I thought the best way to begin my Saturday drives in the country was to keep it local. Urip and I are known to be oblivious to our surroundings from time to time. In fact, when we moved to our current residence, we were unaware that a lake was within city limits for the first 3 years that we lived here. I remember our shock and subsequent feeling of "duh" when we were checking on parks for our kids to play at and we ended up at one on the banks of the lake. So fast forward 15 years after moving to our area and we finally decide to explore. We began our drive in the country with me at the wheel. I usually take it for granted that Urip is the designated driver on trips. I assured him that I "got this" and we were off. We started driving towards Lucas and decided to wind our way up to Princeton. I really enjoyed the drive especially the bridges over the lake. The sun was out on Saturday and it was just a beautiful drive. When we
arrived in Princeton, we had to decide wether to wind back to Farmerville or to head to McKinney. I chose McKinney as I have always wanted to check out their downtown area. When we finally arrived in downtown, I was reminded of my anxiety driving down one way streets and trying to find parking. Initially we drove through the downtown area and ended up in the Historical Home District of McKinney (more on that later). We turned around on a side street and made our way back towards the square. It was there that I found a parking lot a few blocks away that I could park the car. Urip and I hopped out and walked into the downtown area. I would suggest being careful on small side streets as there is no sidewalks and potholes are a real thing. We entered the shopping disrict at the corner where an antique mall stood. We spent of time inside enjoying all the trinkets presented from the
past. Urip especially enjoyed finding old
electrical things that electricians in the past might have used. My favorite thing was the all the old books, linens, teacups, and typewriters that I came acorss. I even found a few toys that took me back to my childhood. The old photographs were a treat for sure. Hands down my favorite part of this antique mall was the floors. The creaked and there were times I worried I might fall through wen on the second floor. They were distressed and beautiful.
We popped into a few more stores before we made our way around the square and ended up at the Collin County History Museum. There was a large banner on the buildling that stated it was open until 4 on
Saturdays and it advertised an exhibit on World War I. Unfortunately, that exhibit is in the process of coming down to make way for an exhibit on McKinney Now and Then that I think we were told would open in March. We did get to see a few things in the museum and talk to the curator. The building was beautiful and we found out that it was actually the post office for McKinney back in the day. We were also told that it was slated to be torn down in the 80s before the preservation society came in and stopped that moving forward. I am so glad they did becaue the building is gorgeous. The gentleman that we spoke to said that at one time the Post Office was also in the business of banking. Until the 1960s you could do your banking at the local post office. Banking at the post office ended in 1966 when community banks took hold. Urip found this very interesting as he remembered his first savings account he had as a child was at the
post office in Indonesia. The last thing we did on our trip was revisit the historical homes in McKinney. There is a beautiful historic district that was breathtaking to drive through. It is my hope that next week we will return to the area, park our car on a side street, and enjoy a walk around the neighborhood.
