When you’re following the warm winter weather in the US there are only so many places you can go – and Texas is one of those popular spots for traveling families. We came here because it is warm and because there are many of our membership campgrounds to choose from. However, honestly, I wasn’t exactly excited to travel to TX again because there are many other places I’d love to visit, but in a tiny trailer the warm weather is priority #1. So since we’re here for two months, we’re going to jump in and enjoy it! (see more below)

But, first…Lately

• I’m reading House of Spirits by Isabelle Allende
• Elodie’s reading Chronicles of Egg by Geoff Rodkey
• We’re reading / listening to CS Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia
• I was listening to The Rose Code until I foresaw a major tragedy and didn’t want to hear about it, so I stopped listening. It was an engaging story until that point!
• We’ve spent entire mornings creating collages
• I’ve made this gluten-free banana bread with apple sauce a few times and it’s sooo good!

Now on to Texas…Our time in the Lone State

After many years of traveling, I’ve realized that my ‘favorite’ places are usually those that took me by surprise. Likely that’s because I went in without expectations. I left my mind open to what was actually there instead of my looking for what I expected to find.

Texas is one of those places for me.

While I wouldn’t call it a favorite place, it is definitely a great place in many ways – most notably, everyone is so nice! From the friends we met at the campsites to cashiers to people we chatted with at the dog park…everyone was so, so friendly. Both of us were surprised by how welcomed we felt.

There’s also a lot of interesting history to learn about and many cool places to visit. Texas history is also distinct from the rest of the USA, filled with stories of cowboys, German/Czech/Polish immigrants in the 1800s, Native American “prehistory” from thousands of years ago. Since the 1500s the land has been claimed by six nations – Spain, France, Mexico, Texas as its own country, the Confederate states, and now the USA.

All of these cultures and events come together to create a diverse and unique part of the United States.

Highlights from our two months

About 1.5 hours outside of Houston is the rural town of Schulenburg with its local frontier life history museum. I love seeing these types of remnants of the past – when people had to do everything by hand instead of relying on large corporations for all of our modern conveniences. While it was a difficult and laborious lifestyle in many ways, I admire all the skills everyone had to learn just to survive. For women the skills revolved around growing and preserving food, daily scratch cooking, spooling/weaving/knitting/sewing, animal husbandry, first aid, medicine making, raising kids, creative uses for old things, and so much more.

In the same area are the Painted Churches, part of the National Register of Historic Places. These unassuming churches were built by Czech and German immigrants in the late 1800s – early 1900s as replicas of the churches they left behind in Europe. The grand ceilings, decorative paintwork, and stained glass windows are a delightful surprise after entering what seems to be just a simple stone or wooden church. My particular favorite has a vibrant blue ceiling covered in gold stars giving the room a whimsical, imaginative feeling.

Nearby, the quirky town of Round Top was a fun visit. The town is laid out with old-style buildings around a grassy area with seating and walkways. There are several shops and restaurants, but we couldn’t miss the pie shop (I had blueberry-lemon gluten free pie) and the cheese shop where I purchased the most delicious apple-ginger-lemon jelly to go with our cheese.

While we’ve visited all of the major Texan cities, San Antonio was the one we were most excited about because of the history of the Alamo and the missions. Plus, it has a completely different feel that than the other cities because of its mix of Mexican, old Texas, and young modern families.

About an hour outside of San Antonio the famous “Cowboy Capital of the World,” Bandera, was a fun visit. It was an original staging area of the cattle drives in the 18th and 19th centuries. The town holds onto its history as a frontier town with its original buildings, cowboy heritage, and many dude ranches nearby. The local Frontier Times Museum is filled with artifacts from the area – both historical and quirky!

Surprisingly, there are some beautiful lakes that we camped alongside and had fun spotting the bluebells, and then pressing some for future crafts!

Overall, we spent most of our time in rural Texas, which can be pleasantly summed up by this photo…