By Kathy Wise
Cost Per Night: $175+
Travel Time: 3.5 hour drive
On my way to Round Top, I take a detour through Brenham, hoping to score some brisket at LJ’s BBQ. I get there too late. While wandering down a side street to find a sad lunch alternative, gunfire erupts. I flinch at the first pops before spotting a woman in antebellum attire waving me off with her lacy parasol. I learn later I had walked into the middle of the Brenham Bandits’ dress rehearsal for Local History Day.
Crisis averted, I continue on my way to my destination, a retreat built of storage containers and decorated with reclaimed artifacts by owner Matt White. Like the shootout in Brenham, it feels as if I have stepped into another time and place. White’s architectural salvage business, Recycling the Past, is based in New Jersey. But after years of trips to Round Top to sell his wares, he has put down permanent roots, building a barn to hold airplane parts, giant geodes, and the wood paneling from what was once Doris Duke’s father’s study. The storage containers are arranged out back, each with its own fire pit and shaded hammock, facing a bucolic view of verdant fields and nursing cattle. To be shared, there’s a Modpool for dipping, a raised platform for sunset-watching, and a covered patio for barbecuing.