Brazoria beauties and Houston Oddities

It hasn’t been too terribly hot, in the 90s, but the humidity has been horrific. We’ve had so much rain, and that rain, when it stops, turns to pure steam. I was taking an auto tour loop through a wildlife area, and w/o my sunglasses, i thought “What IS this haze? Pollution?” Then I remembered… it’s called HUUUU-MID-I-TEE. I tell ya, It was so muggy that stepping out of the car, your shirt immediately clung to you, your denims begin to feel as if they’d slide to your ankles from the weight of the moisture absorbed from the air. Tendrils of hair immediately cling to your face and beads of sweat begin to sparkle at your temples. It is MISERABLE. For the first ten minutes anyway… Then you’re used to it, and it’s no big deal. It’s BAD if you are constantly going in/out from air conditioning to heat, vice versa. Get outside, get icky for 10 minutes, and you’re ok. Hell may be hot, but I’d hazard a guess that it’s a dry heat…

Again, I am going to pick up the boy in Victoria, and heading on to Hou-Town from there… Leaving girly girl at home with a phone in her ear, and her gameboy, and tv. It just isn’t fun with someone who complains about mosquitos, heat, humidity, heat, and oh, heat and mosquitos. I think I covered all the things she’s complaining about. She is not an outdoor gal… My oldest, on the other hand, i don’t think is a HUGE outdoor guy, but he has that same gypsy gene his mama has, a wanderlust, and constant desire for exploration and adventure. He sees the details, finds the humor… I mean, he *IS* the one who found the ice cream truck – you know, the one from a couple of days back with the bars on the windows, and the hand written (in spraypaint) “ice cream” at the back end… LOL Wicked eye, that boy has! :O)

Our goal today, was to see many things in Houston. We’ll probably have to resume our agenda next weekend… there’s a lot on it, and Julie, the cruise director isn’t here to keep us moving along. I call Sarah “Julie the Cruise Director” after the gal on Love Boat. Sarah’s always nagging “COME ON MOM!” or “NOT ANOTHER PHOTO!”

Well, I was a wee bit late… For starters, I overslept. I just couldn’t sleep last night, and nodded off around 0400. It was laborious to get out of bed at 0800.. UGH. Since I fail at both night owl and early riser I’d make a piss poor hippie/starving artist; however, I am not a happy clam rubbing elbows with the “my career is my life” crowd either… Maybe I need to go get fitted for that beret after all.

So I started Saturday, late as usual. I visited the Brazos Wildlife Refuge, before picking up Brian. OMGOSH, it was FABULOUS. I cannot extol the virtues of BWR on a level it deserves. You have to be a completely mad bird watcher to feel this way, and I looooove birdwatching – through my Canon 500 f/4. I spotted Whistling Ducks, Blue Heron, Ibis, a water moccasin (in the Ibis’ beak, but it still counts), and a black necked stilt. It was hot and muggy (duh) and I probably inhaled enough fumes from all the OFF I sprayed to shellac my lungs. I’ll be heading BACK to this place sometime this week, I see at least two more trips out. :O) I spent too much time here, so the 11 a.m. arrival time in Victoria is completely shot to hell by now.

After BWR, I picked up the boy, and we headed back to Houston on 59. OMG, i didn’t think we’d ever get there. Along the way, Brian introduced me to a delicacy from Jack in the Box. Fried macaroni and cheese. OMGOSH! Is there ANYONE who DOESN’T like macaroni and cheese? Is there a Texan who DOESN’T like anything fried?!?!?! I was in HEAVEN! That crispy crust – bit into it to reveal al dente elbow macaronis swimming in a goo of melted cheese… Ahhhhhh We stopped for them twice between Victoria and Houston.

Coming into Houston on 59 is EASILY the worst way. I hate hate hate that area – it is SO congested, even on a Sunday afternoon. First stop – to see a 60′ saxaphone built from VWs and VW parts. After that inspirational piece, we drove a few miles to enjoy a most amazing giant armadillo whose shell is made from mirrors, and he has longhorns. BTW – the customers of GOODE’S BBQ a few feet away thought I was a nut case while taking photos – luckily I can always chalk it up to my WA license plates. They’re probably thinking “Damn Hippie….” :O) Post armadillo magic, I toured the boy through River Oaks (I’m suprised you don’t need a credit check to pass through those streets!), and on to the piece de la resistance – a house covered in, and decorated with tin from beer cans and pull tabs. If you’re not old enough to know what a pull tab is, I’m sure you can figure it out from the slideshow – there will be a test. :O)

