Happy Thanksgiving, Y'All

We've been in "y'all" country for about a month now--drinking sweet tea, eating grits, talking slower. But as I write this, we're in the heart of Texas Hill Country--Fredericksburg. We'll be touring the countryside a bit today as we wind our way to a Cracker Barrel restaurant for an old-fashioned turkey dinner. We're amazed by the number of campers we're seeing this holiday weekend. We even called ahead for reservations here and in our next stop, San Antonio, to be sure we had a place to lay our heads.

We left "the South" for a couple of days when we toured Saint Augustine. It's Spanish flavor permeates the architecture and cuisine. Once again, we fell in love with a specific location. Saint Augustine is not only beautiful, but welcoming. We really soaked up the ambiance there by riding the trolley here and there and just resting on benches to watch the harbor. It reminds me very much of Old Town San Diego and Old Santa Fe--but right on the water. Flagler was a poor man who made good when he got in with the Standard Oil gang. He then built four huge resort hotels in Saint Augustine--one of which is now Flagler College. The towers on the college are made of terra cotta, as are many of the other architectural detailing. Simply gorgeous! Many of the buildings are made of coquina, a natural Caribbean building material made of coral, shell, and sand. When the Spanish built the Castillo de San Marco (Saint Augustine's fort), they used the imported coquina not knowing that the substance is impenetrable from cannon or gun fire. The poorer residents tried to make their own coquina with local shells called "tabby." Both types of building materials are evident in countless old structures. And I bet you didn't know that the first Thanksgiving was held with the Spanish and Natives in Saint Augustine a full 55 years prior to the Pilgrims' celebration. So, perhaps we should be celebrating Thanksgiving in September as they did in Florida all those years ago! Sure would alleviate some of the holiday pressures.

We were sorry to leave Saint Augustine, but we moseyed down Florida's east coast and soaked up the sun and the sand all the way down to Daytona where we then headed west. That was truly the beginning of our return home...a rather exciting day for us! All through Georgia, Florida, and Texas, we spotted armadillos on the side of the road, some as roadkill, others munching the grubs that would surface after the lawns beyond the shoulder were mown. They are so cute! I got the photo of this one as I chased it into the bush! We also looked for alligators and manatees in the wild, but failed to find them. We did, however, see them at Homosassa Springs State Park on the Gulf Coast of Florida. The manatees were fed appetizers of carrots and sweet potatoes, then they moved on to a meal of lettuce, green peppers, and celery. We did get some good photos of them...not that YOU could see what they are...just blobs with lettuce heads bobbing around! The boatride through the bayou to get to the 72 degree springs was so relaxing. That area of Florida is full of bayous where everyone has their own dock and each dock has a power boat or a pontoon boat. Looks like a fun lifestyle to me!

We continued to head around the Florida panhandle and discovered Alligator Point. I've NEVER been to a more beautiful beach--not in Fiji, not in Tahiti, not in Hawaii or Coronado. The sand on this beach is 90% quartz, so it simply shimmered in its purity. That night, we camped at Henderson State Park on Destin Beach near Fort Walton Beach. Can you guess what the photo is? Whoever guesses gets a gift card! (The last guessing game we had, my party-hearty nephew, Brett, recognized the imprint of a shamrock in a glass of Guinness!) We thought we'd stay a while longer at that beach...until the wind came up that night! Eeegads! We moved on.

There really wasn't much we wanted to see in the Deep South, so we headed to Natchez, Mississippi. Do you remember the old TV show, "Maverick?" Well...ever since hearing the words to that theme song, "From Natchez to New Orleans, Living on Jacks and Queens, Luck is the Lady that he loved the best," or something like that, I've wanted to go to Natchez. I'd also read some books that referred to Natchez Under the Hill--the red light district. All I can say is, Natchez was a huge disappointment. Not much there. The city fathers could do so much more with what they have. So, we drove across Louisiana to the great state of Texas.

Yesterday, a native-born Texan used the following phrase to describe how non-natives feel about Texas: "I wasn't born here, but I got here as quick as I could." We are trying to continue to learn as we travel across this gorgeous country of ours and we knew nothing about the oil industry. So, we stopped in Kilgore for a visit at the West Texas Oil Museum. And what a fabulous little nugget they have there! Just as gold did in California and Alaska, oil did in Texas. Changed everything overnight. The museum recreates a boomtown in 1930s, complete with muddy streets, wagons, board sidewalks. We learned of the various ways oil can be submerged beneath the surface of the earth. From there, we continued west to Carrollton, to visit with our friends, the Schmidts.

Dick Schmidt is an executive with the Boy Scouts of America whose headquarters are in Irving, Texas. We toured the Boy Scout Museum and even raced in a mock pine car derby! We shot rifles in the shooting gallery and listened to the Scout leaders tell stories by the fire. Very nice museum. I even got to see Girl Scout uniforms and badges like I had as a girl. That night, the Schmidts very graciously included us in their Monday Night Football evening. They are all rabid Green Bay Packer fans and the Packers were playing that night. The Schmidts are originally from Milwaukee, which explains their penchant for that particular team. Pat made fabulous crock pot spaghetti with all the trimmings. But, most of all, we enjoyed catching up with them after all these years. We hope they'll come see us in Gig Harbor before another ten years go by!

Next, it was down to Conroe, Texas, just north of Houston for a visit with my Aunt Helen who had moved there from Marysville, California, to be closer to her son, Nick, and his family. Aunt Helen suffers from macular degeneration...such a pity for this avid reader who really introduced me to reading. When I was in elementary school, every few months, Dad would drive us to the Greyhound Bus Depot in downtown San Diego to pick up a box of books that Aunt Helen had finished. I'm not sure they were specifically for me, but I treated them as such. They were my introduction to mystery, romance, and adventure. Something I crave to this day. But I think Aunt Helen is doing just great for 90!

That leads us to the Texas Hill Country and the LBJ Ranch. Truth to tell, I really wanted to tour the facilities to learn more about Lady Bird. I really admired her, more so now that I've learned still more about what she accomplished in her life. We toured an authentic, original farm in LBJ's neighborhood and learned about clapboard milk (spelling?), making soap, and saw this Texas Longhorn up close and personal! LBJ owned my dream car. It's another gift card to whoever can guess what it is!!

'Til next time, hope you all had a loving Thanksgiving. We're getting hungry! The McChisms