Last Of Texas #54

Fully restored we left for a trek to the Pines and Prairie region, a little north of Hwy 10 and east toward Houston. This is cattle country mixed with plenty of those sweet towns again like Bastrop, Fayetteville, Navasota and Anderson. We found ourselves just hunting out State Parks with interesting historical significance like Washington on the Brazos. This Visitors Center/Museum is dedicated to the place and events involved in the signing of the Texas Declaration of Independence from Mexico just at the same time the folks were giving their lives at the Alamo. Kae discovered that Judge Jesse Grimes was attending the conference of the declaration the same day his 18 year old son Albert was being killed at the Alamo. These events were the beginning of Texas’ nine years as an independent republic before they joined the US as the 28th state in 1845.

Independence Hall

Brazos River
Cistern-Only original structure




We heard about a spot in Anderson that was the Fanthorp Inn and is a recreated 1830 farm that the Ladies just had to see. I had some really good sniffs and the gals got a personal tour of the Inn and grounds by the Park Rangers. We thought we might stay around and go back on Saturday for the horse drawn stage coach ride but the gals decided we needed to get closer to Houston so that they could have plenty of time to brave the big city for a trip to the Houston Museum of Natural Science and the exhibit of “Lucy’s Legacy”.








Now, personally, I think that any bone that is 3.2 million years old is going to be lacking in some if the important things like good odors or edible bits but these gal pals of mine were way excited about this common ancestor thing and just had to go see her. Go figure! The Museum is classified as the busiest in the entire US and is starting a major expansion program just to keep up with the daily crowds. After checking out the glorious trees and grass I settled down for a snooze and off they went to visit this famous ‘relative’.





The entire exhibition is a cooperative effort of the Museum and the government of Ethiopia. It included hundreds of wonderful artifacts from that country’s rich past. It was too bad that photography wasn’t allowed but here are a few brochure shots to give you some sense of the experience.





Now I wish I had been with them when they visited the Cockrell Butterfly Center to stroll through 2000 live butterflies housed in a 25,000 square foot, six-story high glass cone. Here they were able to take as many photos as they wanted. Lucky us!















I was totally refreshed and ready to roll when they returned from hours of sniffing out things. So off we went to find an overnight campsite before we lighted at Galveston Island to meet my buddies Mikey and Jake and their Gal Pals Anita and Margaret. We stayed at Galveston Island SP for a few days to romp, roll, swim and sniff until I thought I had died and gone to Hound Heaven. I had so much fun with my buds – the Corgi Guys. All of the Ladies were busy with hikes, photographing and eating. (Be still my happy heart!) There was one really big, scary storm that just made us appreciate the bits of blue we did get, but over all, the area and the weather was beautiful.












Ta Ta Texas! We headed almost due east out across the oil fields, past the refineries and power plants, over the various bridges and over the Sabine River into Louisiana and the State Park at Lake Charles. We’ll be lounging in Louisiana for a bit so catch y’all later ‘gator. (I’m practicing!)