Briggs, TX

     Why do I do this? I mean, the driving around part and taking pictures. Sure, going to parks and lakes makes sense because that's what they're for, right? But why small towns? Abandoned buildings? It's a good question, and one that I have an answer for, but it would take a while to fully articulate. For now, I think, I'll just say that time is kind of compressed now. A lot of things change in a short period of time and I wonder, sometimes, what it was like to live in a time when things didn't change quite so much quite so quickly.
     Labor Day weekend. Other people have families and go camping or to the lake or do some grilling or whatever it is people that have families do on holidays such as this. I was determined not to spend all my time at home but didn't have anything planned. So I went to Briggs, TX.
     Briggs is on U.S. Route 183 in Burnet County. US 183 is kind of a big thing in Austin. It's one of the highways that are always clogged up when people are trying to get somewhere. I'm betting not too many people know that it runs from nearly the Gulf of Mexico to almost Canada. Or they don't care. Once you get north of Austin it kind of calms down, although it's still pretty busy. It isn't until you get past Cedar Park and Liberty Hill that it turns into a small four- to two-lane highway.
     If you leave 183 and take State Spur 308 you'll pass by the bank in Briggs, which closed in 1928 after a fire swept through the town. If you do some searching you can find real estate links showing that it is, or was, for sale. I'm not sure if it still is and I don't have the $200,000 to snap it up, although it would be pretty neat to worn.

The bank in Briggs

     There are a few buildings here that don't seem to be doing much. There was one that I found kind of odd because it looks like it has two exterior front walls. I didn't notice when I took the picture, but when I played around with it in Lightroom it looks like there was something written on what I guess is the inside exterior wall? I don't know. I'm not an architect so I don't know how these things work.
     I look down the row of buildings and wonder what life was like here, up until 1928. They got electricity and telephones in the early 1900s and I wonder how that happened.
     After the 1928 fire nobody rebuilt the burnt down buildings. I guess they moved away. I wonder what started it? I wonder if I should have asked that old man that wished me a good morning if he had been around back then. Something to think about for the future, I guess.

Looks like it says something to me

     There are more photographs [HERE].

Norman's Crossing, TX

     At the intersection of FM 3349 and FM 1660 lies Norman's Crossing. Going here was kind of unintentional. You see, I don't actually just get in the car and drive around and miraculously come across old buildings or whatever. I generally pore over Google Maps and look for something out of the ordinary, like Dime Box, or just happen upon something that catches my attention. Then I look it up on Wikipedia or the TSHA site. After that I use Street View to see if there's anything interesting nearby.

St. John's Church, built 1925

     Norman's Crossing didn't really get my attention. What I saw in Street View was, basically, an historical marker set into the ground. I decided, then, to give it a pass and just drive around in the hopes I found something interesting. Shopping had to be done and I didn't want to take up a lot of time, anyway. Also, it looked like it would rain.
     So I fired up the Red Head and took a drive. I found a church at a cross roads and stopped to see if, maybe, it had a marker on it and maybe find out when it was built. That could take a few minutes of my time. Sure enough, it did. I took some pictures which, I swear, were straight when I took them.
     Turning, I looked across the street to see if there was anything over there. That's when I saw this:

It was fate!

     Really. What were the odds of the random left and right turns I took to eventually end up at the place I had decided not to bother with? I won't say it was a wasted trip. It was actually quite nice. And I didn't travel too far from home. And I saw this lovely couple who were eyeing me suspiciously.

"You just keep right on movin'..."

   

They feature live music

 There's also a bar nestled back here call R Brushy Creek Bar. It wasn't open, I think, when I went past. I'd be curious to know what it's like when it is open. Is it busy? Do a lot of people stop by? I had always hoped that when I got to this place in life that I'm at that I'd have a small house next door to a bar like this.
     I'm not sure why; I don't actually drink much these days. I guess it would just be nice to be around a group of people who go on about their lives doing living people kind of things.

Walburg, TX

     There are times in a new relationship where you begin to realize that things might get a little rocky. That's fine, you know. Every relationship needs to have a little give and take here and there. It can be rough, though, when the other party just won't listen to reason.
     The trip to Walburg, for instance, was when I realized that I and my new GPS weren't going to see eye-to-eye on things. Like, for example, the existence of Walburg, TX. I knew it existed. It's on Google Maps. There are signs that point to it. There's a restaurant there called The Walburg Restaurant. There's even been UFO sightings near there. My GPS, however, refused to believe me so I was forced to somewhat manually navigate.
     After I returned from The Grove, my friend wanted to go to lunch. I needed an excuse to go to Walburg. Going to the Walburg Restaurant seemed like a good idea. I picked her up and, after fighting with the Red Head's GPS, we mosied on up there.

