Texas has been very good

We have had excellent WiFi the past two days,yet there have been no posts!?! That is because we are staying with my brother and his wife, and have been way too busy to type. Everyone else is in bed now,so I am trying to get caught up. Tomorrow we head toward CO, and Saturday we should be at John's house.

Bob showed us around his ranch, and John got to see the cows, and the bull, up close. He wanted to pat one, but by the time he mentioned it, the treats were gone and the animals were getting a little pushy. We saw a brandy-new calf whose mama was very suspicious of the pickup truck,so the one a picture I got was rushed. And a black calf is hard to spot when standing in front of a black cow.

Today, Chari and Bob took us to see the John Bunker Sands Wetland Center, which includes created wetland areas, marshes used to help cleanse water from the Trinity River to ultimately go to the Dallas water supply. Then a trip to a hardware store, always a favorite of Johna chance t9 plays, then off to local peach orchard to buy some of the best peaches I have ever had and sample their soft serve peach ice cream. Yum.

A highlight of the trip came next for John. Bob fired up his excavator to dredge the tank (a man made pond to catch and hold rainwater), which had gradually become shallower and wider, thanks to his geese nibbling way the edges. A gracious host, after he finished, he offered John a chance to try it out. Not with the watery mud, because I think Bob did not want to take a muddy shower, but he got to move it, and dig up some dirt and move it a few feet.

Jealous?

You should be.

Oh no, you didn't!

We have a good WiFi connection tonight, so I planned an update, but couldn't decide what to write. John had a good suggestion, so I'll go with that. Here is what we didn't do today.

We visited the Hot Springs National Park, which includes the historic downtown street of bath houses, but we didn't take a bath.

Those mini fire hose nozzles were used to spray streams of water (one hot,one cold) up and down the legs and backs of the bathhouse patrons while they stood facing the shower heads in the top picture. The women's side had the basic tubs, sauna and tables, but the men's side was fancy, having an additional space with marble benches, a fountain and a stained glass skylight.

The ranger who gave the tour told us her great aunt had worked at the spa back in the days when all of the attendants were African Americans, who were not allowed to use the baths themselves. She laughed as she said "And now I have the keys to the whole place!" as she jingled her key chain.

We had (tentatively) planned to camp in Hot Springs, since the weather was good, but we didn't, deciding to look for a campground near water. Heading west, we decided to check out the Crater of Diamonds state park near Delight,AR. Turns out you can actually look for diamonds there and keep any you find. We did not look for diamonds. Too cheap and too hot. We also did not camp there because the only water was in a pool and filled with kids.

We turned a little north to try the Daisy state park,which was on a lake. We did not camp there because the sites were small, lake access was steep, and there were lots of families with kids. (It may seem like John and I do not like kids-we really do, but we prefer those we know. Plus we prefer  a little more privacy and quiet when we camp)

So to hell with camping today! We decided to add Oklahoma to our state list, currently at 11, if anyone cares, and headed west once again.  We didn't get to the border,deciding to stop when we saw a motel in DeQueen. We also didn't eat at the handy restaurant in the parking lot,since it was closed for a vacation. I don't know whose vacation, but it certainly didn't take ours  into consideration. Just to continue the theme, we didn't go out to eat at all, making do with cheese,crackers and apple slices.

We also did not show up at Bob and Chari's a day earlier then expected, so that was good. We shall see them tomorrow and I hope our good luck with the weather continues with our stay in Texas.

Conversations

Just after getting on the highway Sunday we saw a billboard with info about a historic house and farm at the site of the New Market Battle from the Civil War. We found out it opened at 9 and although we weren't going to wait around 45 minutes to go into the museum, we continued up the long drive to the battlefield site,admiring the old house,and the fields with rick-rack fencing.

"Hey,look some cows. Do you think those are Civil War cows too?
" Well,they are not blue or gray, so, no"
......
Although,they are black and white,so I guess they could be in a symbolic way"

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I had my head bent over the phone,trying to send a picture and John says:

"Hey, Amarillo!"

We were in Tennessee, not Texas,so I was confused and repeated "Amarillo?"

"Yes. Do they have them here? Little, hard shell?"

........."Armadillos? "

"Yeah, them"

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Ordering in McDs today in TN.
Me: "Just a plain cheeseburger,please"
Young lady worker, gazing at her screen: "Can you just tell me everything so I can get it all ordered?"
"I just want a plain cheeseburger"
"Well, do you want mustard,ketchup,onion,pickle or tomato?"
"None of those"
"So no mustard,no ketchup,no onion,no pickle,no tomato?"
"Right, none of those. I just want meat and cheese,and the roll"

We were there just when they changed from breakfast to their lunch menu,and it seems to have taken all the workers by surprise, since they ended up with quite a line of customers waiting for their meals. John was happy since he scored one of their last breakfast burritos (with hot sauce which is no longer available in ME, he tells me) but not everyone was so pleased. An ancient tiny man in denim overalls and a flat cap with 'Ireland' stitched on top made his way over to stand next to me and confided "The next food they put on the counter, I'm going to walk up and take". And he did! Fortunately, it was his order.

I told John that the relatives were demanding pictures with one or both of us in them,so I was going to take one of him. He had to put on his shades " to look cool". I figured I should mention that just in case the photo didn't convey the cool factor properly.

Now and Then

This trip is not the first epic road trip John and I have taken. In 1987, the hardware store where he worked was closed due to the owner retiring. John and his sisters were classmates of the owner's daughters,and he was 16 when he started working for Everett. Except for his Army stint, most of John's working life had been there.  It was going to be a big change for him and we decided now was the time to move to Maine if we were going to do it. So,we put the house on the market and figured the best way to keep it presentable was to take our four young kids across the country for six weeks.

My parents generously lent us their new Ford Econline van, and we left July 2nd. It seems a lot neater packing job for the six of us than the one for our current trip.

Then

 

                                                                      Now

This trip has certainly been quieter than that first one, and while we are enjoying the freedom to eat what and when we want, as well managing the bathroom breaks for two instead of six, we kind of miss the kids.

When we got to Gettysburg in 1987, we found reenactors getting ready for the July 4th celebrations and that was really fun. We went to the museum and all jumped when the supposed wax figure soldier suddenly moved and spoke.  I had willing posers for pictures.

John may have willing to pose at the cannon, but we never even made it there today. Our GPS brought us right to the visitor center, which is very nice, but was not where the old museum had been....I think. It was built in 2008 and just seemed a little slick to us. We drove around a bit of the auto route and decided we preferred our memories over the current reality.

Plus, the whole selfie thing I mentioned in my previous post?  Yeah, I am not ready for prime time.