Chocolate And Chickens

THE PIG ON A PLANE AND OTHER TALES

7:42 AM

Our last chapter of Texas led us to Dallas, where construction was a mighty force. From our motel near the airport, we could see several cranes.

We had one free day left, so we chose to explore the Dallas zoo. How pleased we were to find it was a lovely zoo, thoughtfully set up and with huge enclosures for the animals. As it was spread out over 106 acres, they dealt with the challenge that a busy thoroughfare went through the zoo grounds. Cleverly, they simply ran a tunnel for patrons to walk through under the road, and lined the tunnel with gorgeous murals.

The savannah exhibit was marvelous and wound it's way over a wide, long, winding path and contained giraffes, ostriches, zebras and a variety of antelopes. It was usually the home of elephants as well, but as the gate to let the great beasts out was having issues, we saw no elephants that day.
What we did view was the fact that zebras can be ornery beasties: we watched one take a dislike to a certain male ostrich. The zebra chased the huge bird about, eventually even biting the ostrich.

The gorilla exhibits were amazing as well; one enclosure had a papa gorilla with his harem, the other had the 4 bachelor gorillas that live together in more or less harmony. These guys were all 15 years old and big. I mean, they were giant, humongous, massive, enormous, immense!

My Beloved made a new friend in the aviary:

and while we did not see any live elephants, they did have a nice fountain sculpture of the beasts.

As this was a Wednesday, our fellow zoo-goers were mainly mothers with young children, and school field trips with packs of energetic youngsters. It was a very enjoyable day.
So, back to the airport, where we noted that many people had service dogs. Tis 'the thing' these days.... and I'm going to get myself in hot water here, as I strongly feel there is a difference between service dogs, who can sense warnings for epileptics and diabetics, and help those who have physical limitations.... and 'comfort animals' who now seem to fall into the classification as 'service', simply as they help their owners 'feel better'.
You can imagine my shock when we boarded our plane to find there was a 'comfort pig' boarded as well.
This pink, grunting creature had it's own seat, next to it's owners: a young couple.
Most folks found this greatly amusing; I overheard the stewardess say that a few weeks back, they had a miniature horse on board as a comfort animal.
The pig behaved civilly (as did I), and I wondered where the line was: the pig provided comfort to it's owner, but I am not over-fond of pigs.
We sat at the other end of the plane, occasionally hearing grunts and snorts. As I am also not keen on flying, it was a good distraction.
It was so good to get home again.....

TEXAS FISHING

12:03 PM

Bucket List Item # 2 for My Beloved was a bass fishing trip. I'll let you know immediately, this went a lot better than the hog hunting.
We had 2 days to get to the scheduled fishing date, which was perfect, as it was a 2 day drive. A quick breakfast before leaving Gonzales was in order: trouble being, there were no restaurants that served breakfast in Gonzales. We asked around, to find that we were wrong: there was a place....
An ambitious and talented family had converted an old gas station and made it into the perfect tiny breakfast shop. Mexican food being their specialty, home made, perfect tortillas was their crowning glory. Breakfast for two included coffee, and delectable tortillas wrapped around perfect scrambled eggs and bacon, all for the grand sum of $5.99.
Truth be told, the best meal I had the whole trip (although, the chocolate milkshake at Denny's was pretty darn awesome). I was greatly disappointed that I could not take a dozen warm tortillas with me.
Avoiding the interstate as much as possible, we headed out to find another small town called Alba to go fishing. We drove north through east Texas: lovely landscape with green and trees and cattle.

We drove,

and drove,

and drove. I got the biggest kick out of how they pruned the trees from the power lines: clear, straight cuts that left 1/2 a tree in places. (see above - do you see the tree on the left?)

We found Alba, but had trouble with the back roads to get to the resort. Thankfully, they answered their phone, and like every person and business in Texas we dealt with, the lady I spoke to was polite, gracious and very patient. She assured us that we needed to look for 'Tiffany's Restaurant', and there we'd be.

