Hello again. Our last chapter
concluded on Friday, September 4th, when we arrived at the Shady
Pines RV Park in Texarkana, Texas. We are here in Texarkana to visit
with my granddaughter Courtney and her family. Courtney just
recently had a baby boy, my fifth great grandchild. As is the norm
when we travel, we got set up and settled in and then relaxed for the
rest of the day in the coach. Packing up, driving and then setting
up again in this heat and humidity really take it out of you. We did
call and let Courtney know that we arrived safely, and we would see
her tomorrow.
Saturday, September 5th, we left the
coach after lunch and drove to Courtney's house, which is also in
Texarkana, Texas. Texarkana, a city of about 66,000 is split right
down the middle, north to south, between Arkansas on the east and
Texas on the west. Each city has it's own government structure, but
they cooperate with each other on most matters. Courtney married
about a year ago and her husband John has two children from a
previous marriage, Trinity and Dax. Trinity is about 14 and Dax is
12. the newest addition, Josiah, is just about four months now.
They have a nice, older house that they rent and we spent the
afternoon with them.
Not too long after we arrived Jackie
took Courtney and Trinity to the mall for pedicures. I stayed at the
house and visited with John and Dax and watched the baby. After the
girls got back we took a bunch of photos and just visited. It has
been a couple of years since we last saw Courtney, and that was when
she was still in Phoenix living with her mom, my daughter Tye.
About 4:30 or so we left as they had
plans for a BBQ with other family. We decided that we would do a
mini “pub crawl” of the two Elks Lodges in the immediate area.
The Texarkana, Texas lodge, number 2771 was only a few blocks from
Courtney's house, so we stopped there first. This was a small, but
very friendly lodge. We chatted with the bartender and one of the
members at the bar for about 45 minutes. We were able to get a lodge
pin for our banner and then moved on to the other side of the state
line to the Texarkana, Arkansas Lodge, number 399. Elks who read
this will know that the smaller number means an older lodge. Most
three digit Elks lodges were chartered prior to the turn of the
century. We chatted with a couple of members, including the Exalted
Ruler for a while and had a couple of drinks. We also got a lodge
pin from this lodge for our banner.
After our lodge visits we started for
home. It was about 6:30, so we decided to stop and have dinner out
rather than go home and cook. The ER at the Arkansas lodge had
suggested a Mexican place, not too far from our RV park, called
Fiesta House. We went there and had dinner. Most of the food was
pretty good, fairly solid Sonoran style fare. The big disappointment
was that there was no beer, no margaritas, no liquor at all. It
seems that most of East Texas is dry. Certain counties and cities
allow beer and wine, but for most part you can't get liquor in
restaurants. Bummer, who eats Mexican without a beer? After dinner
we headed back to the coach and watched TV until bedtime.
Sunday, September 6th, we had a nice
Sunday morning with the newspaper, coffee and talk shows. After
lunch we went out to do some exploring and geocaching in the area.
We knew that we would not see Courtney and family today as they are
very active in their church and had a lot of stuff planned for the
day. We were able to get four caches, along with one DNF, before the
skies opened up and we had some heavy rain showers. No storm, but
lots of rain. We decided to just ride it out in a grocery store
taking care of some shopping we needed to do. We went to a place
called Super 1 Foods, which had been recommend by John yesterday.
After we got inside we noted that it was very similar in appearance
and layout to WinCo, one of our favorite West Coast stores. After we
were finished with our shopping the rain had stopped, but we went
home and stayed in for the rest of the evening.
Monday, September 7th, Happy Labor Day.
We were having a BBQ at the coach with Courtney and her family.
Although Courtney has been in the coach several times, her husband
and step kids have not. About 2:00 the family came over and we spent
the afternoon sitting in the coach chatting. It would have been nice
to go outside, but even in the shade it was hot. It was 94 with 90
percent humidity, way too much for us. About 5:00 we did some
burgers on the grill, along with some french fries, cole slaw and
macaroni salad. We had a great meal. They left about 7:30 after a
great afternoon with family. We watched TV until bedtime.
