Cowboy Church

I had a great time with family and friends during my trip to Texas over the holiday weekend. Just fantastic.

The trip began with waiting at Midway airport for four hours because the airplane that was supposed to fly us to Austin was held up by bad weather in Philadelphia. I arrived in Austin way late but the car rental place was staying open past their closing time.

Oh, by the way, I highly recommend Enterprise car rental. I’ve used them for years and their customer service never fails to impress me. Really.

As I was driving back to Austin, I passed through the small town of Luling, Texas. If you ever want to see a truly Texan town, you don’t have to go anywhere but Luling.

It’s the watermelon capital of Texas and every year they have a watermelon festival call the "Luling Watermelon Thump." Love it.

As a matter of fact, they’ve painted their water tower to look like a big watermelon. It’s pretty impressive. It looks like an oblong watermelon, but it’s actually a round water tower.
There are lots and lots of oil pumps in scattered around the town. In order to make them more attractive the city officials decided to decorate them all.

Here’s Snoopy and the Red Baron: Here’s the cow jumping over the moon.
But then I saw the strangest thing of all: A sign advertising the Luling Cowboy Bible Church. I just had to get a picture of that. It says, "Come as you are to a church where Jesus Christ still reigns."

Hmmm. Still reigns? I wasn't aware that he'd stopped reigning in other churches.

(I would have spelled it "reins" as a cowboy play-on-words)

And look. Their logo is of a cowboy kneeling before a cross. See? Reins.

I had no idea that “Cowboy” is an actual bonafide Christian denomination in Texas, but lo and behold, it is. There are dozens of Cowboy churches throughout the state. Click here for the Texas Fellowship of Cowboy Churches.

Apparently, they conduct their baptisms in a cattle tank.

Offerings are placed in a cowboy boot.

(I’m not making this up!)

I’m not exactly sure what makes a church a “cowboy church” but I can bet it has nothing to do with any Brokeback Mountain theme. Or maybe it does. "Cowboy" seems pretty exclusive. I've seen no evidence of cowgirls or cow women on any of their sites.

So, there's a little slice of Texas. My return flight last night went bumpety-bump most of the way thanks to Gustav. That used to frighten me but now it just makes a boring flight sort of entertaining.

I had Thai food delivered when I got home and went to bed early.

. . . . Cowboy Church????