Van Alstyne, Texas

There's nothing like a road trip on a cold, gray day.  Better yet is a great road trip that's only 15 minutes from home!

Heading North on Interstate 75, about 15 minutes from McKinney, is Van Alstyne, Texas.  Van Alstyne officially became a Texas City March 10, 1873 with the arrival of the first train.

Today Van Alstyne's population is 2,843, officially making it a SMALL town!

However, there are a lot of things happening in Van Alstyne these days and I decided to go check it out!

My first stop was at Summit Mercantile.

This store is owned by Amelia Giles and Cheryl Snyder.  They are originally from Mississippi, but most recently they had a shop in Houston.  The ladies relocated to Van Alstyne, re-habed an old house...and opened their new store.

From the minute you walk in the front door there is so much to see!  Great, large pieces of furniture fill the shop.  Every inch of space is utilized to show case many of the over sized pieces.

There were several beds...I guess I only caught a picture of one of them

Several of the industrial items could be re-purposed into functional items.  This old lift looks like a tea cart.  Imagine the heave work it accomplished in the past.

This is a great trophy cabinet the ladies picked up from a school up North.  Unfortunately, this piece was sold, but I did notice another one in the back...maybe it's waiting for you!

I loved this wonderful old workbench...

Here is the same work bench from the other angle.  So many great drawers!

I saw two of these small file drawers.  What a perfect addition to an office.

Everywhere I turned there was another beautiful piece of furniture.

The ladies also offer vintage lighting.

How could you possibly just pick one?

This little "cafe" set was over the top.  It would be so interesting to know the story behind this table and the four little chairs. 

Of all the pieces I saw, I think this dental cabinet was my favorite.  Painted a light blue, it was in great condition.  This would be a perfect addition to a sewing room, filled with bits and pieces of fabric and thread.  This alone is worth the drive!

There were large mirrors...

each more beautiful than the last one.

Alas...Amelia and Cheryl are headed out on their next big buying trip and they will be "missing" from January 15 (today) until February 3, 2011.  The store will be closed during that time, but while they're away you can check out their website, Summit Mercantile, or you can follow the ladies on Facebook.

Be sure and stop by when Amelia and Cheryl return...you will LOVE all the things they currently have in the shop and you will be able to be the first to check out their new items!

Once I left the Mercantile I went next door to Abby Lane.  

This shop offered a variety of home and decorative items to catch your eye, along with home town T-shirts in support of Van Alstyne.

Across is the street is Atmosphere's, another fairly new shop.  The owner said she opened up last summer.  She had some cute jewelry and various other home decor items.

 Van Alstyne also has a cute consignment store on N. Main St called Steel Magnolia.

The Consignment store is located in an old flooring store, so be sure to look down and check out all the varying floor options that were once offered.

Today the store is filled with  furniture, art, home goods, clothing and jewelry. 

AND...you also need to look up at the interesting ceiling and lighting treatments.  The store is cute, the owner, Anita Leah Armstrong, is friendly and very willing to work with you.

All in all...a great time spent in Van Alstyne.  Worth the side trip off of Interstate 75 and never far from Dallas or McKinney.  Be sure to head back to McKinney to have lunch.  You can finish the afternoon off shopping in our little town square!

till tomorrow...
debi

Restroom Suites

Returning home from our recent trip to the beach I needed a restroom break.  It's a full 12 hour drive from home to Pensacola, so we try to plan our stops via the "Cracker Barrel Map."

I know, I know...there are many of you out there that HATE Cracker Barrel.  Me..I love their books on CD's.  (I know, you can check CD's out of your local library, but we like to browse the books at Cracker Barrel.)

You pay for the CD initially, but if you return it within 7 days it only cost you about $4 for the rental.  We try to find a 5 to 10 hour book to listen to while driving, and will plan our next stop (via the Cracker Barrel map) when we know our CD is just about over.  Cracker Barrel has clean restrooms and the CD books are near the register for a quick look.  I can always find something interesting...Biography, Suspense, Inspirational...more than you'd think.  Check it out for yourself!

On our return trip home we somehow got off track for stopping and ended up looking for a "clean restroom" in Louisiana, just West of Baton Rouge.

We spotted a gas station and I saw the word "restroom" on this grey building.  At first it looked like it was attached to the gas station, but turned out it was a stand alone building in front of the station.

We pulled into the parking lot and went inside.

We were greeted by a very friendly "receptionist". She immediately started her "spiel" about their restrooms being similar to a fine hotel, and each suite is completely cleaned, refreshed and sanitized before the next guest checks in.

REALLY?

Fine hotel?

Guest check in to use a restroom?

