Texas - Day 20 - Fort Worth, Richardson, north to Denison

Eisenhower State Park, Denison
Sunday, 22 November 2020

Pres. Kennedy was killed 57 years ago today.  I still remember parts of it clearly, as does everyone who was old enough at the time to understand it, I'm sure.

today's route

detail in the D/FW area

Weatherford

This past weekend's campground was on the west side of Weatherford, so I hadn't seen anything of the town when we came in.  Today I insisted that Google let me drive through a bit of town.

Weatherford, with an estimated population of 31,000, seems to be growing by leaps and bounds: more than 5,000 every 10 years.  I suppose it's close enough to the metro area, yet still seems to be a small town, and that's where the attraction lies.  Weatherford, founded in 1858, bills itself as "True Texas."  I suppose so.

Parker County
Courthouse

The county courthouse sits astride the end of Main Street, so I had an unobstructed view as I drove into town.  A very nice view, too; it was built between 1884 and 1886 and my first thought was it was Victorian in style, though I'm probably way wrong, knowing nothing about it, except I can say it was during Queen Victoria's reign (1819-1901).

I saw a sign for the Parker County Peach Festival, which I'm sure is well worth going to, whenever we're done with this stupid virus.

I thought I was still in Weatherford when I saw a sign for the town of Hudson Oaks, pop. 1,024, but a thousand residents qualifies as a separate town for sure.

Fort Worth

I lived here early in my life and remember absolutely nothing, so I wanted to drive around a little.

I started in the far north at the Fort Worth Stockyards.  I didn't know that this whole area of town has been a historic district since 1976, and includes the stockyards themselves as well as the buildings and brick streets.

This is an internet photo, but it's also about what I saw.  Those are obviously not the stockyards themselves but instead the sign marks the historic district, I think.  The stockyards look like stockyards, which is just as well, since it hosts rodeos and other activities not suited to city streets.  Here's a link to some of what's offered, including "the world's only twice daily cattle drive."   https://www.fortworthstockyards.org  Those original brick streets are hard to drive on with an RV.

In that area I saw a bar with a sign: "Our beer is colder than your ex's  heart."

Tarrant County
Courthouse

Driving into downtown from the north, I had a good view of the courthouse, but this photo I found online is really deceptive.  What I actually saw was the courthouse (built 1895) completely dwarfed by those 2 huge office buildings looming behind it.   They're very tall dark glass structures towering over this sweet little courthouse, that you can see isn't all that little when it's on its own.  What I saw made for a weird picture.

The downtown is a mix of buildings that are almost all at least 50 years old, more likely 75 or more.  It reminded me of downtown Seattle, if you've ever been there.  And it reminded me of what Austin would have looked like if it hadn't allowed all the old buildings to be torn down and replaced with glass.  Everything's glass.  I don't quite understand what was so wrong with stones and bricks.  I'm sure these new ones are much more comfortable for the people working in them, but I'd have thought the old ones could have been retrofitted for about the same amount of money as tearing them down and building from scratch.  And despite all its old buildings, Fort Worth didn't seem to be decrepit or behind the times.  It seemed solid and established.  

I was very surprised to find that I liked it a lot and would enjoy spending more time exploring what the city has to offer.

Back on the road

In Arlington, I passed a billboard for Coors Seltzer: "Help Save the Trinity River - Drink a Seltzer."  I didn't know the Trinity was in trouble and couldn't easily find anything online about it so assume it's just an advertising slogan.  Not a bad one, actually.

Also in Arlington, I passed Six Flags Hurricane Harbor, then Six Flags Over Texas itself.  That Hurricane Harbor is new to me, and I can't find online when it first opened.  It's a water park that's one of a chain that Six Flags operates.  Six Flags Over Texas I know well, or used to many years ago.  It first opened in 1961, and our family started going when we moved to the Dallas area in 1964.  I could tell from my highway view, though, that lots of new rides have been added in the intervening years.  Online comments made it all sound prohibitively expensive.

I saw a billboard with the "Click It Or Ticket" slogan, but this one showed a picture of an ordinary seat belt buckle attached to a beautiful tooled leather cowboy belt.  Very Texas-y.

Yet another billboard was for the Choctaw Casino in Durant (OK), where I stayed in their RV park for several days this past August.  The ad said it was the "Official Casino of the Cowboy."  I know that didn't mean the Dallas Cowboys, because another Oklahoma casino has that distinction.  I guess it's just referring to the cowboy influence that OK and TX share, because that "official" designation doesn't look like it was conferred by anybody "official."

I drove on up through Irving, Dallas and into Richardson.  Back in the olden days, when we lived here in the '60s, these towns were clearly separate from each other, with fields and crops and cows and things in between.  Now they just all run together and only highway signs show where they stop and start.

Richardson

My first stop was the city's recycling center.  It's the first one I've found in ages that will actually accept not just glass but also something as simple as mixed paper, and plastics that aren't just bottles.  I had a lot of stuff to get rid of and what a relief it was.

The dogs and I walked around the neighborhood a little bit and then went on to the storage place I've been renting.  I've been carting around 3 fans I'd bought last summer that I haven't wanted to use since then, even when it was hot enough for them to be useful, because they need to be reassembled.  I figured I wouldn't be likely to use them even next summer, unless I were to be sitting in one place for a while (like I was when I parked in front of Anna & David's house) in a very hot climate when I wasn't able to plug into a 30 amp power source.  Guessing that it's an unlikely set of circumstances for the foreseeable future (which is becoming less foreseeable as time goes on), I stuck them in the storage space and instantly gained some extra storage space in my basement.

