A Texas Road Trip 4.1 - Henderson County Courthouse (Texas No. 78)

This was the last day of the road trip and the plan originally was to travel to Fort Worth and then to Dallas to see two of the most beautiful courthouses in the state.  However, this sunburn situation was becoming critical and soon after awakening I was unable to even apply sunscreen or anything to my face.  Even water burned it to the point where I wanted to cry.  I decided it was time to cancel the remainder of this trip and get home.  Even though my sun exposure had been minimal during the past three days, just the mere act of having the sun shine through the windshield was extremely painful, so I skipped the two most important reasons for this trip.  I had found a map of available public parking around the courthouse in Fort Worth but it was still going to require a long walk after parking, even though I had planned for this trip to conclude on a Saturday when the buildings would be closed.  I had no idea what I would find in Dallas but I didn't figure it would be good because the old courthouse, which is known as Big Red, is in the same area as the Kennedy Memorial with the Eternal Flame, and Dallas did not have the friendly parking web page that Fort Worth did.

So instead of going north 26 miles to Fort Worth, I headed east, homebound.  As soon as I felt sure I could find a pharmacist, I stopped and spoke to one about what he would recommend to put on my face.  He suggested something with aloe vera, which I indeed found somewhat cooling and I could actually tolerate applying it.

I did make one stop in the East Texas town of Athens where I had attempted to photograph the Henderson County Courthouse on another occasion but it was unsuccessful.  One of the problems I have encountered here in Texas is that so many of our courthouses have pecan trees on the grounds and in the spring and summer they frequently hide the architectural elements of the building, and in the winter, the barren trees do not make for a very pretty picture.

Constructed:  1913
Architectural style:  Classical Revival
Materials:  Brick and stone

Henderson County was formed in 1846.  The present courthouse is the fourth such structure for the county.  It has, I'm told, marble staircases.

This photograph is actually the back side of the building, although all four sides are relatively identical.  The front entrance on this day was super exposed with sunlight due to the time of my arrival.

County Seat:  Athens, population 12,700.
Location:  72 southeast of Dallas, 200 miles north of Houston, 800 miles west of Athens, Georgia, its namesake.

Interesting facts:  The hamburger was "invented" in Athens, making its debut in the 1880s.  It was introduced to the world in 1904 at the St. Louis World's Fair.

Athens received over twenty inches of rain this past weekend in the aftermath of Hurricane Patricia, while my hometown of Garrison, 90 miles southeast, received only four!

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This concludes the September road trip.  The four days, with the fourth day having only one stop, generated 22 posts!  Thanks for coming along with me.

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Update on the sunburn situation:  The following Monday I called my doctor's office and they got me in the same day.  The doctor was out but I saw her nurse practitioner.  After doing a small amount of research, he said, "We need to get you off this medicine right now."  I'm now five weeks out and I'm doing well.  I'm adjusting to the change in medication, my lab values haven't been skewed, and I'm looking forward to my next road - this one without a sunburn!