Goldthwaite, Zephyr, Rowena ~ Arizona Road Trip Day 1 ~ Texas Courthouse No. 9

Are you getting just a little tired of courthouses?  Not too many more to go on this leg of the trip, I promise.  This is the Mills County, Texas, Courthouse in Goldthwaite.  Classical Revival style, constructed in 1913 after the original courthouse was destroyed by fire, renovated with a grant of $5 million from the Texas Historical Commission in 2008.  The county seat of Goldthwaite has a population of just 1800.

Scurrying on down the road I did one of those slam-on-the-brakes maneuvers, turned around and went back to take a picture of the World Famous Zephyr Store (their title, not mine!).  It looks like its fame has waned somewhat.  Zephry's current population is about 200.

I made it a point of stopping by Rowena, Texas.  How Rowena got its name is a great story, so here goes.  In 1888 a railroad section house was named Rowena Station after a woman who was either (1) the paramour of a local entrepreneur or (2) the wife of the railway clerk.  I suppose this means there were two women named Rowena in the area.  Postal authorities would not grant a post office under that name because it was felt to be too similar to another Texas town called Ravenna.  So for a few years it became known as Baronsville, and then Bolf, but in 1901 the postal dudes changed their minds and decided that Rowena it was.

Rowena was the birthplace of Bonnie Parker and was the scene of a bank robbery that made national headlines in 1968 when Doc Newton decided to make one last try at robbing a bank.

The population is estimated to be about 700.

This vintage fire truck was parked in front of a portable metal building on the main drag in Rowena.  Although obviously somewhat of an antique, with its rather modern looking hose reels on the back and relatively new beacons, I would venture to say that it is Rowena's current fire truck.


My first day on the road of this trip came to an end not far from Rowena in San Angelo.  It is quite a metropolis compared to all the little towns I had been through earlier in the day and I was tired and hungry and didn't want to drive downtown so I called it quits.  Tomorrow we'll venture through West Texas and into New Mexico.  I'll bet you thought this first day would never end!

Coryell County Courthouse (Texas No. 7) ~ Arizona Trip Continued

The Coryell County Courthouse located in Gatesville, Texas, is one of the most elaborate buildings I've ever seen.  This gem constructed of limestone and sandstone was constructed in 1897 and has domes (plural), clocks, and even a statute of Justice adorning the roof.  Gatesville only has a population of approximately 15,000.

Justice (though resembling a ghost) prevails over the Coryell County Courthouse in Gatesville, Texas.

Eagles, clocks, and a series of domes are prominent on this courthouse.

Waco - Arizona Road Trip - Day 1 Continued (and Texas Courthouse No. 6)

This sculpture of a Texas cowboy is part of the Chisholm Trail Heritage Sculptures which are located at Indian Spring Park along the banks of the Brazos River in Waco.  The cowboy is leading three longhorn cattle but the day I took this picture the sun was so bright I actually could not get a good photo of the longhorns because of the noonday sun.  Eventually three additional riders on horseback and a total of 25 longhorns will be added to complete the exhibit.  If you'd like to sponsor another longhorn sculpture, the price is just $28,000.

I guess you've figured out by now that I love old courthouses!  This is the McLennan County courthouse in Waco.  The Beaux Arts style building was constructed in 1901.  The elaborate dome of the courthouse is presently under renovation (the construction is not readily apparent from this picture), including repair of damage to the statue of the goddess Themis  which adorns the dome.  I think I will need to return when the work is completed and also during the fall or winter months when the dome is not obscured by foliage.

Another Historic Courthouse (Freestone County ~ No. 5) and on to Waco ~ Arizona Road Trip ~ Day 1 Continued

After Palestine the Piney Woods became just a memory out the back window and I headed into the north central region, where the land gets a little flatter and the vegetation a little scrubbier.

I stopped for a few moments in Fairfield to check out the Freestone County courthouse.  Texas is blessed with many beautiful historic courthouses and this particular one of Classical Revival architecture was constructed in 1919.

Some of the best photo ops in Waco include the multiple bridges over the Brazos River.  There are three, including a suspension bridge, all within eyeshot of each other, near downtown, and there is actually a river walk and a park along both banks.  (For a shot of the suspension bridge, click on "FKH Photo Journal" in the sidebar to the right near the top.)

Tomorrow, more shots of Waco and continuing west.

Arizona Road Trip ~ Day 1 ~ Vol. 1 ~ Anderson County Courthouse (Texas No. 4)

I left on Thursday, June 23rd, to drive 1200 miles from Deep East Texas to Central Arizona to visit my daughter and grandson Em.  I was so excited I couldn't wait to get on the road and finally pulled away from our farm at 6:10 a.m.  It was a bit foggy and it just got foggier the closer I got to Garrison, the little town whose zip code we use.  This is what the fog looked like around the historic Wiley Hotel down by the railroad tracks.

