West Texas Travels

Last Friday morning after taking care of Smokey (Lance’s dog; Lance and his father Ron were in Utah visiting cousins and extended family – not to mention Erica his “24-7” BYU collegein’ sister!), Celeste and I headed out to explore more of Texas via back roads, little towns, 2nd hand shops and garage sales. We had not done this for almost a year. We actually had to write it in our scheduler to make sure it happened. Oh what busy lives we choose to lead! Anyway, our trip last year we went east so this trip we went west (Go west Youngman, go West – I digress) which took us on a nice hilly road through the Sam Houston National Forest (Nice for the ride but not so good for the 2nd hand shops). By the end of our first day, we hit the towns of Plantersville, Navasota and ended up in Brenham for the night. In Brenham we visited the Texas famous (if not world famous) Blue Bell Ice Cream Factory. It was a fun stop but we were very disappointed to find that they do not give out free samples of ice cream anymore! Later in Brenham, we found that Friday nights bring on expensive hotel prices ($130+ for one night even in a Days Inn!!!). I believe the fact that they were having a town reunion didn’t help the matter. We elected to stay at the Ant Street Inn which has been rebirthed as a premier historic inn. The Ant Street Inn combines the finest in deep south hospitality, warmth, and elegance with the conveniences and personal service of a first class hotel. It has fifteen guest rooms, having been painstakingly restored by artisans to retain their original flavor while offering the best in modern comfort and convenience have private bathrooms, twelve foot ceilings, polished hardwood floors with Oriental rugs, cable televisions, telephones, and individual climate control. Needless to say it was very nice. After our breakfast we went out to some of the local shops that we did not get to the night before. I found that I enjoyed looking more so than Celeste. Luckily she brought some books to read and once she was done she would go to the car, turn on the cool air and read her book. Lucky for me she was very content to do this which allowed me to look to my hearts content. We then took our time heading back home complete with a stop to get some food for the house. Our treasures from the weekend included 2 old trunks, a serving platter, old silver plated salt and pepper shakers, little silver plated jam bowl, hot wheels car case, 2 old bottles, 3 onyx eggs from Pakistan and a blue and white vase.