Friday March 1, 2013 Comfort Inn Room 203 Early, Texas
Left our beautiful suite around 930 this morning--50 degrees and sunny. Decided to follow 84 west for awhile to get past Palestine and the loop which we circled entirely last night upon arrival. Once free of it and I 45 traffic we headed out on the Farm Roads I love. At first, we were still in the Big Thicket with its tall pines. Even though it is wooded there are many ranches and all of them, no matter how large or small the house or trailer, has a high poled sign carrying the name of the spread. In Fairfield we shared the road with some big trucks but soon we were on the two lane, narrow country roads that we so enjoy. We laughed when we came upon some sort of road work--complete with flagman and a pilot truck to take us the 500 feet over the single lane. Hilarious!
In time we left the trees behind and the pastures of beef cattle spread out all around us. Some of the ranch houses are incredibly huge and elegant. But on such open land they don't look like the McMansions we see on relatively small plots in the East. These are dwarfed by the surroundings. When we reached Birome and Farm Road 339 we came across empty houses and barns surrounded by beautiful fields that appear to have been plowed in places already this year. The area looked as though it now was one spread where before it may have been several. We think that someone may have bought out the smaller places and the houses were just deserted. One in particular struck my when I saw the nice door and what were left of flowers under a tree in the front yard. Wonder what family lived there and what life was like in that house.
Now that we had finally made our way West of Waco we were able to pick up 2114, another Farm Road that ran a good distance west. Until then we'd had to go from one to the other, swinging north, then west, then south then west once more. This road started off with sweeping curves through beautiful farm land but no idea what was to be planted on it. We passed through several small towns but a really neat one was the town of West, Tx. It looks as though the main inhabitants are descendants of Czech immigrants. The Czech-American restaurant looked really interesting but we'd only eaten breakfast about an hour earlier and just had no desire for lunch yet. If only we'd known, we'd have waited to eat there. It, like several other towns we've passed through, grew around the railroad--a crossroads of sorts. Now, just around the corner and still running through the town, the crossroads is formed by I 35. We, however, continued across the Brazos on the Farm Road. We love that we travel such back roads that it is not unusual to come across a guy riding his bike, merrily listening to something--music, a book on tape, the news?? Back and forth we guessed what it might be. Whatever, he was pedaling along apace and gave us a chipper wave as we passed.
2114 gave way to Farm Road 219 and the flat fields gave way to Texas hill country. We were northwest of Austin at this point. Texas is such a huge State that the topography is really startling--there is such diversity east to west, north to south. I really love this State, for this reason. Louisiana for its heritage; Texas for its geography. We crossed the Bosque and discovered that the area was heavily populated by Norwegian immigrants. A town called Norse was a few miles up a dead end road and I wanted to go to see the church there, wondering if it was one of the beautiful wooden Norwegian churches that were built in Minnesota by the Norwegians there. But, no--no detours for Bill. My sister would have gone round that turn toward Norse on two wheels--lol! A few miles along I forgave Bill the Church when he turned back to let me get some shots of the goats in Mary Dacey's Goat Patch. The gate stands wide open and one would think those goats of all sizes and ages would amble out on the road at will, until you look more closely and see that the three dogs probably would have something to say about it. The guy on the right was hidden from my view when we first pulled up and the other two had their heads in the chow buckets. The one behind the gate was standing at attention and watching us closely. The other two lifted their heads and gave us the once over, too. Then, apparently deciding we weren't coming in, guy on the right laid down and went to sleep. The other two went back to lunch.
Directly across the road? Smith Show Lambs--securely fenced in. Bill said " No dog!" LOL We then came to Cranfill's Gap and back to lower and flatter ground. When we reached Hamilton and picked up Farm Road 218 the names of the towns sounded awfully familiar and as we passed through them--Pottsville, Indian Gap--they looked very familiar. Especially Priddy. That sign--I commented on it last year--Pirates in the middle of Texas. This area is almost ghost town like. There are signs--caution the road may be flooded--and I'm afraid these people wish the road would flood. The creeks are dry as a bone. This is the draught-torn Texas. Deserted buildings, fields that haven't been worked in ages, a school whose windows are broken out--most of the people have left. Others have for sale signs on the gate and others have herds of goats! Not a sign of cattle anywhere. There just is no feed. These are the people who had to slaughter their animals for lack of feed. Goats can survive on less but what is the benefit of goat? Chevre, certainly. Maybe milk in some markets but goat isn't a big meat source in our country. Even most immigrants don't eat goat--lamb, yes. Perhaps there is a market for goat meat somewhere?
At Zephyr we rejoined Rte 84 and continued to our motel in Early. All rooms are suites and all are $95 with our senior discount. Well, it is still cheaper than Binghamton, New York--LOL and Early is the only game for miles around so this is it. Actually, quite a comfy room with a round soft easy chair to curl up on to watch TV or read. We walked across the parking lot and had some of the best Italian food I've had in ages. Bill had sausage pizzaola and I had veal albanese. Both just delicious. Don't know what I was thinking--I had a Lone Star Bock instead of merlot. Finished with black coffee since they had no cordials--a limoncello would have been perfect. But I'm not complaining--the meal was just wonderful. If you'd like to salivate a bit here is the link to the menu:
http://www.ourmenuonline.com/PDFMenus/Gatesville/Gatesville-PrimaPastaRistoranteItaliano&Pizzeria.pdf
Here are a couple of links to get your toes tapping:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LpulhD-5CyM
and
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=maELRCfx3Vw
When we got into the room I checked my photos from last year--we traveled from Temple Tx to Big Spring Tx last year--a long day. Most of it was spent in terrible rain, temperature 40's and all Farm Roads. We traveled the same road from Hamilton to Early through Pottsville etc and I took some of the same pix--including a much better shot of the Priddy welcome sign--LOL Well, I guess my navigational skills haven't diminished --there really wasn't a better way unless we just followed 84 all the way from Palestine--but what fun would that have been??LOL
So now, we are probably going to spend another night in Texas and enter New Mexico on Sunday. We just have to decide how we want to enter--we've been pretty much every way from here--do we want to go to Roswell again? Clovis? Through Odessa? or Lubbock? I like Lubbock--well, tomorrow night I'll fill you in--how do you feel about a windmill museum? Think about it--until then, hugs to all KandB
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