The rooms are accessed via a key card and she said that the price to use the "room" was $5.00 (each), but she'd let us share the 'same room' for the one price.

(I can remember paying .10 to use clean stalls in airports....in the olden days!) HA! HA!

At this point, I know my mouth was hanging open! 

So...did we pay the fee?  Guess you'll have to decide. 

AND...if you don't believe me...check it out!

Suite Relief - Restroom Suites

Is this the wave of the future?

Till tomorrow...

debi

Touring Texas - Navasota and Brenham

We left Bryan fairly early and headed to Navasota to find a place to have breakfast.  (My favorite place in Bryan was closed...and there was a For Sale sign in the window...sadness!)

We asked several people coming out of the Post Office where we could find a good breakfast, but no one could tell us where to eat in town.  Peter got out his iPhone and searched for local restaurants and came up with the Filling Station.

The sign out front advertised breakfast for $3.99...that included 2 eggs, 2 bacon or sausage, toast or biscuits with gravy, and grits or fried potatoes.  Happy Day!

Our waitress was very friendly, and the owner, Mitchell White made sure we were enjoying our breakfast.  The service and the food was great!

Inside the decor was very retro as well as casual.  We enjoyed the coffee, the breakfast and the conversation.

Now ready for a full day....

There were several Antique and Junk stores in downtown Navasota...this by far...was the best.  The owner told us of his wife (she was in the hospital), of gentler days gone by...and most importantly, he wanted to deal.  I found a great piece to finish off my project in the upstairs bathroom (hopefully to be revealed very soon.)

There were several other places, but I neglected to take any other pictures...

We left Navasota around noon and headed to Brenham.  Our first sight in Brenham with this Country Grocery Store and Antique shop...intriguing, wouldn't you say?

The yard and surrounding area was filled with "stuff".  There was a shed...

a courtyard and an additional garage full of "stuff".

This house was also on the property!

As was this wonderful tree!

Inside the store the Antiques were mixed in with the food items.

It was the funniest place.  Everything mixed together.  Something for everyone!

Miss Mary stated she needed to sell enough Beer and Soda to keep her antique habit going!

We headed into the town center and there I met some very nice ladies hanging out at the "Antique Gypsy"...

(seems there is a  "Gypsy" theme this weekend!)

This is Mary Ellen West, who owns the "Antique Gypsy" and Susan White, who owns "Fancy That" which is   almost right next door. They were having a great time visiting, and I enjoyed meeting both of them.

This is right inside the door at the Antique Gypsy. Everything was so bright and colorful.  The old building was a perfect setting to showcase Mary Ellen's items.

This is up the street at  "Fancy That."  Cute lamp treatment!  There was also a hanging lamp with a full petticoat lamp shade, but it came out a little blurry.

She had lots of goodies in her store...and best of all, it smelled really good inside!!!

So...if you're in the area be sure and stop by and say "HEY" to the ladies.

There were a lot of places to see and shop in Brenham.

This was a really cool piece I found at B&C Victorian Antiques.  There were a LOT of high end pieces that were in pristine condition.  This old Account Register was in the back room.

It was made in Toronto! 

Don't you ever wonder how things ended up in Texas? Who brought it here or did they order it?  If ordered, how was it shipped to Texas?  What was the type of business that used this register?

I LOVE to know the history behind a piece!

We spent most of the afternoon in Brenham. 

Of course, the best part of Brenham is Blue Bell!

Who needs happy cows from California...we have the best ice cream cows right here in Brenham!!!

"Moo-lineum Crunch"...if you haven't tried it go immediately to the grocery store and buy some.  You won't be sorry!

We left Brenham and headed to Waco.  We skipped lunch, knowing we would have dinner on the Brazos.

Now, this is NOT the best restaurant in Waco.  In the time we've been eating here it's probably changed hands 6 times.  It's one of those LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION.

This restaurant has a large deck that juts out over the Brazos.  When our girls were little this was their favorite place to stop whenever we drove through Waco. (Notice I didn't say eat.) We always had to be sure it was "meal time" when we planned a trip going South.

This is the reason...there are many, many huge turtles just waiting for food.

If you look really close you can see the large catfish just under the surface waiting for the food to sink.

There are also ducks fighting the turtles for food and diving to keep the fish from getting anything.

The Turtles are so big...and there appeared to be a lot more baby turtles this time.

We enjoyed the sun setting on the Brazos and had a great appetizer to share.

It was a perfect ending to a great weekend....

Well....actually the Czech Stop in West, TX t(o buy Kolaches) was the perfect ending.

(Breakfast for Sunday morning!!)

Till tomorrow...

debi