Tuesday, September 8th, we went out
about 12:30 for some geocaching and exploring. We stopped for lunch
at a great place called Ironwood. It had a very extensive and
eclectic menu and had very high ratings on Yelp, for good reason as
we found out. This was going to be lunch and dinner for us, so we
started with a fried green tomatoes appetizer. They were even better
than the one's we got in Memphis. Great breading, nice thick,
crunchy slices of tomato. I had the fish and chips, which was a huge
portion, and it was some of the best I have ever had. Very crunchy,
spicy breading, the fish was thick and not greasy at all. Excellent
item. Jackie had a chicken curry that she said was also very good.
We took enough home after filling ourselves to make a good lunch
tomorrow.
After lunch we went caching, getting
six new finds and a couple of DNFs. We then stopped at Albertson's
to pick up some of their great corn chips. Then we went to
Courtney's place for a last goodbye with the family. We stayed about
an hour before saying goodbye and heading back to the coach. I spent
some time taking care of outside stuff and getting ready for an early
start tomorrow.
Wednesday, September 9th, we were
packed up and on the road by 9:00. An early start for us, but we had
a 210 mile trip ahead of us that would take us west from Texarkana to
the Dallas area. The first 150 miles was quite relaxing. It was
freeway all the way and the rain we had when we first left Texarkana
had cleared up. Once we got into the Dallas “metroplex” the
construction started. It seems that they are working on every
freeway in Dallas right now. The lanes were narrow, the traffic
heavy and it rained a little on top of it all. We did manage to
safely arrive in Denton, Texas about 2:30 and got checked in and set
up at the Post Oak RV Park.
Denton is a city of about 115,000 which
sets on the northern edge of the metroplex. It is about 35 miles to
both the Fort Worth and Dallas downtown. I wanted to stay on the
north end of the area since we are going north to Amarillo next. I
also didn't want to be right in the middle of town. We are going to
be here a week, so we have plenty of time to explore. After getting
set up we just relaxed the rest of the day after our tough drive.
Thursday, September 10th, we left the
coach after lunch and went out to explore. We first stopped at the
Camping World store that was only a few miles from the RV park so we
could pick up some supplies that we have been needing. We then did
some geocaching. We were able to get three new finds and two DNFs
before we decided it was too hot to continue. We spent a little time
driving around Denton, exploring the town, before heading to the
Denton Elks Lodge. This is a fairly new lodge, Number 2446, with a
somewhat disheveled lodge building not too far from downtown Denton.
The bar was nice and there were a number of members there who turned
out to be very friendly. The lodge bought one drink, and another
member bought a second. We ended up staying about an hour and a half
before heading back to the coach for dinner. We were able to get
another new Lodge pin for our banner. We had some country ribs
cooking in the crock pot so dinner was ready when we got home. We
had dinner and relaxed with the TV the rest of the evening.
Friday, September 11th, Patriot Day.
The morning was a little melancholy with all the coverage of the
September 11th attacks and memorials. We left the coach, and the sad
TV, after lunch and headed out to see the City of Fort Worth. Fort
Worth is about 35 miles south of Denton, so it took us just under an
hour to get there on the freeway. Fort Worth was established as a
military outpost in the mid-1800's and quickly became the center of
the cattle industry in the southwest. When the railroad came to town
in 1876 Fort Worth and it's huge stockyards, became a mecca for
wholesale cattle sales. Today the city of over 800,000 is still
known by the nickname of “Cowtown” and is still a hub of the
cattle business. While Dallas is oil, business interests, and suits
Fort Worth is cows, cowboys and western wear. We spent an hour or so
driving around downtown, admiring the architecture and getting a
couple of geocaches.
After our tour we started back north
and stopped at the Costco store in North Fort Worth. It has been a
couple months since we were able to do a Costco run, so we had quite
a bit to buy. After leaving Costco we were on the freeway headed
north again when, after about ten miles, we saw the Blue Angels
demonstration team practicing in the skies over Alliance Airfield,
right next to the freeway. We had noticed on the way down
There was a wide area off the freeway
near the exit ramp for the airfield and there were several cars
parked there, so we pulled off and joined them. We were fifty feet
off the freeway, so it was not dangerous. I didn't think the cops
would bother us since I saw a cop car parked on the other side of the
freeway in a similar area with the cop outside the car watching the
show too. We were up on a little rise and could see the runways for
the airport in front of us and that is what the Blue Angels use as a
guide for their maneuvers, so we saw the whole show and got lots of
pictures. It has been a number of years since I saw the Blue Angels,
since before we went full time, but they are always impressive.
