Hi, evrybudy! This is Old Bear ritin 2 u and I finaly did get 2 go on a trip with my man. Matter of fact, we jist got back frum it a couple of days ago. Wat our trip wus going to see The Painted Churches of Texas with the Travel Ministry frum the church my man goes to. We had dun that before, in March 2004, but this tyme we were goin 2 b gone 4 3 days instead of 2 and wuld see sum different things.

Miss Elizabeth and Miss Julia and Mr. Mack cum 2 get me and my man at 8:15 cus we had 2 be at the church by 8:45 wen the bus wus goin 2 leave. There wus me and my man and 5 men and 24 women on the bus wen it left zactly at 9am. Mr. Billie wus the bus driver man and miss Shirley wus the leader lady.

The first place we stopped wus in Waco, Texus at a McDonalds restaurant so peoples culd get a coffee or a coca cola and go to the bathroom. Seems like most everyone has to go do that evry tyme we take a trip.

Miss Shirley did sumpun that got evrybudy aquainted purty good. She had peoples interview each other 2 find out all about them and then they stood up in the bus and told everybudy wat they lerned about the other person. It wus fun. My man got up and told all abowt me and how I was almost 80 and did a lot of travelin with him.

Miss Shirley had planned sum other things 4 us to C besides the Painted Churches and one wus Washington-on-the-Brazos State Historical Park, the birthplace of Texas.

Washington-on-the-Brazos wus a pretty big town back 150 years ago wen Texus peoples got together to do a ritin called a constitution that sed Texus peoples weren't going to take no more orders frum Mexico and were going to make their own government in Texus. They did this in sort of a barn luking place sitting around a long table where they culd argue and talk about wat shuld go in the new constitution. Wen we got there the town was mostly gone but the signing place wus still there and we got to sit arownd the table just like those old timey Texuns did while a guide lady told us the story. There is also an interesting visitor's center there and The Star of the Republic Museum. Here's pitchers of the building and the long table where those old timey Texuns sat and did the talking and the signing.

After we learned about how Texus got to be a Republic we drove to the Best Western motel in Brenham where we were going to stay for two nights. We didn't stay there very long cus we had 2 be where we were going to eat supper at a certain time and it was several miles from Brenham to get there so mostly we jist put our bags in the rooms and went to the bathroom agin.

Where we went for supper was the Nueces Canyon Ranch Resort Ranch. It wus a speshul kind of ranch where they trained wat is kalled cutting horses. Wen we first got there we went to wat luked lyke a football field with a fence around it and a roof on top and sum cowboy lukin men sitting on horses at one end of this field and some cows on the other end.

Wen we went into this field place the first thing that wus there was a pretty horse with blue eyes. I thought he wus wearing contact lenses. He wus reel purty and put his nose over the fence so peoples culd pet him.

Mr. George, who owned this ranch wus sittin by the fence on his horse and told us all about wat a cutting horse is and how his job is to train them to go into a hurd of cows and find the right one to bring out of the herd for branding or sumthing. Mr. George sed it took 3 years to train one and cost a lot of money.

Then the cowboys on the horses give us a xabition of how cutting horses do their cutting. Mostly they did the cutting with the herd of cows but they did it with buffalos too.

Abowt the time it got dark it wus tyme to go eat our supper inside the ranch house and it was a really gud barbecue meal. And I got my pitcher tuk with my man and Mr. George's wife.

Then we all got back in the bus and Mr. Billie drove us back to Branham and by then it wus tyme to go to bed.

My man got up purty early to go to the Red Roof Restaurant for breakfast and he sed it wus reel gud food. He wus the furst one to get there but purty soon the other peoples cum to eat or drink their coffee. My man tuk this pitcher of Mr. Mack and Miss Julia waitin 2 get their food. Mr. Phil and Miss Mary were sittin on the other side of the tble.

Miss Shirley sed we had 2 leave our hotel by 8:00 cus we had to be in Schulenberg by 9:00 to meet our guide lady who wus going to take us to the Painted Churches. Everbudy wus on the bus in tyme and Mr. Billie did a gud job of driving sew we got to Schulenberg in time for everyone to go to the bathroom again. Here's where we met the guide lady.