Well, we found the place, but passed it several times, as we were looking for 'Tiffany's Restaurant' in vain.

I don't see 'Tiffany's' on this place, do you?

The fishing place stated they were a resort; having never been to a fishing resort, I was surprised at the mix of practicality and nice this place offered. They had a well stocked fishing supply store, and a row of nice rooms to offer.

Our room was clean and nicely furnished, if you discounted the extremely dehydrated, deceased frog under the end table, poor guy.

The next morning, bright and early, My Beloved met with the guide who took him out fishing.
While they were out fishing, I took a walk to find that many people had trailers and mobile homes parked around the lake area; most studiously and smartly wrapped in screened porches. I can only imagine the many happy hours that families have spent here.

And I'm including this picture below, just because I like the colour combination on this place:

The fishing guide, who'd been born in Texas, had lived in California for a while when he was younger, so did not have the California prejudice that we'd run into before. My happy Beloved thoroughly enjoyed himself, catching 12 bass total, 2 of which were around 5 1/2 pounds.

Catch and release was the name of the game that day; we did not have fish for dinner.
Bucket List accomplished: we had 2 days left. Where to next?

WATER BUFFALOS IN TEXAS?

11:57 AM

My Beloved's Bucket List Item #1 was a boar hunt.

His hope was to, if possible, take a big boar and have a really cool, snarling boar's head mounted for the motorcycle shop.
It seems there are few public lands in Texas for hunting: it is the norm that folks with land allow other people to hunt on their land - for a hefty fee. It is a system that seems to manage itself well.
The ranch My Beloved signed up with for a night hunt is a well know, heavily advertised outfit. They have got it down: the hunter pays the hefty fee and brings his own weapon, orange hat and vest, water and cracked corn for bait. (purchasing these, along with the hunting license was our first 'have to' on our trip and warranted a stop at one of the myriad of Texas Walmart's and a frantic search for a feed store)
Upon arrival at the ranch, he was quickly introduced to the other hunters there, but once it was announced he was from California, My Beloved quickly found he was ostracized.
Seems the 'good ol' boys' don't care for Californians.
Things moved quickly though: the hunters were teamed up and sent off to go find their hunting blinds. Except for My Beloved: he was to hunt solo.
He had no idea that he was expected to drive out over rough land to get to the blind. My Beloved described the others setting forth in their 4 wheel drives and ATV's..... and he set out in our rented Ford Flex.

The hunting blinds were simple platforms set up in trees, with a backless swivel stool set on it. Once folks were up in their respective trees, ranch employees zoomed out, spreading the cracked corn and bait feed.
And then it got dark.
My Beloved described the night: the light chill and mist, the sheer darkness... and then, the sounds.
He could hear a rustle and then rattling. Turning on the flashlight, he found a herd of elk clustered around his tree. And, as it was rutting season, he watched the males clash their antlers and fight. An amazing sight, to be sure.
That's when the water buffalo showed up.
Honey, I told him, there are no water buffalo in Texas. He assured me that this was indeed a water buffalo: big as 2 couches, large and seemingly benign. And it liked the cracked corn too. The beast ate heartily and laid down and took a nap.
He could hear it snore.
Wondering what he was doing, perched up in a tree with elk and a water buffalo underfoot, he turned off the flashlight and waited again.
Until the pigs arrived.
There was much grunting, and gnashing of jaws: he could hear the them chewing. He used the flashlight again to watch, and saw he had a herd of small hogs underneath his tree. They might have been 140 pounds he thought; not the 'big boar' size he'd hoped for, so he as content to watch while he could hear the guns going off from the blinds near him.
My Beloved reported it was a bit rattling, to be sitting on what suddenly felt like a flimsy platform in the dark, to watch these wild pigs fight and rip at each other, and have guns firing repeatedly and furiously around him.
And it was cold.
And wet.
Groups of pigs came and went, all while, the water buffalo snored.
The hunters had been told to stop firing at 9:45pm and come in. My Beloved gave up the ghost at 9:30.
In his haste to employ his great idea of getting into the car and running the heater, he hurriedly placed his gun in the gun case and securely locked the padlocks ..... along with the keys to the gun case, safely inside.
My poor Beloved.
He had to gather up his wounded pride and ask the ranch folks if they had a bolt cutters, which they did.
Thereby ended the hunting trip. And the snarling boar's head donated to the shop by a dear friend will be just fine, thank you very much.