After our impromptu air show we stopped
at Walmart for some things and then headed back to the coach. As
soon as we got the groceries put away and the cats fed we were back
on the road, heading southeast to the Grapevine Elks Lodge, in
Grapevine, Texas. The lodge was about 20 miles from the RV park, but
when we were in the Denton lodge yesterday they had told us about the
great Friday night steak fry at the Grapevine Lodge, so we decided to
go there for dinner. The lodge, Number 2483, is in a building that
used to be a steakhouse, so it was very nice inside, and obviously
had a full kitchen. The place was very busy and people were
friendly. They had a live band that started about 7:30 and we had a
very nice steak dinner that was quite tasty. We weren't able to get
a lodge pin because they kept those locked in the office and no one
in attendance had a key. However, the bartender took our card and
said she would send us one. We'll see, we have been told that
before. Sometimes it works out. We left about 8:30 and drove back
to the coach for a little TV and then bed.
Saturday, September 12th, we again were
out after lunch and headed up to downtown Denton for the annual car
show and festival. The streets around the courthouse square were all
closed and there were a couple hundred classic cars and hot rods out
for display. They also had some arts and crafts booths setup and
were having a silent auction fundraiser inside the courthouse. We
spent a couple of hours looking at cars and the booths. The 1888
courthouse has recently been renovated and turned into a Denton
County museum, so we spent some time in there looking at the
exhibits. We also went through a couple of the antique stores that
are on the courthouse square. After we had enough of the festival we
did some geocaching in the area, getting five new finds and one DNF.
We then headed back to the coach for dinner and relaxed with the TV
the rest of the night. Sunday was a stay at home day. I did a few
repairs and Jackie did a couple of her chores, but we mostly just had
a quiet day in the coach.
Monday, September 14th, we left the
coach about 11:30 and drove the 35 miles southeast to the City of
Dallas. Dallas was founded in the mid 1800's and grew economically
as a center for the oil and cotton industries. Oil and financial
businesses are still the primary economic movers for the city. With
a current population of 1.2 million it ranks as the ninth largest
city in the U.S. It took about an hour to get to Dallas and the
first place we went was a district just outside of downtown called
Deep Ellum. It is an area of turn of the century buildings which now
house a wide variety of arts, entertainment and dining venues. We
stopped at a Fuzzy's Taco Shop, which we have been wanting to try
since we got to Texas. It is a large chain in the state, we have
seen them all over both Texarkana and the Dallas Fort Worth metro
area.
As it turns out, the food was very
good. It is a fast food chain, you order at the counter, but they
have a dozen different types of tacos to choose from. I had a beef
fajita taco and a tempura fish taco, along with some beans. Both
tacos were very big and the flavors were excellent. They are
moderately priced and food is good, I would go to one again. After
our lunch we did some geocaching in the area, getting four finds in
less than an hour. We then spent some time driving around Dallas
downtown, checking out the architecture and the sights. We drove to
the outskirts of town to the Elks Lodge, Number 71, which makes it
one of the older lodges in the country. However, the lodge was
closed, so we were unable to get a lodge pin. We also stopped at a
Sam's Club for some things before heading back to the coach for the
rest of the night.
Tuesday, September 15th, our last day
in the Dallas metro area. We went out after lunch for some
geocaching. We got six new finds in an hour or so. After caching we
headed home and stayed in the rest of the night. Wednesday was
another travel day. We left Denton about 10:30 and headed northwest
towards Wichita Falls, Texas, a little over 100 miles. The route was
not interstate, but in Texas a lot of the other State and Federal
highways are four lane divided roads, they are just not limited
access like freeways. We arrived at the Wichita Falls RV Park about
12:30 and quickly settled in. We went out about 3:00 to make a
Walmart run and then we briefly explored the downtown area.