I also stopped at a grocery store and got provisioned up.

Driving to D&A's house, I saw a flock of Blue Jays.  An actual flock.  They seem like such solitary birds - I don't often see more than 1 or 2 at a time - so seeing at least 8 in someone's front yard was exciting.  They're such pretty birds.

Anna may well be Dexter's favorite human being, and when he saw her come out of their house he started quivering with excitement.  I still had a long drive to get to tonight's campground so didn't want to stay very long.  I was really only there to pick up my mail to save them the trouble and expense of sending it to me at some miscellaneous post office.  But the dogs got to go out into the newly-sodded back yard, which they loved, and I got a chance to see my family for a bit.

Back on the road

Once past Plano and McKinney, I started to see some countryside again.  I passed a series of towns: Melissa, Anna, Van Alstyne, and Howe (pop. 2,600 - the only one with a pop. sign), where I saw a sign saying "hay for sale," thus proving it's in the country.

Then I got to Sherman (pop. about 42,000), which is back in big-city-land with companies like Finisar (optical communications systems) & Tyson (food processing) & Fisher/Emerson (valves & regulators for LNG uses) & Kaiser Aluminum (metal products).  Sherman says it has a Historic Downtown.  I know it has vast numbers of national franchises.

I didn't really go into the town of Denison - just passed through its city limits.  But I saw signs saying it has a population of 25,118, it's the birthplace of Pres. Eisenhower, and it's near Lake Texoma.

And on to tonight's campground.

Texas - Day 19 - in the Weatherford KOA campground

Weatherford KOA, Weatherford
Saturday, 21 November 2020

I did almost nothing but work on the blog today, getting 3 more posts written and published.

I also spent some time figuring out my itinerary for tomorrow when I'd be driving through Fort Worth, Dallas, and on up to Denison.  That always takes more time than it seems like it should.

And of course, I walked the dogs, which also always takes more time and energy than it seems like it should.  In this campground we were in the middle of a row, which is usually disqualifying, but both in front of us and behind there were grassy fields, so I'd hoped we'd be able to sort of charge straight out and away from any surrounding dogs.  Which worked but mainly because there weren't any dogs right next to us that spent lots of time outside so we could dodge them without too much trouble,

It was warm while we were there, which I find relaxing.  It was a nice quiet day.

Texas - Day 18 - to Weatherford

Weatherford KOA, Weatherford
Friday, 20 November 2020

today's route

Choosing Weatherford for tonight's campground was mostly a matter of finding someplace both affordable and where I can have a campsite that isn't buried in the middle of the campground (bad for the dogs).  After that choice, I based my route on which towns between San Angelo and Weatherford I definitely wanted to take a look at.

On the road

On my way out of town, I passed a facility labeled Goodyear Proving Grounds.  It was Goodyear's largest when it was established in 1944, and they recently expanded these testing grounds.  They have 58 miles of track there and test about 20,000 tires every year.

I passed through the town of Bronte, pop. 999, "Where Living Is A Pleasure."  The town was founded in the late 1880s and named for Charlotte Bronte - unusual choice for a west Texas town in that era - or any era.

A short distance down the road I passed Oak Creek Reservoir, a big lake with houses all around it.  It looked very pleasant.

The town of Blackwell has 311 residents and looks much bigger than that for some reason.

Mostly grazing land around here.  I saw a few cows, mesquite, juniper and some cropland, but all that was in the serious minority; it was mostly grazing land (don't know where the grazers were, though).

I found lots of hills driving north between San Angelo and Sweetwater.

Sweetwater

Sweetwater, pop. 10,906, has a name I've heard for years, which is why I took the side road to get here.  During WWII, it hosted the training for Women Airforce Service Pilots.

They had a sign saying "Prohibited: Texting, Emailing, Using Apps While Driving."  That's the most specific of those signs I've ever seen.  Speaking of signs, the Evangelical Methodist Church there had one saying "Give Thanks, Count Your Blessings."  A very generous idea.  

I was startled to pass a sculpture of the most aggressive cougar I've ever seen in art.  I couldn't find a photo of it online, but this link includes a photo.   https://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/Cougar-Sweetwater-TX  I sure wouldn't want to be whatever it was looking at over that stump.

There was a motel there painted entirely in vibrant shades of orange and rust, with touches of French's mustard yellow.  It was very strange looking and I don't think I'd have felt comfortable staying there, for some reason.

Back on the road

As soon as I turned east on I-20, I got whopped with some very strong wind gusts.  Not easy to drive in.

I passed the turn for Noodle Dome Road and of course had to look it up.  I'm still not sure but can tell you that the town of Noodle, which still exists, was named for nearby Noodle Creek.  Back in the 1880s when the area was being settled, "noodle" meant "nothing" - i.e. a dry creekbed.  Interestingly, oil was discovered in the area in 1926 and the field was named Noodle Dome Oil Field.  Presumably the owners weren't intending to say it was a dry oil field, so it must have been named for the creek or town.

I passed what seemed like a small forest of oil wells, pumping away.

I passed a huge billboard that read:

   Business          Jobs

              TRUMP

           Opportunity

Paid for by the Abilene People

By the time I got to Merkel, pop. 2,637, west of Abilene, the land had gotten much flatter and I saw a lot of cotton.

