Churches, Courthouses and Airports!

Well, we did manage to get off to the start of the day without too much trouble.  We were happy to  start our trek to Houston via the back roads near interstate-10.  It is very hard to explain to a 7-week old that we will stop in "just a minute," so we tried to time our stops along Zaira's schedule.  We also had  few ideas of our own.  The trip only takes four hours if we drive straight through to the airport.  We became very good Sunday drivers and took nine hours instead.  It was a nice way to spend our Sunday before taking Michael to the airport.

We made our first stop in Gonzales where we were able to see a very old courthouse.  It had a nice clock tower that even inspired someone to write a poem  (Old Townhouse Clock) about it.  Gonzales is most famous as the start of the Texas independence.  We did not get to hear the entire story because the park was closed.  Supposedly there is a re-enactment every year on the first weekend of October.  We might need to make a trip back here sometime.

We then continued on our way, stopping in Shiner...not for beer as Michael wanted to do, but not with five children, instead we found our first beautiful church of the day.  We were in painted churches country!  We did not even realize it but we had stumbled onto the very road that would take us past many of the painted churches of Texas that I mentioned in yesterday's post!  I will not be able to show you pictures of all of them because it would take up all of my space, but this is the one I found most beautiful!  It really was hard to just pick one picture!

We continued along this path for several miles...weaving around back roads enjoying the scenery.  We also saw many more nice looking courthouses in all of the small towns along the way.  We thought it was interesting that many of the courthouse historical markers mentioned that if the courthouse was burnt down a odd provision was allowed.  Court could be heard outside under a tree.  I am not sure why this had to happen under a tree but it piqued the interest of all of us in the car.  One tree in particular was still standing, albeit in the middle of the street!   It looked a little rough but it even held an historical marker!

This was the last of our touring through towns.  We managed to stop and shop for shoes and then we were off to the airport.  Michael was able to leave for his flight with little effort.

We then picked up a good friend of ours who will be staying with us fora while.  This is a mutually beneficial relationship that I hope will work out.  She and I have been praying about it over the last month and we think it is a good situation.  We will get through this time with hope and prayer.  So looking forward to seeing what God has planned for us!

Just heard from Michael and he made the first part of his trip without any trouble, so now I can go to sleep.