Day 51: Mound Hill to La Grange

February 24, 2014

Dodie cooking free range omelettes at our "wild camp".

We felt so much at home at Weiss' store last night. It was not only that suddenly we had all the facilities we needed, but it was the infectious good nature and affection for the place and the region that came from Connie and Danney. The night before they had answered our questions about the trees, the building, and the surroundings with a detail that comes from life long knowledge. Some of what they said did not quite sink in right away (to my fuzzy Steve head anyway), but by morning a lot more had penetrated. Not only that, but in the evening and again in the morning I had sat out in front of the place on a folding chair, trying to pick up some stray rays of 2G signal. What I really picked up out there was the peace and beauty of the place, and in the morning, the bird song.

Here are just a few more things about Weiss' store, before we head off toward Burton:

That sign with the distances to various places is a landmark, and has been there for 50 years. It got stolen within the last three years, and Danney was getting ready to reproduce it (because it is a landmark), but it turned up, dumped in a ditch. Danney put it back up.

Melvin Weiss used to live in the store, as a bachelor, but at age 75 he got married and moved to town.

In the 50's there was an amateur baseball league in the surrounding counties, with teams including one from "our" spot, Mound Hill. There was a diamond behind the store, which Melvin (Butch) maintained.

The store used to have a wooden bit on the front. The two southern belles in the photo below are standing by one of the postsof the store.

Danney has affectionately kept photos, business licenses, the story of the baseball league, etc. around, and proudly told us of the history when we came.

Dodie cooked up scrambled eggs from the four free range ones we had been given, adding broccoli and cheese that we had on hand. Add to that oatmeal and hot chocolate, and we were in good shape to leave "home".

Southern belles at Weiss store around 1950

The first page of the story of the local baseball league

Old timers in an old photo by the landmark sign

The house next door is clearly owned by some rich out of area people. Danney has never met them.

The beautiful landscape and good cycling held up at least until Burton, and in fact was darn good for the rest of the day after that. Burton, like other towns we have begun to expect in Texas, was a real town. The first thing we noticed was the heritage inn where we had hoped to stay but which is out of business. Clearly it's true, because not only was there a for sale sign in front, but we later found the ad for it in the Round Top Register.

Burton also has a cotton gin and cotton gin museum. It was closed on Mondays. In fact, most everything in the towns along our way seemed closed. Yikes, worse than France on a Sunday. Peering through the museum window we could see some shelves of the type of books we love to look at - about the natural and cultural history of this place. This included books about the German and Czech communities. This of course was all news to us before we got here. Typical Grampies performance.

This house seems unoccupied but is large and well maintained. What is the story? There are many like this around.

On one corner one could see this possibly heritage cabin, the new house in the next shot, and the trailer house in the following shot. Lots of contrast side by side!

The inn in Burton listed in the ACA materials but out of business

The Burton cotton gin nuseum with the cotton gin in the background.

Working from Danney's list, we looked for the Labahia Dance Hall, Royers Pies in Roundtop, Danney's original home on Rohde Road (Rohde is his family name), the world's smallest Catholic church in Warrenton, Danny's German great grandmother's town of Oldenburg (named for the German home town), and finally the Lucas Bakery for cheese kolache and the old court house on the square in La Grange.

Look among the photos and captions below to see how we made out finding this stuff.

The Bahia hall. Danney used to go to dances here. It is part of a tradition of German dance halls in this part of Texas

The sign by the hall shows the German heritage

Outside Roundtop for kms there are dozens of event centres and barns with stalls for rent in support of seasonal antique sales. Dozens means really dozens! This one attracts attention with longhorn statues.

Oh, oh Dodie is on the other side of this thing.

A Tardis appears in the middle of our ride. Travelling by Tardis is cheating!

The type of disused church that could be ideal for camouing behind.

Grrrr. Royeers Pies is closed Monday AND Tuesday. Now how will we make it to La Grange?

Round Top has a square with many transplanted/restored buildings

This design of old house seems common. We think it is called a "dog trot" house

Old Texaco sign. Of course it's here because this is Texas.According to wikipedia: Texaco was an independent company until its refining operations merged into Chevron Corporation in 2001, at which time most of its station franchises were divested to the Shell Oil Company. It began as the Texas Fuel Company, founded in 1901 in Beaumont, Texas, by Joseph S. Cullinan, Thomas J. Donoghue, Walter Benona Sharp, and Arnold Schlaet upon the discovery of oil at Spindletop. For many years, Texaco was the only company selling gasoline under the same brand name in all 50 US states, as well as Canada, making it the most truly national brand among its competitors. Its current logo features a white star in a red circle (a reference to the lone star of Texas), leading to the long-running advertising jingles "You can trust your car to the man who wears the star" and "Star of the American Road

Probably any sign you want is in this ile

Blue Bonnets. This is early for them, so we hope we are right. In the main Blue Bonnet season, people drive out from Houston to see them.

We are getting really soft and spoiled now, because we had a decent shot at a campground outside La Grange for $12, but went for the $49 Oak Motel near the downtown square. We felt a little better when we saw that the owner keeps a guestbook of cyclists, sorting the entries by country. Also, we were given a cyclists' welcome of two oranges and a bottle of water.

The cyclists' guest book at the Oak Motel

The central location allowed us to ditch our bikes in the room and go for a walk in the square. The square is built around the large courthouse building, and so has a large perimeter itself. The businesses around the square did not seem too interesting, with the exception of the Lucas Bakery. This opens tomorrow at 5 a.m. You can bet we will be there, though some wimpy member of our team (the one staying up to write this blog) has requested a 6 a.m. wake up time!

Just off the square we also found the Texas Quilt Museum, with a unique quilt pattern on an outside wall, and a quilting material store next door.

Architecturally interesting court house at La Grange

Of all the businesses on and off the square, none, at 6 p.m., was an open restaurant. We ended at Dairy Queen, where I ordered the Belt Buster burger. Urgghh.

Unrepentant, research shows that aside from Lucas Bakery, there is Weikels at the west end of town. We will track 'em both. Stay tuned!

Today's ride: 70 km (43 miles)
Total: 3,040 km (1,888 miles)

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