Monday, 7 December 2020
Pearl Harbor Day - a "day that will live in infamy." Though since most people who experienced this day personally have died, and even those of us in the Baby Boom generation who heard about it from our parents are seriously aging, the event is being relegated to the pages of history books, which are hard-pressed to convey the sense of "infamy" the country felt.
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| today's route |
My first 15 miles were on I-30 and, as I was getting on the highway, I heard a radio interview with someone touting electric cars. He was describing the advances being made in producing better batteries for these cars and said "when car batteries last longer than the human bladder" the popularity of electric cars would skyrocket. A point that anyone who's driven long distances can relate to.
I spent much of the rest of the drive on state highways and was thankful they were in Texas, where the road quality is generally dependable. This route meant driving through lots of small towns and countryside.
In this part of Texas, the countryside seemed to be filled with cows, cattle barns, horses, a dairy - you get the idea. Some of the farms I passed today seemed to have a crop going, possibly winter wheat at this time of year, but it was too early in the growth for me to tell.
The town of Winnsboro, pop. 3,434, for instance, had a nice old-fashioned downtown area with few vacancies (unlike the vacant downtowns of dying towns). I passed a place call Home of Recovery and Restoration and was curious about what they were focusing on, and I'm glad I looked it up. Their aim is to help drug addicts, and they say the only way to do that is to introduce them to Jesus. As far as I can tell, the program seems to be quitting cold turkey (no mention of medical supervision), learning about Jesus, and learning a trade such as raising chickens. If you're curious, here's their website. https://homeofrecovery.org
I passed a homemade sign advertising "Rope Lessons."
Quitman/Wood County
I'd mapped out today's route with the intent to visit the various county courthouses along the way. And the main reason I wanted to do that is to keep Google from shoving me out of seeing these little towns. When I insist on going to the county courthouses, it has to send me straight into the heart of these various towns, which allows me to see something of their character.
But in the case of Quitman, pop. 1809, I completely missed its status as a county seat and was stunned to come to a T in the road and find myself staring straight at an indisputable county courthouse.
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| Wood County Courthouse |
I saw a sign outside the local fire department saying I'd missed "Pancakes by Steve" 2 days before. I'm guessing an annual event starring someone well-known to locals. I couldn't help but wonder how serious they'd been about mask-wearing at this event but am sure Steve performed magnificently.
Mineola
Outside of town I passed Kismet Farm, where they raise horses. Unusual name, I thought.
I passed a business called "Auto Anything and Exhaust," which struck me funny.
Mineola, which had no highway sign but logged 4,515 residents in the 2010 census, was founded in 1877 and still has many of its old buildings, which have been repurposed. I'm not sure I like the word "repurposed" but I love the concept that keeps these lovely pieces of history from being torn down. The Visitor Center's a case in point:
Nice little piece of architecture, huh?
Mineola claims the distinction of having been the hometown of Willie Brown, former mayor of San Francisco (he attended the Mineola Colored High School) and home of Jim Hogg, former governor of Texas whose daughter Ima was born here.
I passed Henry's Hotel, in a building that was obviously very old. When I looked it up I learned Henry had first opened a hotel there in 1896, and the current building opened in 1913. It was being renovated, though, with the reopening heralded for "January 2020!" (I'm guessing that's been delayed.)
Mineola is also home to several intriguing restaurants. The East Texas Burger Co., in business since 1985, claims to offer "A Taste of Mineola's History" and to be "Home of the Big Burger." Next door is Val's Italian Restaurant, which looks like it's a town fixture but in reality is a branch of a Canton restaurant that opened in 2005. (But 15 years is a lifetime in the restaurant business.) And that's next to La Waffalăta (yes, spelled like that), which advertises "Baseball, Broadway & Fabulous Food." Clearly a winning combination. I also passed CowBurners BBQ, which I think is owned by some folks who're proud of their performance in BBQ competitions and decided to go full-time.
The nearby Mineola Nature Preserve is an attraction that has miles of trails and protects 193 species of birds, in addition to many other critters from buffalo to snakes.
It struck me that Mineola had an awful lot going for a town of only 4,500 folks, especially since it isn't even a county seat. Funny how things work out.
Back on the road
I came to the town of Grand Saline, pop. 3,136, and a sign right away answered my question about its name: "Welcome to the Salt of the Earth." And a sign notifying residents of the Salt City Christmas Cocoa and Carols. A local tradition, I'm sure, but I could wish they made adjustments this year for the pandemic.
Wikipedia told me the name came from a large salt prairie not far away, which was used for many years by the Caddo and Comanche Indians. White men drove the Indians away from the land and appropriated it for themselves. It's now owned by the Morton Salt Co.
Grand Saline has a sign saying it's Chris Tomlin's Hometown. I had to look this person up and learned he's a Christian music performer.