GONZALES, TEXAS

6:55 AM

My Beloved's 1st Bucket List adventure required me to lodge in the very small town of Gonzales, Texas. I'd be thinking this town was indicative of many of the small towns in Texas, so will devote a post to it alone.
Built around the classic town square (named, Confederate Square) Gonzales was rich with history and sad with economic decline. I was greatly entertained by the stories shared by some of the older folks I met there: it seems that Gonzales had the first, the First, mind you, skirmish with the Mexicans in 1835, 6 months before the Alamo happened.
It was a fact they were all quite proud of.
The town's motto is 'Come and Take It'. It seems the Mexicans, who 'owned' Texas at that time, had loaned a small cannon to the white settlers, to ward off Indians. Comanches, I was informed, who didn't scalp anyone, but were notorious horse thieves.
As more and more white settlers moved in, the Mexican residential army got a tad nervous about these folks using the loaned cannon against them, so they asked for it back.
The response from the (rather ill mannered settlers) was "Come and take it!" The settlers won the small battle, a fact that was mentioned with great pride.
The town commemorates the Alamo with a lovely mural of Susanna Dickinson and her baby; the story being that Susanna and her infant were the only ones allowed to flee unharmed from the Alamo.

The town is rather sad; harsh economics playing out it's role. Two dinner restaurants, three hotels and four 2nd hand stores glow amidst empty storefronts. It appears that Gonzales is a dying town.
One 2nd had store stood out: the Emporium. A 2 story building, with shaky flooring, with downright soft footing in areas, peeling walls (interior and exterior) and a ceiling that is giving up the ghost. One needs to walk carefully around various buckets that caught drips. Still, it was worth the impending danger to roam a place that was stacked high and sort of, kind of, organized chaos of .... stuff.

Upstairs was furniture, women's clothing (and every piece included sequins) and saddles.

The proprietor and his wife were gracious, pleasant and eager to chat, even after I admitted that I wasn't going to buy a thing. After a happy 20 minutes of learning the history of the town, I was politely asked: 'what brings you to Texas?'
As I'd already heard that 'the damn, 'scuse me ma'am, techie liberal Californians have corrupted and ruined Austin' I was ready with my answer. I stated that ever since my husband had heard that Hillary was running for president, he wanted to move to Texas.
Right answer, at least to prevent me from getting kicked out of the place. We spent another merry hour, mainly with the proprietor raking all 'damn, 'scuse me ma'am, Democrats, Californians and techie liberals' over the coals.
I have to admit, I found myself much more open minded than my host, but it was his house, so to speak, and I certainly wasn't going to be changing his mind about anything.
It was an interesting education. Strong opinions run right, as well as left, and in each small Texas town we stopped in, opinions were definitely bent to a strong right-wing direction. No real surprise there.
Its a different culture, Texas....

