After leaving Knippa there was an opportunity to stay overnight in Gonzales Texas. So, John & I stayed at Belle Oaks Inn. We arrived a day before the Inn owners did & they were trusting enough to leave us a key & our suite unlocked. We let ourselves in & had the place to ourselves for the night. It was peaceful & truly beautiful.




Belle Oaks Inn was built by C.E. Dilworth in 1912. The Louisiana Plantation Style mansion was utilized in the early 1940's as a polio hospital before once again being used for a private residence. Our host Richard gave us a tour of the whole house & told us the many painstaking steps it took to get the Inn to the current state. John & I stayed in the private Carriage house behind the main residence. It was a wonderful stay. Gonzales is a town laid out upon & still maintains the original Mexican survey of 1832. The town was at one time a Mecca for ranchers, cattle barons & bankers. The historic homes still line the old streets & while most things were shut down we did enjoy visiting some of the quaint little shops on & around the courthouse square. And of note is the fact that Gonzale is home to the famous "come & take it" cannon where a small group of early Texas settlers dared the Mexican army...to you guessed it "come & take it!" & one thing led to another otherwise the state of Coahuila where we live would be alot further north!