Speaking of Christianity, Grand Saline was also the home of Methodist pastor Charles R. Moore, who died in 2014 when he set himself on fire. He was protesting the racism of the town and the homophobia of the Methodist Church teachings. I found this interesting article about him by the religion writer for the Huffington Post. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/rev-charles-moore-self-immolation Since Grand Saline's current population is 1.7% Black, I'm going to guess there hasn't been a lot of progress on racism since Rev. Moore's death. And the Methodist Church's recent stand against performing same-sex marriages shows a lack of progress there too.
On the way out of town, I passed a turn to Pole Town Cemetery. I thought that might mean an old settlement of people from Poland, but when I looked it up I found the town was formed by what you might call refugees of the Civil War, and the "pole" likely referred to the poles used for house construction. Turns out there's a historical marker about not only that but also a resident who formed the Socialist Party of Texas around 1900 and helped it rise to power. If you click on this link, you have to scroll down a little bit to find the text of the historical marker. https://www.waymarking.com/Poletown-and-Rhodesburg Didn't know east Texas was a hotbed of socialism, did you?
Wills Point, pop. 3,496, has an establishment called Johnny Miguel's, which offers Texican and Cajun food. Maybe an owner who moved here after one of LA's many hurricanes?
I passed a horse barn and paddock where a horse was being trained to jump. I've read about the process (start with very low obstacles and work up), and it was odd to recognize what I've only read about.
I passed the facility for Ham Orchards, which specializes in peaches and barbecue. I bought peaches there this past summer, but today it was closed up.
I came to Terrell, which had no highway sign except one of their own that said the town was established in 1875. Online it says Terrell's population was 15,816 as of the 2010 census. Terrell is home to Southwestern Christian College, a historically Black college, founded in 1948, with a current enrollment of 87; the Terrell State Hospital (psychiatric), established in 1885; a Shipley's Do-nuts, begun in 1936 and a well-remembered chain from my childhood; and Vamos Auto Sales (I liked the name).
Terrell also has a Methodist church of striking architecture.
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| First Methodist Church of Terrell the sun's position made a photo angle difficult |
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| interesting bit of history |
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| their old-fashioned sign |
There're about 10 miles between Terrell and Kaufman on one of the less wonderful pieces of state highway. It was narrow with a rough surface; one side had very fancy houses and the other had fields of cows; many vehicles travelled between the 2 towns and had access to the 2 totally different types of residents (rich people and cows). As a result, I was glad when I got off that stretch of road.
Kaufman
But things didn't seem to materially improve when I got to Kaufman because the Kaufman County Courthouse was so wildly uninspiring I didn't take a photo. The pictures I found online in no way resemble the seriously utilitarian building I saw, so I'm not going to reproduce any of them. Kaufman was founded in 1840 and had 6,703 residents as of 2010, so I'd've thought it might have a more historic-looking courthouse. Oh well.
From there I went in search of the Kaufman County Poor House, aka Poor Farm. As far as I can tell, Google gave me bad information and, even though I drove much farther than it told me to, I still didn't find what I saw online. I see from the linked website http://www.preservationtexas.org/endangered-poor-farm that Google didn't even give me the right address so no wonder it gave me the wrong directions. I was really disappointed. They say this is one of the only remaining poor farms in the US that's still county-owned.
I passed a church with a sign saying they offered masked church services at 9 AM and unmasked at 10:30. If they're going to cater to the reckless or badly misinformed folks who insist on not wearing masks, I'd've thought they'd make them pay by scheduling their service early in the morning and letting the sensible people sleep in a bit.
Back on the road
Kaufman and Canton are only 25 miles or so apart, with all farm country in between. I saw farmlands and cows and sheep and goats and maybe llamas. I think I saw long-haired cows.
Coming into Canton, I made a detour for some propane. The weather forecast showed 35° likely tonight, and only up in the 40s over the next few nights. I had only a quarter tank left and decided to fill up while I could.
Canton, pop. 3,581, claims to be Home of 1st Monday Trade Days, and I hear it's well known for that. I passed 2 enormous facilities labeled as belonging to Trade Days activities, which suggests this event is tremendously popular.
I passed the Down Home Cafe - "Almost World Famous," they say.
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| Van Zandt County Courthouse |
Along the 18 miles to tonight's campground, I saw a sign saying "Say No to Solar Power Plant." It sounded like there was a story behind this and, when I looked it up, I found that there is indeed an amount of controversy that's surprised almost everyone involved. Here's what the Tyler newspaper made of it. https://tylerpaper.com/planned-solar-farm-near-canton-draws-support-criticism
I've started finding ladybugs inside the RV - or maybe lady beetles - I haven't looked any more closely at them than it takes to get them out of here.
I passed a building with several lightning rods - the first I've seen in this rural area, which I find surprising.
And on to Purtis Creek State Park for the night.
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