Town of Bastrop

We went into the town of Bastrop Friday, and it is very quaint and cute. As we came in Dave saw a quilt shop - so of course I had to go and look. While in there they told me to go to the old bank on Main Street - it's a visitor's center. Talked with a nice gentleman inside the bank about the history of the bank, the town, watched a video, etc. Found out that Bastrop is the second oldest settlement in Texas, and - the bank? Anyone know Hailey and Hillary Duff? Seems their father owns this bank (property and building) now, and their grandfather used to be the bank president, and their great-great-grandfather used to be a teller there. Also - since the Duffs still own the bank which is now the visitor's center, the family still has it's own private walk-in vault - and it's still in use.

The planners of the town did a nice job in renovating and keeping the old time flavor in tact. There are over 130 buildings on the national register, and quite a walking tour if you want to do that. The Colorado River (not the one in Colorado - but this one starts somewhere in the northwest corner of Texas and meanders to the Gulf of Mexico) runs through town and we went down to it to see the river walk area. I got trampled on by the ducks and geese there - was quite unsettling. This river - which we are camped on some 10 miles up stream, can be kayaked or canoed for over 300 miles to the Gulf of Mexico. Today there was a large group of people who put in canoes right by our campground - some tour company conducted this.

Today we traveled to Round Rock which is just north of Austin to visit a church that my pastor grew up in as a child. And just like the rest of Texas where everything is BIG, so is this church. Very lovely, and steeped in Swedish history. And of all people to meet there - I talked with a woman who was a childhood friend of Jimmy. Small world.