68 bar rises 29.75 0mpn ENE dew-point 63 Sunrise 5:53 Sunset 8:45pm Summer
Last Quarter of the Thunder Moon
As you can tell by the lawn mower postings, I’m back from Texas. No handy computer down there.
Confession: We had no problems with the airline. I loved the plane, a small Embraer with a single aisle and two rows, 2 seats to a row and plenty of legroom. Left and landed on time. Since we didn’t check anything, no extra fees. Carrying no electronics and all the liquid stuff in the handy quart bag so security was as painless as possible. The rental car was cheaper than advertised and we got a PT Cruiser which was at least an interesting compact. This experience was enough, given my basically positive experience on the flights to Hawai’i, to make me rethink my “never fly unless absolutely necessary” pledge.
With two of us along things always go smoother because we can divide traveling chores, so that’s part of it, but, in the end, it was ok. Not pleasant. Barely worth the cash. But OK.
We spent the weekend encased in East Texas heat and humidity. 97-99 during the day, cooling down to around 80 at night. Since we were not hiking or picking peaches, it was ok, but both Kate and I find the heat enervating, unpleasant at best. The Bakers, Carol and Charyn, have a huge home on considerable acreage outside Mineola, Texas. A former executive for Bell Helicopter, Carol exudes a charming, Texas style hospitality.
Once, long ago, I took a train through east Texas on my way to visit Uncle Charles, Aunt Berta and their daughter, Charyn. This was at least 50 years ago, but my memory of it is fresh because the pine trees and the hills surprised me then, just as they did this trip. When you leave Dallas and head out toward Mineola, the road takes you through flat, reddish tan countryside. Somewhere around Grand Saline (yes, a big salt deposit there. I asked. Morton has a big mine.) the flat begins to roll and the reddish tan countryside has forests of pine and oak.
The drive on Highway 80 runs through Forney, Terrell, Willis Point, Grand Saline, Elmo, Fruitvale and Mineola. On beyond Mineola 80 hits Big Sandy. I love the names of these towns. There are fruit orchards along the way, peaches, apricots and others I could not identify. Even with the salt and the fruit and truck farming, these towns all look worn and tired, as if the promise of the past had not quite come to life.
Mineola is different. It has antique stores and quaint restaurants, Mineola Mercantile, for example, which is a restaurant and stuff store. This is a small town like Long Lake, Stillwater, even Anoka surrounded in the countryside by large properties protected with iron gates protected by keyed locks. Horses are everywhere which helps explain the iron gates. This is the good life far enough from what they call the metroplex, Dallas/Ft. Worth, that the people who live here can feel rural with many of the comforts of upper class life. This includes a Brookshire grocery which is equivalent to a Minnesota Bylery’s.
Carol and Charyn said, “Anything that’s not at Bylery’s or Walmart we can get in Tyler.”
I’ll report some more on the reunion tomorrow.
