Road Trip to Devine, Bigfoot, Pearsall, Poteet, Floresville and Fairview Texas

april2002.jpg (61499 bytes)

Sorry, your browser doesn't support Java(tm). ?

POTEET IS BIG ON AGRIBUSINESS: We located a some roadside vendors and two agra-replicas.

POTEET & FLORESVILLE
Yes, we actually found more replicas for your viewing pleasure.
Story & Photos by IRA KENNEDY

No matter where you go you're always somewhere, unless of course you end up lost, it which case you could be anywhere. The exception to the rule is when you get lost in town, which is exactly what happened in Poteet. Then you're only kinda lost.

isten, I ain't complaining, but a city map would have been as handy as a shirt pocket. But the nearest one was at the Poteet Chamber of Commerce which is the exact place we went looking for just before we wound up kinda lost. Sound familiar?
       I can hear a massive congregation of readers saying, "You sure get lost alot. Why don't you get a map before you head out?" Truth be told I had your standard but relatively useless Texas highway map and a 174 page oversized map book with every county road in the state identified in the smallest type known to man. (And me without my reading glasses.) But no city maps.
       Wait! What am I thinking? Lost is where it's at. Otherwise you'll never find anything. If Christopher Columbus had waited till he had a map to guide him, the poor Indians would still be sitting around waiting to hand over the continent to total strangers.
strawberry.JPG (20939 bytes)        But here I go again flying off my story...
       Poteet. Poteet. Poteet. The Strawberry Capital of Texas. They hold their Strawberry Festival every year in April and by all accounts it's a huge affair. But we were a week late for that event.
       We drove nearly every paved and unpaved road in town and saw alot of neat stuff. There was a replica of a strawberry in front of the fire station, a replica of a strawberry serving double duty as a water tower and a neat little restaurant that serves Meneudo on Saturday and Sunday, but, since we were there on Saturday, naturally it was CLOSED.
yellowstoreSM.jpg (14135 bytes)        Then we came upon the roadside fruit and vegetable stands. Here's where you'll find some of the best and most reasonably priced produce anywhere. Ms. Intrepid picked up some zucchini, tomatoes, onions and watermelon from one vendor and I gotta tell you that was the sweetest melon ever. If it wasn't so far I'd go back for another.
       We didn't buy any strawberries from the only vendor in town selling them because they were $15 a flat which wasn't such a good deal, and pile on top of that you're looking at a truly massive quantity. I took a cool photo of the vendor and you eyeball the size of a flat.
       On the way out of town we passed by the high school(s). Judging from the expansive amount of real estate it occupies I surmised there must be something mighty invigorating in them berries. (Good thing we didn't get any.)
       Traveling from Poteet to Floresville the landscape made a transition from cultivated fields to pasture land. I've said it once and I'll say it again, this is mighty pretty country.
floresvillePN.jpg (19662 bytes)        In downtown Floresville, the "Peanut Capital of Texas", we came across another replica of a peanut. This is the world's second largest peanut. With Floresville being the Capital and all I'm at a loss to explain why they didn't spring for a larger nut. Call me nuts, but left up to me I'd make one some twenty feet high, cast it in bronze and be done with it. I must be gettin addled in my later years -- Being a Texan I always considered bragging rights a sacred trust and a moral responsibility.
       Apart from that, Floresville is rich in Texas history and home to a mighty pretty courthouse and numerous historic buildings. But we were still far from home and the open road was calling so we headed for the Promised Land Dairy some three miles out of town where Ms. Intrepid was anxious to check out their products, buy some butter and maybe take one of their tours.
       As we approached the establishment Ms. Intrepid said, "See, there's always a drink at the end of our trips."
       "Sure," I agreed, "even if it is milk" (I'm tolerant of many things but by body draws the line on lactose.)
       Well, we didn't end up lost but the Promised Land was CLOSED. (Could this be an omen of things to come?) We arrived at 4:45 p.m. only to learn they shut down at 4 p.m. I took more pictures but didn't didn't find a single replica. Pile on top of that, not a sip of milk at the end of our tour so's I could throw up in the middle of the night. The fun part must be over. Reckon we used up our luck meeting that nearly famous person.
       Dang, I almost forgot the poor little ill-fated community of Fairview which ain't hard to do seeing as how it's been disappeared altogether. So, on to the Postscript...