and the graveyards are full of stones with funny names engraved on them. Once in Weimar, we went into random exploration mode or dead reckoning to discover the countryside, sometimes on dirt roads. There are more magnificent churches and houses throughout this area, along with bizarre Texas signage and Americana.
We spotted a warning sign assembly that has a series of bells that over-height trucks will ring if they are too tall to pass under the next bridge. We found a recycled cop car with flames painted on it. We found a turkey sculpture made from a tractor seat, yard implements and some chains and shackles. There are animals everywhere.
The bad part about today was that it marks the first day I need to start signing up for Medicare because we understand it takes a full year for the geniuses at the Social Security administration to process the application. They must be whirlwinds.
See pix. Click here

We were slugs today, mostly loafing followed by lounging. We did take a spin around the massive Thousand Trails Colorado River campsite so we could check out the animals. To illustrate how busy we were, I can tell you we spent some time watching meadowlarks yanking worms out of the ground. The meadowlarks are brilliant yellow on their tiny chests. We also spotted a red-bellied woodpecker, adding to our list of new critters identified.
See critters. Click here

Awakening on another gorgeous day in East Texas, we had only one required item on our agenda preventing us from unfettered fooling around. We went into Columbus and had the oil changed in Charlotte but, with our task completed, we were free.
We elected to take another series of back roads toward Bellville, county seat of Austin County and location of our new favorite meat market. Bordering the roads on the way there and in Bellville we passed many gorgeous Texas buildings, none of which seem to have foundations. Apparently, builders here believe that an adequate foundation consists of widely-spread mortarless block assemblies without pesky steel reinforcement nor tie-downs of any type. Sometimes the corner piers under these gorgeous buildings are large almost round stones. I guess the folks here consider a foundation a needless expense although almost all the collapsed elderly structures we have seen in the area are the direct result of foundation component failure. It is tragic that so many precious structures have been lost to the cost-saving concept of omitting adequate foundations beneath them.
Nevertheless, there are many beautiful structures, still standing despite their crummy support systems. Much rehabilitation is in progress on many old structures. Large curved verandas, lots of columns and intricate woodwork and gingerbread on the exteriors make for an amazing variety of architectural styles. The redbud trees and bluebonnet flowers are in full bloom along the rural highways. We even saw a 5-legged burro in near Bellville. See today’s pictures.
Once in Bellville, we stopped again at the terrific Bellville Meat Market. We had their brisket sandwiches which could quite possibly be the best sandwiches we have ever consumed. They cost less than $7. Peggy let me off the fiscal leash for a bit and, by the time she got it re-attached, I had found a way to spend $70 at the meat counter. I’m glad she got me out of there before I purchased more than we could cram into our dinky RV freezer.
This part of Texas is scenic and has great meat, good restaurants, wonderful architecture (of the buildings still standing), plenty of wildlife, many creeks and rivers and good roads. I am delighted we selected this part of Texas to malinger until the freeze breaks north of us.
Check out the pictures. Click here

It was a delightful, sunny day in SE Texas today. The temperatures were in the 70’s and there was a great breeze. We went exploring. Our initial destination was La Grange for fuel but we didn’t even get that far when we ran across Walhalla Meats, where Peggy wanted to stop and shop. It was disappointing compared to our visit to Bellville Meats and we won’t be returning to Walhalla. They charge high prices and offer funny-looking goods. It will be Bellville Meat Market for us until we depart the area.
After the fuel stop, we headed northeast across some gorgeous Texas countryside sporting large, rolling hills of grass and oak trees with very nice ranch houses. There are creeks crisscrossing the terrain. We spotted turtles lingering in the sunshine at the edges of waterways, some crested caracaras, big scrub jays and the usual complement of black vultures, otherwise known as the Texas Air Force. There were plenty of whoite tailed deer around. Some roadside ranches have herds of exotic deer, kudus and other critters with pointy horns.
After a bit, we rolled into the Round Top area which was in the midst of preparations for a regional antique sale scheduled for the end of the month. The locals were setting out the framing for tents and pavilions that were intended to fill up both sides of the road for about 2 miles. The locals apparently have purchased stuff at previous antique shows and set it up as Americana lining the road on both sides. There seems to be a run on the types of barn ventilators we have seen previously in Pennsylvania. Maybe these folks bought options on Amish barn ventilators when they get replaced.
We finally turned around and headed home after visiting Somerville Lake between Somerville and Gay Hill (no kidding). We did not spot any overtly gay persons while there. Somerville Lake appears to be a large, man-made reservoir and is quite large. They have boat launching, a marina, a store, ample day-use facilities and mostly primitive campsites. The staff was very nice about letting us go into the park to sniff around without cost.
The area northeast of La Grange is beautiful and the residential and civic architecture is fabulous. We were here on a beautiful day and it looks like a place we would like to linger, had we more time.
We shot a few pix. Check them out by clicking here

We have been happily malingering around our trailer and the campground. We have been down to the Colorado River (not the real one) for some sightseeing and we did the laundry but mostly we have been quite dull. Thanks to our visits to Hartz Fried Chicken and the Bellville Meat Market, we have ample food supplies and have little reason to depart the area. The weather has been sort of miserable so we will delay our sightseeing until the sun comes out, it quits raining or the humidity drops below 85%.