Day 14: Action Figure Museum, OK Bombing Memorial, Home

We will arrive home tonight.

Our first stop is the Action Figure Museum in Pauls Valley, Oklahoma. This is a collection of thousands of action figures with few explanations. This is the owner's collection on display, most still in the original packaging. Display of all the Batman figures required three large exhibits in a Bat Cave in the rear of the store. There were two hands-on play areas. One allowed visitors to try on various superhero costumes and admire themselves in a mirror.

The most amusing display was the collector's bedroom (shown below). The description at the front of the exhibit explained this was the bedroom of a collector who still lived at home (because who else could afford to buy every version of every action figure?), was overweight from eating cookies and lacked social skills.



Pictures of museum on Flickr.

Our next stop was the Oklahoma City National Memorial for the April 19, 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. This place has a memorial and a museum. The memorial is composed of several parts.

The street where the van exploded has been replaced by a long black granite reflecting pool. The bomb exploded at 9:02 am. At each end of the reflecting pool are tall black "gates" labeled 9:01 and 9:03 for the minutes before and after the explosion. The pool and panels capture the moment when the explosion changed us.

On the Federal building side of the street is a field of 168 empty chairs representing the children and adults who died in the explosion. The chairs are arranged in nine rows for the nine stories of the building.

In the picture below, the empty chairs are just outside the right side of picture. The camera is looking down the reflective pool toward gate 9:01. Behind the camera is gate 9:03.



Pictures of memorial on Flickr.

On the left side of the picture, the largest tree on the distant hill is the Survivor Tree, an American Elm that stood in the center of the parking lot across the street from the Federal building. The explosion badly damaged this tree. It lost all its leaves. After being heavily pruned, it sprouted growth and now symbolizes recovery from this tragedy.

To the left of the Survivor Tree is the Journal Record Building. The explosion heavily damaged this building. Three of its floors now house the memorial museum.

The museum begins by emphasizing how normal April 19, 1995 started. The explosion is represented by an actual tape recording of the beginning of Water Board hearing that began at 9 am on that day. Two minutes into the recording a loud explosion occurs. The explosion was so loud the tape was unable to capture its full resonance.

We then move into a room were we see the "live" newscasts immediately after the explosion. The rest of the exhibits document the experiences of the survivors, their families, the rescuers, the response of the public, the investigation and trial of the terrorists involved and world-wide media coverage up to the completion of the memorial itself. The coverage of these exhibits is very extensive and complete.

We arrived at home in Great Bend at around 9 pm Saturday night.

Day 13: History and Evolution

This morning we visited the Harold B. Simpson Complex and Research Center on the campus of Hill College in Hillsboro.

We went there so Kathy could check out its genealogical resources. It was originally called the Confederate Museum. The main display area exhibits paraphenalia about Texas Confederate regiments and explains Texas' unique role in the Civil War. Though Texans under Hood provided very reliable regiments for Lee's army, the state of Texas most important contribution to the war was supplying the Confederacy because Texas was the only Confederate state bordering a neutral country, Mexico. Mexico purchased southern cotton in exchange for important supplies. This important role ended when the Union completely controlled the Mississippi River with the capture of Vicksburg in 1863.

The museum now has exhibits about all major US wars including a fairly large collection of modern military weaponry. Not only rifles and machine guns, but also WWI hand grenades, bayonets and medieval-looking spiked maces and even a spiked-ball flail for hand-to-hand fighting.

In the afternoon, we looked at the 100 million year old dinosaur tracks in Dinosaur Valley State Park outside Glen Rose, Texas. Pictures on Flickr.

The tracks are in the limestone bottom of the very shallow Paluxy River which flows into the Brazos River. 100 million years ago this area was a beach on the ocean and several different types of dinosaurs vacationing on the beach left their footprints.

The nearby Creation Evidences Museum was closed by the time we got there. This museum is supposedly associated with Dr. Carl Baugh. Here is an older article with a picture of what it looks like today and an evolutionists critic of the museum's exhibits.

The Glen Rose dinosaur tracks were famous in the evolution-creation debate in the 1980s because the creationists claimed that some prints were actually human. Dinosaur and human prints appearing together would obviously disprove evolution.

We are camping in at Dave's campground west of Gainesville, Texas, a stone's throw from Oklahoma.

Day 12: Washington-on-the-Brazos and Barrington Farm

While Jim Bowie and Davy Crockett were dying at the Alamo, Sam Houston and 58 other Tejanos and Texans were busy declaring independence and writing a constitution at Washington-on-the-Brazos.