Back in old timey days peoples cum from Germany and Czechoslovakia and other countries in Europe to live in Texus and one of the first things they did wus build a church. Cus they got sort of homesick 4 wear they cum frum they made the inside of the churches look like wat they had left behind them with lots of pitchers and decorations and statues and stuff. They made the outsides of the churches look nyce but it wus the insyde that they made luk reel purty. And that's why they are kalled the Painted Churches and peoples kum frum all over the world 2 C them. We went 2 C 4 that were Catholic churches sew had a lot of statues in them. Here's a postcard pitcher of the inside of the 4 that we went to see.

The pitchers my man tuk of the insides of the churches didn't cum out very gud but here are some outside pitchers that did.

After we looked at 3 different churches it wus tyme 4 lunch. This restaurant near Schulenberg is wear we ate. I membered it frum eatin there in 2004 cus my man had a hard tyme finding where the bathroom wus.

Wen we finished lunch we went 2 C the 4th Painted Church and then we went back to the hotel. Everybudy had to get their own dinner sew sum went to downtown Brenham and sum ate at the Red Roof restaurant. I stayed in our room cus I don't eat. My man and Miss Elizabeth went to downtown but sed that they shuld have gone to the Red Roof.

Saturday wus the last day of the trip so after breakfast at the Red Roof restaurant we started back to Dallas by Billie driving us to Round Top.

The place in Brenham where they make Bluebell Ice creme was on our way to Round Top so Mr. Billie stopped there sew any one who wanted sum ice creme go buy it. Miss Shirley had hoped to get us a tour but we culdn't cus they were all full up with tour peoples. So we didn't get no free samples. It shure wus gud ice creme. Here's an old timey truck that the Blue Bell creamery has parked out in their front yard.

I guess eatin the ice creme made everybudy feel reel gud cus there was a lot of talkin and laffin and havin a gud tyme. Here's Miss Mitzy talkin to sumbudy.

Miss Mitzy played jokes on my man 2 or 3 tymes cus wen he got off the bus maybe to go to the bathroom and then got back on he culdn't find me cus Miss Mitzy hid me somewhere. One time she hid me under her jacket and my man had to give her sum candy stuff to get me back. It wus lots of fun to play games like that.

In 2000 Round Top had a population of 77 peoples. But at certain times of the year there are a zillion peoples visiting cus they have 3 special activities. They were getting ready 4 a big antique fair wen we were there and there were lots and lots of tents wear peoples would be selling their antiquy things in a week or so.

Miss Shirly sed that we were going to be too early for lunch at Royers Restaurant sew we went to a surprise place. It was a reel purty herb garden at some place kalled Festival Hill right near Round Top.

We had lots of time to walk around the herb garden and smell all the nice smells and reed wat it said about them. Here's Miss Elizabeth and Miss Shirley in the herb garden and then pitchers of the purty bridge and the stream. If u luk reel, real hard U can see Miss True standing on the bridge.

Besides the herb garden there was a big building where they had all kinds of activities like music concerts and lectures and stuff.

There wus sum sort of a meeting about planting herbs going on in the big building but the nice lady at the door let me go in with my man and sum others. The pitcher at the very top of this ritin is that nice lady holdin me. . My man tuk these pitchers but it wus too dark 4 them to be gud. But it wus a real pretty rum and was where they did a lot of musical stuff.

Of course there wus a gift shop at the herb garden sew everybudy had to go in there and buy sumthing to take home with them. It wusn't lyke most gift shops cus most everything in the shop wus hand made stuff by sum lady. Miss Elizabeth bought whut luked lyke a wisk broom with a corn cob handle for 25 cents. And she bought a nice blue nekluce that cost her more than 25 cents I bet. Here are some of the ladies shopping. Miss True is the lady wearin the real purty jacket.

We went into Round Top to Royer's restaurant for the scrumptious meal that Miss Shirly had promised and there sure wus a lot of food. And it wus reel crowded cus it wus jist a little place. Mr. Earl, the owner, wus there and he let my man take his pitcher holding me.

After eatin and lukin around Round Top a little we got back on the bus to cum back to Dallas. That's Miss Shirley standing and talkin to one of the ladies that went with us.

We stopped in Waco at another McDonalds on the way home but got back to the church jist about 6 like Miss Shirley sed it wuld be. Everybudy wus purty tired but real happy cus it had been a reel gud trip seein lots of things and meeting lots of new peoples. I sure had a gud tyme.

My man sez that in May we are going on a Mystery trip. That will be fun.

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