Abilene

Coming into town I passed the Dyess Air Force Base, the SPCA (a brilliant French's mustard yellow) and the Ponca Motel, which looked like it should be sitting on Historic Route 66.

Ponca Motel

Looks like the old motor hotels from the '30s and '40s, and it's obviously still being used.  (This photo is an old one from the internet.)

We took a rest stop in the parking lot of a Baptist church, and I saw across the street an unexpected museum.

12th Armored Division
Memorial Museum

I didn't want to go in because of the virus, but I did look this Army unit up online and found it was extremely active in the 3 years it was active during WWII.  Among many other events, it fought at the Battle of the Bulge, was first to enter Manila in 1945, and captured Adolf Eichmann and Wernher von Braun, among others.  They were busy little boys.  Here's the Wikipedia page if you're interested.   https://en.wikipedia.org/12th-Armored-Division

Abilene's got a Santa Calls Lane.

I got honked at for the first time in a while, and I was not only surprised but peeved because I was going slowly to navigate the zillion orange cones highway construction crews had set out.  I mean, the guy was behind me so surely he noticed I wasn't driving a Miata.

I saw a business called Jerry's Smoke Shop, but the "J" was replaced with a Sherlock Holmes-type pipe, like this.  

erry's Smoke Shop.  (Well, something like that.)

I passed Abilene Christian University, and remember the days it was called Abilene Christian College.

And I passed a Coca-Cola bottling plant.

But the main thing Abilene bills itself as is the Storybook Capital of Texas, so named by the Texas Legislature in 2015.  It has something called the National Center for Children's Illustrated Literature and, a few blocks away, the Children's Sculpture Garden.  Here's a couple of links to some explanations.   https://www.austinchronicle.com/day-trips-storybook-capital-of-texas   https://storybookcapitalofamerica.com  I drove by both places, wanting to see some of these sculptures, but the only ones I could see, aside from one of the 3 Little Pigs, weren't about any storybooks I've ever read.  From what I could find online, they had some of the Dr. Seuss characters, but mostly they referred to books that must have been written since my time as a child (admittedly a very long time ago).  I still remember well visiting the Dr. Seuss Statuary Garden in Springfield, MA, several years ago, so I didn't feel the need to find a place to park to see more Seuss statues plus some I wouldn't recognize, let alone feel fondness for.  But these and many others scattered around town are there if you're interested.

Back on the road

I saw lots of Trump flags in this area.

I found myself in the middle of a huge wind farm and was surprised to see there was rust on many of the turbine blades.  So much so that, until I got a good look at them, I thought I'd run into non-white wind turbines for the first time.  I wondered if this was old equipment or maybe just a tough environment on machinery.  Probably both, but I've seen plenty of wind turbines in all kinds of harsh weather conditions, and this is the first time I've seen rust on them.

I barely left that wind farm when another one appeared on the horizon.  This one was the usual white.

Albany

Albany, pop. 1,983, is "A Link With The Frontier," they say.  They also say they have a historic downtown, which is probable, since the town was founded in 1874.

Shackleford
County Courthouse

The courthouse has 1883 carved into its stone.  I thought it was pretty.  (This is my photo.)

Albany's slogan since the 1920s is "Home of the Hereford."  I found 2 explanations for this name contained within the same source with no apparent awareness of the contradiction.  One is that Albany (named for Albany, GA) had been a supply resource for cowhands taking cows - mostly Herefords - north to Dodge City and, when the railroad came through in 1881, it also became a shipping point for cattle and other goods.

The other is that in its early years, Albany's primary economic drivers were the farming and ranching industries.  And when Hereford cattle were introduced to local ranchers, they adopted the slogan.

I passed an establishment named Icehouse Restaurant, and it looked exactly like an old but restored icehouse would look.  So it may be exactly that.

I thought this seemed like a pleasant little town.

I also passed the Fort Griffin State Historical Site and am sorry I didn't have time to stop and visit.  This fort operated from 1867 until 1881 for cavalry who were kept busy protecting settlers and fighting in the Red River War of 1874.  To relax, the soldiers went to the nearby town of Ft. Griffin, which was one of the West's wildest spots and attracted such visitors as Wyatt Earp and Bat Masterson.  Today, it's the home of the Official State of Texas Longhorn Herd.  If you're interested, here's a link.   https://www.thc.texas.gov/fort-griffin-history

Apparently there's also a state campground there and, because of very low levels of light pollution, it's a great place for looking at stars.

Breckenridge

Stephens County
Courthouse

This town, pop. 5,780, has been home to the county courthouse since 1883.  (I think Fort Picketville was the first county seat in 1876.)  The latest version (at left) was built in 1926.

I didn't take a photo of my own, and I can't find one online that shows those columns very clearly, but they looked like Corinthian columns, which surprised me.  I mean, this isn't now - and likely never was - a major cultural mecca, and Corinthian columns are far less common that Doric or Ionic columns on government buildings.  

I found this link that not only demonstrates the differences between the 3 types of columns but also includes information about how the Greeks curved their columns slightly so they'd look straight (cognitive dissonance, anyone?).   https://www.dummies.com/greek-architecture-columns

I passed an old stone building that I'm guessing was originally a YMCA because over one door was carved "Boys" and over another door was carved "Men."

We stopped in the city park for a walk and I found this sign about the name of the the town that surprised me.

for enlargements, see below

part 1 - detail from the sign

part 2 - detail from the sign

I don't know when this sign was put up, though it hasn't been at all recently, based on its appearance.  But it very much appears this town is proud of having been named for someone who fought to tear apart our country in defense of the right to enslave people.  And I suppose they still are, since the sign's still there.

