Texas Independence. A road trip on which to model the year.

It seems that Texas History is forever being talked about, and disputed. One thing that all us Texans know, however, is that the Texas Declaration of Independence was signed in Washington on the Brazos on March 2, 1836 as the brave defenders of the Alamo in San Antonio were about to lose their lives.

So we took a road trip as part of the Each Month of the Year trip.

It was a pretty day, and a nice drive up the museum. Washington On The Brazos, the city, is long since gone (mainly because the good citizens of that city bet on the steam ships and a ferry crossing rather than on the railroads. Whoops!) but the site now has a museum and an old house that was once the home of the last President of the Republic of Texas. (Y'all knew we used to be a republic, right?)

We did get a t-shirt:

and saw some heritage pigs:

One interesting aspect of the museum is that they are not trying to sweep the legacy of slavery under the rug. They talked openly about how one of the causes of the Texas Revolution was the desire for the Texians to keep slaves. Mexico had outlawed slavery in 1833. Most of the Texians raised cotton, and they had no desire to do that without slaves. (Although the "Free Labor" movement epitomized by the German immigrants who came to Texas were able to survive without slaves)

Here is a recreated slave cabin:

and the Big House was not that big:

They had turkeys and ducks, Beeves and pigs.

The museum had some nice stuffed animals:

and a literal ball and chain.

This pecan tree, that MSEL is hugging, is 200 years old. It looks it.

That is the Brazos in the background. There ain't no more cane on it.

A recreation of the room where the Texas Declaration of Independence, as well as the Texas Constitution was signed.

On our way home, we stopped by the Texas Antique Rose Emporium, where they had a rose named after MSEL!!!

Then we drove home. We pushed the Tesla a little, and drove into the garage with 70 miles to spare.

A very fun day.

Comments

Wyoming. Where family has to take you in!

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Home again, home again.

It's always good to be home. We have never taken such a road trip before, and certainly never with a dog. That was an experience. She loved the long hikes in the mountains, didn't care for the car rides, especially the long one. We, too, experienced new things. We listened to a lot of books on tape (well, Audible), trying to match the words to the Landscape. So we started with True Grit by Charles Portis, set mostly in the Oklahoma Territory. One of my favorite books of all times, and it was read by Donna Tart. ( The Goldfinch , etc). Perfect book for the start of the trip, from Houston to Bartlesville. On the next two legs of the trip, to Hutchinson, Kansas and then up to Keystone, South Dakota, we listed to My Antonia by Will Cather. (pronounced, we learned, as an-tone-EEE-ah). A wonderful book for driving through Nebraska. And we were on the Willa Cather highway while doing so. As we drove into Wyoming, we listened to Rising from the Plains , by John McPhee. The story o...

Nebraska is a BIG state. Especially crosswise and on two lane roads

I think I mentioned below that we bought a Rand McNally road atlas for this trip. This is where it pays off. Doreen has been tracing our route with a yellow highlighter (I will post Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas later) so we can remember where we were. Here is the route through Nebraska: You may note that it ends in Chadron. That is where we ran out of daylight. We would not have run out of daylight had it not been for COVID19 and the Oglala Lakota. More on that later. But on out way from Kansas, we went through the geographical center of the lower 48 US states. See: It is just outside of Lebanon, Nebraska. and yes, that is a cedar tree. We took a self portrait: Then a nice lady asked if we wanted her to take our photo. We said, "Sure!" This is what we got: Of course, I took her photo, too. But not before taking a couple of photos of myself, first. (Thanks, Matt!) I am not sure I mentioned this below, but on the first leg of the trip, we listened to Charles Portis's book T...

The Year of Months

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