In 1836, Washington Town, as it was called then, was a new town being built near a river ferry crossing the Brazos. The town had only one street. Actually the street was logs cut low enough to allows wagons to allow wagons to roll over them. There were few houses and stores. The best building in town was still under construction shop being built by the Robinson who owned the ferry. A “blue northerner” had just arrived bringing freezing temperatures. Since the shop still did not have windows and doors or a stove, burlap what nailed over these openings keep out the cold wind.

One one ever mentions that the cold weather might have increased the efficiency of the meeting. However, the meeting opened on March 1 and the Texas Declaration of Independence was written and signed by March 2. Then then began writing the Constitution of the Republic of Texas.

When the Alamo fell on March 6^th Santa Anna executed all the male fighters. This created a panic all across Texas called the Runaway Scrape. Delegates at Washington Town learned of the fall of the Alamo on March 15th. They assumed Santa Anna would come next to Washington Town. Nevertheless, delegates stayed until the Constitution was finished and the new administration was sworn in.

With the exception of the rebuilt Independence Hall, Washington-on-the-Brazos is now an empty field. The town grew until about the 1860s when the town leaders foolishly decided not to provide the $11,000 needed to bring the railroad through town. They thought the river would meet their transportation needs. So the railroad went to Navosota less than 10 miles away. In 1911, a fire swept through what remained of Washington-on-the-Brazos. Today, Navasota is a town and Washington-on-the-Brazos is a state park.

Washington Town, by the way, was named after Washington, Georgia, Robinson's hometown.

We also walked through the extensive museum of Texas history and Barrington Farm. Barrington farm is a living history farm of Anson Jones homestead. The cotton was still in bloom. Kathy is smelling a cotton flower.

Cotton varieties come in a rainbow of colors. White is most popular because it does not have to be bleached. This year Barrington Farm had brown and green varieties. The color fades after long exposure to sunlight.

The house is horizontally divided equally into three equal parts. At each end is an enclosed area divided into two rooms. One room in the front of the house. One room in the back of the house. The rooms at one end are the front and rear bedrooms. The rooms at the other end of the house are a dining room and parlor. There was a second story with three more rooms which were bedrooms for the kids. The middle third of the ground floor is a breezeway. This was a wonderfully cool place. There was a nice breeze. And we could easy see what was going on in the front and backyards. This was obviously a frequently used common area were the whole family would gather much of the time.

Anson Jones was president of the Republic of Texas when Texas was annexed to the United States in 1848. Anson Jones committed suicide 1858. Since he never left note explaining his reasons, everyone seems to have a hypothesis for why he did it. These range from morphine no longer eased the pain of his injured left arm to depression caused by failure at being elected to the US Senate to realization that he would not be able to start up his medical practice in Houston.

In this part of Texas chickens wear fancy hats.

The spiders jump on their lunch rather than use webs. There are 4,000 species of jumping spiders. This one holding a cricket is a Phidippus audax. Most spiders have eight eyes, but not necessarily good eye sight. Jumping spiders have four eyes in front and four on the top of their heads. These spiders seem to have especially keen vision.

In the past, when I have leaned over jumping spiders blocking their light, they turn their body so they can look up at me with their large front eyes.

When I put my finger down in front of them they will jump on it and then jump back. If I move my finger slowly toward them, they retreat. If I move my finger back, then they move forward and jump on and off it. Jumping spiders are the only insect I have been able to "play" with.

We camped at Lake Whitney State Park near Hillsboro, Texas.

Day 11: On to Washington

While Travis, Crockett and Bowie were beating off the Mexicans at The Alamo, Sam Houston and 58 other Texans were declaring independence and writing a constitution at Washington-on-the-Brazos, a little ways north of Houston. So we left San Antonio heading east toward Washington.

We stopped at the Sebastopol State Historical Park in Seguin, Texas. This house is an early concrete house. The front room is large with windows and large doors on three sides. Very light and airy. The bedrooms in the back also open onto the large side porches. The kitchen is on the ground floor in the back of the house.

We camped at Navasota municipal park, near the airport. This costs $10. Since we did not have $10 in cash, we drove into Navasota to use an ATM machine. This was Halloween night. Kids literally lined the sidewalks waiting for candy.

During our drive to Navasota we passed lots of blacks in the country. East Texas was a cotton growing region with a numerous cotton planations before the Civil War. During the Civil War, slaveholders in other parts of the south sent their human property to Texas away from the Yankee invaders who freed slaves.

Day 10 Buckhorn and O. Henry's house

We rode the bus downtown again. This time we visited The Buckhorn Museum. The museum has a huge antler collection. The founder Frederick Buckhorn used to give cowboys a free beer if they brought in a horn. The museum also has an extensive collection of stuffed land animals and fish from around the world. And a Texas Ranger museum including a Bonnie and Clyde car covered with bullet hole decals.

