 aturday in Yokum was one of those Spring days in February Texans brag about.
And it was just perfect for taking in a downtown festival. So after driving around
for longer than I cared to we finally found a parking spot and headed toward the music.
Seems everyone within a hundred mile radius was in town so my expectations were
high.
If you've never been to a local festival in Texas
you're missing out. The downtown was closed to car traffic, a flat-bed trailer was
pulled up in the main intersection for a bandstand and folks were dancin' in the streets.
There was a chili cook-off going on, food booths of all kinds and my favorite, a beer
booth, which I located right off. To my disappointment the beer was "rodeo
cool" which means it mighta been sitting in the shade for a spell. I watched the
booth guy take it out of a tub of ice but the product was such a good seller it didn't
have a chance to chill.
 Being in the "Land of Leather"
we expected to see all kinds of booths showing off their leather goods. Not so.
Seems every vendor who ever had anything to sell, other than leather, had a booth.
There was even a Mary-K booth which I suppose was for all the ladies who'd been working in
the sun for decades and ended up with skin like leather, but I'm probably just being tacky
cause of the luke-cold beer. Now, don't go thinking hard thoughts about me. I ain't
no drunk but like any real Texan I love a good cold beer on a nice day -- which is pretty
much any of them.
I really got a kick out of the live carousel. Seems
in Texas you don't need them machine driven wooden horses when there are plenty of
Shetland ponies around. But, hey, leather on the hoof wasn't what we were expecting.
After wandering around the booths for a spell Ms. Intrepid disappeared only to reappear
while I was taking a picture downtown. She was calling me over
from just outside one of the downtown stores. I reckon she found the place by smell cause
just as you walk in you're overwhelmed by the sweet smell of leather goods. Well, maybe
not so sweet if you've joined up with them animal rights folks, but in that event you
wouldn't want to be anywhere near The Land of Leather.
The store was filled with leather this and that as
well as plenty of "tchotchkes". But if you're looking for some cowboy boots with
really pointy toes this is your place. During the last few years boot makers seem to be
rounding off the toes to suit somebody I've yet to meet so you can't tell a boot from a
shoe by either heel or toe. However, I will say these are too pointy for me but as you've
probably figured out I'm hard to please and don't buy much anyway.
Back in Nigel the Land Rover we set our sights on
Schulenburg by way of Halletsville. (By the way, I never finished that beer.)
Halletsville bills itself as the "City of
Hospitality". After taking a picture of the Lay-Bozka
House featuring an unusual patterned mansard roof and rope molding (built in 1878-82)
we breezed through town on our way to Schulenburg.
Now, I didn't find out until later that Schulenburg
is either "Home of the Painted Churches Tour" or ""The Hometown You
Never Had." I didn't see any such signs entering town, but I noticed the water
tower sported the Superman logo as did several other locations in town. So I figured
who needed a slogan if you've Superman behind you? Downtown there is Dollar store
and, just across the street, a General Dollar store. They did the same thing in Llano a
few years back and nearly drove each other out of business. (How can you have a price war
when you're starting out with chump change?)
Up the street there's the Von Minden Hotel (607
Lyons Ave, 979-743-3714) with a movie theater on the ground floor. A little further away,
near the train tracks we spotted the newspaper offices of the Schulenburg Sticker
established in 1893. As you've already know if you've been with Tourin' Texas for
any length of time, I love old buildings.
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1: HEADIN' OUT / PAGE 2: GONZALES & SHINER
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