Some of this is over at M.E.'s Blog but that has limited access.
Today we decided to go wading down on the head of the Llano River at Cedar Hill between Sonora and Junction. We headed down to Sonora at about 9am this morning and along the way I pointed out various landmarks which for once the kids actually paid attention. Between
Eldorado and Sonora I pointed out these small concrete markers (picture to the left) along the fences of the highway. They are markers for the highway right of way or mile markers. The reason I pointed them out is that their grandfather mentioned once to me that he help put these out along the highway between Sonora and
Eldorado. So I stopped and we walked over and took a picture of one.
On the way back to the car, Elizabeth says, "Dad, what is that?" I looked around and thought she was talking about a beer can. I mention it is a beer can and she says, "No, that?" I look down where she is pointing and it is a very small and alone Blue Bonnet flower! We had been telling her about them while driving down from Lubbock. She was excited to see it (picture of it on the left.) It was not much and we did not find many more until we got to Sonora.
We drove on into Sonora and visit the Court House to see of Joyce (a cousin) was working. Turns out she retired January 1st and was in Ennis helping with a new
grand baby for her daughter Becca. So we explored the upstairs courtroom which they had redone. It was very nice. Not like it used to be when I was a kid playing around the courthouse.
Elizabeth wanted to visit Aunt Essie so we headed over to the
cemetery for a quick visit then we were off to the river.
We drove down I-10 East and jumped off on the old highway (3130 now), that parallels the interstate, where I pulled over and let Emily take over for her first drive. She basically drove down the same road I did for my Granddad. She had fun but was worried the whole time. When Emily first got into the car then Elizabeth lost it. She started saying loudly that we could not do this and that Emily did not have a driver's license and continued to repeat this and was very distressed. She told us we could not do this to her. :) Finally she calmed down and enjoyed the ride. Along the way some deer ran across the road a good ways ahead of us and Emily slowed down then stopped. When I looked out into the pasture there was a huge set of antlers sitting on a normal size buck. Upon a closer look it was an Axis deer and when I started to get out to take a picture it took off. I took over driving and drove up on down to Baker Road then on through to Cedar Hill and the river.
We stopped at the Cedar Hill School and showed Elizabeth where her great grandparents went to school in a one room school house. We have been here before about three years ago but Elizabeth does not remember it. I told Elizabeth how Grandma Bessie and Aunt Essie played an undefeated girls basketball team that practiced and played in the dirt pasture behind the school. :) It was a six-man team where two players played defense, two played center and two played offense. The court was split into three regions and allowed only two players in each region.
We drove on down to Camp Allison which is sorta a park where folks can have picnics,
BBQs, and dancing. But when I got there I was in for a bit of a surprise. They had closed it off because of public health concerns. Too bad.
More in the next blog about our wading trip and more.
That is Black Mesa in the distance background. We are at White Rock Overlook before pre-school one morning.
Note the second song on the the third track. Yep Baker Street which Dave Ramsey uses as his theme song on his show. Steve caught on to that fact quickly while when we discovered the box. Note this was released in 1977 and thee is a sticker at the top from Tape Town saying it was purchased in 1978. I bought this eight track mainly for the song Baker Street.
Today after church the girls went out to play. I looked out and saw this....
Of course Elizabeth has her own scooter but not as cool as riding M.E.'s with M.E. :)
Then Emily wanted to give the driving another shoot and I let her drive a good bit until we got to Roosevelt. Along the way she saw some wild turkeys running in the pasture and nearly drove over this turtle which was crossing the road at a low water crossing. She was so intent on figuring out what the thing was that she almost drove too close to it. I was having a hard time getting her to turn a bit to miss it. Luckily he lived to cross the road another day. I moved him off to the river out in the pasture.
Along the way I found this goat shed which does not look like it gets much use anymore. There is nothing in the picture to give you the impression of its size but it would hit me about mid-stomach. They were used for sheared Angora goats which were very susceptible to rain after being sheared. Now days I think they leave a small ridge of mohair along their spine to protect from from the elements.
Once we got to Roosevelt we headed to Junction for some Cooper's BBQ which we reviewed over on the bubbaqlog. Then we headed back to Angelo by way of Menard and Eden. All along the way into Texas I noticed that though every town, no matter how small, seemed to have a DQ that it now seems they also have a Sonic. We stopped at the Eden DQ and loaded up on ice-cream. Eden too had a Sonic around the corner.
Across the street from the DQ was a convenient store with an unusual sign above it. Something you do not see often outside of Texas.
After driving slowly through the Camp Allison area and pointing out TX Grandma family we headed down toward Otto's crossing and the next one for wading. Since the last time we were here Otto's crossing was a bit slick for wading I headed for the next one which stops short of the Cedar Hill cemetry.
Today we decided to go wading down on the head of the Llano River at Cedar Hill between Sonora and Junction. We headed down to Sonora at about 9am this morning and along the way I pointed out various landmarks which for once the kids actually paid attention. Between Eldorado and Sonora I pointed out these small concrete markers (picture to the left) along the fences of the highway. They are markers for the highway right of way or mile markers. The reason I pointed them out is that their grandfather mentioned once to me that he help put these out along the highway between Sonora and Eldorado. So I stopped and we walked over and took a picture of one.
On the way back to the car, Elizabeth says, "Dad, what is that?" I looked around and thought she was talking about a beer can. I mention it is a beer can and she says, "No, that?" I look down where she is pointing and it is a very small and alone Blue Bonnet flower! We had been telling her about them while driving down from Lubbock. She was excited to see it (picture of it on the left.) It was not much and we did not find many more until we got to Sonora.
Elizabeth wanted to visit Aunt Essie so we headed over to the cemetery for a quick visit then we were off to the river.
We stopped at the Cedar Hill School and showed Elizabeth where her great grandparents went to school in a one room school house. We have been here before about three years ago but Elizabeth does not remember it. I told Elizabeth how Grandma Bessie and Aunt Essie played an undefeated girls basketball team that practiced and played in the dirt pasture behind the school. :) It was a six-man team where two players played defense, two played center and two played offense. The court was split into three regions and allowed only two players in each region.
We drove on down to Camp Allison which is sorta a park where folks can have picnics, BBQs, and dancing. But when I got there I was in for a bit of a surprise. They had closed it off because of public health concerns. Too bad.
The Ranch House (1520 Buddy Holly Avenue) has been a favorite of Gwen and mine in Lubbock. It is more a cafe than a restaurant. Probably the best breakfast in town and the lunches are pretty good too. A reasonably priced place to eat. While in graduate school the breakfasts seemed like a steal but now they are closer to $5 a plate which seems less of a deal.
The first night at Disney we found this collage picture. Each shot will get closer on one of Mickey's eyes. Pretty cool!
As is Steve and my tradition of hitting a Der at least once on travel (actually it probably Steve's tradition no matter when) then we got Joann to join us on our expedition. Turns out she had not ever had a chili-cheese dog before..and she liked it! Thanks to Joann for the picture on her phone.
We have noticed that the last days of SDWest always seem to have less big name speakers and fewer titles of interest. But that is good in away since it helps us narrow down what we want to go see. Finding one speaker every one hour and one-half is good enough.
Today it was raining and cool. Since it is a holiday then Gwen had not planned on us going to Disneyland due to the crowds plus the rain and winds made it not so inviting.