About a mile away in O. Henry's two-room house. O. Henry worked as a bank teller and small-newspaper editor in San Antonio. When he was accused of embezzlement he ran to South America. He returned when his wife got sick, turned himself in and spent three years in jail where he learned to write short stories. Now the local sherrif's department supplies teenage caretakers for O. Henry's house so they too can improve themselves through punishment.

Near the O. Henry house is Market Square. We ate a Mexican lunch. During lunch an old guy with a guitar asked us if we wanted music. Chris foolishly approved and we had to suffer through a poorly sung Spanish song you have all heard, but I don't know its name. We overpaid his efforts with some change. He deserved a beating. OK. OK. He was an old guy. He can't help it if his voice is mostly shoot. He deserved retirement.

We walked around the Market Square. Lots of colorful clothes, pottery, posters, t-shirts, hats, etc. etc. etc. Mexican style. All-in-all the quality was higher than the usual tourist junk because much of it was intended for serious interior decoration and wearing.

That evening we drove around San Antonio. We were looking for a costume warehouse and an exotic meat market we had seen earlier. We did not find these stores, but we did shop in a very large Goodwill-type store. We bought a can opener, 2 pairs of shoes and an experimental statistics textbook.

Day 9: Relearning the Alamo

This morning we rode the bus downtown and got off several blocks from the Alamo. The Alamo was one of the five missions of San Antonio. The mission's original name was San Antonio de Valero Mission. After the San Antonio missions were closed by the Spanish government, Mexican government ordered the mission fortified by The Second Flying Company of Álamo de Parras in Mexico. The name Alamo honors these Mexican troops.

The roof and the curved top of the front of the Alamo church was added by the US Army in the 1840s. All the fighting took place outside this church. David Crocket's men defended a wooden stockade wall near the front of the church.

A guide described the events leading up to the Battle of the Alamo. (Flickr pictures of the Alamo.) Try as we might, they refused to show us Alamo's basement.

The Texas Revolution lasted from the Skirmish of Gonzolas on October 2, 1835 over a small cannon to the 18-minute Battle of Jacinto April 21, 1836.

Kathy found and purchased a really great looking t-shirt at a extremely good price at the gift shop. The shirt gray with an elegant "Remember the Alamo," March 6, 1830 on the front. When Chris wore it two days later, Kathy noticed that the year on the t-shirt is 1830. The Battle of the Alamo occurred in 1836.

After visiting the Alamo Kathy and Chris took a river walk boat cruise.

Day 8: A Sunday mission

Sunday, we drove to Sunday service in the church of Mission San José y San Miguel de Aguayo, one of five churches in the San Antonio Missions National Historical Park. (Flickr pictures)

The Catholic mass is enlivened with mariachi music. Kathy liked the upbeat happy music. The place was packed. At one point everyone in the rows held hands, even across the aisles, and we sang and rocked to the music. At the end of the service everyone celebrating birthdays and wedding anniversaries was invited to the front. A couple celebrating their anniversary danced to a mariachi waltz.

A chapel on the south side of the church has been set up for the Day of the Dead celebrations. On and around the alter people put pictures of dead relatives and stuff they liked: lots of favorite toys for children and soft drinks for adults. Other symbols include skulls with people names on them and hanging colorful paper cutout with symbolic designs.

After the service the mariachi band entertained worshipers in front of the church convent.

Kathy and Chris took a tour of the mission.

It is walled with gun ports covering the gates. The mission was established to Christianize and civilize (i.e., turn them into tax-paying Spaniards) the Coahuiltecan Indians. The missionaries, soldiers and visiting European dignitaries lived in the convent near the church on the right end of the above map. the indians lived in two-room houses in the rest of the walls.

Pictures of Mission San Jose on Flickr.

The guide corrected our Western misinterpretation of a common Indian scene. An Indian couple are traveling together. The man is walking out front carrying his bow and arrow. The woman is walking behind dragging the household and with a baby in tow. Westerners wonder why the man doesn't help the woman. The guide said the man is carrying his stuff and is ready to take advantage of any prey that may cross their path or defend the woman and child. The woman is carrying her stuff. It's her stuff. She would not want a man to carry her stuff.

We camped at Traveler's World, a mile south of downtown. That afternoon drove downtown, walked the Riverwalk and to the Alamo.

Day 7: San Antonio at last

Chris began the morning with a tour of the rock art at Seminole Canyon State Park and Historic Site.

The tour begins with a walk down stairs to the bottom of the canyon, then along the bottom of the canyon to the rock art cave. This canyon is created by the run off from the surrounding land during rain storms. The water flows into the Pecos River a couple of miles down the canyon. The bottom of the canyon is dry except for large puddles of water here and there. The cave ahead has thousands of drawings over thousands of years. The ash on the floor we walk on is 12' to 30' deep. In the ash are layers of ancient woven mats that are like rugs so the people did not walk on the ash.

