STAY THE NIGHT…
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| Entrance to Flophouze Hotel |
As we entered the gates of the salvage yard, we began to
wonder just what we had gotten ourselves into this time. Another “sister trip in quirky quarters” had
led us to Recycle the Past, an architectural salvage outside of Round Top,
Texas, to spend the weekend in a shipping container. You read that correctly…a shipping container
in a salvage yard.
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| Warm interior of shipping container |
Who knew a shipping container could be so…well, glamorous
and cozy! In the back of the yard were six
shipping containers lined up, and ours were the two on the end where the back
doors (now turned sliding glass doors) served as the entrance to an overnight
wonder featuring a seating area, a small kitchen, a full bath, and separate
bedroom.
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| Functional kitchen |
Flophouze Hotel
has turned these beasts of the highways into the perfect weekend getaway for
the road weary. The kitchen contained a
mini frig, a microwave, a sink, and fully stocked cabinets with a coffeemaker. (Bring your own food!)
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| Vintage pocket doors separate bath from kitchen and bedroom |
The full bath features a walk in shower and plenty of
room for dressing. The bedrooms came
with either a queen bed, two twin beds, or a queen and bunk beds to sleep more. And yes…they have all the modern conveniences
including heating and air conditioning.
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| Reclaimed wood adds a rustic charm |
The recycled containers live up to the sign at the gate…Recycle
the Past. True to form the interiors are
outfitted in reclaimed wood, installed windows from a salvaged school, and the
counter tops are old bowling alley floors!
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| Enjoying the outdoors |
But the view, you say?
The shipping containers were backed up to a verdant green pasture with
meandering cows peacefully grazing as the sun set. The deck outside the sliding glass doors and
the firepit and Adirondack chairs made for some pleasant evening chats and
early morning sunrise breakfasts. Oh,
and did I mention the swinging hammock?
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| Pastoral view from the deck |
You’ll find no TV here, but put an LP on the vintage
record player, slide open the back door, and sit back and get in touch with
nature, the quiet, and each other.
SEE THE SITES…
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| On Henkel Market Square in Round Top |
Flophouze Hotel is located just down the road from
Round Top in Central Texas (pop. 90).
For most of the year, it is a sleepy little
village with a few quaint stores hovered around the very well kept Henkel
Square Market, as when we visited.
But
in the spring and the fall, the entire area is transformed into an enormous
shopping mall.
Round Top Antiques Fair is an
outdoor gathering that draws antique dealers and shoppers from all over the
country.
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| A slice of pie heaven! |
A stop for a bite of dessert heaven is a must at
Royers Pie Haven where homemade goodness
and a few unique combinations and some old-time favorites make for some good
eating!
Our focus for sightseeing, however, was
Adventure 290, a “hunt
for history” drive along a portion of Highway 290 between Chappell Hill and
Elgin.
Each of the participating eight towns
along the route provided a scavenger hunt to encourage travelers to stop in the
little communities that might otherwise be bypassed by speedy travelers between
Houston and Austin.
Download your
Adventure
290 Passport here.
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| Chappell Hill Museum |
First stop,
Chappell
Hill. Although the little village is
full of historic sites, not to mention a lavender farm, it was the
Chappell Hill Historical Society
Museum that brought us to town. Located
in a 1927 school building, among its many exhibits it chronicles plantation,
Civil War, and Reconstruction history, as well as the story of two previous
schools which stood on the same location in the 1850s.
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| Blue Bell Creameries in Brenham |
Next a visit to
Brenham,
home of
Blue Bell
Creameries. And who doesn’t love ice
cream…especially Blue Bell…a true Texas icon, so of course we stopped in for a
scoop. But Adventure 290 took us to
historic
Toubin Park,
a unique pocket park featuring one of the original cisterns built to store
rainwater for firefighters and there learn about the burning of Brenham in 1866.
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| Texas Cotton Gin Museum in Burton |
On to…
Burton,
home of the Texas Cotton Gin Museum, the official
Cotton Gin Museum of Texas. Step back 100 years when cotton was king and
walk through history to view the inner workings of a real cotton gin built in
1914 and operated for over 60 years. The
1925 mighty Bessemer engine still bales and gins cotton each year during the
annual Cotton Gin Festival in April.
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| Historic Texas pink granite block in Carmine |
The next stop found us in tiny
Carmine at the
Carmine Visitor Center and
Museum, which was once the Southern Pacific Railroad depot. Note the 4’x4’ pink granite rock at the
entrance which came from Granite Mountain, the same stone used in the Galveston
Seawall and the state’s capitol.
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| "Cowboys Receiving the Mail" mural in Giddings |
In
Giddings, we
found a unique piece of Americana inside the post office. During the Great Depression, the
mural “Cowboys
Receiving the Mail” was one of 109 works of art commissioned by Franklin D.
Roosevelt to adorn the walls of post offices and federal buildings around the
country.
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| Paige Historical Museum |
Next on 290 was
Paige,
one of the many little towns whose history was determined by the railroad that
ran through it. The small museum housed
in the old depot highlights its history.
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| Medallion marks the spot of Wild West in McDade |
The sleepy little town of
McDade
was the backdrop for quite a different bit of history. In the late 1800s, it was the setting for
saloons, outlaws,
and gunfights that would rival any old Western movie. Today, all that’s left to remind us of its
turbulent past is the state historical medallion on the outside of one of the
old downtown buildings now the McDade Historical Museum.
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| Elgin Depot Museum |
Elgin,
our last stop on the Adventure 290 scavenger hunt, is known as the Sausage
Capital of Texas. But that is not what
brought us here. Another museum in
another depot in another railroad town drew us in, but by the time we finished
the trail, the museum was closed. Oh
well, another adventure for another day, and another good reason to head on
back to our comfortable upscale shipping container and enjoy a Texas sunset from
the deck.
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| Another Texas sunset...that's life! |
