Painted Churches of Fayette County

There is a lot of European influence in the "Hill" area of Texas, prominently German with towns with the name of New Ulm, Beorne, Gruene and Fredricksberg.  They also have some european influenced churches called the "Painted Churches of Fayette County". Most of these are well over a hundred years old and also have a cemetery attached to them. They are very ornate much as the churches we saw when we visited Germany.

The first church we saw on our tour (Self tour) was the St. John the Baptist Catholic Church in Ammansville. Soon after we pulled up about a dozen other cars pulled up and we soon realized there was an 'official' tour being conducted. We encountered the same tour in several other churches in other towns.

St. John the Baptist

You can see the tour guide in this photo in the far left. He had a lot of interesting info but also got boring so we headed out to the next church.

St. John the Baptist Catholic Church

The next church on our "Garmin GPS" led tour was Saints Cyril and Methodius Church in Dubina.

Saints Cyril and Methodius Church

The doors were open but there was a gate keeping people out. Patty put the camera through the gate to take this picture.

Dubina

After Dubina Garmin sent us to St. Mary's Church in High Hill. From the outside it looked more traditional Americana. Inside it was the most ornate.

This was the most beautiful church inside. Notice the marble pillars? They were actually wooden pillars painted to look like marble. You can also see the same tour guide from the first church in Ammansville.

St Mary's High Hill

Finally we went to St. Mary's in Praha.

Praha

It turns out that they were preparing to have Saturday Mass when we were there so we very gently took some pictures and quietly left.

Praha St Mary's

On our way out a very nice worshiper met us and asked us were we are from. She was very nice and friendly as most Texans are!

When we got back home some deer were grazing behind our 5th wheel. Patty got a picture of this one jumping over the fence which was a great shot!

Deer Jumping

That's it for today,

Next blog we will be at Lake Conroe, which is about 40 miles north of Houston.

Love you all,

Brian and Patty

Colorado River Thousand Trails - Columbus, Texas

We really enjoyed our time with Bill and Jenn at Buescher State park, but it was time to get back into the Thousand Trails system.

It was only a 45 mile drive to the Columbus, Tx Colorado River Thousand Trails. This is not the same Colorado River that separates California and Arizona. The campground backs up to the river.

Thousand Trails Colorado River

We were fortunate to get an end site that didn't really back up to the river, but the river was behind us and there were no other sites behind us. It was a short walk to the river.

Campsite

It was a 30 amp site, but there was a separate 20 amp plug so we were able to use the new JTB system that Bill installed. It worked very well!

This park has herds of deer that roam through it at different times of the day. These deer were right behind our coach.

Deer at Colorado River

They have an audio tour of Columbus. You follow a map and turn your radio to an AM radio station when you get to the destination to hear the history of the building. It was very interesting. The sign on the front lawn tells you the radio station to turn to. This was the Brandon House Museum.

Brandon House Museum

Patty had to take this picture of Floyd's Barber Shop. Remember Floyd's from the Andy Griffith show??

Floyd's Barber Shop

Columbus lays claim to the second largest oak tree in Texas. I am standing next to it so you can see how huge it is! They actually need to hold up the arms of the tree with braces.

Giant Oak Tree

We decided to go to Brenham where the Blue Bell Ice Cream Creamery is located. Blue Bell is a premium ice cream brand only sold as far west as Arizona.  

Blue Bell Creamery

The tour was cool because it was a weekday so it was only Patty and I and one other person. They do charge for a guided tour, but you get a bowl of ice cream at the end of the tour. Here are the elevator doors.

Elevator

Their motto is "We eat all the ice cream we can, and sell the rest". I believe it, because we walked by the lunch room and they have a freezer filled with ice cream. All the workers were eating up. After the tour we were having our dish of ice cream and the execs were having a business meeting. They all got their bowl for the meeting! It was funny!

Ice cream truck

That's it for today. The next blog I will post some pictures of the Texas Painted Church tour we did. Here is one picture to wet your appetite. This is a panoramic picture of St. John the Baptist Catholic Church in Ammansville, Tx.

That's it for today,

Love you all!

Brian and Patty