South to Gonzales

We passed up a 4th of July church picnic in Weimar because of the forecast of bad weather (and it was true to the forecast). That made us very eager to go to one this last Sunday. So, we consulted polkabeat.com and lo and behold there was one listed in the schedule for the 15th---how could we be so lucky? It was to be at the St. James Catholic Church on College Street.
So off we go at 9:15, down through Luling to Gonzales only to find that there was no church picnic. A parishioner said that if there was to be picnic, no one had told them.
So, since we had decided on the way down that it might be a no show, we vowed not to be upset. So, we hunted for a restaurant for lunch.
Gonzales has not been discovered by the chain restaurants (thank goodness) so it was a tough search. There appears to be nice Italian Restaurant on main street, but it looked to be more than we needed. So, we settled for a Whattaburger and coffee from the Circle K store on the main highway.
The Circle K store (actually an Exxon gasoline station) had only two tables for their fast food customers and we had one. Next to us there were two women talking with a man about some budding scandal in the local school sports area, but we were not able to get it, or even get in on it .
The next target was the Pioneer Village just to the north of the main state highway intersection. This installation has been here for many years, but we have overlooked it until now. It is a collection of some 14 buildings rescued from the farms and ranches around this area and reset here in a small village setting.
Here are a few photos of the buildings.

The interior of Gates Ranch house:

An overview of the grounds of the Village:

Two ranch tools that have me puzzled as to their use:

Here is a small version of a scoop that we used in Michigan in the 1940s. It has a different name here in Texas.

And, here is the school. It was built about 1900, had two rooms, blackboards (not slate) and some school furniture. Much of what is here are items stored that will someday go into the other buildings, but for now,they are stored here. We had an interesting and long discussion here with one of the Village's curators who had at one time been a school teacher. We saw eye to eye on how to correct the education of young people in todays public schools.

Followed Hwy 794 north to Harwood and took the old Hwy 9 back to Luling and home.

Good day was had by all.

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