Texas Trip Photos, Texarkana

These shots are from Texarkana, where State Line Road divides Texas from Arkansas, and where the post office is sitting in two states and has two different zip codes.

The top photo is of one of several war memorials. The middle photo is of the post office, and the bottom photo shows a memorial in the foreground, across the street from the post office.

Texas Trip, Day Ten

Friday, April 17:

We left camp about 9:30 a.m., after a cold cereal breakfast. It was a warm, partly cloudy day. We stopped for lunch about an hour from home.

Arrived home mid-afternoon. There was a voice mail on the phone from the Texarkana campground. Seems Hubbie had dropped his cell phone there, and a staff member had retrieved it and wanted to verify our address so he could mail it to us.

We spent the rest of the afternoon unloading the camper, washing clothes, etc. Hubbie went to town to pick up ten days worth of mail and newspapers. In reading the newspapers later, we learned that by traveling as many hours as we did, we managed to outrun severe storms that hit Texas Thursday.

Texas Trip, Day Nine

Thursday, April 16:

We were up by 7 a.m., and had a breakfast of quick breads, cream cheese, fresh orange, and hot tea/coffee. We left camp around 9:30, on this cloudy day.

We traveled to Corsicana, and arrived around 1:30 p.m. We first thought we would camp here for the night, but since it was so early in the day, and the weather was nice, we decided to push on to Texarkana. Around suppertime, we stopped briefly to eat PB&J sandwiches, and peaches with sliced bananas.

The bluebonnets were still nice around Corsicana, but began to play out as we left the city, and as we traveled, we saw only small clusters of them. But there were fields of very pretty Indian paintbrush, which are strikingly pink, as well as other yellow and blue wildflowers.

It was sunny by the time we approached Waco, and stayed that way all the way to Texarkana. The temperature was in the low 70s...nice for traveling.

We arrived at Texarkana about 6:30 p.m....about a nine-hour trip. Now we were within a day's range of home.

We spent the rest of the evening in our usual activities, and then hit the sack early.

Texas Trip, Day Eight

Wednesday, April 15:

We were up at 7 a.m., and had a breakfast of bagels, cream cheese, and jelly. Once we were ready for the day, we went to Lukenbach, Texas, made famous in the Waylon Jennings song. The town (Pop. 25) consists of a combination general store and saloon (once a Post Office), and a dance hall, on 9.142 acres.

Not much is happening in Lukenbach, but it's a good place to take pictures....of a rooster that struts around as if he owns the place, and two bearded dudes in western regalia, who clerk in the store and the saloon.

Not many folks were visiting while we were there...just a couple of motorcycle guys, one of whom offered to take a picture of the three of us on the porch of the store/saloon. The only thing I bought in the store was a leather keychain in the shape of Texas, with the Lukenbach logo on it to use as a Christmas tree ornament.

On the way to "Downtown Luckenbach," we stopped by "Uptown Luckenbach," which is a flea market. No one was in the store, but there was a sign telling customers to choose what they wanted and leave the price of the item in a jar. We didn't buy anything, but we did pick up burr oak acorns (also called mossycups) from a box with a sign saying "free, take as many as you want." These are acorns resting in little pods that look like woven nests. I'll use them in a display of natural materials at Christmas time.

Then we went back to camp for a lunch of deli turkey sandwiches. After lunch, we went to the Lyndon B. Johnson National Historical Park, where we took a driving/walking tour of Johnson's birthplace home, his grandparent's home, the President's first school, and the Johnson family cemetery, where the President is buried, as well as a place called the White House, which is still being renovated. This is where the President and Mrs. Johnson entertained the dignitaries who visited the ranch. It is located along the Pedernales River. Around 700 of the over 1500 acres of the ranch belong to the federal government, as donated by the Johnson family.

This is a working ranch, with some cattle and sheep roaming the grounds freely. It's advisable for visitors to keep to the designated paths, because the yards where the animals graze are littered with sheep droppings or cow patties. Chickens and a turkey are in a fenced area. The animals that roam the grounds ignore visitors, even if they walk up to them to take snapshots.

We spent about three hours at the ranch, including about 15 minutes at the visitor's center, where a video played continuously. It featured one of the Johnson daughters talking about a dog that joined the family. This daughter found the dog abandoned at a gas station. The station owner said a family stopped by, and when they left, they failed to take the dog with them (or it jumped out of the car and the family was unaware until too late that the dog wasn't with them).

Anyway, the dog, dirty at the time the daughter found him, was white. She already had a dog named blanco (Spanish for white), but didn't know what to call this dog. The station owner suggested Yu-Gi (which the station owner said is Japanese for white).

Yu-Gi was destructive, so Lady Byrd Johnson didn't want him in her home. Eventually, though, the daughter gave the dog to the President, who was very stressed in the turbulent times of the 1960s, and who found solace in the lovable little dog.

The visitor's center also included a glassed room containing several of Johnson's collection of cars, now antiques.

