Our destination was Lake Daingerfield State Park, which we had gone to on a whim a couple of weeks before, and fell in love with the place. Go ahead, insert your Rodney Daingerfield quips here -- not like we didn't joke about the park that gets no respect for most of the trip.
We got a late start Saturday, partly because I wanted us to spend some time with Angela before she had to leave for work, but mostly because we didn't get out of bed till 10:30 or so, showered, had leftover pot roast for breakfast, etc. Why wake up so late? Um....we took a sneak preview trip with all three of us the night before and didn't get back till after midnight, and not to sleep until after 2am or so?
Course, that was fun, too -- on the way back, we passed a sign for the town of Cumby. You remember Cumby, don't you? White rubbery guy, kinda shaped like an eraser with arms? Rides a Trojan horse named Pokey? (Believe it or not, the jokes actually managed to get worse than that) -- Somewhere, we passed a sign for a city that was something to do with weaving or a loom....so naturally, I had plenty of bad puns for that too.
But back to Saturday, the actual day of the trip! Brandy had been acting kinda cool or bored all morning, but it turned out she had just been trying to contain her excitement so she didn't work herself up into a frenzy. Angela left for work while I was still working my way through my breakfast, and Brandy was watching me, waiting for me to finish so we could go -- the car was already packed. After a little bit, the roommate happened to wander out.
"Hey Guido, do you want the rest of this?"
"what, pot roast? Um, sure, I'll finish it."
"Okay, bye!" WHOOOOSH!! And we were out the door -- I don't think I even heard the fork hit the table, we rushed out so fast!
Up the back way to 67, and then east on I-20 to make a little distance and get out of the metroplex...although I wanted to see more of Highway 80 before cutting up to the route I had plotted for scenery. So we turned up through Mesquite just after we got outside Loop 635, and we went through a very small-town-looking area until we finally went over a bridge and got to Highway 80. Of course, as we passed over the bridge, we were above a small road that followed the railroad tracks and looked like it would be a nice ride in itself...gonna have to figure out how to get down there to that little road sometime.
As we drove along toward Terrell, we wnet through Forney and spotted some rustic antique stores that we decided we must check out next time we're in the area, as unfortunately, we only saw them as we were going past. We entered Terrell and cut north into the boonies, and Brandy showed her country roots when she tried out for a stunt driver role in the next Dukes of Hazzard movie -- we hit a dip or bump in the road in Terrell and actually left the pavement for a bit! Interestingly enough, a little while later, the noise that had been coming from Brandy's rear passenger wheel (a worn brake, we think), stopped -- so maybe the bump was all it needed.
Zipping up the ranch road, we cut over to another ranch road, and went through Poetry, TX. Granted, we didn't know until a little bit later that it was a town called Poetry -- all we knew was that we passed a water tower labeled in nice calligraphy -- Poetry. Naturally, we felt this deserved a poem:
Silver tower, oh so tall
will one day wobble, tip, and fall
and I forsee - I don't know how
that it will land upon a cow
we'll roll it off and see it flat
then cut some steaks, just like that
and Uncle Jim, who doesn't chew
will choke it down, which just won't do
we'll have to save him from Death's door,
but that's okay - we've done before
the smell of food will overpower
all thanks to a fallen tower.
Yeah, that's what happens when you write a poem in 5 minutes or so...as we continued along this road, making up really bad poetry, we saw a historical marker pointing at a cemetary, which we decided to check out. Of course, we don't always stop for these, but something told us this would be one of the interesting ones. And it was -- with the earliest grave from 1871, and the most recent for a Vietnam vet buried in 2000...the cemetary is closed for burial now, but two markers that caught my eye -- one was for a Woodsman (a title of some kind) from the Poetry camp. It was 5 feet tall and resembled a petrified tree trunk. The other was amazing just in trying to figure out what kind of magic metal it was made of -- it barely had any rust and was erected in 1882 -- it still looked brand new!
On our way out, we paused to retie the rope that held the gate shut, and commented on the recent litter of plastic easter eggs and broken bottles, then talked about a cemetary found where the city of Dallas is extending the Tollway north -- right now there's a big battle going on between the city planners and the archaeologists. While I don't necessarily see the point of going to a great deal of expense in the disposal of a body that life has departed, I do believe in history and showing respect for the wishes of those who came before us. If they built a place to house their dead, then that is a monument to their work and their lives. It shouldn't be bulldozed and buried, then forgotten as people simply commute across their graves.
At last we reached highway 276, where we would finally be turning east toward our eventual destination. A quick stop for drinks and some gas, and we were off again!
Ooh, antiques in Quinlan! The row of shops caught our eye, and we had to pause and wander. While browsing, we saw a black laquer Japanese changing screen that my father would probably go nuts over, and a gigantic grandfather clock that would be stunning with a little careful polishing. In the next store, I spotted an old Boy Scout handbook and with camping on the mind, couldn't help flipping through it a bit. Then Brandy called me to the other side of the store -- she had found her mother's glassware, for only $56 for a set of 14. She desperately wanted to get them, but alas, she had a budget limit for the weekend, and buying them would stress it. I could tell that it broke her heart to leave that find behind us as we drove out of Quinlan.
It seems I chose a very scenic route this time -- we ended up crossing 3 lakes on the way -- 1 of them twice! I love the water, and there's just something special to me about seeing a large expanse of blue leading away -- it's like looking into infinity, even if I can see the shoreline on the other side. It's one of the reasons I moved where I did -- at any time, I can go about 5 minutes away from my house and enjoy a view of the lake. We also went through the ghost town of Coke, where we saw an old store and a firehouse that closed in 1905.
In time, we made out way into Pittsburg, but unfortunately too late to see the Ezikiel
Airship, as the museum was closed. ChickFest seemed to be winding down, too, but we got to park and wander around Main Street, poking in a couple of antique stores -- we found a cool replica of a Chinese ship, with wooden sails. We also found a 1906 edition of a card game called Gavitt's Stock Exchange. This is a trading game in which a deck is distributed to all players, and it contains several rail lines, each with 8 cards of stock. You're trading with the other players all at the same time, trying to get a complete set, then call "Topeka", and win the game. The game was originally produced in 1903, so I was sorely tempted to pick it up -- maybe next time I'm through. Did I mention I was a game nut? Go see my other writings at A Gamer's Eye for more on that subject.
We also stopped in a soda shop, which, while artificial nostalgia, still served a good malt -- Brandy had cherry and I went with chocolate. After walking around for a bit more, admiring the scenery, we decided we'd stopped enough -- it was time to go camping!
We made our way to Daingerfield, and got a brush to finally sweep the sand out of the tent when I pitched it, as well as a couple of sodas. We wouldn't be able to cook at the campsite, as there was a burn ban -- no fires at all, but that was okay...we'd just get dinner somewhere. The sky was looking very threatening, and we felt a few drops of rain, and decided we'd dawdled more than enough....
to be continued
No comments:
Post a Comment