Back on the road

I passed the turn to Lake Possum Kingdom.  Like Balmorea, this is another state park I've wanted to visit for a long time.  But Possum Kingdom is very much open and perennially popular, apparently, because so far I haven't been able to get a reservation there.  The lake's fan club says it's "The Great Lake of Texas.  More than 18,000 acres of crystal clear water, a Texas oasis surrounded by beautiful cliffs and rolling hillsides."  Well, someday I'll get there.

I've been passing lots of cropland - both plowed and replanted - and grazing land, complete with cows and a few horses.  Farms and ranches.  This land reminded me of the Hill Country which, coincidentally, is due south of here about 200 miles or so.  I continue to see mesquite and juniper as in West Texas, but now I'm also seeing plenty of oaks and other more Central Texas-y trees.

Palo Pinto

I hadn't realized this is the name of a town, a county and a lake.  The town is unincorporated and had a population of 333 in 2010.  It looked like a dusty small town when I was there.  Despite these facts, Palo Pinto is the county seat.  Somehow I missed seeing the courthouse, but apparently it's there.

It's a small town as in a dog was out wandering around, and when I saw him he was wandering around in my lane, so I got really lucky and a complete lack of oncoming traffic let me swerve to the other side of the road to avoid him, because if I'd tried to stop, I'd have certainly hit him.  And despite me maneuvering around him, it didn't scare him enough to make him budge from his spot.  Hope someone helped him get out of that spot alive.

Back on the road

I passed prickly pear cactus that was blooming bright yellow flowers - despite its blooming season being in summer, which it isn't any more.

I crossed the Brazos River and noticed the level was way down, but it's still recognizably a great river (11th longest in the US).

Mineral Wells

Thanks to the local source of mineral water, Mineral Wells was known as the South's Greatest Health Resort, the city "where America drinks its way to health."  Established in 1904, the Famous Mineral Water Company is still in operation.  

Mineral Wells, pop. 16,946, is home of Natty Flat Smokehouse: "Natty Flat is where it's at."

Baker Hotel and Spa

I passed a huge old hotel, obviously built back in the heyday of mineral water cures, and looked it up.  New owners of the Baker Hotel and Spa have begun a 3-year renovation to restore its former glory.

I passed a campaign sign for Trump in someone's yard that had a handwritten note on it: "Please Do Not Remove!!"  Sounds like there's been a problem.

I also passed a sign that read: "US Army Primary Helicopter Center" and "National Vietnam War Memorial."  I was curious and learned that the 1st is in the past and the 2nd is in the future.  In 17 years of operation, 41,000 helicopter pilots were trained here to survive in the deadly conditions of the Vietnam War.  And not just survive but to rescue others as well.  These pilots ended up flying the famous Hueys and other helicopters that were so important to soldiers there.  The museum is just in the beginning stages, with work being done mostly by volunteers and veterans, I think.  There's a fascinating story about all this at this link.   https://www.airspacemag.com/heroes-fort-wolters

Back on the road

Not far from Mineral Wells is the tiny town of Cool, pop. 157.  I didn't see it, though, because it sits off the main road; I saw the turn for it.  I was curious, with a name like that, which Wikipedia says is of "obscure" origin.

And from there I drove about 10 more miles to the Weatherford KOA, where I was booked for the weekend.

Texas - Days 15 - 17 - San Angelo

San Angelo State Park, San Angelo
Tuesday, 17 through Thursday, 19 November 2020

I spent all of Tuesday and parts of Wednesday and Thursday in the campground.  On Wednesday I went into town to do a few errands and take a driving tour of the town.  On Thursday I did a few more errands and had coffee with the stepson of my friend John Pabor.  Because there's so much overlap, I'm combining the 3 days into one post.

Campground

This was a comfortable campground, close enough to town that I could pick up an internet signal but still remote enough to be very dark and quiet at night.  I understand there are some bison in the area and, though we didn't see the real thing, we did see these metal sculptures not far from our campsite.

From even a slight distance, these were surprisingly realistic and when I saw them our first night decided not to take the dogs where they could see them, thinking these were real critters.  By the next morning, though, I'd noticed that they were the most immobile real critters I'd ever seen and cautiously took the dogs closer so I could confirm.

The funny thing is that neither of the dogs even noticed them until the 3rd day when I walked the dogs right by the sculptures and watched Dexter do a double-take.  Gracie did too at exactly the same time, and for a minute I had my hands full trying to hang onto them.  But then Dext calmed down and started growling at these strange animals, obviously convinced they were real.  He didn't believe me when I told him they weren't, and we finally had to walk right up to them so he could sniff.  And once he'd sniffed, he acted like they were invisible, and he never paid attention to them again.  It was an odd performance.  Gracie, of course, was much more easy-going about the whole thing and didn't even bother to sniff them, having decided they weren't important.  I think this incident is an illustration of how thoroughly both dogs live through their noses, discounting their eyes entirely if their noses aren't aroused.

I also had a fair view of the lake, which looked suspiciously low from my vantage point, so one day we drove down to take a look.