It. Is. On. The Map!

     Walburg is on FM 972 in the upper reaches of Georgetown and established sometime between 1881 and 1886. It was originally named Concordia. It's a pleasant place and isn't deserted. There are a number of buildings and houses, I think. There's actually two places to eat but I haven't had a chance to try Dale's Essenhaus. Yet.

Home to a contraption

     Like most small towns, it just runs down the main street. Had it gotten bigger it would have grown to take up more streets. Probably. I'm not an expert in the life cycle of a city.

     I don't write about the roads to get to these places as much as I'd like. I think I'm going to have to break down and buy a GoPro or something and mount it to the car so I can go back and review. Most of these roads are generally straight but with some wicked 90 degree turns. They're paved, for the most part. You may think I'm being facetious but I'm not; there are many roads that are still not paved. Especially (possibly only) county roads.

Stuff  you see on the back roads

I recommend stopping in and eating here

     The Walburg Restaurant, by the way, is pretty good. A lot of German food. They even have a biergarten in the back, which the social side of me would love to go to for an evening and see a bunch of people having fun. My friend assures me, though, that there'd be five people back there. They also have an arcade which I would say would be for the kids to enjoy while the parents were getting plastered, but I'd totally go in there.

What arcades in the 1800s looked like

I don't think it's a delivery truck

Additional photos are [here]

The Grove, TX

     I haven't been updating this blog as often as I should have. For personal reasons I've been a bit tethered in where I can go and when, but now I'm ready to get back out there on the road and do some explorin'. That the summer months are getting behind us and the weather should be getting cooler has nothing to do with it. I have, though, been doing some driving; I just haven't written about it. I'll try and get through the backlog of visited places.

     Sometimes I wake up in the morning and just feel like doing something. So I swing the camera case over my shoulder, and walk out the door. After I get down the three flights of stairs I check my camera and see that I forgot to put the SD card back in. Even though I have at least two of them, I only know where one is so I go back up the three flights of stairs, open the door, grab the SD card and walk out the door. Then I stop and try and remember if I locked the door. Then I check the door. Then I got all the way downstairs again and put the SD card in the camera.

     At this point I don't feel like going anywhere. But I'm dressed, I'm outside, and I'm ready to go. So I do. This particular day I chose to go to The Grove. There are, it turns out, two The Groves: one in Jefferson, TX and the other is near Fort Hood and Temple. I went to the Temple one since it was an actual town and not just a house.

     The Grove is kinda sorta famous. There's a video about it being auctioned off a few years ago.

     It's in private hands now. Technically, I don't think I should have been there but I didn't know that until I got very close to a very small sign that basically said to ask for permission before tromping around. Despite that, the woman who drove by me on the dirt rode did so very slowly so's not to raise up a lot of dust and ruin my pictures.

Game time! Find the dragonfly!

     The Grove was established in 1859 and named for the trees around it. Once prosperous, it was brung low by Highway 36 not going through it, Fort Hood needing some land, and the building of Belton Dam. It's on FM 1114 and not far from SH36. It's pretty easy to get to. It's also not far from Mother Nef State Park. Practically right across the street.

     The place has seen better days, I suppose. The new owners, I think, haven't decided what to do with the place.

Not much in the way of merchandise right now

     It's a pleasant drive, though. Except, of course, for the parts of I35 that I had to take. That's just a nightmare. I think it's certainly worth a look.

Soda Signs

     There's a sign for a Grapette soda on one of the buildings. I wondered if it were real since The Grove had been used to film some TV and movies and it's not unknown for the production people to put fake placements in. It turns out it is a real soda and it's still being sold. At Wal*Mart. Go figure.

     I'd like to mention at this point that I get a lot of information from Wikipedia, The Texas State Historical Association, and Texas Escapes. Without these sites I'd just be driving around in circles.

   

New Sweden

     For a while now I've been saying that if you can think of a word, there's probably a town with that name. Or was a town with that name. This is not true as I couldn't find a Jupiter (from the last entry) or a Damn (which I find surprising since there was an Eye Gouge, TX at one time).
     That being said, there's probably a good number of foreign countries and cities used as town names. And there's a New Sweden. Or was. Well, as I've been finding out, towns like New Sweden still exist, they just don't usually have their own school system or post office. It's a little like being a named subdivision in a larger city. This is why, when you're driving through a section of Big City you'll see businesses using the name SmallTownville on everything. As it is now, I guess New Sweden is considered a part of Manor.
     Anyway, New Sweden is on FM 973, northeast of Manor, west of Manda, and south of Cele. I don't think there's very much there besides a church, which gave the town its name.