This morning, I got up and slid into church 15 minutes late. God even loves the tardy… he’s very forgiving. Luckily, most baptist church members are real talkers (at least in Texas). So, church had not yet started… I sat with Mr. & Mrs. McBride, long time friends of my parents, and who were kind enough to invite me to their home for lunch with another visitor, Mrs. Griswold. I listened to great stories about East Texas, and Mr. McBride’s time in Army, training in the desert with Patton before he went overseas, and his recounting the experiences with the Army’s first JEEPS delivered. (If you know me, you know I am a DODGE and JEEP girl…) – These stories were wonderful. :O) Before I knew it, it was six o’clock! What a lovely afternoon with these three! I find it disturbing the number of people I know, who have no time (or respect) for our parent’s generation. There is SO MUCH to know, to learn from this group. They are wonderful people with fascinating stories and knowledge to share. Thank you mom and dad, for instilling in me a respect for my elders, and also, teaching me to listen. I may have been a real screw up in my twenties, but I didn’t forget what you taught me, and I’m still trying to make good for all the stupid crap I did earlier. :O) After leaving the wonderful company of the McBrides and Mrs. Griswold, I came home, snagged the boy again (remember, wondergirl doesn’t like birdwatching, or mosquitos, or heat), leaving the girl at the house. Off we went to Flamingo Isle to look for more spoonbills. I forgot to check the tide chart, so it was pretty far out when we arrived. Dang! I did find a bird perched on a fencepost – another first (you can tell I’m early in my bird career…) pretty sure it was a whipoorwill (SP?) – I need to get my Sibley’s guide out of the car and 2x check (later). I had to thumb through my Sibley’s Guide because I just knew he had to be an insect eater, he didn’t have ANY sign of shorebird about him. Imagine my suprise (and laughter) when I saw “GOAT SUCKERS” as a category… OMGOSH! What a gross name… Folklor has it was once believed folks used to think these birds would sneak in the barns at night, and suckle goats. Ewwww – I cannot EVEN begin to think WHAT would make someone come up with THAT story… Must’ve been a BAD batch of homebrew? Also, on our trek, we passed (how DID i miss THIS one!?!?!?)… Brandy’s Beauty Palace – with a plastic Gorilla in front, and a sign on the door that says “ABSOLUTELY NO CHILDREN UNLESS YOU ARE BEING SERVICED – QUESTIONS – PLEASE SEE MANAGER”. Strange but true… We toured Carbide Park – and I must say, any gardener would falll head over heels for Carbide Park’s Master Gardener test garden – HOLY COW! it’s beautiful! There is also a pecan orchard there in the park as well. The old pool is gone, it doesn’t have the same air about it, seeming more “county parkish”. The old Carbide Park was GLORIOUS. Finally, we stopped at Quick Pantry for gas. Now you might think all mini-marts are the same; however, QP isn’t. I could buy Boone’s Farm there as a teen (handy being tall), and they’d sell us smokes and cigars too. If Boones Farm and cigarettes were all we had to worry about with teens these days, the world woudl be a much better place, no? :O) Anyway, there’s a very special place in my heart, and to this day, everytime I think of the QP it makes me laugh. I knew these two fellas for many years. They were Alta Loma’s “HAROLD and KUMAR”, prime candidates for Darwin Awards. They were scoundrels, but lovable ones… One summer night, the two friends Ricky & Randy decided to break into the QP. Atop the roof they cllimbed, and somehow managed to create a hole in the roof through which they entered the darkened world of Quick Pantry. Climbing in, armed with a hefty bag, like anti-Santas, they filled the bag with cigarettes and candy. A black hefty lawn & leaf bag will hold a LOT of smokes and candy! That evening, the robbery was reported, and when the police arrived, they were initally baffled that the store had been robbed with no visible signs of forced entry, and it wasn’t until Santa Fe’s finest reached the back of the building, and found the ladder (also stolen). They climbed, and solved the mystery after finding the hole in the roof. Scouring the grounds with flashlights, looking for clues, the police noticed a trail of candy and smokes… Yes, it was a trail of candy and cigs. The trail lasted a whole one and a half blocks from the store, ending at a humble mobile home, rented by Ricky whoshallremainnameless. Inside were the suspects, smoking weed, and eating candy. It was a very limited crime spree, somewhere in the neighborhood of about four hours, I think. For some reason, to this day, when I see Jason Lee, or the show MY NAME IS EARL, these two boys come to mind. In fact, Earl’s brother Randy bears a striking resemblance to Ricky… Where could they be now? Well, I know one has been a frequent guest of the state (room and board paid!), and the other actually quit his evil pot smoking ways, got a job, and I believe is gainfully employed somewhere (with a burglary charge on his sheet…). We all make mistakes, we all manage to be late at times. Some of us more than others. Life still continues to go on… the path may change as a result, veering left,right, up, or down… Often, it’s not the path we’d have preferred, but life still goes on and another laugh, cry, or adventure awaits at each turn. You make it what you want.

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Things that make you go Ahhh…

I don’t get out as much as I’d like, which means I am most definitely NOT taking a vacation. Seems I spend most of my day, ok ALL of my day, working. The two hour difference is killing me… I look at the PC, and I think “Oh, it’s 2, almost quitting time!”…Later I realize, it’s really four, and I’ve been here since 0400Pacific/0600 Central – SHAFTED – AGAIN. <sigh> Beginning next week – this WILL stop. I’ll start promptly at 0600 central, and quit at 4. I refuse to head back to WA w/o having visited some friends, and seen a few old haunts I miss.

