Well, I woke up this morning and decided to ride out and find the section of Old Texas 20 I missed last week – just a quick hop to Elgin and back – but jeez – once you get out – it’s hard to come back.
I did find the section I missed – a nice run of county road along the Southern Pacific RR line, and into Elgin right on Central Avenue – which was nice – and then decided to just see how far Old TX 20 actually went.
Last week we cut off TX 20 in Paige – but it runs another ten miles – mostly gravel – and ends at HWY290 just 10 miles short of Giddings, TX.
I did stop in McDade for a look see. McDade was home to a notorious group of outlaws called the Notch Cutters in the years after the Civil War. There would be thieving and killings, and then the folks in McDade would hang three or four of the reprobates and things would calm down for a while. The most famous hangings were the Christmas Eve hangings. On Christmas Eve 1883 three outlaws were strung up right across from where my Ural is parked. On Christmas day the outlaw’s buddies came into town and there was a gun battle at the saloon and three more men were killed. The hanging and shootings were a regular thing in McDade until 1912. I kept my head down while in town.
Bank? Cafe? I looked through the window and it was full of bags of Purina Sow and Pig Complete – so maybe cafe is closer then bank nowadays.
Probably only my Texas compadres will get this one – Aggie’s do tend to go their own way!
Next town down Old TX 20 was Paige – and my right hand mirror was spinning like a top – so open up the handy Ural toolkit –
Once I’d gotten to the end of TX20 – and saw how close I was to Giddings I figured I should hit the Gidding City Meat Market – never had their BBQ – You can see the Lee County Courthouse there to the left.
So, since it was a quick ride out – I’m not going to eat – just get some brisket and sausage and tote it home to my wife – who complains when she misses a BBQ run.
But I had to have just a taste. Nice brisket – good smoke, nice flavor – COW! Excellent sausage – more german style – beef and pork salt and pepper – simple – well cooked. Snow’s BBQ in Lexington gets their sausage here,
Re-invigorated, I decided to ride around through Fedor, past Lexington, and ramble around some county roads back towards home. Trinity Lutheran Church and Cemetery in Fedor is a pretty little German country church and cemetery. The earliest graves here are 1860.
At the junction of CR473 and CR472 in Williamson County I saw this old cabin someone is restoring.
It’s on the property of the Lawrence Chapel and Cemetery
It’s haying time around here – lots and lots of round bales of coastal bermuda hay drying in the fields – you drive by and you can smell that fresh hay smell. No one in this area really does square bales anymore – which is too bad for the kids who don’t get to go out and buck 80 pound bales onto an old IH truck that you have to stuff a rag into the air horn to get started and stack them in Mr. Lindig’s barn for a nickel a bale. Or have that old man come out at two o’ clock in the morning when you finally have the last bale stacked and you’re burnt down to just a little crispy fifteen year-old cinder and he hands you a couple of quarts of ice cold Lone Star beer.
Little Roads in a Big State – gotta love it
Go Ride!