Day 171 - Floresville, TX

(Click any photo to enlarge)

Peanut sculpture on
the courthouse lawn.

Downtown Floresville

Floresville, Texas, located southeast of San Antonio, is a historic town famous for its mission ranching history.  Goat and sheep ranches were established nearby to help support Mission Espada, thus becoming a model for Texas ranching.  In recent times, the area is known for peanut farming.

On the road to Floresville, I saw large fields with beautiful spreading live oaks, and occasionally cattle were resting under the trees.  Of course, I was whizzing along at 70 mph (the posted speed limit on most highways), unable to pull over and take photos of those pastoral scenes.

This was still a working cafe.

The theater had three films.

Floresville is the county seat, and it has a large, beautiful white courthouse building in the center of town.  I parked near the courthouse, but there was a chainlink fence surrounding the building, spoiling good photo ops.  It was undergoing some renovation.  The rest of the town consisted of one or two story brick or block buildings, with flat facades and angled parking along the wide streets.  Almost every building had an attached, "modern" addition of an angled shed roof between the first and second stories, to shade pedestrians walking the sidewalks in the blazing hot summers.  Unfortunately, they did nothing for the visual appeal of the architecture.

I walked around the three block area, covering both the front and back streets, and then across to the other side of the main street, covering more of the side streets.  There were surprisingly few businesses.  There was one bank, of modern construction, two churches, both with long histories but newer buildings, no gift shops or bookstores or antiques dealers or hair salons (at least in the sections I walked).  There were several small restaurants, and one in particular had a number of people going in, so I followed them.  It was the Trail Side Steak House, and the interior was completely decorated with the local high school football memorabilia -- jerseys, printed programs, pompons, cheerleader outfits, letter sweaters, etc.  Team photos and stories from the newspapers were under the glass tops of all the tables.  Clearly, high school football is a big deal in Floresville.  Go Tigers!

Coca Cola Sprite Boy

Because this is the county seat, there were a couple of lawyer's offices in the downtown area, but not much commerce.  I saw why, when I left by a different route.  Just a couple of miles out of town were the Walmart, Lowe's, McDonalds, banks, grocery stores, etc.  I spoke later to a man in a camera shop in San Antonio, and when I told him I had been in Floresville today, the first thing he said was, "Walmart killed that town."  Apparently, it's true.  There was not too much reason to go to the historic area, unless you had business in court.

By the way, one of my favorite photos of today was the Coca Cola ad.  It was larger than what I have shown you, all rusted on the side of a building.  If you search for the "Coca Cola Sprite Boy," you can see what he would have looked like, new.

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Visit my photography show, "My Maryland," at the public library in Urbana, Maryland, on the lower level of the building.  It is there until the end of April.

Hurricane Sandy Relief: Donate to the Red Cross, and I will mail you a 5 x 7 print from any of the photos I have posted on my blog OR any photo on my website.

Forward to me via email a receipt for donating to the Red Cross. Tell me whether the photo is from the blog or the website, and Include its title along with a mailing address. The name on the receipt to the Red Cross must match the name of the mailing recipient. Send the receipt and the photo request to camscamerashots@gmail.com.

Click on any photo to enlarge it.

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Visit my web site: camscamerashots.zenfolio.com
Follow me on Twitter: @camscamerashots
Email:  cam.miller@comcast.net

Cam's rules for the Daily Photo Walk:

1. walk every day
2. the walk must be in addition to any other planned activity for the day
3. post a photo every day
4. use my Nikon P7100 (it is a very convenient size and weight)
5. no weather excuses
6. walk only where it is safe to do so