Wichita Falls is a city of about
105,000, located in north-central Texas, only about 20 miles south of
the Oklahoma border. The city was founded in 1872 and quickly grew
into a regional commerce center with the arrival of the railroad ten
years later. Until the 60's it was an oil center, but most of the
oil industry has moved to the larger city of Amarillo, a couple
hundred miles northwest. The city is also home to Sheppard Air Force
Base, one of the largest training commands in the Air Force. They do
technical training as well as flight training at Sheppard.
While we were touring the small, but
interesting downtown, we got a virtual geocache at a very interesting
place. The Newby-McMahon Building is a four-story brick building
located near the railroad depot in downtown Wichita Falls. It is
well know as “The Littlest Skyscraper”, a title given by Robert
Ripley's Ripley's Believe It or Not! syndicated column and a name
that has stuck with it ever since. In 1912 a large petroleum
reservoir was discovered in Wichita County. By 1918, an estimated
20,000 new settlers had taken up residence around the lucrative oil
field, and many Wichita County residents became wealthy virtually
overnight. As people streamed into the local communities in search
of high-paying jobs, the City of Wichita Falls began to grow in
importance. Though it initially lacked the necessary infrastructure
for this sudden increase in economic and industrial activity, Wichita
Falls was a natural choice to serve as the local logistical hub,
being the seat of Wichita County. Because office space was lacking,
major stock transactions and mineral rights deals were conducted on
street corners and in tents that served as makeshift headquarters for
the new oil companies.
In downtown Wichita Falls, near the
railroad depot, there was an office building called the Newby
Building, built in 1906 by Augustus Newby a director of the Wichita
Falls and Oklahoma City Railway Company. The oil-rig construction
firm of J.D. McMahon, a petroleum landsman and structural engineer
from Philadelphia, was one of seven tenants whose offices were based
in the original Newby Building. According to local legend, when
McMahon announced in 1919 that he would build a highrise annex to the
Newby Building as a solution to the city's urgent need for office
space, investors were eager to invest in the project. McMahon
collected $200,000, about $2.7 million in today's dollars, in
investment capital from a group of naive investors, promising to
construct a highrise office building across the street from the St.
James Hotel. However, McMahon's plans for the “skyscraper” were
scaled in inches rather than feet, resulting in a “skyscraper”
that was ten feet wide, 18 feet deep and 40 feet tall, four stories.
Each story is one room of about 108 square feet.
McMahon
used his own construction crews to build the McMahon Building on the
small, unused piece of property next to the Newby Building, without
obtaining prior consent from the owner of the property, who lived in
Oklahoma. As the building began to take shape, the investors
realized they had been swindled into purchasing a four-story edifice
that was only 40 feet tall, rather than the 480 foot structure they
were expecting. They brought a lawsuit against McMahon but, to their
dismay, the real estate and construction deal was declared legally
binding by a local judge – as McMahon had built exactly according
to the blueprints they had approved. There was no stairway installed
in the building upon its initial completion, as none was included in
the original blueprints. Rather, a ladder was employed to gain
access to the upper three floors. By the time construction was
complete, McMahon had left Wichita Falls and perhaps even Texas,
taking with him the balance of the investors' money. The key to
McMahon's swindle, and his successful defense in the ensuing lawsuit,
was that he never verbally stated that the actual height of the
building would be 480 feet. The proposed skyscraper depicted in the
blueprints that he distributed, and which were approved by the
investors, was clearly labeled as consisting of four floors and 480
inches tall.
In 1999 the building was sold to a private party who restored the
building. It is currently part of the Depot Square Historic District
of Wichita Falls, which has been declared a Texas Historic Landmark
and listed on the National Register of Historic Places. We always
tell people that geocaching takes you places you might never go
otherwise. This is the kind of thing that we are talking about, a
very interesting and fascinating story. Not too far from the skyscraper is the old Holt Hotel. It started as an office building, then was converted into the Holt Hotel. It is now a condo building, called the Holt Residences. Thursday, September 17th, we left the coach about noon or so and headed to a local Greek restaurant called Gyro's and Kebob's. They had a very limited menu, basically gyro's and kebob's just like the name says. Jackie had a large gyro with lamb, I had the ground beef kebob's. The food was excellent, as was the service. The onion rings I ordered as a side were a disappointment, but I guess onion rings are not a Greek item. After lunch we went to the laundromat and did our laundry. Once the laundry was finished we headed back home, stopping to get a couple of geocaches along the way. We stayed in the rest of the evening.
