Sunday. We have to go home today. I really like this lazing about, traveling hither and yon, seeing new things, learning new things.
Breakfast turns into an exercise experience for me. The elevator is small and induces claustrophobia, and we're only on the second floor, so I walk down to get some OJ, then back up to the room, where I realize we need some napkins. So, it's back down the stairs and up, and when I return to the room and realize I need something else. Down and up, one more time. Mercy.
We pack our belongings, turn in the card keys and jump in the Cube. First stop is downtown again so we can take some pictures because we forgot the camera the first night. (http://www.flickr.com/photos/moconn852/sets/72157626076456685/)
Then we hit the road, headed for Calvert, Texas, pop. 1208. When we stopped by on Friday to buy our tour guide, pretty much everyone we talked to either thanked us or welcomed us to Calvert, always using the town name. Like it was a chamber of commerce plot. But they seemed genuine enough.
The same happened on our return, but none of the people we'd seen on Friday seemed to remember us from the first stop. Probably had way too many folks stop by on Saturday to keep all the tourists straight.
Calvert was built by King Cotton and coal and is named after Robert Calvert, a descendant of Lord Baltimore. Residents were fond of the Victorian and Colonial revival styles. You'll see lots of columns and lots of color.
While wandering about taking pictures, I often walked downed the middle of the road with no fear of being run down by a car. The roads are a combination of paved and very well maintained dirt.
A local driving by stopped and roll her window down, introducing herself to us as Bette Gregory, a local realtor. She wondered if we might be interested in a house (several are for sale, including some with historical markers on them.) We said no, that we were just taking the tour, and she thanked us for coming to Calvert.
We spent hours driving and walking around town, Sharon reading from the tour guide, me shooting pictures.
Couple of interesting stories:
One house was originally built as a one-story cottage, and when a later owner decided to add a second story, he did it by having the original part lifted up and building the second story underneath. No details on how they pulled that off, but hey, we're not sure how the pyramids were built either.
In another part of town, the two houses occupying adjacent lots began as one house. The larger one had a wing that was later removed and moved over to become the home for the daughter of the first home's owner. It was later expanded.
None of the homes are open to the public except during the annual tour of homes in December.
After seeing all the houses we could stand to see, we set course for home with a couple of stops. One was outside Reagan to take pictures of the signs (for anyone reading this who doesn't know, Sharon's maiden name was Reagan). Another stop came to take a picture at a spot we found particularly photogenic.
And Lisa, the voice of the GPS? She didn't let us down again.
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