Florence is a cute little town - a mix of quaint shops, the grocery store, barber, library, and struggling businesses. It lies about
halfway between Georgetown and Killeen having once been a ticket trap with the two stop lights that are really no longer needed since
Highway 195 was rerouted. Outside of Florence, it quickly turns into farms, county roads, pastures, trailers, the DPS Training Facility,
Staccato Ranch http://www.staccatoranch.com/, limestone rock quarries, an asphalt plant, 6Branch venue https://6branch.com/, and The
Vineyard at Florence https://www.thevineyardatflorence.com/ with its exclusive homes hidden behind the hill. The club got to explore
the area on a tour that started from Georgetown’s Pistons-on-the-Square. But before that, the club met for the weekly breakfast at
The Gold Burger Diner.
Departing Georgetown, the group expanded by picking up others at the QT on Williams for the first pit stop and for Al to figure out how to
get his gas pedal working again (having creatively used the throttle linkage on the steering wheel to that point). At the northwest area
past Sun City, we turned off onto county roads that we had all to ourselves and were posted at Model A speed limits of 45 mph. Long and
straight, the path to Florence is very uncomplicated with only a couple of turns for many miles of puttering by fields of cows just
watching traffic. Parking at the only bank, we wandered up Main Street and visited The Florence Marketplace, The Main Street Co-Op,
Vic’s Grocery Store, Double LL, and the Veteran’s Memorial. Permanent Garage Sale didn’t open until noon but there were lunch reservations
to attend to. We took a circuitous path to The Vineyard by way of Staccato Ranch and tree covered county roads – the asphalt made up primarily of patches and holes.
Our table for ten was waiting when we arrived and the club had an enjoyable and tasty lunch of wood fired pizzas, loaded croissant
sandwiches, butternut squash bisque, the unpronounceable (at least by the serving staff) croque-monsieur – which roughly translates
to “inside-out crocodile sandwich” – and, as advertised, the $20 burger. The food was great! Our trip back to Georgetown wound
clockwise towards Jarrell and skirted the many quarries that border Florence and, hopefully, prevent development and further encroachment.
As we got closer in, participants started splitting off to their homes. Stella couldn’t be bothered from her nap but others flashed their
goodbyes and let out a thankful “AHOOGAH” to end the day.
Model As
Al and June Bohnv
Felix Boston and Stella
Fred Thompson
Leif Allred
Modern
Ed and Joan Angel
JR and Lois Howard
Sondra Carlton
Leif Allred
