– Corpus Christi, Texas to Denton, Texas –

Today is it. This is the last day of Mark’s Texas courthouse photography project. We had three counties left, and a quick stop to make to pick up newspapers for Mark in Hallettsville.

Since we had so many places to stop, we got up a little early this morning at 6:30am so we could get out of Corpus Christi in a hurry. We made it out of our hotel in plenty of time, so around 7:30 we stopped at My Favorite Muffin, which is actually open on Mondays, for our breakfast. They didn’t have any muffins with heart-shaped sprinkles, so I had to settle for a cinnamon crumble muffin, and Mark had a bagel sandwich. I don’t know what’s come over me. I don’t even care about Valentine’s Day, but I was all about the adorable sprinkles this weekend.

The newspaper stop came first at around 11am, and we arrived a little early, so I took Ripley for a walk around the library. The wind was brutal, even though the weather was warm. Ripley had a good time, I think, but I’m not sure, since I couldn’t see her for all of the hair blowing in my face. We weren’t there for too long, and we left with our new cargo by the time we were supposed to arrive, at 11.

Fighting the wind in Hallettsville
Fighting the wind in Hallettsville

With the work-related projects for the day completed, we turned our attention to the business at hand- wrapping up the county courthouses in Texas. It took us about 45 minutes to make it to our first county seat, Colorado County, located in Columbus. Columbus is quite old for Texas, and the area is the site of Stephen F. Austin’s Old Three Hundred Land Grants back in 1821. We found the turret-like structure (in the featured image) fascinating. It is apparently an old water tower, which later served as a firehouse, and is currently considered a Confederate Memorial Museum. It’s owned by the United Daughters of the Confederacy.

The woman who worked in the museum was very kind to us, and was excited to show off everything in the tower. She even let us out on the tower’s balcony, where we took the sweet photograph below of the Colorado County Courthouse. The air conditioners ruined it a little bit, but it is still a pretty cool view. Mark was excited when he found out we were even allowed to go up the stairs, much less walk out onto the balcony. It was a neat little museum, too, and many of the materials were donated.

The view of the courthouse from the water tower/turret in Columbus
The view of the courthouse from the water tower/turret in Columbus

From Columbus, we drove over to Bellville to photograph the Austin County Courthouse. I did not find the courthouse in Bellville particularly interesting, and I think I’ve seen enough courthouses by now to be a pretty good judge of what is and what isn’t a good-looking courthouse. Austin County definitely falls on the low end of the attractiveness scale. To be fair, from what I understand, Austin County has had 6 courthouses over its long history, and several of the previous courthouses were burned (on purpose) or lost to accidental fires. With a history like that, I think I can forgive a somewhat unattractive current version.

The old county jail, which is now a museum, is a more interesting structure, so I’ve included a photograph of that building instead. At first, I thought it was the courthouse, but of course I was mistaken. I haven’t seen too many jails that someone went out of their way to make as attractive as that one is.

Old Jail Museum in Bellville
Old Jail Museum in Bellville

From Bellville, we drove to Brenham, and our final courthouse there in Washington County. It is unclear how many courthouses Washington county has had, but it has had at least 4 courthouses, and perhaps as many as 6. That being the case, I guess I will once again have to forgive the courthouse for being somewhat ugly. I don’t really like the look of the more modern courthouses, although Mark appreciates some of the Art-Deco touches quite a bit more than I do. For me, if it isn’t sort of grandly-styled and made of old brick, it isn’t much of a Texas courthouse. I guess I’m prejudiced that way.

It is fine, I guess, and Brenham was certainly the largest town we visited this morning. It even has a “two-year academic institution,” Blinn College. We drove briefly past campus, but we didn’t take any photographs. Some of the streets near the old downtown in Brenham are shaped quite interestingly, and we did some bobbing and weaving down side streets to make it to the courthouse. Back out by the highway, the town is growing, and the area is full of common chain restaurants and stores. It’s interesting to see how one side of Brenham looks like a tiny, ancient town, and the other side is becoming a city.

Last (and boring) courthouse in Brenham
Last (and boring) courthouse in Brenham

In any event, we finished our courthouses in Brenham, and Mark forgot to dance a little jig there at the end. I guess it wasn’t as exciting to finish as he thought it would be. Still, he seemed happy to be done with it finally.

We stopped at Schlotzsky’s for lunch before we left town. We were pretty impressed with the quality of our sandwich there. We always like Schlotzsky’s, but this one in particular turned out a lovely veggie sandwich. I think it had more cheese than usual, although I can’t be sure exactly what it was that made it taste a little better than average. Maybe we were just famished? They say hunger is the best sauce.

We didn’t have anything left to do, so we hightailed it over to Waco hoping to make it home before 6pm.

Collin Street Bakery in Waco
Collin Street Bakery in Waco

As we came into Waco, I was reading our book, and I looked up as Mark pulled us off of the highway. I asked him what was up, since I didn’t know we were stopping in Waco. He told me he needed a break, and lo and behold, he somehow had magically stopped us at the Collin Street Bakery there. I’m pretty sure that the sly look on his face meant that he’d been planning that stop for a while, but I don’t know. It could have been an innocent coincidence. Maybe.

We picked out a few sweets and I got an iced tea and Mark bought a coffee. All in all, it was a lovely last stop, and from Waco we pretty well drove straight home. The traffic in Fort Worth wasn’t too bad, despite the fact that we were there at precisely 5pm, and for that I am truly grateful. It was a little after 6 when we finally made it home, but we didn’t do too badly, and the courthouses are all finished. I wonder which state Mark will want to do next.

 – Trip Total : 1,379 miles

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