San Antonio Trip!

Again, traveling down Memory Lane I realized that my posting of summer travels never happened.  So August began with a last minute trip.  After all, Stephanie was heading back to the classroom and Sadie's adventure into Third Grade began in just a few weeks

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Before summer was over we wanted one last hurrah!  And Sadie has never seen the Alamo.

In the last year she has become very interested in Davy Crockett.  She has seen the movie (Disney) and we've watched the Alamo (with Billy Bob Thornton).  She even has a coonskin cap!

This picture was taken in the spring. See, coonskin cap!

So, we made plans to head to San Antonio.  It was a short trip, but we were able to find a neat little hotel in Hotels.com near the Alamo called The Hotel Gibbs.  From our window was a cool view of the mission.

View from our room at The Emily Morgan.  The hotel as a hospital clinic once, and is built on the old homesite of Sam Maverick (which was built over a fort wall).

After settling in we walked the Riverwalk and had Sadie's favorite - Tacos!

The next day, we went exploring:

The Centagraph. Not getting into politics, but I hope it stays right where it is.  You can look up the controversy on your own.

There were several awesome statues on display.  We were told that there were to be placed at various places downtown eventually.  And of course, there was one of Crockett!

After we left the Alamo we went on the Mission Tours (San Antonio Missions NHP). There are 4 total missions and several related sites!  When in SA, don't miss these treasures!  It can get hot, so plan accordingly!

And of course, we finished the day on the Riverwalk with (you guessed it!) Tacos!

When in SA, you eat Tex-Mex, right?  Isn't there a law or something?

The last day before heading home we visited the Alamo again and the Menger Hotel.  General Lee once stayed here, and Theodore Roosevelt recruited many of his Rough Riders here!

Left - One of the statues getting ready to be placed for display. We could not tell who it was.

Outside the Menger.  Is the statue for sale?  Can I afford it? 

It was a good trip, and some good memories were made.  Certainly it was a good way to wrap up a Texas History summer!

Summer 2019 Travels - Bummin' around Texas!

So as I was thinking about summer and summer plans I realized that last year's trip blog was written but not posted.  So here it is.  I am hoping to be a bit more active here in the coming months!

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As the summer draws to an end, it comes to a time to reflect.

This summer was strange.  Normally a long adventurous trip is in the cards, but not so this year due to various reasons that needed to be dealt with.  So, several short trips were in order.

With the end of the school year (for me) and the homeschool year (for Sadie and Stephanie), we had made plans for a return to Glacier Basin campground in the Rocky Mountains, but several job interviews fell right onto the time we had planned to go.  😒

Therefore, with a one-year old camper at our disposal, we made plans for Dinosaur Valley (which I blogged about several weeks ago).  Several weeks later, we set out for Huntsville State Park.

Campsite in the Coloneh Loop Which means "Raven".  I didn't realize how hilly is was down there.

Sadie and Fergus

Camping can be relaxing!

The only hike we had time for this trip. 

Paddle boats, Kayaks and Canoes

 We also visited the Sam Houston Museum in Huntsville (Thanks, Taylon Black!) and paid our respects to the General at the massive statue on I-45.  

Houston's law office

A view from the porch.  

Checking out the old buildings on site at the museum.

And, Washington on the Brazos.  Stephanie took some pictures, but I do not have access to them right now.

We visited Barrington Farm as well, which was the property owned by Texian President Anson Jones.  We had a chance to visit with out friend Laura Fisher, who is a living historian and interpreter there.  In fact, our visit have her a chance to get away from weeding the period garden.  It is a neat place, but for some reason at the time of this writing I could find no pictures that we took!

I did find this one!  Texas Independence Hall - where the Declaration of Independence of Texas was signed!

One of the oldest pecan trees in Texas.  It's parents were from a 1000 miles away, in Mexico.  The seed was thought to have dropped off of a wagon by some weary traveler heading to Texas!  Cool!

It was a nice little summer vacation with a chance to explore some Texas History!  Highly Recommended.

Dinosaur Valley State Park

Camping has become a passion.  Just tonight, I made reservations for yet another outing at a Texas state park.  But that is an entry for another day.

Last week, we went to Dinosaur Valley State Park, which is a truly unique park.  Countless centuries ago dinosaurs walked the lands around the Puluxy River near present-day Glen Rose, Texas.  They left tracks and footprints that became preserved and you can see today (at least, when the water is low).  Glen Rose is proud of their dino-history.  If proof is needed, the life-size dinosaur models should bear witness!

 















This was our first time camping at Dinosaur Valley, although we have day-tripped it to hike the backcountry trails such as the one to Wildcat Hollow/Falls.  The campground is shaded and relatively small, and some of the sites short, but we lucked out with good neighbors around site #43.  The bath house was close as was the playground.  It was a cozy little corner of the park.