On the way back to camp, we stopped at a Wal Mart store to pick up microwave potatoes. While Hubbie was in the store, I called Friend (at her request) to see if we could visit on Thursday. She was still too sick, she said.

While we had a very good time in Fredricksburg, our main reason for being there was to visit with Friend. Then to find out we couldn't, after traveling all those miles, was very frustrating. We would have been willing to visit today, but were told that Friend and husband were obliged to attend the funeral of an elderly uncle of the husband in the morning. And afterward, she knew she'd be too exhausted to see us.

She has multiple problems, including rhumatoid arthritis and horrible allergies (due to oak pollen). Today, she was in bed when I called, and sounded very hoarse and miserable. She said she'd been upchucking. I guess her energy level is so low that she has to save it for only the most important things, and we were way down on the list. Thank goodness, she has finally made an appointment to see her doctor, after resisting it for so long.

Hubbie had already registered us for an extra night at camp for Thursday. When we got back to camp, he hurried to the registration office to see if he could cancel it, so we could leave for home Thursday morning. He lucked out, because the staff had not yet entered the information in the computer, so they cancelled it.

After a supper of hamburgers/turkey burgers with cheese, microwave potatoes, and cream corn, Mother and I went to the campground laundry to wash a dry a couple of loads. We were there until about 8:30 p.m. News on the TV predicted nasty storms for Thursday afternoon, which made me anxious to be on the road and out of the area before the storms hit.

Texas Trip, Day Seven

Tuesday, April 14:

We were up about 7:30 a.m. Had a breakfast of cold cereal with banana, and slices of wheat bread. After getting ready for the day, we went downtown to what's called the "Marktplatz" (Market Square), where there is a lovely garden. I took lots of snapshots here (photos of our trip will follow later).

From there, we stopped at a shop selling shelled Texas pecans, and I bought a pound. Then we went to an herb farm. Of course, I snapped pictures, while Hubbie and Mother browsed the plants.

While we were there, I contacted my high school friend, and learned that she was ill and couldn't visit with me. Instead, she suggested we have lunch at a restaurant with her husband and sister-in-law. The husband and sister-in-law were in Fredricksburg (about 45 minutes from Friend's home) to help with a gardening project at the Lady Byrd Johnson Park, where they volunteer each week.

I was disappointed that I could not see my friend, but we had a good visit with the husband and sister-in-law, at a restaurant that has been converted from an old cotton gin...lots of ambiance. We'd met Friend's husband once before, but the sister-in-law was a stranger to us. Both are nice people, and it was an enjoyable hour, but just seemed odd to be visiting with these folks instead of my friend.

Lunch (their treat) was soup, salad, and bread sticks. The soup of the day was French onion, not my favorite, but the bread sticks were really good. After lunch, the waiter brought rice paper envelopes of hot-from-the-oven cookies...several varieties. I ate one, though it certainly wasn't heart healthy.

After lunch, we went to Wildseed Farms, where there are 200 acres of wildflowers in various stages of development. Today, there were fields of Texas bluebonnets, and red corn poppies, among other varieties. The farm also features a butterfly house, and a couple of large shops filled with merchandise, including Texas bluebonnet seeds. Mother bought a package of those. They are not rated for our state's weather, but she is going to try them anyway.

After that, we took Mother back to the camper, and Hubbie and I went to Fredricksburg Winery, downtown, for free tastings. The sweet wines we tasted were okay, but we were not inspired to pay the label prices...ranging from about $17 to $20 per bottle and up. Instead, I bought a small jar of cactus jelly that I had sampled.

From there, we went to a scrapbook store, where I bought a sheet of paper featuring bluebonnets, and claimed a free gift for mentioning that I'd seen their ad in campground literature. I was given a neat dispenser of glue dots.

Back at camp, we had a supper of spaghetti, salad, and cottage cheese. Afterward, it was the same old, same old activities.

Since the temperature changed so much today, I had to change clothes three times...warm clothes for a cool morning, light long-sleeved shirt for the afternoon, and a short-sleeved blouse for the hot evening.

I took 113 snapshots today. No, no, don't worry. I only plan to post a few of them.

Texas Trip, Day Six

Monday, April 13:

We got up around 7 a.m., and had breakfast about 7:30. It was a sunny morning, but windy and cool. By 5 p.m., though, it was pleasantly warm.

We left Waco about 9:30 a.m., headed for Fredricksburg. Sites along the way: the Horney Toad Harley Davidson dealership, and large patches of cactus beneath squatty, gnarled, mesquite trees. At one point, linemen for a power company were working among the cactus plants, fixing a line. I'll bet they were careful when they stepped backwards!

Sadly, there were only small clusters of bluebonnets along the way from Waco to Fredricksburg. But there were lots of animals, like herds of goats, sheep, and cattle. One breed of cattle fascinated us. They are black in the head and shoulder area, and in the hind quarters, but they have a wide white band in the middle. I looked this cattle breed up online, and they are called Belted Galloway, a rare breed originating in Scotland, that are adapted to poor pasture land. They are very striking. We'd never seen this breed before. Of course, we also saw Texas longhorn cattle, which, with their huge horns that span way outward from their heads, are fascinating creatures, too. But the Belted Galloways were the most fascinating to us.