That steeple is ridiculously high

      It was built in 1922, although it was established in 1876. Perhaps there was an older building there? There's also a cemetery.

     We didn't see very much other than that. FM 973 isn't a particularly busy road on the weekends.

But there were horses

McKinney Roughs

In Texas, during the summer, it's not always a good idea to say, "Hey, we should go for a walk," without having a really good idea of where you're going, what time it is, how long are you planning on being gone, what time is it, what are you bringing with you, and what time it is. If you're going to go walking around the woods at two o'clock in the afternoon, you damn well better bring some water with you.

A whole lot of nature

And that's totally what I didn't do when I went for a walk with a friend of mine. At McKinney Roughs. Which I now hate forever mostly because of my lack of planning but also for promising a river and not mentioning that it's, like, ten miles away from the sign that says "<- River."

Still not seeing a river

We saw the sign and thought, yeah, let's go down by the water. After the first mile we realized it wasn't going to be that close. After the second mile we started thinking about turning around, but, what if it's just around the next corner? It wasn't around the next corner after mile three. Or four. But, after the fifth mile it was at the bottom of a hill.

Whoop, there it is!

The trail, by the way, is made of rocks and sand. Climbing back uphill was unpleasant, like walking across the worst beach in the world. On Jupiter. In the end, I didn't die and I was happy about that.

Driving back to Austin on SH 71 we decided to stop at a place that sells pecan related items and, much to my delight, cold drinks. They also had a giant squirrel. 

America needs more odd roadside attractions

Lockhart State Park

Not so long ago I decided not to get one of those yearly passes to the state park system. I thought that I probably wouldn't be going to any very often. Evidently, I am a fool because that's the only places I've been to so far. Today I would have hit two of them if I hadn't been worried about the supposed rain. And that I was pretty darn tired after going to Lockhart.

Lockhart State Park is cheap, in comparison to the other state parks. It costs $3.00 to get in. Per person, I think. So it's cheap for me. It's... Nice? I guess? I can't really fault it for anything. It's got space for camping, if that's your thing (it's not mine). There's a creek or a river that goes through it. There are several dams that were built in the 1930's by the Civilian Conservation Corps.

I followed several trails. What I wanted to do was to start at one end and kind of make a loop around the park and that meant skipping a couple of trails. But that's good, because it'll give me a reason to go back. Most of the trails were pretty easy in that they were mostly flat, but there are a couple that made me question why I was trying to climb up a trail. The CCC Trail, in particular, was kind of brutal (for me, an old fat man) but it was worth it to get to the part where there's a steep drop off and a timber and chain railing that's falling apart.

Of course, if I had started the trail where I was supposed to, I would have found that first and gone downhill all the way. But I'm not one to follow the rules, baby! Anyway, that led to the old recreation hall that was also built in the 1930s. Or started from there. The building looks like it's undergoing renovations right now but, as I understand it, it used to be the golf pro shop. I probably didn't mention that the park is also a golf course.

By the recreation hall there's a bunch of stone picnic tables so I took the opportunity to sit down and try not to die. I wondered, then, if these were original tables and tried to imagine what it was like back in 1930s. Was it really popular? Was it busy? What did they do? What did they eat?

Eventually I had to leave so I started the long hike back to the car by way of a couple of different trails. I met very few people, but I did come across to older ladies who were trying to figure out what different plants were. They were friendly and asked if I had taken any good pictures and made general chit-chat. Then I was off again.

When I left, I took FM20 to SH71. FM20 is a nice drive. It's basically straight, but there are a number of hills that make it interesting. I took SH71 east, which brought my past Bastrop State Park. There were a lot of trees that were nothing more than burnt stumps, remnants of the fire a few years ago. It looked eerie.

Eventually I made my way to Smithville. Smithville has been the location for several films and once held a Guinness Book of Records record for largest Gingerbread Man. It's a charming place and has several places to eat and shop, if you're an antique kind of person. I was hungry from all the walking and it was past lunch time so I went to the Comfort Cafe. And had breakfast.

The Comfort Cafe is, I guess you'd say, unusual in that it's part of a recovery program called SerenityStar. The cafe is 'pay what you can' and the proceeds go to keeping the program going so it's a good cause.

After that, I felt it was time to get home. I got the navicomp to plot a course home that was the shortest, as opposed to the quickest. I'm certainly glad I did. It directed me on a lot of small roads that were fun as anything to drive on in the Challenger.