You can see that this boat launch was left entirely high and dry, with a stretch of actual land between the end of it and the start of the lake.  It reminded me a lot of how Lake Travis outside Austin looked a few years ago when we'd had an extended period of drought.  One of the rangers here told me, though, that there's another boat launch on the other side of the lake that's still usable and is, in fact, being used.  She said folks were bringing in really nice expensive boats to launch into these waters, and she said (dubiously) that she assumed they knew what they were doing.  With the size this lake has shrunk to, though, it doesn't seem like it'd be worth the trouble of launching.

For some reason I never got around to asking about, there's no burn ban in either San Angelo or Tom Green County.  Most other counties I drove through to get here were advertising burn bans, but not here.

Carolina Wren - cute, isn't it?
They're just over 5" long.

I had a brown bird with prominent white eyebrows land on my non-existent window sill one morning.  I think he was just clinging to the framework around the window for a minute, before flying to a nearby tree.  From what I can figure, it was a Carolina Wren - it being the only one with a very definite white eyebrow and longish bill (which I also noticed) that is supposed to be in this area at this time of year.

There are plenty of deer here, and we saw them every morning on our early walks - exciting for the dogs, a nuisance for me.  Luckily for me, very few of the folks who camped near me had dogs, so I didn't have to spend my time dodging them.

San Angelo

For some reason I never figured out, Google's directions didn't at all match with what I found in real life, so I got lost almost as soon as I got to town.  Luckily, I found a street with a familiar name and ended up following my planned itinerary backwards.  That's not as easy as it sounds because I had trouble figuring out whether I should turn left or right, based on instructions coming from the opposite direction.  But I ended up finding the places I'd hoped to see.

One of those was the Concho River, which flows right through town, and the riverwalk park that the town's created along the banks.  It's a shame we got there right about lunch time so many others were out too, and I couldn't take the dogs as far as we both wanted.  But Gracie's ankle was still bothering her sometimes, so we were somewhat limited anyway.  Still, it was a pleasant area and an attractive river.

On Randolph Street, I saw an elaborate mural about the agricultural history of the area.

left side

in the center

right side

These are the 3 pieces of this mural.  But there were many others I saw driving around town, and here's a link to some.   https://www.gosanangelo.com/san-angelo-murals

I also found the county courthouse, which was a real work of art.

The building itself looks fairly square
and dryly official . . .

. . . but I hope you can enlarge this enough
to see some of this detail.

I drove by Angelo State University, the Railway Museum, found David Street, and stumbled on a place called Old Central Firehouse Bed and Brew.  This last is a large brick firehouse built in 1929 and used as a fire station until 1976.  It's now what they call a "bed and brew" which apparently means their breakfast is nothing much (cereal, yogurt, bagels) but they offer a happy hour for guests to sit around and chat.  And the bedrooms all have firehouse themes.  Here's the link.   https://www.ocfbedandbrew.com

San Angelo is the proud home of Robert E. Lee Middle School - Home of the Rebels.  I'm wondering if there's been any discussion here of considering a name change - or at least a mascot change.  But since more than 85% of the town is White and less than 5% of the town is Black, I'm guessing not much.  The local air force base is named Goodfellow, in memory of a man who fought in WWI, so that won't be one that's up for renaming if the majority of Congress that supports it can override Pres. Trump's objection to changing the names of some military bases.

My visit with Austin

I wasn't too sure about getting in touch with him, mostly because there's about 50 years difference between our ages and almost no history.  I'd met him a few times through John when they were living in Austin (TX) and I was taking care of my mom.  But he seemed glad for the chance to get together, so I suggested meeting for coffee in some outdoor location.  We ended up at at Starbucks not far from the state park.

He turned out to be a remarkable young man.  I'd had only limited conversations with him before, and anyway at his age people can change a lot in a short time.  He's now in his junior year of college, having started as a sports medicine major and now being in the business program.  He told me that in the public school he'd been going to, they insist (his version) that kids choose the direction they want to go with their lives when they're in their freshman year of high school.  I was in my 40s before I had even an inkling of what I wanted to do when I grew up, so if it's true the school was doing that, I can't believe the parents have been passively accepting this.

Anyway, Austin said he'd ended up in sports medicine in 9th or 10th grade, took all the classes his school offered, went to college with that in mind, and just kept on with it, despite not being particularly inspired by it.  He'd stumbled into business education by accident and was thrilled with it.  Business isn't a topic that would thrill me, but it's clearly something he loves.  It's so incredibly lucky to find a field you love when you're still young enough to capitalize on it - and I told him so.  I don't regret much in my life, but I can still see I could have lived a far more productive life if I'd known at his age that law was the field for me.  But I'm lucky I did find it, even though it came late.  Some people never do.

Besides going to school full time, he's working as a mechanic in a bowling alley, and incidentally learning mechanical skills.  He's living with his biological dad, reconnecting with him for almost the first time in his life.  He just seems like a likeable, all-round good kid.  Some people are born lucky, and I think he's one of them.  He said well, he works hard at school and at his job, and I said luck is nothing without hard work attached.  After all, I'm a lucky person but have always been too lazy to take advantage of it.  I told him when he's 85 he'll look back on his life and think how lucky he was.  I was glad we'd both made time for each other.

A final thought

My first roommate in college was a girl from San Angelo.  Her name was Donna, and I have no idea what her last name was because I haven't wanted to remember.  She didn't know any of the other students when she came to the school and seemed to have assumed she and I would be best friends.  I on the other hand knew several people before I came and was glad to renew my friendships with them.  Donna resented feeling left out, because though we tried to include her, she was a stranger to us.  Worse than that, I was accepted in a sorority and she wasn't, though she'd wanted to be.  And aside from all those messy situations, she and I were just not alike in much of anything and wouldn't have been friends even if I'd known no one.  