Other animals we saw included emus and deer, horses and ponies, and even a couple of camels.

We missed our exit at Georgetown, because there were no warnings that it was coming up, so we had to backtrack. Luckily, we hadn't traveled far before deciding to turn around.

Hubbie pulled the camper onto the side of the road at lunch time, which unnerved me, because our unit was so close to the traffic lane that whizzing cars and semis created a wind that rocked the camper. After lunch, we discovered that there was a picnic area just down the road from where we'd pulled off. In fact, wouldn't you know it, there were picnic areas all along the way from that point.

Another annoyance at lunch time: when I opened the refrigerator door, a container of pie cherries bounced out, spilling into a door shelf and onto the floor...what a mess to clean up! But there were enough cherries left in the container to make trifle desserts, using cupcakes, individual cups of chocolate pudding, and whipped topping.

We arrived at Fredricksburg about 2:30 p.m., set up camp, showered and dressed, and then called my high school friend. Unfortunately, she had a church meeting that she felt she could not miss, so we weren't able to visit her tonight.

Annoyance: in trying to dry my hair after a shower, the hair dryer stopped working. Turned out, a campground worker was dealing with an electrical problem and had shut the power off temporarily. For a while, I feared that I'd have to let my hair dry naturally, which would result in a bed-head look.

For supper, we used leftover pork roast to make hot pork roast sandwiches, with gravy, served with leftover sweet potatoes, English peas, cranberry sauce, and one microwaveable baked white potato, split between Hubbie and me.

After supper, Hubbie and I went shopping for a few grocery items. Then later, we toured historic downtown Fredricksburg. No shops were open at this hour, but I got lots of snapshots of the interesting architecture.

Fredricksburg, a German town settled in 1846, has a population of just over 10,000, and is very much a tourist attraction. It's in the midst of what's known as the Texas Hill Country, where vineyards, wineries, and peach orchards abound.

We learned a few German words in our wanderings, like "wilkommen," meaning "welcome." I also learned to pronounce "Schmitdzinsky Lane."

Mother opted to stay at camp while we did a walking tour of Main Street. When we got home, we discovered that Mother had whacked herself in the head on a cabinet door attempting to keep Snoops out of the open cabinet. This resulted in a bump and scratched place on her forehead.

Later, we did the usual...Hubbie reading, Mother working puzzles, and me on the laptop. I tried a couple of times to get online, before finally succeeding. I was able to read email, but the WiFi access was so busy, that my replies wouldn't send. I could access my blog site, too, but I couldn't get the posting window to come up. And it was so sl-o-w trying to bring stuff up on my homepage, that I finally quit trying.

Texas Trip, Day Five

Easter Sunday, April 12:

It was somewhat stormy last night, so we arose this morning to a gloomy sky and wet ground, but later in the day, the sun came out, the sky became a dark blue with fluffy white clouds, and the temp rose to around 80 degrees.

For breakfast, we had hard boiled eggs, wheat bread, and fresh fruit. Then we exchanged Easter cards, and I gave Mother a gift bag containing two small sacks of Jelly Belly candies (one an assortment, and one licorice), plus a big bag of butterscotch candies...all her favorites.

Around 11 a.m., we went to Aunt's house (about 30 minutes from the campground) to pick her up and take her out for Easter Sunday lunch. A neighbor was there when we arrived, and she recommended a place called Raymond's Southern Style Restaurant, about five miles away.

The restaurant is buffet style, with several meat and fish choices, and an assortment of veggies and salad makings. Their specialty is carrot souffle', which is very tasty. There was a variety of desserts, too, but I stuck with fresh strawberries.

It was fun watching little girls in their brightly colored Easter frocks come into the restaurant. Some teenage girls were dressed up, too, but I imagine that one young lady, who wore a sundress that bared her shoulders, must have been a bit chilly in the air conditioned restaurant. At that age, though, it's all about looking good, no matter the discomfort.

After lunch, we went back to Aunt's house and played lots of games of Duo. Hubbie and I won several games, and Mother won a couple, but poor Aunt didn't win any. No matter, she thoroughly enjoyed the game and our company, anyway.

Around 4 p.m., we went out on Aunt's pleasant covered patio and took snapshots. We left after that to return to camp, where I walked around the campground for exercise and snapped a few pictures.

I saw lots of ducks at the small ponds (or tanks, as they are called in Texas), a sandpiper, and a roadrunner, but got shots only of the ducks. I stopped at the pool, where three kids were swimming in the very chilly water. It's just too early in the season for outdoor swimming, in my opinion. I also tried out the various exercise machines on the enclosed porch near the pool.

Since we'd had a large lunch, we settled for cold cereal and toast for supper. Then we relaxed, with Hubbie reading, Mother working puzzles, and me playing on the laptop.