A little over an hour down the road the fog was still a little bit patchy but not a problem when I stopped to take a picture of this old store in Maydelle.  Maydelle has a population of about 250 people, a number which has remained stable for the past 20 years.  It reached its peak population of 450 in 1929.

My first full-fledged stop of the day was in Palestine (pronounced here as Pal-us-TEEN), the county seat of Anderson County.  The county was formed in 1846 and the current courthouse constructed in 1914.  I   fell in love with this little town and found many photo ops there, but decided since it's only 75 miles from home I'll dedicate a day trip someday soon to return.  I definitely want to go inside this beautiful courthouse as it is reported to have a center spiral staircase with a stained glass window in the dome.

To be continued ....

19/100 Dogs ~ Yellow Labs

I ran across this truckload of yellow Labs at the Nacogdoches Farmers Market recently.  Mama and four of her toddlers (age 18 months) were having a frisky good time.  The clencher was they managed to leave ten of their siblings at home.  That's right, Mama had fourteen babies and her humans kept them ALL.  I can't tell you which one Mama is, but the one on the left is obviously the clown of the group!

Note:  I'll be leaving early tomorrow morning, June 23, for a road trip across Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona.  I'll be computerless for a portion of this time so I'll only be able to visit or post new photos periodically for the next three weeks, but I promise to bring you the highlights of my trip upon my return.  In the meantime, my friends, happy blogging, and wish me safe travels!

Rain!!!

The rains came today.  Finally!  We got what we've been wishing for for a long time.  But you know that old saying "Be careful what you wish for."  The rains came in a huge deluge.  I had taken my mom into Nac for a doctor's appointment.  We had to wait TWO HOURS to see him.  He very conveniently disappeared right after we checked in.  And then he sent us over to the hospital for a blood draw.  That took another hour.  We dropped the prescriptions by the pharmacy and while waiting at the drive-through window it started pouring, so we quickly got on the road toward home.  Within two miles it was raining so hard visibility was practically zero.  It was that way for 27 miles and just as I was about ready to breathe a sign of relief, this is the scene I came upon with only a quarter mile left before home.  Of course when I first drove up it was much worse but it was pouring so hard I really couldn't get out of the car.  There was a tree all the way across the road, and a young man was attempting to move it away.  I finally got out in the downpour and went to see if I could help but he told me he had called a neighbor to bring a chain saw.  Within about 10 minutes they managed to make the road passable again and I finally pulled out my trusty little point-and-shoot camera and braved the rain again to get at least one blurry picture of the storm damage.  This rain was not a bit too soon.  Yesterday afternoon we had a brush fire within a half mile of our bottomland.  Heavy winds caused a tree branch to fall on a power line, causing a spark which ignited dry grass in a neighbor's meadow which was adjacent to our property.  It took the fire department a while to figure out how to get to the fire but they were eventually successful in extinguishing it.

Nacogdoches Brickart

This insurance company advertisement is found on the alley side of a brick building in Nacogdoches.  It seems to be a more modern art form than some of the other paintings on brick I have found in this area.  I have absolutely nothing to base my estimate on that it was painted in the 1950s.  The architecture of the buildings just seems to be a bit more modern than the typical 1930s/1940s brickart that I've seen.  I oversaturated the photograph in order to be able to see the details.  In its natural state, the sign is quite faded.

Vine Nibbler

This big Belgian horse strolled right up to meet me at the fence and then very nonchalantly began nibbling on the vine that covers the fence.  Which would not be unique at all except for the fact that this species of vine (which the locals call bamboo vine), although very pretty with its heart-shaped leaves, is absolutely covered with thorns, the kind that make you say "Ow!" whenever you touch them every so slightly.  I guess a horse's mouth is much tougher than a lady's fingers!

The House Where I was Born

This is the house where I was born.  But it's not where I was born.  The house is where I was born but the house is not where I was born.  Now if this is beginning to sound like a riddle, let me just say that I was born in this house when it was located in a different place.  A few years ago it was literally picked up and moved from near downtown Center, Texas, to a different location about three miles outside the city.  There are a few other things about it which are different now as opposed to then, but we can't expect things not to change over the course of 60-plus years, can we?  For one thing, when I was born in this house it was white (and remained that way until after it made that treacherous journey on the backs of flatbed trucks) and not this tacky pink.  After seeing this house I recant having ever declared that pink was my favorite color.  And it certainly didn't have all that gingerbread on it either.  It was just a simple beautiful, Victorian house.  I think the porch and the balcony probably ran all the way around also.  Now, to dispel any misconceptions you may be having about the economic state of my family, I must tell you that my family did not live in this house.  My mother was simply a guest for a few days in the Center Sanitarium, which was owned and operated by a Dr. Oates, who no doubt also lived with his family in the facility.  And before you make any judgments about the mental health of my mother, Webster's defines "sanitarium" as a quiet resort where people go to rest and regain health.  Many hospitals in those days were stylishly referred to as sanitariums, so I like to think that I was born amidst a resort-like atmosphere!