Today, I found some odd places… Things I found interesting, stuff you won’t you-know-where. I love the signs churches display – always have. The amusing anecdotes and whimsical rhymes that remind you where you are, and where you should be… Since we are NOT short on churches here, you will be seeing these from time to time, and already have if you’ve looked at previous slideshows.

Today’s slideshow is brought to you by the Comfort Zone Washateria. :O) There’s a few things you’ll see in the slideshow that are very special to me, and some you’ll see are just “unusual”, in a Texas sort of way.. :O)

In the slideshow, you’ll find Hitchcock Elementary School, well, it used to be HES… It was also the place my parent’s church used to meet when I was a wee one. In the cafeteria we met, Sunday morning and evening, like all good Baptists. Eventually our numbers grew, and we began spending saturdays after breaking ground at another location, where my parents, their friends, and many others began building a church. I remember those times with great fondness. Hot summer and autumn afternoons, running and playing, eating your fill of good pot luck food, our bellies full of kool aid and sweat tea. Until you had to pee. As a child, I was NOT into the great out doors (even now, I prefer, when camping, STATE Parks (state parks have bathrooms!). Does a bear *(#@& in the woods? That’s nice, Smokey, but I prefer to drive to town, even if it’s 30 miles. Once, my mother brought this camping contraption to the work party (that’s what we called them). It was a toilet seat on a fold up stool frame (no pun intended), and there was a bag… you get the picture. She constructed a sheet “tent” that hung from a tree. Ahhh, I knew life was good when I could pee in private. I could not have been more than five at the time… I even remember wondering who took care of the bag, and being glad it wasn’t me.

Throughout this trip, it seems I’ve been exposed to more and more creative uses of a “Lowe’s storage building” type structure. First the park in Moab, then in Aspen, and now, in Freddiesville, at God’s Rainbow Baptist Church. Why God’s Rainbow Church needs an 8′ fence with barbed wire at the top, I’ll never know… but they have a porta-potty, so they’ve been very efficient with the use of space in the church proper.

Freddiesville has always had it’s share of problems. For those who DON’T know, Freddieville is just outside Hitchcock, a few miles before you reach Bayou Vista on HWY 6, heading to Galveston. When I was growing up, it was a community ridden with poverty, and rich with heritage. Greater St. Matthew’s Baptist Church was there, and our congregation worshipped with them from time to time. GSM was a black congregation, and ours was all white. I’m sure to many, that move was outrageous and unforgivable. What a ground breaking thing for our churches to fellowship together. It was a very different world in the late 60s/early 70s. One I’m glad my children will never experience. I still remember the food from those fellowships – like manna, it surely came straight from heaven. Ahhhh

I also remember feeling glee as a child, because the GSM Church didn’t have Sunday night services, they stayed on the grounds all day, eating dinner on the grounds, and having fellowship in song until late afternoon. This meant I could watch Wonderful World of Disney on Sunday night, right after Wild Kingdom. My lust for Disney as a child was terrible. I would feign stomach aches and malaria to stay home and watch that show. My neighbors, Lillian and Sharon, were catholic. They went to church on Saturday night. I was green with envy, how I wished I could enjoy their fate in life, sitting home and watching Wonderful World of Disney on Sunday nights… to the point I once asked my Dad if we could become catholic. I was six when I did this, and I remember it as if it were yesterday. My father, an ordained Baptist minister, and solid Christian man, looked at me puzzled, and asked why I wanted to be Catholic… His face is forever frozen in my mind… somehow he just could not digest the importance of being six, and wanting to see WWOD on Sundays… it was so easy, just become Catholic, and go to church on Saturday night – it doesn’t get any easier than that… or so I thought. :O) Love you Dad.

BTW- did you know the headquarters for the Holy Ghost are at the LIving Word Community of Faith on HWY 6 in Hitchcock??? Neither did I! I don’t think the Holy Ghost really has “headquarters”… do you? The sign probably raises many local eyebrows with it’s forward attitude… Many think Texas is Heaven on earth, but I highly doubt, were it so, that God would pick Hitchcock as his home base… Fredricksburg, or Wimberly yes, but not Hitchcock…

Next to the tracks, two blocks from my house, was a Santa Fe RR Depot. Right next door to Tibaldo’s Feed Store, and across the street from Slone’s lumber, and Lack’s Hardware. The intersection of HWY 6 and FM 646 (aka Main). As the town grew, the Depot was threatened, and so it was moved, just a few miles south on HWY 6 where folks could still drive by and see it… Can’t go inside.. not sure why not. It does bear a Texas State Historical Marker. I like that we have historical markers all over the place, makes it easy to see why we’re crazy about our state. The Gulf, Colorado, and santa Fe Railroads gained right of way through Emily Hitchcock’s land by platting land and naming a town Hitchcock. Oddly, the depot was built on land that was Alta Loma, and later annexed and incorporated to the city of Santa Fe. Unincorporated portions fo Santa Fe are still referred to as Alta Loma, I believe (not sure).

