One of our group had the idea of taking a road trip to see some of the painted churches in the area so at 10am, eight of us piled into two cars and headed south for the first one.
Painted churches are brightly decorated Catholic churches built by German and Czech immigrants in central Texas in the late 1800’s to early 1900’s. They were built to look like larger European Gothic cathedrals using hand-painted interiors, columns painted to look like marble, and lots of gold accents made to look like gilding. Usually located far out in the rural reaches, the steeple is a landmark that can be seen for several miles.
There are dozens of these sprinkled around central Texas, and four of them are open to the public. It takes a couple hours to drive to all four of them and we made a day of it. Road-tripping to see them is a thing here, and one couple in our group did it last year and were wanting to do it again. We were happy to accompany them to see some pretty amazing church buildings.
We had lunch at a little bakery in Schulenburg, scooting a couple tables together to fit all eight of us. This place had lots of pastries and pig-in-the-blankets, which several of our group had. Definitely a worthwhile stop.
We also stopped for ice cream on the way back. We’re not the only ones with a taste for ice cream.
Arriving back at camp, we could see the activity starting to rise. Kids are running around, we can hear their shouts from the RV area, and tomorrow and Sunday will be busy with over 400 in attendance. We don’t have the run of the place with a retreat in full swing so we will probably go to Austin for the day tomorrow.
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