Bit of a long driving day for us...

We were still on a bit of a mission to get some inexpensive propane, so after we said goodbye to Annette and Raymond, we made a quick detour to the U-Haul in College Station to fill up the tank.

We got there, and parked nicely beside the fill station and I went in to get the guy. He was already coming out because he saw us pull in.

He got the hose and everything ready, and I remembered to ask him the price. "$3.39 a gallon" he says. Yikes. That's not cheap!

I almost said no, but he already had everything ready to go, so I said okay, just put in 5 gallons and I'll find somewhere cheaper along the way. He said he can't do that because he can't fill it and look at the gauge at the same time. 

Hmph.

Okay, so I watched the fill gauge on my tank, and told him when to turn it off. Ended up getting 7.6 gallons of expensive propane. Oh well. We've got enough now to last us in to Mexico if we don't find some cheaper stuff along the way.

At least we're getting cheap gas. I'll top up the tank in Port Lavaca today where I see it's $1.94 a gallon! ($0.67 CAD per liter).

Annette, Raymond, Ruth, and Kevin.

Thanks for having us guys!

Leaving town, we drove by the huge sports facilities at Texas A&M University.

Over 60,000 students go to school here!

Heading south. Not much to see.

We made it to the town of Columbus (pop 3,625), where we had planned on spending the night. But we couldn't find anywhere convenient other than the Walmart, and we weren't that desperate. They have a city park there that would have been fine, but the entrance was closed due to flood damage from the August hurricane.

Nice historic downtown area though, so we took a driving break and went for a walk around town.

Historic downtown Columbus, Texas.

Nice old buildings.

The courthouse occupies the center square.

 Typical western looking downtown.

The old opera house, now renovated into offices.

Built in 1883 with 400,000 bricks, the tower originally supported a big tank filled with water used to douse downtown fires. When Columbus got a water system, the tank was taken off the top of the tower and the town tried to blow up the tower with dynamite. Its three-foot-thick walls wouldn't budge. Now looking like a wayward tower from a medieval castle, it was turned over to The United Daughters of the Confederacy, which used it as their meeting place. In 1962 -- during the battle years of segregation -- it officially became the Columbus Confederate Memorial Museum. Closed while we were there, just like almost everything else downtown. I guess everybody was at the Walmart.

We continued driving south, and stopped at a small airport along the way. Not very good parking for us though, so we carried on to the town of Ganado (pop 2,102) where we found an athletic complex with a huge parking lot. Not fantastic, but it was 4:00pm by now and we decided it will do.

Sherman, parked for the night at GPS 29.034442, -96.517250

As expected, we were fine. Being a Saturday night, a few cars came and went, but it was quiet overnight.

Yesterday's drive, 145 miles (232 kms).

Because we did such a long drive yesterday, today's drive will be a short 45 miles (72 kms) to Magnolia Beach where we'll stay put for Christmas.

Hope you all enjoy a wonderful Christmas Eve!

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