So our tiny shared room became a war zone of repressed emotions, not something I needed in my first experience away from a very sheltered upbringing.  As a result of all that, I've always thought of San Angelo as a terrible place I never wanted to go to.  (I can be irrational too.)

I don't think I'd feel comfortable living in a place that thinks the Robert E. Lee Rebels are a good idea, but aside from that, I learned there's a lot to this town that's very pleasant, even charming.  I'm glad I came.  And I hope Donna was able to find her way in life and has been happy.

Texas - Day 14 - the drive to San Angelo

San Angelo State Park, San Angelo
Monday, 16 November 2020

For days I've found the air to be super-dry.  The amount of static electricity is practically dangerous and scares my critters.  My skin is flaking off all over my body, despite frequent applications of lotion.  I'm surprised to find I have trouble breathing in this dry air, because I know humidity can also cause problems - maybe I just need something in between.  At any rate, I was starting to search online for portable humidifiers and wondering if I should get one.  Part of the problem is that west Texas has been in drought status for a while, but it's dry country anyway, so the drought just exacerbates it.

So today I start traveling east again.  I'm assuming San Angelo is still going to be dry, but at least it's in the right direction.

today's route

Google informed me this would be a 4-hour drive, which meant it would take me all day so, yet again, I left at 7:30.

On the road

Sunrise was predicted for 7:27 today but I can state with certainty that, where I was, it came up at 7:34.  And it was smack in my eyes for hours.

I heard on the radio that 1 week ago today, there were 10,000,000 cases of COVID-19 in this country; today there are 11,000,000.  One million more people were sickened in one week.  It's appalling and terrifying.

El Paso has become a hot spot, and the whole west Texas area is in trouble, so the whole time I've been in this region I've worn a mask except when walking the dogs, and gloves when I expect to touch anything - at gas stations and grocery stores and campground offices, for instance.  I know they're not guarantees, but one never knows which precautions will make the difference.  And I have been glad to see that almost everyone has been careful to wear masks too, which I didn't expect out here in the Rugged West.

I saw highway signs saying "Watch For Blowing Dust" and "Strong Wind Gusts," which gave me a picture of the usual weather around here.

I passed a turn-off labeled "Boracho Sta" but couldn't find anything online that explained the "Sta" except that it likely stood for station.  The problem with that is there not only isn't a station of any kind around here, but also the old town of Boracho no longer exists.  It's assumed the town's name was a misspelling of the Spanish word borracho, meaning drunk, and of course there's an odd story behind that.   https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/boracho-tx

I passed the turn-off for Balmorhea State Park, which I'm still sorry I can't visit.  The park is just past the junction between I-10 (toward San Antonio) and I-20 (toward Dallas-Ft. Worth), and I was a little surprised to find that I lost most of the traffic when I chose I-10 and the other folks chose I-20.  But it always makes driving easier when there's less traffic.

I was delighted to find a rest stop, because we all needed a break.  This turned out to be one of the fancier ones I've seen.

At left is a (closed-off) water park, which I doubt any other state rest areas have.  All the picnic tables have covers shaped like these.  There's a shallow ditch running through the rest area, crossed by nice little bridges, that I'm guessing isn't dry when it rains.

There was a nature trail that began with one of the more ominous signs I've seen in a while (below).

There was also an informational sign that had a lot more information than I thought when I first glanced at it.  Titled Flora and Fauna of West Texas - Then And Now, it had the following message at the top:

Welcome to the Texas Department of Transportation's Pecos County Safety Rest Area.  You are standing in the Trans-Pecos region - the area of Texas that is west of the Pecos River and is the only part of Texas where mountain and desert ecosystems are found.  But this area has not always been that way; in fact, it was once a shallow sea and later a woodland.  Follow the chronological timeline below, find the spot where you are now standing in the building map, and then follow the Nature Trail signs to find examples of the present-day flora depicted.

I'm not including the "building map" here, which wasn't so much about buildings but about the rest area layout.  And I didn't take the dogs on the nature walk.  But below is the sign.

detail from left

half of sign - see detail at right and below

90,000 years ago -
detail from sign above

20,000 years ago -
more detail from sign above

other half of sign - see detail at right

detail from sign at left

Back on the road, I passed cows and hay.  Scrubland and grazing land and cropland.  Cotton and winter wheat.  An orchard - maybe pecans?  Mountains to the south but not the north.  Old flat-topped hills that look like the dirt has blown away, exposing the bedrock that's the basis for the hills, which wear the exposed bedrock like a crown.

This is the largest flat-topped hill I saw. 
I was particularly taken with its square corners.

This historical marker seems
to explain some of these
hills I've been seeing.

I heard a young woman on the radio who said she's Latina but doesn't speak much Spanish.  She was talking with some friends who were speaking Spanish and wanted to say she was embarrassed about something.  The word she used was "embarazada" because she thought it sounded like it meant "embarrassed" but, she learned, actually meant "pregnant."  She said "so here we are, just cruising along, and boom! we're embarazada."  (And giggled.)

After Ft. Stockton (which looked really different from I-10 than it did last week from TX 18), I turned off the interstate onto US Hwy. 67/US Hwy. 385.

I passed a large installation with the sign "Greasewood Solar Project" with a vast solar array on both sides of the highway.  It turns out to be the 5th largest photovoltaic setup in the US and has long-term power contracts with the utility companies of Garland, New Braunfels and Kerrville.  