Here is the same picture converted to black and white.  Don't you think these people should have just left it alone?

And here's a closeup example of some of the gingerbread that it sports today.

Summer Rose

This is one of my mother's roses.  They have been sorely neglected since she's been ill (I know absolutely nothing about how to tend for them) but I managed to find a pretty one for the camera.

Brickart Update

A few weeks ago I visited Lufkin, Texas, and found a downtown construction site which had uncovered an old Coca-Cola sign that had been painted on brick.  I posted a photograph of the sign on this blog on June 1 and you can see that post just by scrolling down a ways.  Today I returned to Lufkin on some errands and rambled by that area to see if I could spot the sign.  At first I thought it had been covered up by the new construction but then I realized I was one space too far down, and as I peeked in the window of a new coffee house which is not yet open I could see the sign.  I was ecstatic!  Some gentlemen inside saw me peering in and motioned permission to enter.  I was absolutely thrilled to see the sign intact and the beautiful tin ceiling refurbished.  They were kind enough to let me tiptoe in amidst all the buzzing of saws and hammering and wires on the floor to get a couple pictures.  So now in a few weeks I’ll have to make a return trip to see the finished coffee house.  Many of you expressed your hope that this sign would be saved and I’m happy to report that that has indeed happened. 

Johnson Family Produce Stand

Today I left home about 7:30 and scurried over to the east 16 miles to Center, a little town of about 5,000 people (which just happens to be my birthplace and I love it with all my heart) to be the first customer at the Johnson produce stand in the courthouse square at 8 a.m.  Because it's a winding, curvy two lane-road (but very nicely paved, thank you) it takes about 30 minutes to traverse those 16 miles.  Of course, you encounter the oil tanker trucks (Shelby County is rich with oil and natural gas wells these days), the county workers on mowers alongside the road this time of year, or the farmer driving an old GMC or Dodge or Ford  or Chevy truck (never a Nissan like my friend Truck) who is sauntering along at 25 mph waving to every passing vehicle and who is in no hurry to go no place on this winding, curvy road.  I've noticed in this rural area nobody is ever in a hurry to get anywhere, they wave at everyone they see on the road but they are very wary of newcomers.  I'm quick to tell them who my parents were and other details of my legacy.  But when you wanna get to town, you wanna get to town, right?

So I pulled up on the courthouse square to the produce stand.

Today's bounty is bountiful!  Tomatoes, red and green; onions, red and white; peppers; cucumbers; yellow squash; okra; lots of homemade jams and jellies, chow-chow, salsa, pickles.  This stand is open six days a week from 8 a.m. until ... well, when everything is gone.  I've never stuck around that long to see when that is.

On the back side of the stand we see pinto beans and pink-eyed purple-hull peas!  Now, all of you who aren't from the South think that peas are those round green things.  Wrong.  Those things aren't peas.  I don't know what they are but they're not peas.  Southerners love their peas.  We're just waiting for the brown crowders to be ready.  Today I bought a bushel of the purple hulls (already shelled of course), two packages of lady cream peas, and two packages of pinto beans.  Then I spent the next four hours getting them cleaned, culled, blanched, and put in the freezer.  We have two bushels on order of crowders.  That should keep us in pea heaven through the winter.

The young woman in the picture is the 13-year-old granddaughter of the founder of the Johnson produce stand.  Grandma retired last year and this young lady's mom and dad took over the operation of the farm, although she has been helping her grandma since she was just -- well, knee high to a grasshopper as they say.  She and a sister of about 9 years old get this stand set up every morning, and she knows the price of every single item, what it is, and when they will have what they don't have today.  And as she gathers and bags your produce, she tells you in a Texas minute what the total price is, sans calculator I might add, all the while answering questions from other customers and frequently filling two orders at once.  All questions are answered followed by a "yes ma'am" or a "no ma'am."  How many 13-year-olds do you know who are up and in town and working by 8 a.m. six days a week?  I hope someday this girl gets to go someplace like Duke University for an MBA because she's got what it takes to be a top-notch businessperson.

This picture has absolutely nothing to do with the produce stand but I happened to notice right behind their booth there are hitching pins embedded in the concrete all around the courthouse, just in case you need to park your horse while you buy some tomatoes.  The Shelby County courthouse is one of the most picturesque in the entire country.  It emulates an Irish castle ~ of all things ~ right here in deep East Texas.  About a year ago I had a blog post about it and if you're interested to see the Irish castle in the middle of East Texas bayou country, here is the link.

A Woman's Dream