THE ROADS TO, IN AND AROUND TEXAS

4:22 PM

We wanted to see Texas; there are so many things to do and see in that state. My Beloved asked me to make a list of possibilities: not that we wanted an agenda, but if we happened to be nearby....
Of course I obliged: we always have a great time on road trips. No agenda? I was more than fine with that. Exploring is grand fun. Getting lost a happy adventure.
My Beloved then decided he wanted to fulfill a couple of bucket list items, so he scheduled them in without checking a calendar.... nor a map. Nor me.
It turned out we'd start by flying into Dallas, then had Bucket List Item #1 to get straight to in Gonzales, which was more or less by Austin and San Antonio which are in south Texas. Sounded promising, until I saw that Bucket List Item #2 was scheduled 2 days afterward, in Alba , which is just northeast of Dallas.
We flew into Dallas at 9pm. Mr. No Agenda, bless him, thought it not necessary to take my suggestion that we book a room ahead of time for that night, so was surprised to find that the 1st place we stopped at was full... as was the 2nd place.. as was the 3rd. Lost, tired, a bit overwhelmed, we practically dropped to our knees near midnight, in thanks that the 4th place had a room.
In the morning, we headed southeast for Gonzales, to get My Beloved to Bucket List Item #1. (more on that later) The rental car did NOT have a GPS - an invention that ranks right up there with sliced bread and dishwashers - but we did have a map.
Perhaps I should mention here, I am not the best map reader.
The interstates are massive in Texas. They are paved with concrete, the speed limits seem to be fast, faster and fastest: semi-trailer trucks are happiest in the fastest lane and going about 90 mph.

The overpasses and exchanges were huge; obviously there is no worry of earthquakes in Texas! Seeing highway exchanges stacked 3,4 and once, even 5 levels winding above us was not uncommon.

Once out of the Dallas area, we also discovered the on and off ramps are nothing like California's long lingering loops: they appear out of no where quickly, and are maybe 150 feet long. This leads to vehicles suddenly appearing in front of you, desperately trying to pick up enough speed to merge.... as well as us consistently passing up where we wanted to get off.
When we did get off the interstate, we found that most of the frontage roads were either one way (the wrong way for what we'd hoped for) or no right turn to go back... which led to the discovery that if you make a left and drive parallel to the interstate, you eventually get to what is called 'a turnaround' that goes under afore mentioned interstate, so you can loop back and get to where you wanted to go.
Getting back onto the interstate had you commending your soul to God and accelerating with gritted teeth.
The good news was, gas was CHEAP!

It was exciting, to say the least.
One of our favourite discoveries was the Buc-ee's conglomeration in Katy, Texas. After multiple billboards, we had to stop, thinking that Buc-ee's was a restaurant that proudly advertised Clean Bathrooms. Turns out, Buc-ee's is much, much more.
Think of a very nice Wal-Mart merged with the cleanest, best truck stop in the universe. Pulling in, the first thing we noticed was the gas station pumps - long and precise, we were proudly informed that 124 vehicles could be fueled up at the same time. And here's the best part - gas at Buc-ee's was $1,79 a gallon.
That's right, folks, $1.79.
Inside the store, which appeared to be a big as a football field, was a display of everything you might possible desire on a road trip.

Snacks and beverages, of course, including many regional favourites: dill pickle flavoured popcorn being one item that stuck in my brain. Texas related t-shirts and whatnot, fast moving sandwich bars that served up the best tasting, melt in your mouth BBQ beef sandwiches I've ever tasted

and, the piece de resistance, the promised clean bathrooms.
Now, mind, these were just not any old clean bathrooms. There was 2 connected huge rooms that had not just stalls, but solid wall and solid door individual potties. And clean? You could serve dinner off any surface you saw. The attendants were hopping, wiping, spraying, sanitizing constantly.
Impressive.
All the employees were energetic, cheerful, helpful and charming. Perhaps all this enthusiastic, happy energy was powered by the decent wages:

Customer service at it's finest. In fact, the chain made the national news! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSdkEDU_TGI
We thought we'd seen it all though, until we saw the car wash. It has been crowned by Guinness Book of World Records as the longest car wash in the world (yes, everything is bigger in Texas!), and while floods of water and soaps cascade over your vehicle (yes, we had to check it out), giant brushes roll, whirl and scrub your car clean.

And the adventure continues.....

THE PIG ON A PLANE AND OTHER TALES

TEXAS FISHING

WATER BUFFALOS IN TEXAS?

GONZALES, TEXAS

THE ROADS TO, IN AND AROUND TEXAS

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