Well, goodness knows they've got sun out here.  In fact, about all West Texas has, as far as I can tell, is land and sun and wind and oil.  All they need are the parts of a transmission system to get these resources to places that need them.  I don't know why anybody bothers trying to farm out here, since water is not one the the region's plentiful natural resources.  

This wind farm stretched much farther than this photo shows -
but it reminded me irresistibly of clichés in old Westerns
with the angry Indians silhouetted against the skyline.

Past the small town of Girvin, I crossed the Pecos River, a name that sounds seriously old-fashioned western to me.  The Pecos turns out to be a traveling fool, originating in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains near Albuquerque, and flowing through northeastern NM and west TX and finally dumping into the Rio Grande (which flows to the Gulf of Mexico).  The Sangre de Cristo Mountains are viewed as the last range of the Rocky Mountains, ending near Albuquerque near the headwaters of the Pecos River, and beginning in Colorado.  I remember well driving through these mountains in both states.

I lost NPR and found lots of Spanish-language radio stations.

The town of McCamey, pop. 1,887, boasts the Mendoza Trail Museum (I can't figure out what that trail is, but the museum claims to have relics from the region's "rowdy" past), as well as a business called Good Old Boys Feed and Supply.

There's lots of prickly pear cactus and mesquite trees out here.  And historical markers and wind farms - I passed several of each.  Also many oil drilling supply companies - more, actually, than the number of oil wells I've seen lately.

As I passed mile after mile after mile of mesquite and cactus with few notable geological features, hot and dusty and dry, I thought this must have been hard country to travel in 100 or 150 years ago.

I crossed West Dutch Woman Draw, and later East Dutch Woman Draw.  I wish someone knew (and said online) who this Dutch woman was and why she got not just one, but two, geologic features named for her.  And in case you're not quite certain what a draw is (I wasn't) here's the link.   https://en.wikipedia.org/Draw-terrain

As I went farther east I started seeing hills, lots of hills.  Also sheep, cows, horses and goats.

San Angelo is in Tom Green County.  I've always been curious about that name so I finally got around to looking him up.  The thumbnail sketch is that he fought in the Texas Revolution in 1835-36 under Gen. Sam Houston.  Then he was clerk of the Texas Supreme Court until the Civil War, when he served for the Confederacy in the cavalry.  He died in 1864.  So I'm guessing the county's name was for the Republic of Texas hero, rather than as yet another Confederacy honoree.

San Angelo has just over 100,000 residents and the 1st HEB Grocery I've seen since I've been in Texas.

And on to the state park, where I'm booked for the next 4 nights.

Texas - Day 13 - El Paso

Mountain View RV Park, Van Horn
Sunday, 15 November 2020

today's route

detail of El Paso route

On the road
Once again, I was on the road by 7:30 because I knew today was going to be a long one, full of driving.  Even Google said it would take 2 hours to get from the campground into El Paso, and that would assume I was actually driving the 80 mph speed, which of course I wouldn't be going anywhere near, and also of course I'd have to drive at least 2 hours back again.

For a short distance I still got NPR and heard this week's Puzzlemaster puzzle, which I was astounded to find I could solve in my head in very little time.  Perry Mason just popped into my head as soon as he'd given the clue, and from there it didn't take long to come up with pray and sermon, though it was a bit harder doing it in my head than on paper.  Usually I don't even understand the puzzles, let alone have an idea how to solve them, so this was a once in a lifetime thing.  Not that I planned to enter, but I was still pleased with myself.

Like the view I got 2 days ago on US 90 from Marfa, I-10 covers flat land that runs to a ring of mountains all around.  But after a while, I started losing the mountains on the north side, while those on the south side got closer.

We passed by the town of Sierra Blanca which, for some reason, seems to have lots of motels but almost no national chains.  From the highway, the town looks very poor.  I'm attaching the link to its Wikipedia page because of the unusual mix of information here - everything from trainloads of sewage brought from New York City to proposed nuclear waste site denied due to high seismic activity there to well-known people being arrested at a nearby checkpoint for narcotics and weapons.  https://en.wikipedia.org/Sierra-Blanca  None of this shows from the interstate (one of my problems relying on interstates for travel).

At the exact moment I got shoved sideways by strong winds, I saw a sign saying "High Wind Gusts."  Farther along, going past a mountain meant I hit some really squirrely winds being mismanaged by the mountain.

We stopped to take a walk at a rest area, and I think Gracie must have twisted her ankle.  At first I thought she was limping because of stickers, because Dexter did get a couple in his foot.  But after checking Gracie's foot (and all the others) 3 times, I decided it wasn't a sticker problem.  I remember one or the other of the dogs having this same problem some time ago, where he or she limped around for a few days and gradually limped less often as the leg got stronger.  I just hoped it was the same thing here and I wasn't going to have to find a vet to take a look at her.  But she had a definite limp all day.

I continued to see flat land dotted with houses and farms; a feed lot with the cows' heads stuck through that metal framework I've seen before and birds flying overhead; a small community huddled at the base of a mountain.

By the time I was about 2/3 of the way to El Paso, I noticed the mountains had greatly receded all around and had ended entirely in the west - though I knew that wouldn't last because El Paso's got plenty of mountains nearby.

I started seeing a very strong Texas Highway Patrol presence and, at one point, they had 2 vehicles stopped at once on either side of the road - and one was a semi, which I rarely see.

