Another Day in South Texas

We were "on the fence" on our decision to visit the Jourdanton area on Saturday, but when Saturday arrived and the weather looked good, we were off on our trip.  We had an objective to visit the gun show in Jourdanton, but that would not have been enough incentive for the trip.  We always poke into detail on a trip like this to make it worthwhile.
We travelled a different route south this time. Travelled through New Braunfels, to Hwy 1044, then to 175, then to 87 and hit the 1604 loop road south of San Antonio. Then sped down the Interstate to Pleasanton where we searched for food.  We didn't know it at the time, but all the glitz is on the road between Pleasanton and Jourdanton, a stretch of about 7 miles.  Glitsch meaning the array of fast food places.  We did know about two cafes as we researched the trip beforehand, but those two prospects, Lauries Deli and Chris's Café were closed on Saturday.  As a result of our lack of knowledge on all this, we had a sandwich at Bill Millers BBQ.  C-.
We went on to Jourdanton to the VFW hall where we attended the gun show.  Very accommodating people, Eagle Outfitters, as they only required that I pay the entrance fee of $5 and Dee could sit inside and read her book while I shopped.
Across the street was the County Courthouse.  Nice old building, but the square never developed around this old building, so it sits among some helter skelter buildings in a not very apt setting.
This is the side facing west.  All the sides are the same.  The yellow base is a bit overwhelming.

After a very brief tour of this small community, we travelled back on 87 to Pleasanton with the idea of visiting the old downtown of Floresville, where we many years ago went into an old hardware store and chatted with the folks in there.  But not even back to Pleasanton we were drawn into a roadside flea market.  We had an interesting time here, seeing all the junk for sale and talking to the local vendors.

One old fellow had a lot of old rusty tools for sale, one of which was a gasoline blowtorch. Since I have several and have used these all my life, I asked him what he sells something like this for and he said $20.  We then got into a conversation about how to use it.  He said one person told him that you filled it with water.  Crazy, huh?  Then he wanted to believe that you used kerosene for the fuel.  Uh UH , must use gasoline, which brought us into the discussion of  long-gone white gas.  I think I convinced him on how to use his blowtorch, even though his was in an unusable condition.

Another vendor had pug pups for sale, another had lots of Catholic trinkets and posters of angels for sale.  One vendor of a miscellaneous table had two Peruvian carved nut shells.  Dee bought one for $10. Here she is making the deal. And the next photo is the long lost art of the Incas.

Now we are off for the old downtown of Floresville.  There were, seemingly, a lot of cars parked in the downtown square, but hardly a person in sight.  Wonder if there are people living in the second stories of these old, well cared for buildings, and these are visitors?  We did run into family on the sidewalk with their Christmas gifts,some opened some not.  We overheard a phrase which is to be repeated thousands of times over the next day. "I saved the sales receipt in case you would like to return it".

Here is the restored courthouse, and across the street, the classic hardware store.

Now the horse is heading for the barn, so its on to Seguin ( to surely miss the long detour on Business 123) and back to San Marcos.  But stopping first at the HEB in Lavernia for a donut to keep us fueled for the rest of the trip home.

200 miles, 8 hour trip.  Traffic not a problem as was reported for the big air terminals across the country.  Are not we fortunate?