Our first stop of the day was the Blue Bell Ice Cream Factory because we wanted to do a tour. After we hopped out of the truck, we walked over to the tour entrance and a sign on the door said, "No tours today." Well, that was a bummer. Instead we went to see what the baseball museum on the premises was about.
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| Really a baseball lobby. |
Seems Brenham High School has a lot of baseball stars.
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| Cool elevator door art |
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| Ice cream parlor still selling Blue Bell Ice Cream |
With all the talk about Listeria, we couldn't believe they were still selling ice cream. We figured it must be safe. Hah! Little did we know. We took our ice cream and sat to watch an abbreviated video of the plant tour.
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| Second floor ice cream parlor. |
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| Blue Bell in Brenham, Texas |
After the video and ice cream break, we went into the museum. Beautiful watercolor art adorns the walls showing Blue Bell history.
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| I love their slogan. |
In addition to the historical art, there were timelines on the walls with the history of the company going back to the early 1900s.
Here's a poster that would have been from my early teen years. If we had lived in south Texas at the time, I would have entered this sweepstakes!
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| Early delivery vehicle |
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| Blue Bell Creameries sculpture |
Because we weren't able to get into the Southern Flyer restaurant at Brenham Airport yesterday, we arrived as soon as they opened today so we'd be sure to get a seat! Turns out they're not near as busy when they open on a weekday so we had our choice of inside or outside table. It was cold and windy outside so we chose to eat inside.
The main attraction of the Southern Flyer is the 50s theme. All the waitresses wear poodle skirts. You don't see poodle skirts much anymore! Our waitress was kind enough to pose for a photo. The food was good.
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| Southern Flyer 50s decor |
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| Our waitress with our order |
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| View of the pond if you sit outside |
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| Brenham Airport |
Yesterday, we had limited time at Washington-on-the-Brazos State Park. Still to see were the Star of the Republic Museum and Barrington Farm, both worth the time.
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| Bob "sightseeing." (He's checking his smart phone.) LOL. |
The Star of the Republic Museum is two floors of exhibits encompassing the arrival of the Spaniards, the first U.S. settlers (the "Old 300"), war for independence from Mexico, to Texas becoming a Republic, Texas's annexation to the United States, another war with Mexico which, when we won it, granted large amounts of land to the United States: Texas, Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, Nevada, Arizona and California (adding 1,193,061 square miles to the U.S.).
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| Beautiful back-lit art |
There was no shortage of quilts in the museum. The first two photos are of a Pine-Burr Quilt, a detailed, three-dimensional pattern popular among African-American quilters since the mid-19th century.
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| Pine-Burr Quilt |
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| Pine-Burr Quilt |
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| A beautiful mural that takes up a whole wall |
Cotton was very important early in American history. It was traded with Mexico for weapons and ammunition. Washington-on-the-Brazos had a port for shipping cotton to the Gulf on steamboats.
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Great depiction of all the cotton bales that could be
loaded on a steamboat for shipping. |
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| Another beautiful quilt using star decor |
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| An old spinning wheel for the cotton |
The following instrument is a melodeon. These foot-pumped reed organs (keyboard wind instruments) were less expensive than a piano, easier to transport, and less likely to get out of tune.
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| Melodeon circa 1850 |
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| Another quilt |
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Washington-on-the-Brazos is a
"Birthplace of Texas" historic site |
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| Winecups |
From Star of the Republic Museum it was a very short drive to Barrington Living History Farm, an example of Texas farm living in the mid-1800s, and home to the last president of the Republic of Texas, Dr. Anson Jones. Dr. Jones arrived in Texas in 1833 in Brazoria where he set up a medical practice. Soon thereafter, he became involved in Texas politics. Dr. Jones served the Republic of Texas as a congressman, minister to the United States, senator and secretary of state. In 1844, he became president of the Republic and served one year until Texas became the 28th state in 1845.
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| Entrance to Barrington Farm Living History Museum |
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| Bob with the costumed interpreters on the dogtrot. |
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Can't get away from doing chores.
This building is the kitchen, built separate from
the house due to heat and fire concerns. |
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| Gorgeous Cochin chickens |
The main house is a frame structure commonly called a "dog-trot" or "dog run." The home faces southeast, bringing the wind through the dogtrot. During the hot summers, this air movement allowed the family to remain comfortable outside on their patio.
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| Main house in the "dog-trot" style |
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| The barn |
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| Non-bearded, buff-laced Polish chicken rooster |
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Ossabaw Island hogs - descendants of
Spanish pigs |
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| Ossabaw Island hog |
That ended our Washington-on-the-Brazos portion of the day. We drove back roads on our way back to Brenham and saw some exotic animals along the way.
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| Fallow deer fawn |
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| Fallow deer |
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| Not sure what these are?? |
We checked out a couple of Corps of Engineer campgrounds on the south side of Somerville Lake on our exploration. We didn't care for Yegua Creek Park, a little too stark. Rocky Creek Park was more to our liking. We didn't camp at them...just drove through checking out the sites.
Our day was not over yet. This blog to be continued in Part 2.
