The Woodlands, Texas, was reported to have a collection of outdoor art on display, but when I arrived it was raining and the traffic signals were out. Traffic was a total disaster. After creeping along for about a mile, I photographed "Children at Play" by Clement Renzi and then fought my way back to the Interstate. I really wanted a picture of "Lake Monster" and "Sleeping Giant," but I did not want to spend several hours for two pictures. Instead, I continued on to the Montgomery County Courthouse in Conroe (population 89,956) and the Post Office in the community of Cut and Shoot (population 1,087). Cut and Shoot is located in kind of a rural area and there were not a lot of pickup trucks around the Post Office with "I Love Biden" stickers on the back bumper.
The storm was worse in Cleveland (population 7,999) and several trees had blown over, so I did not spend any time in town looking for a RonnieAdventure picture.
Double Lake Recreation Area just south of Coldspring (population 777) is Trailhead #11 on the lengthy Lone Star Hiking Trail. Coldspring is also the county seat for San Jacinto County. How often do you see a cross on the front of the courthouse?
Because elevation changes are so slight in the area, the earthen dam that backs up Livingston Reservoir is only a 99-foot-high, but 2.5 miles in length. The lake has a catchment area of 16,616 square miles and is 31 miles long. Average depth of the lake is 55-feet.
The original Swartwout townsite is now under Livingston Reservoir, but the town's historic marker has been relocated to the historic Pleasant Hill Methodist Church site below the dam.
Crockett was named for Davy Crockett and is the fifth-oldest city in Texas. Davy and his men camped here by the natural spring on their way to the Alamo. Also, located by the spring is the Strode-Pritchett Log Cabin that is believed to have been built in the 1850s. After the log cabin was abandoned, it was used for hay storage until 1973.
Madisonville (population 4,565) is known as the "Mushroom Capital of Texas" because there are ten large Monterey Mushrooms farm in the area. The farms produces 400,000 pounds of white mushrooms and 92,000 pounds of brown mushrooms every week.
Madisonville is also the county seat for Madison County and home of the historic Woodbine Hotel. On the web, the hotel is also known as Shapira Hotel and Willis Hotel. The 1904 Queen Anne structure is a popular dining place for locals and visitors. Large painted mushrooms are found at various locations around town.
Both the Grimes County Courthouse and the Fanthorp Inn State Historic Site are located in the small community of Anderson (population 195).
Henry Fanthorp built the original inn structures in 1834 as a home for his third wife. In 1835 Fanthorp was appointed postmaster for the area, so the building was enlarged and became the first US Post Office in the region. Within a few years the inn became a favorite place for stagecoach stops, so in 1850 the building was once again enlarged to accommodate hotel guest. A general store was also added to serve stagecoach passengers and local residents. Texas Parks and Wildlife Department purchased the historic structure in 1977 from the Fanthorp family and in 2019 the property was transferred to the Texas Historical Commission. The Fanthorp Inn is now open for public tours
By the time I arrived in Navasota (population 8,068) it was raining hard and really getting dark. On the way into town there was an accident on Highway 6, so by following a service road I was able to get a picture of the "World's Largest Teapot." Fortunately, my GPS unit knew the backroads and got me to the Rene-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle monument by avoiding the long traffic jam.
Sieur de La Salle is best known for his 1682 expedition in which he claimed the lower Mississippi River from the mouth of the Illinois River to the Gulf of Mexico for France.
In 1684 La Salle once again left France for America, this time to establish a French colony on the Gulf of Mexico. After many hardships, the group finally settled near Victoria, Texas. Then, their one remaining ship ran aground and sunk in the mud in what was then known as the Bay of Saint Louis, stranding the settlers. In order to get help, La Salle led a group of settlers eastward looking for the Mississippi River, but he got lost and they wandered around in the Mississippi Delta marshes for two years. On March 19, 1687, some of the men mutinied near the present site of Navasota, Texas, and Pierre Duhaul shot and killed La Salle. James Hiems then shot Duhaul to avenge La Salle, and soon mayhem broke out and everyone was shooting everyone else to avenge others who had been shot. The survivors finally regrouped, but the Karankawa Natives then killed the remaining 20 adults and took the children as captives. In 1689 France sent a search party to look for the settlers, but they could never find anyone.
Navasota's Blues Alley has been recognized as the best public improvement in Texas for cities of less than 50,000 people. I was not there during the day, but it was reported that along Washington Avenue there are a great selection of coffee shops and boutiques in the heart of the downtown district. I did get a picture of a nice mural in the alley.
In front of Navasota's City Hall stands a statue of Frank Hamer, the Texas Ranger that tracked down Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow and put an end to their robbing and killing spree.
I took a picture of the Waller County Courthouse in Hempstead (population 6,028) as I drove through town and then continued on to Katy (population 24,005) to visit a Buc-ee's station that contain a really long string of gas pumps and the "World's Longest Car Wash."
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