Jack Brooks County Park is huge. It has THE most amazing mountain biking trails known to man! These trails, and the ones in Houston’s Memorial Park used to be the shiznit of Mtn Bike trails. I still have scars from those trails. I remember one time, hitting a dry mud rut, that sent me flying end over down into a gully full of blackberries. I was so terrified to move, I almost cried. I was so scared of where I’d landed, I didn’t even feel the pain of the thorns that had ripped my shirt, shorts and flesh. It was a boggy area, perfect for water moccasins and/or copper heads, or even a rattle snake… it was HORRID. I had two black eyes from that wreck. Oh, did I mention that I’d played hooky from work, feigning illness, so I could go ride bikes? (I was TOTALLY into biking then… Washington drivers squelched my desire to ride) I stayed out a week so my eyes and flesh could heal. It was still fun.

I also learned to drive on this property. Long before it was turned over to Galveston County, it was property of the Army Corps of Engineers. It had been used for something governmental a bazillion years ago, can’t remember exactly what. Anyway, my dad had keys to every bit of govt land on the Gulf Coast, and he’d take me back there all the time in our ‘72 Pontiac Lemans (with AM radio and vinyl seats!). The roads were paved, and two lanes, I learned to do a mean 3 point turn on those roads. Dad was so cool, he’d let me speed, slam on the brakes, do all kinds of stuff Mom would’ve never let me do in a car… Dad’s thought was the better you know what the car will do, the better you can handle it. Thanks Dad – to this day I am undaunted when driving, and I owe it all to you.

Years later, the county relocated the fair grounds from Runge Park to just outside this govt land and then the park was cultivated. I bet nobody else in Galveston county learned to drive on those roads before it was a parK! LOL (BTW – I think they relocated the fairgrounds because it just didn’t get muddy and nasty enough at Runge Park! I mean, come on – hosting the county fair in April in Southeast Texas? Madmen, I tell ya.. Mad! It ain’t the fair if 10″ of rain doesn’t fall the first two days (or two days prior) making it a veritable SWAMP)

Happy memories always bring a feeling of peace. Besides happy memories, one of the things that brings me a peace and comfort beyond words is photographing birds. I spend days photographing eagles near my house each spring during the extreme low tides, and am always racing to grab a camera and capture my yard bird collection digitally… Today i drove out to what used to be called Flamingo Isles. In the 60s, some big shot developer had the twinkle in his eye for mega bucks, and a schnitzy development called Flamingo Isles. The fact this land is like a giant sponge, where salt grass and peat grow in abundance, sitting in wait for a nice storm surge to make it the new shallows of Galveston Bay I’m sure had NOTHING to do with the failure of this business venture. That, or, he spent all his money on the fancy sign and the bridge over the RR tracks.

Speaking of fancy signs, well, Flamingo Isles’ entrance was guarded by an ENORMOUS sign that consisted of a HUGE pink flamingo (100′ tall) and wording that read: “FLAMINGO ISLES”. As a child, I was mesmerized by the giant bird when we’d drive past on our way to Galveston to buy school shoes at Eiband’s. I’ve not been out there since, well, since my late teens when we’d drive out there to throw rocks, fish and drink beer. Now they’ve put in a marina and “yacht club” (you’d have to see the area, you’d laugh too if you saw “yacht club”). Just a stone’s throw from Tiki Island (BIG money homes right on the marsh edge of Galveston Bay). I pulled over, and enjoyed photographing some willing models: a Neotropic Cormorant, a pair of Green Herons, a Great Egret, some juvenile and adult Cattle Egrets. I was THRILLED to see a beautiful Ibis fly over late in the day, as well as a large flock of great egrets (20-30). Saving the best for last, I had the joy of watching Roseate Spoonbills feeding in the flats as the tide retreated. There is no bird more beautiful than a spoonbill, there is no bird more interesting to watch than a spoonbill. I remember living in Bayou Vista, and taking my kids out in the john boat in the evening. We’d eat dinner off paper plates, I’d sit back with a beer and a kid’s story book, and after we ate, I’d read them stories. We’d drift in the marsh and salt grass as spoonbills would surround us. The few times my kids were quiet, we’d sit there bobbing in the water, mesmerized as the bird flock would surround us, their bills swooshing back and forth seining for food in the shallows.

It doesn’t take money to make life beautiful. All it takes is a minute to stop and focus on something beautiful, to close your eyes and smell the air, to listen to the sound of a distant train, wind in the trees, or light from the setting sun as it’s final goodbye illuminates the clouds. These are a few of my favorite things, and the reason I like being here.

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Camping, in Town

Well, I love to camp. I’ve never camped in town before, but that’s pretty much what we’re doing. We’re in the house – FINALLY! Getting the utilities turned on was akin to stealing a pocket picking monkey from a gypsy circus – no mean feat. I finally introduced myself to the neighbor across the street (he’s a COMCAST employee). I explained that to work, I must have an internet connection, and I’ve been staying in a hotel to have internet access. Well, Reliant energy got off their butts, and my neighbor called a friend who called a friend, and within two days, i have both electricity, AND internet. The one utlitity service that deserves a HUGE star is Galveston County Water District #8. They came out and turned on the water as soon as they received my deposit two weeks prior to my arrival! :OP

We’re staying downstairs, no need to sprawl out all over this place. I swear this house was haunted when I was a kid, and here I am pushing fifty, and I STILL don’t want to go upstairs at night… What’s up with that!?!?!

