The Oaks... and a growing tourism corridor

On our way to La Grange, we stopped at The Oaks, a humble, yet exquisite eatery outside of Warrenton. I ordered the Red Snapper and it was... absolutely delicious. This is the kind of food that you never expected to find anywhere but the big city a few years ago.

What I began to discern as we travelled was a tourism corridor, forming rapidly, of top-flight tourism opportunites between Burton and Schulenburg. There were numerous vinyards, restaurants and live music venues cropping up along the way. The picturesque hamlet of Round Top, famous for its monstrous semi-annual antique fair, has become a year-round attraction.

Hand-hewn stone stairway to the wine celler at the Stone Celler

View from the outdoor dining at The Oaks

I am calling it the Germania Wine Country until I find a better name. look at the trail!

Burton: Cotton Gin, White Horse Tavern,
Round Top: Heinkle Square, The Stone Cellar, other shops and restaurants
Winedale: Ima Hogg's historical village
Warrenton: The Oaks
La Grange: Many shops, restaurants, Live Music at The Bugle Boy
Schulenburg: Restaurants, shops, the fabulous Sengelmann Hall

Restored to its turn of the Century beauty, Sengelmann Hall is the stately centerpiece of Schulenburg's downtown.

Midway between Houston and Austin, this gorgeous Live Oak belt can only become the Napa Valley of Texas.

Catie Curtis Part III: Finding common ground with small potatoes

OK, so it took three parts! So now lets talk about the music. Catie Curtis is a gifted messenger and brought along a couple more just like her to her gig in La Grange. Her songs touched me, in spite of all I have said, and I would go see her again.

I kidded my buddy that he had brought me to a gay bar and we had a good laugh. This was just one night at The Bugle Boy, and a bit specialized I assume, a landmark event in an emerging legend in Texas music, and we were good natured and ready to listen. And Catie was a superb entertainer, no matter what her vignettes or goals for the evening were, and she still had some more surprises up her sleeve.

She introduced her protégé, Jenna Lindbo. She has a beautiful smile as well and sang ever so sugar-sweetly. One song about her music teacher was especially good, the kind of song you rarely hear, of one musician acknowledging another's influence.

At the end, Catie introduced famed Texas singer-songwriter Susan Gibson, sitting in the audience, who had been helping out in the sound booth. She graciously came up and sang with them, and did a number of her own. All great stuff. Catie led all of us in an almost churchy sounding song, about the fact that we are just passing through this world. She asked that we sing along the last verse acapella, and we did, and it was the very best of America at that moment. I was proud to be there and join in that song with so many with whom I may have little else in common.

We had a good time, got to see the Bugle Boy on a night with some unforgettable performers, and left smiling. But I had tons rolling through the minefield in my mind… We'll just call it the MINDFIELD.

Unbeknownst to us, Catie Curtis was advertised as a popular gay singer, along with Susan Gibson in Out Smart Magazine, having just done a sort of gay tour that played at Dosey Doe in the Woodlands. I guess my fearless leader and I are always the last to know. We weren’t just small potatoes, but the little ones left down in the potato bin that grow big eyes and get chunked.