#we went playing in the corn fields and rivers and saw a water snake and freaked the fuck out

[g0dtier]

when i was a kid i met a dude on a camping in france and me and my friend thought he was So Cool cause he had big Big Bro vibes and then about 3 years later I found out that about a year after that, a couple days after his 16th birthday, he got hit by a bus and died

and sometimes i look back on that and how super cool & old & mature this 15yo kid seemed to 11yo me and now im almost 10 years older than he was when he died and how i went from "shocked and sad" when i found out at 14 or so to "jesus he was just a kid" now

#he was a really cool kid #he DID have big bro vibes he looked out for us like we were his lil sisters #we went playing in the corn fields and rivers and saw a water snake and freaked the fuck out

[chrisfranks]

Texas Vacation October 2016

and Day1 Route 75 Omaha to Topeka South of Nebraska City there's not a lot other than Auburn.  Some interesting terrain and a lonely windmill with the vanes breaking down & sagging picturesquely.  Kansas was flatter.  What gas stations there were would sneak up on you because they didn't have tall signs. Finally found a decent town at Holton. South of there it was 4 lane divided highway with a speed limit of 70 mph but with at grade intersections.

Kansas turnpike from Topeka to the border cost $10.  Service areas do have some picnic tables.  Wichita is completely bypassed.  There is this strange overlook apparently over some old cow pens.

OK City traffic still stinks.  

Stopped at Ardmore 12 Ave exit (31?).  Plenty to eat there.  We ate at Santa Fe Cattle Co which had a good chicken fried steak.

Day 2 Went by Jack and Lila’s graves at Oak Grove Cemetary in Whitesboro.  Then went on to TWU.  The store was closed but the hall where our reception was and the chapel were open.  Ate at Whataburger in Denton.  Then went to Ridgmar Mall.  Couldn't remember it looking like that but maybe it did.  It didn't have the ice cream bar stand where they dipped bare bars in chocolate and peanuts.  Sent Leisa into a Dallas Cowboys store.  Drove through the neighborhood where my apartment was which is much built up.  The apartments seemed fancier & there was a gate on the parking lot.  Didn't get far enough away east on 30 to see more than the steepl in the church.  Drove down Lackland road to Camp Bowie and went up and down that.  Saw Galligaskins which was further from the road than I remembered.  Went around the Benbrook traffic circle and down SW Ave to Hulen Mall.  Couldn't find Leisa's apartments.  Perhaps you can never go back if you don't stay in touch.  Met Leisa’s childhood friend Alice & her husband Don for dinner.  This was at the Cotton Patch Cafe which was good.

Day 3 Went to the Waco Mammoth Site.  Two guys my age or so had wandered off and found a mammoth’s femur washing out.  Baylor came in and excavated a nursery herd of Columbian Mammoth probably caught in a flood or mudslide.  This apparently happened multiple times at this site as newer excavations in enclosed building are finding.  The mammoths ran with dumb camels that had good eyesight and warned them of threats and in turn the mammoths led the camels to food.  Climate at the time was temperate but drier.

Rangers led some tours and had a school group.  The ranger told the kids about snakes and chiggers to keep them on trail.  I asked if Texas kids had to be told about chiggers and she said they were city kids and the idea of snakes kept them on the path.  

Our group was me, Leisa, and a guy who'd married a women from Waco but moved away.  He couldn't get his wife to visit the mammoth site.  Our tour was led by a young lady who studied classical Greece in school but had a boyfriend from Texas.  She said there were coral snakes in the live oak.

There were lots of butterflies including Gulf Fritillary, giant sulfur, & a little white one I didn't identify.

We ate sandwiches in the parking lot of Dr Pepper museum.  The museum was as expected but we got in free because it was 10/24 (like 10 2 and 4) and I could remember a little of one of their jingles.  Originally they called Dr Pepper a Waco.  Part of the reason for it being there was the artesian wells.  One was in the building but they covered it with concrete for several decades before excavating it again.  The museum also covered 7-Up.  The guy who created that was from Missouri and worked with Vess in St Louis.  Apparently they used to put Lithium in 7-Up.

There are far, far too many people living in the I-35 corridor.  Stopped at Buc-ee's to see what that was about.  It was a travel store like a Wal-Mart with 50 gas pumps in front and everything you could want to eat or wear inside.  There was also an outdoors section and jewelry.  We found some opal earrings for Mom’s birthday.

Day 4

So the iconic facade of the Alamo and the whole second story was added by the US Army after the civil war.  That front of the Church faced into the walled area they were defending.  There were about 6 acres more or less enclosed by the wall which is now Alamo Plaza.  The cenotaph is more or less in the center of that.  Most of what's walled in now wasn't part if the compound.  At the time the church didn't have a roof.  So the only original is the lower wall of the church and the long barracks.  Said barracks was original but had been in private hands.  A second story was added during that time which was removed after it was brought under preservation.

