After touring North America's second largest meteor crater, west of Odessa, and spending 2 nights in an LDS Church parking lot in Odessa, Texas so we could go to church and spend the sabbath doing sabbath things, we headed east to spend more time seeing things in this great country of ours.
First stop, "The Presidential Museum and Leadership Library" in Odessa. This wonderful place is the only museum in the nation that is totally dedicated to the study and the preservation of the "Office" of the presidency of the USA. It covers and researches the uniqueness of this position in our government.
It was closed on Mondays, so we felt we would not get to see it, but with further exploration, Wayne found an open door on the side. Being the concerned citizen that he is, he decided to go right in (to make sure all was secure, you understand). There were two people in there having a meeting, so he introduced ourselves and asked if it would be okay for us to just take a picture of the inside of the museum. One of the people was the associate director and offered to take us on a personal tour. Such a deal!!
We walked around the corner and we were greeted by George Washington, who animatedly welcomed us to the museum.
This rug is an exact duplicate of the one on the oval office. Our tour guide offered for us to stand on it and she would take ur picture, but we declined.
Our tour guide was nice enough to take our picture in front of the official Odessa Texas Presidential Seal.
After the wonderful tour we were invited to see one of the several homes where George W. Bush grew up. So in this house in Odessa, two future presidents, two future governors and a first lady lived in their younger years.
Then we found "the world's largest rabbit" (That's Rabbit, Ron, not Rabbi!!!) and gave him bunny ears. Seems that they have a lot of respect here abouts for the larger than normal jack rabbits "dey have here in 'dis neck o' da woods". They
used to have rabbit roundups, rabbit bbq's and rabbit roping contests here for years until the animal rights do gooders got their lobbyists and protests going and put a stop to it. Ever had fried rabbit?? I remember it being quite tasty! Never roped one though!
Then we drove on to Midland (pop.129,500) and found it to be quite a town of contrasts. Odessa (pop. 100,000) was quite poor and had lots of run down sections. The town was well spread out. Midland was more affluent, an older town with quite a bit of older structures, but right in the middle of this town were a couple tall buildings! We originally drove into to Midland to see a beautiful arboretum that we had found on line.
But our host at the Presidential Museum had told us that the best Tex/Mex food in Texas was in Midland even though it was just a hole in the wall place. So, we went there and gave it a try.
The food was okay, but you know what? In all the Mexican restaurants we have eaten in all our travels, we still feel our favorite Mexican food is still in Medford at Si Casa Flores.
Never the less, as we walked around inside the restaurant and visited with the owner, we saw lots of pictures of George W. Bush as he ate in and visited this restaurant. The owner told us that this was his favorite place to eat when he lived in Midland and that before he was president he ate there a lot. The owner had pictures of her at the White House when she was invited there as a personal guest of the Bushes once. Interesting!
Then in Midland we went to another home of the Bushes. This is the home George W lived in during his grade school and Jr. High years.
Wayne rang the door bell, but nobody was home. Then we learned that it too was closed on Mondays. No unlatched doors or windows either!! Wayne was checking them for security purposes, ya understand!!
Rather modest little home, eh!
Next, we finally got to go to the arboretum we had wanted to see. It was located in the center of a huge business office complex. The building was open!! There were a couple of photo shoots going on for models while we were there. Look in the lower right hand corner of the picture to see one in progress..
While Ann relaxed in the cool mists of the stream and waterfall, Wayne went to explore.....
.... and immediately got himself in trouble with their security guard dog! He thought the quarters in the pool were for the taking!!!
As a matter of fact, things did got a little more wild while we were in the area!!!
We soon left the place and headed east, stopping to see a retired monastery in Stanton. It was easy to stand there and visualize the hustle and bustle of the priests and sisters in this place that once had a church, a school and several other buildings when this town was budding in the 1880's.
Then in Big Springs, as we headed east on I-20, we stopped to drive out and up to Big Springs State Park. Wayne didn't want to go drive up there, but after we got up top, the view of the surrounding area was magnificent. There aren't many hills in this area, so if you find one and can get up top, the view is appreciated!
In Abilene, we stopped to tour a business that offered tours of their bakery. But when we got there, we learned that they had shut down this facility a few months ago. It had been built in the 1940's and they had moved all this plant's operations to Ft. Worth to a newer, more automated facility. The plant manager that was still there dealing with the shut down, after a little interest shown by Wayne, offered us a personal tour of the old plant, even though it was not in operation. It was a fascinating tour! We weren't supposed to take pictures inside though, because we were not supposed to be in there.
Then we had seen on the internet that there was a place in Abilene that was one of just a few places in the nation that still made custom cowboy boots by hand. Their boots are ordered from here from around the world as well as throughout Texas. Their small 6-7 personed, family run shop turns out 6-8 pairs of boots per week plus does repairs of all kinds of leather stuff. Their boots start at $800.00 a pair and mostly range in the $2,000.00 range.
We were treated like family as we went in around their lunch hour. This is the matriarch of the place. She and her daughter do all the decorative stitching.
This is a non family member that has been with them about 18 years. He showed us how the bottom of the boot was applied.
This guy is from Germany and has been with the family for about 2 years. He took great pride in showing us how he custom fits and creates the personalized foot of every boot for each individual they make a boot for. We spent about 90 minutes here. It was fascinating!!