Well, I have a number of interesting images collected to post. Nothing earth shattering. Curiousities would probably be a better description for them. Things here can be very different. For starters: the grocery store and edibles.

After visiting probably four different groceries, i finally found the prize. Del Dixie Sour Pickles. If you’ve never had one, I’m sorry. Once holding court on every grocery shelf, it seems these royal delights have been banished to smaller sizes and fewer stores. Or, you can buy the monster pickles in those big 2 gallon jars – nope, won’t work… Must get the small fingerling sized pickles. Why Del Dixie, you ask? Well, DD pickles are NEVER mushy, they’re crisp as chips, and full of zing. Made in Fort Worth, they’re sure to please the tongue of any pickle lover. Today, I bought four quart jars, so as not to arouse suspicion in the clerk’s eyes… I have to pick up a case for my auntie. Well, I don’t HAVE to… but she uses these little del dixies to make her bread and butter pickles. Yep, she starts with the base of Del Dixie Sours. She finally gave e her secret… hers are the ONLY B&B pickles I’ll eat…

While perusing the aisles of H.E.B., stocking up on all kinds of hispanic eatery items that I have to ship home, I smiled when looking in the air freshener section… Not only was the old Money House Blessing Spray still available, but the selection of patron saint candles was even more extensive than I had ever dreamed. Ok, first, the blessing spray smells like cloves and spices, it’s heavy, and I loathe it.. but who can resist a HOT PINK can of spray that’s supposed to, when sprayed, bring you financial blessings!?!?! (I can resist!!!) This is something I find very curious, and have never seen in the NW. The parade of patron saint candles is another curiosity that really perks my interest. I’ve always been very interested in different religions, sort of a “what makes them tick” type interest. A dear friend is Roman Catholic (Hi Kat!), and she’s never had these candles, nor has she mentioned any of these saints… SO, why is it that they’re here, in H.E.B. grocery, promising blessings to cowboys, protection of children, promises of financial gain, health, prosperity, protection from mal de ojo (evil eye), yet not in action anywhere else in the country I’ve been????? Never seen ‘em in the UK, nor in NYC, Atlanta, Detroit, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Omaha, Oklahoma City, Tulsa, Gulf Shores, Tuscaloosa, Memphis, Atlantic City, Reno, Hyannisport, Boston, South Bend, Chicago, Louisville, Newport News… you get my drift. I travel, or did, considerably with my job. I always hit the local grocery stores (not too big, not too small) because that was always a good indicator of the ethnic groups (and food) to be found int he area. No MHB Spray or saintly perfumed blessing candles there. Someday, I’ll uncover the secret to these saints.

Speaking of religious icons, and trinkets, in Amarillo, there was a HUGE billboard for a Catholic Superstore. Now I was ready to exit, and head back east on the interstate and investigate. Come on! Catholic Superstore? I’ve never seen a Baptist, or Quaker, or Mennonite Superstore…however, my daughter and sometime-navigator threatened to throw the fit of all fits if I turned around. A) it was hotter than a campfire skillet, B) it was 0800, and she’d not had her requisite 12hrs of sleep, and C), the Catholic Superstore didnt’ open until 10. <sigh> I just envisioned a priestly sort on tv, late night around 11:30 shouting (in a Sunday! SUNNDAY! SUNDAAAAAAY! type voice) “We’ve got shrines, and medallions, we’ve got aisles and aisles of rosaries, our vestaments are the best!”. dang! I wanted to go in that store, and I’m trying to figure out a way to return home, by way of Amarillo and the Catholic Superstore… I don’t think it’ll happen, but I’m gonna give it a try. If you think I’m lying, check it out:

Top of Texas Catholic Superstore

2500 S Coulter St Ste 110

Amarillo, TX 79106
(806) 353-0700

I wonder if they’ve got those candles there….

After I figure out the mystery of the candles, I’m off to learn more about the naming convention of Catholic churches. The Our Lady of Perpetual Sorrows, the Blessed Medalionl, etc… What is the criteria for naming your church I wonder… I mean no disrespect to anyone of the Catholic faith, please know that… there are just differences here that I find intriguing, and would like to know the hows/whys behind them, that’s all. Just about all you’ll ever see is a FIRST Baptist, sometimes a Second Baptist – MAYBE a Freewill Baptist. Nothing too exciting in the Baptist naming convention.