Leisa insisted on buying city site seer bus tickets.  We rode it past the Pearl brewery area and the driver was informative and entertaining but it didn't go to the missions and we never got back on.  We bailed at the far end of the River walk, are lunch.  Then we took the boat ride.  I think the bend of the River is natural but they built a flood channel that cuts it off.  They have big doors to close off the loop.  Also at least one channel was added so that Riverview Mall is on the river.  Noted a Ghirardelli's as we went by the mall.  Noted a wedding island, a St Anthony statue, a facade of a many story building, a theater with Day of the Dead figures, and lots of water features.  Our driver bumped two of the other boats.  Next went to Ghirardelli & had my Midnight Reverie.  They gave it to me in plastic instead of glass which was disappointing.

Next went to Buckhorn Saloon.  Buffalo Bill asked if we'd been to his ranch in North Platte.  Tons of stuffed animals, a fun house, and a Texas Rangers museum but I didn't think that much of it.  Then Battle for Texas was museum 'experience'  telling story of the Alamo.  Lots of artifacts including Santa Ana's uniform they took st San Jacinto.  Had a guy dressed as a Mexican private who would surprise people.

Day 5 Had to go back to the Alamo to buy a charm.  Then drove to the missions visitor center.  Picked up the 5 tokens they're supposed to have plus found a State of Oregon one mixed in.  Took the tour with way skinny female ranger.  Indians here had little commerce except maybe with the coast.  Began to decline when Spanish pushed Lipan Apache with horses east out of New Mexico and smallpox up from Mexico.  The missions offered them some food and protection but still they dwindled.  Mission San Jose was restored by WPA semi accurately.  Like all of them, 6 or so acres were enclosed with rooms in the walls and bastions in the corners.  Every few apartments had an oven outside.  Apparently they did have both wheat and corn and got to eat the former because they had nowhere to sell it.  A motivation for the missions was to make the Indians good Spanish subjects then have them build a home/farm outside.  The church had a big window called Rosa's window where the priests would teach the unbaptized.  The story of that window was that the stonemason asked his intended to come from Spain but the ship sank.  He stopped work for a long time then the priests heard the chisel again and they ended up with a super fancy window.  No proof but some people in the area believe they're descended from that guy.  When you have a legend but question it, go with the legend.  The other missions weren't rebuilt so everything but the church was ruins.  The difference was how fancy the church was.  A lot had facades built above the building with bells to make them grander.  Moorish influence was interesting in the shape of some doors and arches and the frescoes that used to cover them.  The best preserved church is the northenmost one.  

Left San Antonio towards Fredericksburg.  After you leave the city you climb up into the hills.  I like that country.  Got to the Nimitz/Pacrfic war museum with an hour to spare.  Fortunately tickets carry over to the next day.  First section is about Nimitz, his family, and Fredericksburg and is in the hotel his grandfather had and he worked in as a kid.  It was restored to look as it did then.  He took an appointment to the naval academy because there weren't any left for West Point.  He was a midshipman on a ship where the Japanese were celebrating  the Russo-Japanese war and invited people from his ship.  None of the seniors went so the Midshipmen did and he met Admiral Togo.  After the war he had a guard set on Togo’s flagship Mikasa.  Ran through the Bush gallery & then we got locked in for a while.  Went to Cultures to eat and I had Wiener schnitzel with a paprika sauce.  Not sure if Wiener schnitzel is suppose to be veal but the menu said it was pork and it was good.

Day 6 Went back to Bush gallery.  Much on the origin of the war.  They had a banner on which Togo supposedly after retirement painted his Nelsonesque message to his men before Tsushima.  They also had a uniform that was supposed to be Yamamoto's.  Displays featured a Jap midget sub, a B-25, a beat up Wildcat, a Stuart tank with a hole in it and a 3inch gun like what made the hole.  There's George Gay's googles & knife, a Fat Man casing and a crashed Val behind the screen they play the end movie on.  Outside there are 75mm, 25 pounder, & 105mm field guns.  A torpedo launcher, a twin bofors, and a 5inch gun.  Then a mast from a destroyer plus the sail from a sub.  The lawn in front of the sub’s sail is made like waves and there's  bow shape in front.  Next the Pacific Combat Zone which has a giant map, an Avenger, and PT-309 which fought in the Mediterranean that they're still working on.  More additions coming there.

No time to go by enchanted rock which was closed for a deer hunt anyway so went to Marble Falls.  Had pie at Bluebonnet Cafe where the lemon meringue pie was a tall as it is wide.  Went to a scenic overlook and a crazy pottery place.  Got to wonder about a place where they have sign offering mosquito spray.  Then back to stinking I-35.  Got thru Dallas just 39 min before they closed the road for construction.