East of Abilene we decided to get off the freeway. We love the old red roads where the traffic is slower and less, where the scenery is less commercial and the towns are smaller and more real. We took Hwy 283 north toward Albany and were immediately pleased with our decision. More open ranches, open spaces and no billboards. We pulled into Albany and were greeted with a non touristy, old 1880's town that still looked like the old west, except for the paved streets and the one stoplight.
The still fully functioning court house was amazing. We have entered several court houses on our travels and have had to go through security, be searched, scanned and had to leave our cell phones, cameras an all electronic devices outside. But here, as we walked in, all there was, was a sign that said "No Guns Allowed". I honestly felt that it was plain enough. If you bring a gun in here, you will be shot. The people we saw were plain ol' people running the business of the county, but there were a couple guys that walked through that looked like they just stepped out of casting for a "Lonesome Dove" movie. It is a cowboy town!!
Wayne immediately began wandering and left Ann behind, downstairs. That's her at the bottom, looking for Wayne.
Ann later found Wayne in the beautiful upstairs courtroom......
.....sitting in the judges chair getting ready to sentence two cattle rustlers to hang. Remember our run in with the Chief Justice of the Oregon Supreme Court Stan??
Before the railroad came here, they used to drive their cattle through these streets of this town as they herded them north to Kansas to the railroad shipping yards
Driving east on Hwy 180 we drove through several small towns, each with their uniqueness. But, so far in Texas we have not run into a single unfriendly person. All have been gracious and more that happy to serve and visit! Read the sign for the restaurant and observe the hours and cost. Down home, eh!!
In Mineral Wells we were amazed to see this 14+ story building in the middle of this small, flat, dilapidated town. We just had to go explore!! You see Wayne approaching it below.
It was a huge resort completed 2 weeks after the stock market crash of 1929. It took advantage of the hot mineral water here to offer its curing powers to the rich and famous. This was a magnet to many famous people of the 1930's through the 1960's. It was a boon to the small town's economy until it closed in the mid 60's. it was called The Baker. We explored around as much as was allowed and could see it was once a glorious place. There was nothing around it detailing what it was. We learned more about it later as we explored it on the internet.
Later in Weatherford we were once again amazed by a magnificent court house. We did not tour this one as when we went through town, it was late and beginning to storm. But, these old towns that are or once were the county seats are amazing places to explore. So much history!!!
Outside Fort Worth, we toured the place where they print the majority of our USA currency. The other place they print our cash is in Washington DC. But they also print White House Invitations and other documents, so this facility in Forth Worth prints the majority of the money.
It was a fascinating tour. We spent several hours here but were not allowed cameras in there, so we only took pix outside.
Then we hit a cultural shock as we got into the first big city we had been in for a long time! Fort Worth/Dallas and the surrounding area is huge!!! It is CITY!! And it was raining!!! We were immediately ready to head back out into the country!!
Our wonderful little GPS unit told us there was some heavy traffic ahead of us and immediately rerouted us to a less trafficated route. Unfortunately, it forgot we were a big rig and routed us through downtown Dallas!! But, we saw some interesting sights we will come back to see later.
The rain and fog was getting worse as we went!! Not to mention the heavy traffic!!
Then we had lightening, wind and heavy rain!!! Semi trucks passing us drenched us with the spray of water they were driving through!
The freeway was flooded and as we decided to pull off to take a less traveled route, we found the small towns and small country roads were even worse! Rivers ran down through main streets and across roads!
But as we finally got closer to our destination near Point, Texas, Lake Tawakoni Thousand Trails Preserve, all of a sudden, the storm began to break up. Though the park was flooded, we were able to find a high spot to set up in.
We are located right next to the lake and soon after we were set up, the clouds broke up and we had beautiful blue skies!! The water began to flow off the land into the lake.
What a gorgeous spot to stay a week or so!!! It has been nice to travel this last week, seeing so many places. But sparking in Wal-Mart and church parking lots was getting old. It will be nice to sit a few days with electricity, sewer and water. When we stay in a nice place like this, we always think of you, Liz!!! Classy!!
Surrounded by oak trees, fields of GREEN grass and next to a actively fished lake!!
Not quite alone, but pretty much, we look look out our kitchen window at our nearest neighbor and watch the water leave the flooded preserve.
Out our back window, we have a beautiful lake! After weeks in desert and dry and treeless areas of California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas, we are pleasantly relieved, relaxed and ready for a little sitting time! We talked about it and even though we like the warm of the south. we like the green of Northern California and Western Oregon and Washington!!!!!!! Speaking of green, we are on our second batch of home grown alfalfa sprouts. Roy and Patty..... How did yours turn out? Ours did not fill the jar. The second batch, we used a tablespoon of seeds and kept it warmer and out of the sun until we were ready to green them up. Made 2/3 of a jar! Yummy!!!
One of our early morning fishermen.... or maybe fishergirl???
The bottom dollar???? We will be here until March 3rd. During this time, we will relax, read, walk, go tour Dallas, and relax some more!! Ron, was good talking to you this morning. Did you buy a new trailer? How's your truck now? Liz, get better!!! Jed, hope your film is going better!! Angi, the flowers all gone yet?? Jared how are your eyes? Megan and Sam, love your blogs!!