There was little traffic for most of the drive in because it was pretty early on a Sunday morning.  But after 2 hours of driving, when I got to the El Paso area it was late enough for there to be plenty of traffic.  At one point a motorcyclist passed me in my lane when somebody else was in the lane next to me.  What on earth made that idiot think I wasn't going to suddenly jerk to the side (because so many driver/texters do things like that), or that a wind gust wouldn't do the jerking for me?  It was scary and infuriating.

Manhattan Heights Historic District/Scenic Drive
My first aim was for the Scenic Drive Overlook, which I accidentally found online and assumed it was a scenic viewpoint on a drive above the city.  For once, Google's directions were good enough that I got to the entrance to the drive with no problem.  Sadly, the entrance was as far as I got. The first thing I saw was a sign saying No Vehicles Allowed.  Except by then I was already into the street and would be forced to back up - and except the sidewalk area was crowded with people, including many children - and I was terrified I'd hit somebody in trying to extricate myself.

I finally got the attention of passing pedestrians (through Dexter's window, he was very interested) and asked if there was some kind of event.  They said the Scenic Drive is closed every Sunday from 7:00 until noon.  Too bad there wasn't any mention of it online.  Anyway, I asked for their help in backing up and they said I didn't need to because, see that little street up ahead?, I was allowed to go up there and it made a loop around to where I started.  And it did.

Where I started was right by a park that covered a city block and, unusually, was covered with real grass, which was green.  They must pay a fortune to keep it watered, but it was like an oasis.  The park was part of Manhattan Heights Historic District, which was obviously one of the nicer parts of town and certainly had one of the better views.

You can see a bit of Newman Park in the foreground, 
and the beginning of the Scenic Drive climbing in the background.
Between the 2 are some of the neighborhood houses.

I thought these houses looked both unusual
and expensive, but imagine the view!

a bit of the view from the park

The houses surrounding the park, and in the vicinity, were primarily stucco and reminded me of a very fancy upscale neighborhood in Mexico.  And, the fact is, that view (above) probably includes Mexico.

I managed to find my way back down the hill by a non-Google-sanctioned route with no problem.  This time I was aiming for the St. Patrick Cathedral.

St. Patrick Cathedral

Dedicated in 1917, this church serves local Catholics, who make up nearly 50% of the population.  It looks much more impressive in person, because our eyes let us filter out all those street lights and things.

I passed through 2 more historic districts: Rio Grande Historic District, which includes some wonderful old houses and reminded me of the way Austin looked before gentrification, and the Downtown Historic District, which includes the San Jacinto Plaza, because every Mexican town must have a plaza.

I passed by part of Univ. of Texas-El Paso, which has more than 20,000 enrolled, including 80% Mexican-American students.  In fact, it's 2nd only to the UT campus in the Rio Grande Valley for being the largest US college with a majority Mexican-American enrollment.  Apparently it has a strong post-graduate degree program.  I noticed too that the El Paso Community College has several campuses around the area, all of which meant to me that education is important in this town.

I passed the Consulate General of Mexico and was sorry I didn't know until later that only 3 blocks away was the 1800s Mexican Consulate, which was likely worth seeing.

I belatedly found this website with 9 - not the 10 it says - factoids about El Paso.   https://www.tripsavvy.com/interesting-historical-facts-about-el-paso

I've only been in El Paso a few times before - usually just passing through on my way east or west.  Our family was here when I was a teenager, but I remember only our trips into Juárez and nothing about El Paso.  So this was my first real time here and I was surprised to discover that I found it a charming place.  I wished I'd been able to get reservations at Hueco Tanks State Park, which is much closer to town, or that I wasn't restricting myself to staying within the borders of the state-of-the-month so I could stay at nearby New Mexican campgrounds.  Some other time, though, I'd like to come back.

Back on the road

I've noticed before, and I noticed it today, that the return trip always seems shorter than the outgoing trip.  And as often before, I saw different things.

The first was something I saw when I stopped for gas on my way out of town.  Highway decorations.

These are deceptive - I didn't even notice them at first.

I saw highway signs telling me how far I was from Dallas (581 miles at milepost 51) and San Antonio (510 miles at milepost 79).

In El Paso I saw lots of signs for Fort Bliss, one of the largest of all US Army posts.  On the road I saw license plates from many states - OH, CA, ID, TN, PA - and wondered if some of them were here because of Ft. Bliss.

I saw a sign saying "Inspection Station - All Trucks Exit" but, in fact, they made everybody exit.  It turned out to be a Border Patrol checkpoint.  They asked me how many people were on board and was I a US citizen, and I guess I looked honest because that was that.  They had signs saying they used search dogs and I had a sudden clear memory of a search dog going crazy in my little Volvo back in the early '70s when my friend Paula and I had finished a joint just before reaching the border on our way home from Mexico.  My how times change.

I passed a semi/trailer that had a sign on the side saying "ecofeatherweight.com" and "increased capacity, reduced emissions."  Yes, times are changing.

I was pleased to see a state trooper stopping a silver Kia that had passed me earlier.  The speed limit here was 80 mph, which shows how fast the Kia was likely going to warrant getting stopped.

Van Horn sits just barely to the east of the line between the Central and Mountain Time zones.  Since I was only in El Paso for the day, I didn't bother changing my clocks, which meant I was there even earlier than I'd thought I was.

It was a lot of driving but I'm glad I took the trip.  I'm just sorry I couldn't camp any closer so I could spend more time there.