I thought you might be interested in a ride I had on Saturday with a new group of riders...Brazos de Dios. My friend Carl Shafer sent me an email on Friday about the ride and I thought it sounded interesting so I canceled the tailgate party invite I had received earlier and met the group at the local Harley dealership about 9:10am on Saturday morning.
When I arrived, I parked beside several other motorcycles...in fact, there were tons of them. I was amazed that there were that many folks making the ride but at the same time I knew the group might have that many members and I had no idea how many folks participated on any given Saturday. This particular one was going to be beautiful so perhaps this many people were going to ride.
However, as I walked across the parking lot to the building, I quickly realized that I had parked next to the dealership's display bikes...new and used. The normal parking spot for these bikes was being used by their "Harleyween" festivities. I quickly moved over to the other side of the parking lot where the "real" morning participants were parked. As it turned out, there were only 8 people on the ride that morning...9 people total.
We left the dealership at 9:30am...after signing a release as a "newbie" and visitor and getting a quick safety briefing from the day's road captain. The leader took us out Hwy 30 to Carlos where we turned onto FM 3090/FM 149 headed toward Anderson. The road is very curvy and very popular with area riders...all the way down to Houston actually. In Anderson, we got on another farm-to-market road...1774 I think...which would take us down to Plantersville and the first church on the tour.
About 2-3 miles north of Plantersville...site of the famous Renaissance Fair...we turned into a dirt road and then into a parking lot. We got off our motorcycles and the leader began to tell us about the "painted" church just a few yards away, behind the trees. The church had been built back in the 1800's by immigrant Ukrainian German-speaking Catholic farmers. The tall steeple was struck by lightning in 1917 and the church burned to the ground...notice there isn't another tall steeple today. The church was rebuilt in a hurry due to threats of moving the congregation to another church.
As we began towards the church, we were joined by the priest who ended up giving us a tour...along with his trusty Beagle guard dog...see sign. One of the interesting things he said was that only 4 pieces were saved from the fire and were restored and put back in the church...one being the statue of the virgin Mary which had only her hair singed a bit.
Another interesting fact was that back in the 1950's, the Catholic church was going through some reform and the members were afraid that the Church would not like the way it was painted, so they painted over everything with beige paint. Only in 2000, a year after this priest came to the area, did he begin to investigate the rumors by scraping away some of the beige paint. What he found underneath was amazing.
They ended up hiring a restoration artist from Houston who, along with the membership, carefully scraped away most of the covering paint and repainted the stencils. They left a couple of areas unpainted after they scraped to show the visitors what it looked like before...see pictures. Today, the church is quite a sight to see...much like I would imagine a Hungarian Gypsy's wagon painted.
Well, the tour of this church took so long that we didn't make it to any others on Saturday. Besides, they say this was the best example around anyway. We were led over to Montgomery where we ate lunch at Phil's Roadhouse. If you have never been there, you should go. The food was excellent and the portions were huge. At least two people could be fed off each order.
We arrived back at the Harley dealership about 2:30pm, safe and sound. The ride was very successful and I met some new friends. I'm already on their mailing list and have received the latest version of their newsletter...7-8 pages long! Not sure I'm going to join another group/club so soon after getting out of one, but it's a possibility. For those of you who do not know, I recently tendered my resignation from Rolling Thunder....for various reasons.
Hope you enjoy the pictures...although they don't do justice to the real thing...go see it for yourself. The church is open 24/7.
Next, I'm off to NYC and Washington DC...not on a motorcycle this time.
When I arrived, I parked beside several other motorcycles...in fact, there were tons of them. I was amazed that there were that many folks making the ride but at the same time I knew the group might have that many members and I had no idea how many folks participated on any given Saturday. This particular one was going to be beautiful so perhaps this many people were going to ride.
However, as I walked across the parking lot to the building, I quickly realized that I had parked next to the dealership's display bikes...new and used. The normal parking spot for these bikes was being used by their "Harleyween" festivities. I quickly moved over to the other side of the parking lot where the "real" morning participants were parked. As it turned out, there were only 8 people on the ride that morning...9 people total.
We left the dealership at 9:30am...after signing a release as a "newbie" and visitor and getting a quick safety briefing from the day's road captain. The leader took us out Hwy 30 to Carlos where we turned onto FM 3090/FM 149 headed toward Anderson. The road is very curvy and very popular with area riders...all the way down to Houston actually. In Anderson, we got on another farm-to-market road...1774 I think...which would take us down to Plantersville and the first church on the tour.
About 2-3 miles north of Plantersville...site of the famous Renaissance Fair...we turned into a dirt road and then into a parking lot. We got off our motorcycles and the leader began to tell us about the "painted" church just a few yards away, behind the trees. The church had been built back in the 1800's by immigrant Ukrainian German-speaking Catholic farmers. The tall steeple was struck by lightning in 1917 and the church burned to the ground...notice there isn't another tall steeple today. The church was rebuilt in a hurry due to threats of moving the congregation to another church.
As we began towards the church, we were joined by the priest who ended up giving us a tour...along with his trusty Beagle guard dog...see sign. One of the interesting things he said was that only 4 pieces were saved from the fire and were restored and put back in the church...one being the statue of the virgin Mary which had only her hair singed a bit.
Another interesting fact was that back in the 1950's, the Catholic church was going through some reform and the members were afraid that the Church would not like the way it was painted, so they painted over everything with beige paint. Only in 2000, a year after this priest came to the area, did he begin to investigate the rumors by scraping away some of the beige paint. What he found underneath was amazing.
They ended up hiring a restoration artist from Houston who, along with the membership, carefully scraped away most of the covering paint and repainted the stencils. They left a couple of areas unpainted after they scraped to show the visitors what it looked like before...see pictures. Today, the church is quite a sight to see...much like I would imagine a Hungarian Gypsy's wagon painted.
Well, the tour of this church took so long that we didn't make it to any others on Saturday. Besides, they say this was the best example around anyway. We were led over to Montgomery where we ate lunch at Phil's Roadhouse. If you have never been there, you should go. The food was excellent and the portions were huge. At least two people could be fed off each order.
We arrived back at the Harley dealership about 2:30pm, safe and sound. The ride was very successful and I met some new friends. I'm already on their mailing list and have received the latest version of their newsletter...7-8 pages long! Not sure I'm going to join another group/club so soon after getting out of one, but it's a possibility. For those of you who do not know, I recently tendered my resignation from Rolling Thunder....for various reasons.
Hope you enjoy the pictures...although they don't do justice to the real thing...go see it for yourself. The church is open 24/7.
Next, I'm off to NYC and Washington DC...not on a motorcycle this time.
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