Day Three. Garrison and Nacogdoches, Texas

Today we drove back to Garrison...looks like there's not much there besides the restaurant where we ate the other night.

And this.  The Wiley Hotel, founded sometime between 1885 and 1890.  Doesn't seem to be open, except for special events and a once a month lunch.  The only information I could find online is here.

Sweet gazebo behind the hotel.

Train runs right in front of the hotel.

But this may be my favorite thing in Garrison.  Happy Cow Feed Depot, right next door to the hotel!

"Livestock Feed" "Garden Supplies" "Gifts" "Udder Things"

No time to shop for any gifts or udder things, though.  Drove on into Nacogdoches to see a few things we missed last Fall.

First stop was the LaNana Creek Trail.  It was a nice walk.  

Not much blooming right now, but we did find a few pretty things.

Love these tiny flowers that grew all along the trail.  Violets?

A very old, very tiny cemetery.

Redbud tree.

There's more trails at the Gayla Mize Garden.

Lots of azaleas, camelias and magnolias here.  

Very pretty, although many of the plants aren't in bloom quite yet.

Red Slippers Azalea

Magnolia Hybrid - "Susan"

Peter Pan Camellia

Florida Flame Azalea

By the time we walked through the second trail, I was exhausted, so we headed back to the RV Park, where I started sorting through today's photos, and Tim went out and WALKED some more!!!  

Crazy Cowboy!

We head out to Louisiana in the morning.  I hear there are storms headed this way.  I'm praying for safe travel.

Day Two. Garrison, Texas

Okay, so this is actually the morning of day 3 of our Spring Road Trip.  But it's about day 2.  I just wasn't organized enough to post it last night.

I had big big plans for yesterday. Go to church, lunch and spend time with our son, buy groceries, explore our RV park, then going to a local church that was simulcasting Harvest America.

Well.  We did meet our son for lunch.  We ate at the Jalapeno Tree in Henderson.  It was really good.  He had to get back home, so we went to WalMart, then back to Tonkawa Springs RV Park to explore a bit.

This place doesn't really look like much when you first pull in.  I mean, it's just the normal East Texas pine forest, which is beautiful, and certainly different from North Central Texas.

Which reminds me of a conversation the Cowboy and I had Saturday as we were driving here, about how Texas is really like at least 5 different states.  East Texas with it's lush green forests and humid atmosphere is so very different from where we live, which is totally different from the hill country, which is totally different from the Gulf Coast, which is light years different from West Texas.  South Texas along the Rio Grande is almost like another country.  Tim says the Panhandle is different, but I think the Panhandle is pretty much like West Texas, but with the occasional  blizzard.  Tim says it's different because of the canyons, but, unless you live next to or in a canyon, you'd never know they were there.  So.

Anyway, back to Tonkawa Springs.  We walked and walked, and finally found the springs.  According to their website, this has been a resort area for over 100 years.

At first I was disappointed to learn that the swimming area had been drained so they could clean it up and prepare for swimming season.  But it's kind of cool to be able to see it empty, with just a trickle of water running through the bottom.  I wonder when that rock wall was built, and the springs dammed to make the swimming area?

I've always said I don't want to be in the East Texas humidity in the summertime, but I may have to come back to see this filled with water. 

While walking, we came across more of the park's exotic deer.

Guess they finally decided we were too close, so they got up and left.

Can you see all that sand in the picture.  There is sand everywhere here.  I thought East Texas was all good black farmland.  We got off on a county road by mistake, and it was so sandy the pickup was sliding all over the road.  Scary!

I just thought this old building and water tower at the rv park looked cool.  

Is anyone else reminded of Petticoat Junction?

Lake O' the Pines

I just realized I forgot to finish this and post it last fall.  It was the last post for our Autumn 2015 road trip.  So here it is, still not really finished, but at this point, I have no idea what else I intended to say...  This should have been dated 11/17/2015, I think.



When we pulled into our space here at Brushy Creek Corps of Engineers Campground at Lake o' the Pines, my first words were, "Can we just live here forever?"

This place is gorgeous.  

We are here to visit our son, who recently moved to Longview.  He's still looking for a church, so we went looking with him on Sunday.

Fellowship Baptist reminded us of our home church.  We really liked the preacher, too.

Son had to go back to work on Monday, so we did some sightseeing.  We had been to Jefferson about 34 years ago, and we wanted to see how much it had changed.  We were very pleasantly surprised!