So, the house has no furniture. This means we have to go to a place you only want to see on TV… RENTACENTER. In my innocence, i traipse in, thinking it will be full of all things new. Instead, it’s full of frat house reject stereos, and furniture laden with cigarette burns and mystery stains. Do these people NOT eat at a table? Better yet, I understand – OH HOW I UNDERSTAND – not having a table; however, it looks as if more food was held on the sofa than in someone’s belly. ICK. Maybe it was rented to a daycare toddler room? i dunno, but some of this stuff I wouldn’t EVEN sit on. Finally, the manager, whose name was also Nina, offered me a deal… She had a spotless sectional in storage that was on clearance. She’s bringing it to the store… but would let me have it for 23.00 a week. HA! I can’t believe these stores don’t require their employees to carry guns – ROBBERY! Oh well, she promised no smokers, and no mystery stains… She looks like a woman of her word, so I took the deal. These places provide a service to many who are desperate, in a transition (me), or just want things, and can’t get them without the stepping stool credit assistance some loan shark place like this can offer. Sometimes life deals you a hand of twos and fives… you make do with whatcha got. I have a flat screen tv with an entertainment center (don’t GET ME STARTED!) – it has a subwoofer, three speakers (speaker #4 is MIA) and a center channel speaker. I’ve had transistor radios with better sound. HA! Mind you, I am not complaining, I am just aghast at what so many have to go through to have what I have often taken for granted. And, when it comes to sound, I’m terribly picky about the sound quality of music – pretty close to a purist, but don’t have teh bank account to be a total purist. Also, I never appreciated cable like I do now. HA! It’s strange to be doing this, but it’s like camping, only in town, in a house. The sofa comes Monday. The TV came home in the back of the JEEP. Renting furniture over staying in a hotel is approximately 850.00 cheaper. (would have been FAR more inexpensive had the utility companies around here had their act together!)

We cleaned the house today. Well, not THE house, but we have been cleaning this sucker for hours, and have the kitchen and bathroom downstairs pretty sparkly. You’d be AMAZED at how dirty a house can get when left uninhabited for over a year. Even dirtier when an idiot realtor leaves all the flippin’ windows to the place open for nine months. Yeah, NINE months – at least. Luckily, it never stays cold here, so any humidity infiltrating the place was quickly dried by the heat. Thank the good Lord we have storm blinds, and that they were only open a smidge, otherwise, the weather would have just come directly into the house – those blinds kept any/all rain out. I shiver just thinking about how stupid and careless people can be – especially with other folk’s stuff!

I want this place sold, and I want it sold quickly. May you all keep, in your prayers, a buyer who will come in, make nice all the needs of this home, and enjoy the beautiful neighborhood. Its an old house, but a wonderful yard full of promise. If I had the money, and a hubby who’d move here – I’d tear it down and build another home. Oh well, we all have dreams! :O) Though not quite of age just yet, I would love to live like the snowbirds… enjoying the warmth of Texas in the winter, and experiencing the beauty and joy of the NW in the spring/summer and fall. <happy sigh>

It’s almost time for the Kitsap County Fair. All my friends are busy working at the fair, and I’m here. I’m enjoying being here, but I miss my friends terribly. I miss working at the fair. My mom will be honored at the rodeo this year. Wrangler jean’s TOUGH ENOUGH TO WEAR PINK night will be in her honor. Hopefully someone will record the event, and I’ll get to see it. <sigh> There’s not a day that goes by where I don’t reach for the phone to call her, or think “Wow, mom would get such a kick out of this!”… then it hits me, and I have to dig my heels in deep. Sometimes I can’t dig ‘em in deep enough.

done

Cheeseburgers in Paradise!

They say it’s the simple things that make life worthwhile. If that’s the case, we should be happier than pigs in slop. We’re almost on a first name basis with the car hops at Sonic. Why folks in the NW refuse to put MUSTARD and SOUR pickles on burgers, and why they refuse to TOAST THE (*@^&(*^@ bun is beyond me.

BTW – you cannot buy sour pickles in the NW. If you can, email me and tell me WHERE. I will be returning with a case of Del Dixie Sours, and if I like you, and you ask nice, I might share one with you. :O)

Ya know, there’s no place to eat in the NW. Oh, there are many restaurants, but they’re (90%) chains, there’s no great diversity or creativity with “home cookin” type places. You can dine on Ethiopian, or Russian, Asian food is EVERYWHERE, but mom/pop home cooking, is really difficult to find. :O(

You can’t swing a cat here without finding a place to eat. Texans LOVE to eat. Today, we’ve breakfast’d at our beloved Waffle House (hint: buy some WH stock… you’ll make a buck before we return…). Dinner tonight will be at Louie’s Bait Camp in Bayou Vista, Texas. Here is the paradise where we will consume cheeseburgers. Louie’s, for those who’ll neverknow, and those who never thought, is a fine dining establishment. Wood floors that lost their finish at least 30 years back, screen doors that squeak and slam with the coming/going of every patron, the clacks of a shuffleboard game, the buzz of a color TV, and noise from jolly (and quite possibly, not so jolly) cooks in the kitchen will greet you upon finding a spot at a table or the bar. Your thirst will be quenched with a cold beer or coke (any carbonated drink here is a coke, you just specify the flavor – rootbeer, orange, mt. dew, etc.). The original decorative pattern on the laminate counter has long been worn away by the elbow of many a fisherman, cowboy, cop, farmer, or tourist. You can rent a john boat and an trolling motor, and putter from the camp through the canals in Bayou Vista’s development, out to the salt grass marshes (the shallows around the edge of the bay). In the evenings, you can often drift amongst flocks of spoonbills feeding in the water. Their bills swooshing in these shallows, seining for tiny foodstuffs. I think I’ll wait until I’ve gone back and retrieved my oldest before we rent a boat at Louie’s. This is not a place for an Ipod, lest you miss the shout of “howyadoin’” as you pass a house, or “catch anything?” from a fellow boater. We are in a part of the country where people still speak, and expect to be spoken to, it’s just good manners. I’ve not seen an Ipod since arriving. I like that. There are still folk here w/o internet, still folks who use dial up, folks who will take the time to write you a handwritten letter. Technology is nice, but nothing can take the place of a letter from a friend, one that carries the scent of their home, or perfume. It is a piece of someone, the ultimate expression of communicative desire. Anyone can fire off an email, few will ever write you a letter, much less on a pretty piece of stationery.