For days I had been watching the weather and the river levels, concerned that the high water would make hiking difficult and track-viewing impossible.  The worry about the tracks was well-founded in that the rushing water concealed the dino-prints.  The trails, however, with a bit of wading, were open for business.  

The Buckeye Trail, which meandered along Buckeye Creek, was a highlight in that part of the trail was the creek.  

The water was inches deep all along this part of the trail.

Several grottos and falls could be seen

The loop off of Buckeye Trail

Sadie found a crawfish!

All told, we put in several miles, backtracking from time to time due to missed (or non-existent) trail markers.  The park-provided map was handy to keep our bearings.

Upon crossing the Puluxy again, Sadie lost her hiking stick to the swift waters.  Wading it was fun however, and we returned with Wee Fergus for a splash!

Dinosaur Valley has become a favorite of ours, and not only a destination to be checked off.  We will be back with a strong recommendation for campers of varied interests to explore a small Texas treasure.

The overlook on Cedar Ridge

F. M. Small - Civil War Veteran.

In the search for our family's past it has become quite evident that we are deeply southern.  In the hunt for those that came before I have found, thus far, no soldiers in the Union armies during the War Between The States.  One ancestor seemed to be a unionist who wanted no part of it, but his story I will try to relate at another time.

One of the family branches that has been told of quite often at gatherings and reunions was Ferguson Montgomery Small's.  

F.M.Small, Susan Ann (Montgomery) Small, and J.S. Small, their son.

F.M.Small was born in Amite County, Mississippi on September 10, 1829.  His father was Samual Small, who was a member of the 1st Mississippi Infantry, Co. B, in the Mexican-American War.  He was wounded at Saltillo and buried in Monterrey.  F.M. was a carpenter and farmer and provided for his family with his trade.  His wife was Susan Ann Montgomery.  She was born in 1826.  Together they had a large family of thirteen children. 

When the War Between the States broke out in 1861, F.M., like many of the men in Mississippi enlisted.  His unit was the 39th Mississippi Infantry, Company H (nicknamed the "Dixie Guards.").  Records indicate that he was captured at Port Hudson in 1863, yet testimony by compatriots was that he served a full three years in the Confederate army.  

After the war, F.M. returned home to a burned-out farm, and by the time of his death in 1906, the family was in Sherman, Texas.  His wife survived him by many years and lived to collect his soldier's pension.  Susan's genealogy is known further back than F.M.'s.  In fact, her line of ancestry goes back to the colonial period in Baltimore, Maryland.  

Not long before her death in her mid-90s, Susan Ann Small published the following in a farm and ranch paper:

I am writing to thank the Dear Friends who remembered me with so many letters and cards.  I surely did enjoy them.  I will say to those who want to know something about me that I was born June 21, 1826, and was reared in Amite County Mississippi.  My maiden name is Montgomery.  I came to Texas in 1871.  I am the mother of Thirteen children, six of whom are living.  I have seventy-two grandchildren, and one hundred-sixty great-grandchildren and I now live with my children.  I have been a member of the Church fifty-nine years.  I know that I shall soon pass over the River and I hope to meet all of you good Christians in the home prepared over there.

The following poem was written by Susan Ann:

My life is a wearisome journey.

I'm tired of the dust and the heat

The rays of the sun bat upon me, 

The briars are piercing my feet.

But the City to which I am going

Will the toils of the road seem sweet

When I get to the end of the way.

Memory Lane

When I was a kid we had a camper.  In fact, growing up we had two - one was a 30' Dutchman Camper and the other a 30' Four Winds.  In those two RV's I can remember quite a few cool adventures.  We went to Yellowstone one summer where we camped at the Fishing Bridge campground.  Lake Fairfield State Park and Oak Park on Navarro Mills (a Corps of Engineers lake) were frequent favorites.  One I recall we went to Palo Duro Canyon.  A recent visit with my dad has led me to realize that there are some other destinations that I have forgotten, not because they were boring or mundane, but because my own life has since gotten in the way.

My parents sold those campers when we started doing Living Histories and reenacting as a family, yet in the back of my mind, I wanted to RV again.  So last summer, after a tour of the west that took us to Fort Robinson, Nebraska, the Badlands National Park, the Rocky Mountains National Park and other interesting places in a tent - with two nights fighting prairie winds - we began to shop.  We decided upon our first camper when we visited Gibbs Outdoors in Valley Mills.  We were very impressed with the family-owned dealership. 



Back in the 1990s, we all traveled together to parks and campgrounds, and grandparents, parents, brothers, sisters, and cousins all enjoyed each other's company over a game of dominos, bikes without helmets, or a campfire.  It is my fervent hope that we can one day create something akin to this once more.