Anniversary in Central Texas
Lisa and I spent a week in central Texas celebrating our 22nd anniversary. Our five-day vacation was a low-key affair as we spent most of our time “being,” not “doing.”
Our first two days were spent in Bastrop which was a complete bust: We arrived on Monday, only to discover the entire historic district inexplicably shuts down at 3pm every Monday and Tuesday. My favorite “watering hole,” a micro-brew pub outfitted with a covered deck situated on the Colorado river, was now defunct. Bastrop’s Visitor Center highly discouraged kayaking down the river because, “all the recent rains have trashed the river and sections are now way overgrown.” The local day spa didn’t offer pedicures, which didn’t seem to really matter since it too closed prematurely. Indeed, our Monday was distilled to a Schlotzsky’s drive-thru and an outing at the only movie theater in town, which also served as the town’s glow-in-the-dark putt-putt venue and smelly bowling alley. All the working teenagers I crossed must have sensed my seething disappointment since the drive-thru girl daringly charged me $1.69 for a cup of ice water and the kid responsible for manning the ticket booth seemed to take his time knowing we were late arrivers. I didn’t have the heart to fight anymore. Tuesday was marginally better: the highlight was old-fashioned griddlecakes at Maxine’s, followed by a hot hike through devastated Bastrop State Park (98% of the forest was destroyed in a 2011 wildfire) and a swim at the nicest public pool in town (run by the YMCA).
Starting Wednesday, things got appreciably better. We made our way southeast to Schulenburg to tour the Painted Churches. We hired a personal tour-guide at the Chamber of Commerce – “Ms. Pat” we called her. She was a retired school teacher, a proud Czech and a devout Catholic. We visited four churches in the area and thoroughly enjoyed her personal touch, historical perspective and the hometown folklore. We visited St. Cyril (Dubina), St. John’s (Ammannsville), Nativity of Mary (High Hill) and St. Mary’s (Praha). Afterwards, under the recommendation of Ms. Pat we stopped at Frank’s off the interstate for a mid-afternoon piece of pie. We cruised down Schulenburg’s quite streets and found an old couple walking into the historic Sengelmann Hall. On a whim we decided to park and investigate. Swinging open the doors, we were met by the sites and smells of a 19th century saloon. We enjoyed draft beers, an atmosphere thick with history and each other’s company. We also found great fascination in watching the locals stream in for dinner. The waitress invited us to explore the dance hall upstairs from the spacious 1894 dining room. Although dark and quiet, it was clear the dancehall was used regularly. Shafts of light beamed through the windows and the old pine floors groaned and creaked stories of friendship, festivities and broken hearts. That evening we made our way to Flatonia (10 minutes further west) for dinner at the Red Vault Bistro which was converted from an old bank, and before that the original Post Office. The restored bank vault, where the restaurant gets it’s name, was repurposed by the new owners as a wine cellar. That evening we lodged at at the historic Olle Hotel (est. 1915).
The next morning, after a tasty omelet breakfast at the Olle, we departed for Giddings to visit the Wendish Heritage Museum, where we learned of my paternal grandmother’s roots.
The Wendish people (or Sorbs) settled between the Elbe and Oder rivers in central Europe around the 6th century. As time marched on, so did the German expansion, pushing the Wends eastward into the Germanic states of Prussia and Saxony. Ultimately due to language and religious persecution, 600 Wends migrated by way of the state-of-the-art Ben Nevis clipper to Galveston in December 1854. From Galveston, the Sorbs made their way to settle in Austin’s colony just south of Giddings.Later that afternoon we stopped in Elgin for a relaxing evening with Jean Brandau, one of Lisa’s sisters. We enjoyed visiting on the back porch and petting her horses. We also took joy in the awesome sunset and cool evening breezes induced by a nearby thunderstorm. The next day we visited my cousin Marie Richards, who runs a cattle ranch just outside of Elgin. She gave us the 4-wheel drive grand tour of the 400+ acres she manages, and introduced us to the ranch’s complexities, its never-ending obligations and her tireless devotion and dreams.
We ended our week by spending an evening with the Hine’s family, Lisa’s other sister’s family, and the next day we picked our kids up from camp. The ride home together was a sweet time wrapped in story after story from our children’s mouths about how good God is. God IS faithful and sure, even when our best laid plans are not.
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