Friday, September 18th, we went out after lunch to do some more exploring and geocaching. It was to be very hot today, over a hundred degrees, so we did some virtual geocaches which didn't require us to be out in the heat for very long. We then went downtown and spent a couple of hours going through some of the many antique stores there. After antiquing for a while we went back to the coach and relaxed for a while. About 6:00 or so we left again and drove to the Wichita Falls Elks Lodge, which was only a couple of miles down the road from the RV park. The lodge is in a very large steel prefab building that doesn't look like much on the outside, but is very nice inside. It has a very large lounge, a really big meeting room, and a huge ballroom. They also have one of the nicest commercial kitchens I have seen in an Elks. We had a couple of drinks and chatted with some of the people at the bar. The lodge was very friendly and even gave us a little tour. This lodge was chartered in 1903, so it is an old lodge, Number 1103.
After cocktails and getting a pin for our banner we left the lodge and drove to a nearby Italian Restaurant called Mia's. It was a nice little place with a good Italian menu. We had a calamari appetizer that was very good. Jackie had the Veal picatta, which she said was very tasty, but they were really, really skimpy on the amount of veal. There were a couple of very small, very thin pieces. When we later mentioned it to the waitress she told us, “I noticed that.” We told her she should have said something to the cook or manager if she saw what she didn't think was right. She was a youngish girl, probably not a lot of experience. She also forgot our salads, so the place doesn't get high marks for service. I had a spaghetti dish with sausage, mushrooms and meatballs that was outstanding. I was very happy with the food, not so much with the service. Also, no garlic bread, a big no-no for an Italian place in my mind. After dinner we went back to the coach and watched TV until bed.
Saturday, September 19th, we went out about noon to take in a Mexican restaurant called Gutierrez Family which we found on Yelp. It had 50 reviews and a 5 star rating, that is hard to get. We found a ramshackle building just outside the projects about a mile from downtown. However, the place was very crowded and a majority of the people eating were Hispanic, which is usually a good sign for a Mexican place. Jackie had an enchilada plate, I had steak ranchero. The food was excellent, although a little on the hot side, even for us. The tortillas were homemade and outstanding. The only downside was they used bagged chips, but it was a very small place with a small kitchen, so I guess something had to give. The service was good too. If we lived here we would probably be there once or twice a month.
After lunch we did a few geocaches and then went shopping for the wood trim I need to finish off the refrigerator project. The only thing I haven't done is the final finish work. Unfortunately, we went to four home stores and none of them had exactly what I wanted. I saw what I wanted a month ago at a Menard's store somewhere in the Midwest. I wasn't ready to do the work, so I didn't buy it. I wish now I had because we are out of the Menard's territory and no one else has the same three inch wide finished trim. I am going to try again when we get to Amarillo next week as it is a little bigger city. We then headed back to the coach and stayed in the rest of the night.
Sunday, September 20th, we had a stay at home day. After a morning with the paper and Sunday news shows we spent the afternoon doing chores. Jackie did some cleaning and I did some repairs. I had to take the toilet apart and install a new seal. I also took the inside covers off of the air conditioning units so Jackie could clean them and I could seal up some air leaks inside of them. We had a busy and productive day.
Monday was another travel day, although a light one. We left Wichita Falls about 10:30 and drove just under a hundred miles northwest to a little farming community called Goodlett, Texas. The population is just over a hundred people and other than the grain elevator there is no commercial activity in the town at all. We are staying at a very nice RV park called Ole Town Cotton Gin RV Park. They converted an old tin cotton gin and it's surrounding parking area into a nice RV park. They use part of the building for an office and store and the rest for storage. The sites are nice and level with full hookup, 50 amp service. We are only here for a three day stopover. After we got set up we drove to the nearby town of Childress, about 19 miles west, to go to Walmart. We also did a few caches, three to be exact, before heading back to the coach for the rest of the night.
Our arrival here in this little village on the prairie marks a good spot to get this episode published. In a couple of weeks we will be in Albuquerque for the Balloon Fiesta, something exciting to look forward to. Until next time, remember that a person really only needs three things to be truly happy in this world: someone to love, something to do, and something to hope for. See ya soon.