With our tummies full of waffle house goodness, we’re off to Walmart to pick up a couple of beach chairs, then do our laundry in Texas City. After doing laundry, we’ll drive the ten blocks to the dike and plant ourselves firmly in the sand, becoming human sponges, absorbing the glorious summer sun. Hopefully today, I will get some images of those wonderful pelicans I adore. Around dark, we’ll bring our stuff back to the hotel, and putter north on I-45 to Sarah’s mecca – Barnes & Noble. SHe’s not been there in almost 2 weeks, and hasn’t turned to dust… Wow! We’ll get a coffee, and some free reading, then head back to the hotel in time for bed, Hopefully I’ll have photos to upload by then. ;o)

That’s right, you’re not from Texas

but Texas wants you anyway… or so Lyle’s song says… :O)

I worried prior to the trip here, that I’d be hammered by the heat/humidity, fearing I’d lost my tolerance. Well, happily, I must admit that I’ve not lost that tolerance, in fact, I rather welcome the heat AND the humidity.

When I was a kid, the joke at our house, upon opening the car door on a hot summer’s day was “Open the door and let ‘em out”, meaning – open the door and let the devil out because it was hotter’n hades in the car. :O) Yep, hades is still as hot as ever. Hot leather seats still have the same sting, but I guess that’s why we graduate from shorts to capris as we get older, no?

Yesterday was a wonderful memorial for my mother’s passing. My kids and I had the honor of re-acquainting ourselves with many old friends, and friends of my parents we’ve not seen (or for my daughter, never met) in many many years. The service was simple, and warm. It was wonderful to be amongst “family”. To turn and see the faces in the attendees who have meant so much to the family over the years, and still do, was heart warming.

No matter where I live, home, for me, will always be Texas. It’s an itch I cannot scratch, not outside the state line anyway… I can be happy anywhere, if I want to… but I could be even happier here in the Lone Star State.

I don’t quite know how to explain, or to describe it, you either know it/feel it, or you don’t. I think that’s why you can take a Texan anywhere, but you can’t take Texas out of the Texan. Oddly enough, the only other people I can think of who can understand this phenomenon would be an NYC native. :O)

Thursday night, I drove three hours to Victoria, picked up my oldest boy, and brought him back. Today, I carried him home, but we took the long way… Driving FM2004 through Hitchcock, I took he and Sarah through the neighborhood I lived in until I was six, showed them the house, and then we drove on out to Hall’s Bayou.

Now Hall’s Bayou is probably the best place in the world.. you’ll see photos in future blogs, I’m sure. It is a place where folks drink beer, fish, listen to countless replays of Jimmy Buffet, probably cuss a little, dodge a gator or two, fish again, lie, swat skeeters, and just, well, enjoy life at a most leisurely pace. I used to take the kids to Hall’s Bayou all the time; we’d camp with friends, fish, play and cheat at cards, laugh deep into the night by fireside while the kids ran through the sand and shale barefoot, dirty, full of shrimp and flounder, loved and happy. Hall’s is no palace, and most of the people I know wouldn’t be caught dead, much less camp there. It’s one of those places where there is no room for pretense. Again, it’s one of those places you either get, or you don’t. There’s always an extra chair, an extra beer, time for a good tale, joke or just silence. Some can learn to ‘get it”, most never will, and few ever have the chance.

Leaving Hall’s, we continued on FM2004, eventually moving to FM521, and through Matagorda. We stopped at the Matagorda cemetery. I love cemeteries!!!! There is much to learn about life and a place strolling through it’s cemetery and reading the stones. The one in Matagorda is LOADED with history. Matagorda County is loaded with wonderful Texas History… Driving along on 521, and eventually on HWY36, you learn just how vulnerable this Gulf Coastline will be, should we have a big Katrina-esque storm hit… The Bob Wills song “Miles and Miles of Texas” is an apt tune for this area… it’s flat, it takes flat to a new level. It’s low, like a scoop waiting to have water come swooshing in; it’s littered with palmetto, oak groves, snakes and Lord knows what else.

Going on, we passed the South Texas Nuclear Project – the nuke plant in Bay City. Word on the street is there are plans to drastically increase this plant’s size in the very near future… Wonder if the hubby would ever consider a nice victorian house on the bay in Palacios?…. It’s within commuting distance to Bay City.