Many pictures easily seen because the colors permeated the porous rock. Most of the art is the Pecos River style. We don't know what the pictures actually mean. Most are human figures. Some have animal-like features such as deer antlers or wings. But they are not doing clearly identifiable actions like hunting. The current interpretations are that these pictures represent the spiritual trips to the underworld of shamans, but these are only guesses.

We drove onto San Antonio. Our campground was north of San Antonio, 10 miles south of New Braunfels. That evening we drove to New Braunfels. We first searched out the Schlitterbahn which is claimed to be the largest water park in North America. Actually there are three Schlitterbahn water parks. The other two are at South Padre Island and Galveston Island.

While driving through downtown we spotted a marquee on the BraunTex which said “The Three Redneck Tenors” would be performing that night. We immediately parked the van and walked to the box office. As luck would have it, we purchased the last tickets. They were balcony seats. We returned to the van, changed our clothes and returned to the theater for the gala performance.

One of the three redneck tenors wrote this corny opera and hired three other guys, one gal and a band to put it on around the country. They recently recorded a Christmas album and will be performing at the Luxor in Las Vegas in the coming month. They really are good singers, but their acting and show is rather corny. The storyline is that a Kentucky Colonel-type promoter discovers three redneck boys with lots of natural singing talent, but no class. Nevertheless, he is going to make them stars. The rest of the play consists of their various performances from local rodeos up to Carnegie Hall.

In each performance up the ladder to success they wear different costumes and sing a different type of popular songs including medlies of TV themes and patriotic songs, Elvis Presley numbers and old country favorites, stuff the greatest generation would recognize, nothing newer than probably 1970. Most songs are sung straight, but they do an interesting combination of Ave Maria and Dixie. Many songs can be heard on their MySpace page.

Day 6: Mexican vendors at Boquillas Canyon

We drove from Shady Butte back across Big Bend National Park to the east side and Boquillas Canyon.

On this side of the park there is an overlook where we can easily see the countryside surrounding Boquillas Del Carmen, Mexico on a distant hill. Just across the river we could see
several Mexicans working in a grove. One called to me, “Amigo, (Mexicans always call you amigo.) do you want to buy a walking stick?” It was easy to hear him despite the distance. I called back, “No.” A couple of minutes later a young Mexican man arrived at the top of the hill carrying a load of stuff to sell: four walking sticks painted with colorful drawings of cactus and
birds and the words Boquillas, Mexico, several scropions made from twisted red wire, some arrowheads and a jar for money. A badly worded sign that said scorpions cost $5 and the money was for a charity for kids.

Chris purchased one of the red wire scorpions with red eyes. We are going to hang it from the mirror in the van.

Chris then hiked up Boquillas Canyon. This canyon is more open than Sana Elena Canyon. The ground is sandy and more open. During the walk in I came across two more offerings of walking sticks, wire scorpions and purple agates of various sizes. The scorpions in one offering were vary large and cost $7. The price of agates ranged from $5 to $20. The sellers were sitting on the other side of the river were they could see their wares. One guy was sitting in front of a 10' by 10' hut made of reeds (very center of the picture). He called across to me and asked if I wanted to buy anything. Again I said no. He sang a song as I walked out of the canyon. His voice was not beautiful, but it was loud. He sang in Spanish. I did not recognize the song, but one lady I passed said in a Spanish accent that she recognized the song.

After the canyon we drove north back to Marathon and then east toward San Antonio. Just before the Pecos River we stopped at Langtry, where Justice of the Peace Roy Bean ran a saloon where he provided the “Law West of the Pecos.” Judge Bean has a reputation of being a hanging judge. Though he often threatened to hang men, he only condemned two men to die. At least one escaped. Bean was in reality a con man who bilked customers out of money during court and known braggart with a flare for self-promotion.

Roy named his saloon the Jersey Lily after Lilly Langtry a famous British-American actress of the day. He wrote her letters and often bragged that she someday she would arrive on the train for a visit. On the evening of March 15, 1904, Roy Bean got drunk and died the next day. Ten days later Lilly Langtry actually did show up at Roy Bean's bar and courthouse. Roy's regulars told her stories about him. Like the time he fined a man who had committed suicide. The guy jumped off a bridge and died. In his pocket was a pistol and $40 in gold pieces. Bean fined the man $40 for carrying a concealed weapon.

We camped down the road at Seminole Canyon State Historical Park. This large canyon is not a river canyon. It has been created from the run-off of rain flowing toward the Pecos River. The smooth bottom of the canyon is dry accept for some small pools of clear water. However, this canyon is a state park because the sheltering overhangs cut into the canyon sides are covered in rock art several thousand years old.