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Texas Hill Country

April 18 -20, 2014

The Texas Hill Country, near Johnson City
On the road again April 18, 2014

Pedernales Falls State Park, near Blanco, TX
The drought persists with water levels way below normal.

Marlin, Texas

April 14 -17, 2014

The Battle house

My Uncle Berry is a native son of Texas.  This is the Battle house in downtown Marlin where his mother, Pauline, grew up. My cousin Polly is named after her. About 2 miles out of town is the land his mother left him. It's on farm road 712 which is seen below with Texas bluebonnets and Indian paintbrush. We were here exactly 10 years ago to the week. The same unforgettable sight of Texas wildflowers greeted us then on our way to Houston to attend our friend Wendy's wedding.

Farm Route 712 

Who is this gentleman?

My uncle's land was deeded to the family by Stephen Austin, who led the first settlers to what would become the state of Texas. Although my uncle married a Yankee, he made sure all his children and grandchildren got to know their Texan family -- the great Aunts and 95 cousins.

Here you see we have traded one home for another for these past four days while the black Chevy goes in for a somewhat longer than expected overhaul.

So what's a dog supposed to do with time to kill? 10 years ago, the cows spent a lot more time near the house, something to do with the "cow biscuits" that were available to give them.  Now we hardly see them except funnily once a day around the same time just as the sun begins to get low in the sky. There are 60 animals -- black, russett, white, and dappled gray. 

So we are indeed very grateful to our uncle and our cousins and their wonderful caretakers who gave us shelter from the storm (see below). Marlin is timeless. You walk in and it feels like the family was just here yesterday, if only it were so.  I love the cookbooks, a testament to my aunt who diligently learned to cook southern. The refrigerator is stocked with Coke and Big Red, a drink that tastes like a ready-made Shirley Temple.  So sweet, so smooth, est. 1937.

Driving to Waco on Monday morning to see why the Check Engine light was on!

El Camino Real

April 13, 2014

Driving west on U.S. Route 7 from Natchidoches, it's a straight shot to Marlin, Texas. This is the ultimate back road through rolling farmland interspersed with national forests and logging outposts. 70 mph speed limit!

We almost didn't go to Marlin, but with a possible frost in the forecast, we were glad we did.  More on Marlin, my Uncle Berry, and Texas in our next post.

In which we sample some local delicacies

April 11 - 13, 2014

From Alabama, we travelled on I-20 to Vicksburg, Mississippi.  Arriving at dinnertime and always eager to check out the local specialty, I hotfooted it over to Solly's Hot Tamales.  I was pleased to discover that my instincts were right on. The local tamale maker had been a participant at the Smithsonian Festival of American Folklife in 1997. We cooked up some red beans and rice to go with.  

https://www.southernfoodways.org/interview/sollys-hot-tamales/

The next morning we got off to an early start in order to visit the Tensas River National Wildlife Refuge near Tallulah in Louisiana, where the last confirmed sighting of the Ivory-billed woodpecker occurred in 1944. The quiet was deafening.

From there it was all back roads to Natchidoches (pronounced NACK-uh-dish), a pretty little town on the Red River with the largest collection of historic buildings outside New Orleans. Taking the advice of my favorite gourmands, Jane and Michael Stern of www.roadfood.com, we tried a traditional meat pie and a crawfish pie for comparison at Lasyone's, a Creole treat. 

Here, Creole refers to those who are descended from the colonial settlers of Louisiana, especially those of French, Spanish, and African descent.  Natchidoches got its start as a French trading outpost with the native Caddo Indians and the Spanish in Mexico. It is the oldest permanent settlement within the Louisiana Purchase.

Oakland Plantation, Cane River National Historic Park

Later Creole planters made their money growing cotton along the Cane River, a side channel of the Red River. The National Park Service maintains two of those early plantations for visitors.  Nowadays, this is a rural area where cars are few and far between.  We pulled up to the local convenience store right after a guy riding a horse.

On the road again

April 6 - 10, 2014
On Sunday, we left Trails End heading west on U.S. 49 to Charlotte, NC where we caught I-85 south to Greenville, SC and on towards Clemson, SC, home of Clemson University.  Clemson, along with Georgia Tech in Atlanta and ITT (the Institute of Textile Technology) in Charlottesville, were the big southern schools for textile studies.

With heavy rain forecasted, we holed up in a lakeside cabin on Lake Hartwell near Townville, SC.  Not wanting to venture out at ALL on Monday, I finished sewing half of a quilt top with my old Singer featherweight machine.

On Tuesday, the sun broke through and I visited the Cooper Library at Clemson where I was able to catch up on some journal articles and market research in the apparel and textile field.

Wednesday morning, we made tracks again in a southwestly direction towards Dallas.  We passed right through downtown Atlanta where I-85 south connects with I-20 west.

Crossing into Alabama, we changed over to the Central time zone and by late afternoon, we found ourselves in Tuscaloosa, home of Pete Wesselhoeft, a long-time Barnstable summer resident.  Pete died in 2011, but his obituary makes good reading. He had an entrepreneurial spirit, to say the least, and was a great friend of my Aunt Frances.  

Taking a break from the road, we decided to stay two nights at Deerlick Creek Park, an impressive campground built by the Army Corps of Engineers.  Many of the sites are built on stilts cantilevered out of over a steep hillside that goes down to a muddy, not too impressive, man-made lake.

Postscript: Lunch at the Pottery Road Cafe & Grille

Saturday, April 5, 2014

I forgot to mention that we stopped for lunch at the Pottery Road Cafe & Grille on Hwy. 220 on the way to Seagrove from Trails End Family Campground.  There we partook of pulled pork sandwiches served with red cole slaw and a vinegary barbecue sauce that so perfectly brought out the flavor of the pork that I will cherish the memory for as long as I live.