Continuing on, arriving in Palacios, I showed the kids the Texas Baptist Encampment where I spent one hallelujah gloriously fun week, every summer, from the eight of eight to eighteen, at camp. Fifty dollars bought my parents a week of peace, and me a week of great fun, swimming, many friends and more happy memories than I could ever count. Sneaking off site to the little market for candy after dark, having a best friend besotted with a cute blonde surfer boy on staff, buying trinkets in the gift shop, sno-cones and ice cream at the snack bar, sitting on the seawall telling jokes and comparing tan lines… Eating in the huge mess hall, careful to NOT have your elbows on the table, lest you hear that song… “Nina Beheim, young and able, get your elbows off the table! Round the table you must gooooo, you must go, you must gooo, round the table you must go, Niiiinaaaa Beheim!” And round the table you ran, as if the devil himself were behind you! You learned to keep those ‘bows off the table! Church camp was joyous as a child.

After Palacios, we drove through Point Comfort, continuing on past Port Lavaca, and finally, after a total of five hours to make a 2.5 hour drive, landing in Victoria to deposit number one son on his doorstep, and back to the hotel around midnight. Whew!

So thus far, i’ve acquired a melange of sights and signs from the time I left Oklahoma last weekend, to my arrival, and the few days I’ve had a chance to shoot while here this week. Nothing spectacular, some taken with certain friends in mind, some just for laughs, but most of all, images taken to hopefully relay some of the character to be found in the state, and places that hold a special place in my heart. I love Susan Tedeschi’s music (probably misspelled her last name). She’s definitely got a very lazy East Texas voice, her songs drip with character and stories. I thought Car Wheels on a Gravel Road was perfect for this slideshow.

Ciao, y’all

done

Day 6 – Arrival in the Motherland

NOTE: Day 5&6 slideshows may not be uploaded until Saturday night. I’m not having luck here in Amarillo, and tomorrow I’m staying with an Aunt in Oklahoma, and i don’t think she has internet access. SO, that means from a hotel somewhere in Texas, I’ll be blogging on Saturday. :O)

Well, Kids… Day six finds us in a Laundromat in Canon City, CO. Yes, we wear clean clothes (eventually)… <smirk> It’s been a looong time since I’ve had to do this, and a buck seventy five a load to wash is OUTRAGEOUS! I need to open one of these joints…

Ok, right now I’m about to lose my cookies. I’m discovering patience might be a virtue I don’t want, or I just need to be a bit more virtuous. There’s a family in this place with THE KID FROM HELL. This child does NOTHING under about 12 decibels. There’s the mom, and three other clowns, one of which is encouraging the yelling and screaming while racing him around this dump in a laundry cart. HELP ME!

I’m going to start a business… an intervention service. It will be a hotline you can call when there’s a parent with zero sense, and their kid is totally out of control. We’ll swoop in, pick up the parent, hand the kid off to Nanny 911 (really, it’s not the kid’s fault, children learn what they live…) and we’ll take the parent outside town and beat the crap out of them for being such morons.

By no means have I been the perfect parent, but MYGOSH! My kids KNEW better than to make a peep in public. Now the mom is screaming at the young guy and the 5yo to STOP SCREAMING! OK, is there something not inherently wrong with this picture?

The dryer has 20 minutes left. Trust me, it will be a VERY long 20 minutes.<sigh>

Now, I’m on the hunt for a place to get an oil change, and have the JEEP looked at because coming into town yesterday, I got a “perform service” message on the overhead. Ugh! Luckily, just giving me the alert that the oil needs changing.

The drive from Canon City to Pueblo was uneventful, and even moreso when we left Pueblo. Nothing but grassland between Pueblo and “wherever”, NM. In NM, we move through some VERY flat terrain. Closer to the border of Tx/NM, I pulled over and watched a beautiful T-Storm coming our way. It was a few miles in the distance, but we pulled over, and I got out with my camera. I stood there inhaling. The sweet sweet smell of rain in the air, the hot winds cooling off things while you listen to the approaching thunder. It is truly the most beautiful music.

When we crossed the Texas border, I stopped and blessed the ground. Anyone who is a Texan will know, once a Texan, ALWAYS a Texan. You can live anywhere in the world but you will ALWAYS be a Texan, and probably always have part of you that yearns for “home”, regardless of how happy you are elsewhere. The drive from Delhart to Amarillo was divine. I just adore these back FM roads and small highways. I detest interstate travel, you never see the small towns, the yards, the real life.

Tonight, we’re in a nice hotel for 70.00… HA! Nice find!

Dinner – Casa de Waffle. OK, Waffle House. OMGOSH, I LOVE Waffle House. I can remember hanging out late with friends and when we got a Waffle House outside of Texas City, we were ecstatic! We’d go there all the time and eat. You just can’t beat a WH breakfast – for lunch, dinner, or – even breakfast. The most difficult decision there is Grits or Hashbrowns.. <sigh> I like the signs in the place – No profanity, No harassment, etc… My all time favorite is NO FIREARMS – like why would you bring your gun to the waffle house?????

Well, girlie girl is whining to use the computer, so I’m gonna hit the sack. I’m up early in the morning to hit Cadillac Ranch (google Cadillac Ranch, Amarillo), then I’m taking Sarah to the Quarter Horse Museum (she doesn’t know yet… LOL).

done