One advantage of getting up at 6am to walk the dog, we can get out before it gets too hot. Although it already is too hot.

Today we visited some small towns in Texas. First stop, was the Paige Farmhouse and Diner for breakfast at 7.30am. It’s actually a wedding venue but they are also open for meals. I had my usual biscuits and gravy with a side of bacon, and Mike had bacon, eggs, and some hash. No, not that sort of hash, Marijuana is still illegal in Texas. It was a potato hash, and was delicious.

After our breakfast we visited the town of Paige, but it was very small with a population of about 500. But… we were glad we did as a family of Armadillos crossed the road in front of us. They are a weird dinasour looking creature with their beady little eyes, long pointed snout, and that freaky shell of overlapping scales. Amongst my excitement I got tangled up in all my cameras trying to take a photo, but thankfully they hung around long enough for me to capture them on film.

After Paige, we visited La Grange, famous for its Koloches and Klobasneks. More about them in a minute. La Grange was also famous for The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas which the movie was based on. There’s that shack outside La Grange, that the famous ZZ-top song was based on. 

La Grange was inhabited by the Czechs who settled in the mid 1800s. This is why there are foods we have never heard of, like Koloches and Klobasneks.

Out first stop was Lukas bakery to see what their Klobasneks looked like. We walked into the bakery but we couldn’t see any on display. We were about to walk out, when a customer stops us.

“You can’t leave without tryin’ the Pigs,” she said.

“We couldn’t see any on display”, we said.

“That’s cos they need to be heated up.” She turns to the lady behind the counter. “Get these people two pigs, on me.”

We both said that was unnecessary, but she insisted, and handed us a bag of ‘two pigs.’

We thanked her very much, and took our treasure to the park to see what was in the bag.

Mike pulls out his ‘pig’ and shows it to me. It was similar to a sausage roll, but in a crispy bread rather than pastry. The Czech name for them is Klobasneks or ‘pigs in blankets.’ Certainly different to our version.

They were quite nice, but I wouldn’t write home about it. Although I am currently writing home about it, so… But I’d prefer a sausage roll any day.

Our next stop was to a settlement of a Czech family to the area which was really interesting. I’ll mention more of this on my vlogs, but we took a stroll in the heat, taking in the stunning views over Texas.

Our next stop was Weikels bakery, famous for its Koloches. These are a sweet treat, kind of like a cake with fruit. It looked similar to a Danish, but instead of pastry, it was soft and fluffy cake moulded around some fruit, or cream cheese. The taste was similar to a donut. Mike chose the lemon curd, and I chose the apricot.

For seconds I chose the cream cheese and Mike chose the peach

My favourite was the cream cheese, Mike’s was the lemon curd. They were so delicious and I’m glad it’s a 30 minute drive to get these otherwise I’d be eating them all day!

A Bard Joke:

Why did the armadillo cross the road? 

To get to the shell station.