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On the road again and headed for home sweet home! I can almost hear Willie Nelson singing. Up this morning and feeling great! Hit the road and on the way out of town, I had to pull over for a shot of the many refineries along the edge of Corpus Christi. Right after high school I really had no idea what I wanted to do with my life. A feeling I am sure is all too common to all of us at that age. I decided I would take whatever job came along for the money and see what happened.
Well, one of these jobs was working in industrial insulation. This included the usual fiberglass stuff plus a product I had never seen before called Kalo. This basically looks like big blocks of chalk in the shape of a pipe cut in half length wise so you can put it around hot refinery pipes and then cover it with a sheet of aluminum. It's pretty messy stuff to work with because much like chalk, you end up covered in white powder. The big joke was that we better not ever get pulled over by cops because they would think we were really bad drug mules. LOL I did this job for a while and worked at a couple of different refineries. Part of the job meant climbing those huge stacks to insulate some pipes. Being young and fearless we would turn it into a game of who can get up there quicker. OSHA would have had a field day dealing with all the safety violations of our climbing with no safety gear on. After a while I realized this was not for me. As I have repeatedly told my own kids, you have to look at what you can learn from every job. This job taught me that this is not what I wanted to do with my life, an important lesson. I tell my kids that they need to look at every job from this perspective so they don't end up doing the same job again and end up as miserable as they were the first time they did the job!
Back to the road and Adios, Corpus Christi! It's been a while since I left Alaska and I am anxious to get back. Luckily, I have a good job with plenty of vacation to allow me to take a month off and do a trip like this! I pulled over in the small town of Beeville, TX to snap a picture of one of the grandest looking mesquite trees I have ever seen. This was huge and beautiful! Mesquite trees are as common in Texas as Alder trees are in Alaska. Mesquite makes awesome firewood for BBQ and adds a great taste for smoking. Alders on the other hand are the only wood of choice for smoking salmon giving it a wonderful taste. If you've never had fresh smoked king salmon, you have no idea what you are missing! Alder trees however, grow like weeds in Ketchikan and are thought of more of as a nuisance than anything else. I use some for firewood to heat the house but it burns too fast and too hot so it’s not my first choice for firewood but if it's cold and you want heat, you will make do with what you have!
I made it to San Antonio, TX in a couple of hours and had to get off the freeway to go by my old apartment in Balcones Heights. San Antonio is so big; it has absorbed several small towns within its city limits. This was my first apartment back around 1980. I worked in San Antonio for a year before deciding it was just too big a town for me and I headed back to Corpus Christi. The picture looks exactly as I remember the place, pretty old back then too. I had a studio apartment that was not expensive and got to meet some fun people while living there. I had a couple of Arabic brothers for neighbors who made an attempt to teach me their language. FAIL! Overall, I think they made me say stupid stuff because there was much laughter during these lessons as we enjoyed a beer or two! As a matter of fact, I know they had me saying stupid stuff because they had the same warped humor as me and that’s what I would have done to them!
Made it out of San Antonio's God-awful traffic in one piece and just south of Comfort, TX when I decided I needed a little comfort from the heat. I stopped at a rest area and found a great big shade tree to park under and then lay on the picnic bench for a little while cooling off. I know from experience that if I allowed myself to get too hot, I would just be miserable for the rest of the day. Also, I'm in no hurry so why not? Funny thing but now that I am older, trips to Texas mean having to spend a lot of time in air conditioning and shade. I grew up there and don’t remember really having any trouble with the heat. I guess you acclimate to your surroundings.
A little rest and back to it. Thank goodness I got short on gas when I reached Junction, TX because otherwise I might have blinked and missed this town entirely! There's a gas station here and not much else. Fueled up, wet my doo rag, a drink of water and here we go again.
As I'm pulling closer to Roosevelt, TX another miss-able town, I pulled over to look at the rocks they cut to make this road. Really cool looking layers in the rock to admire. As I stated earlier, I am not the greatest photographer so yes, that's my finger in the picture! I kept going until I spotted a Dairy Queen in Sonora, TX. It struck me at that point that I had not been to a Dairy Queen yet! I ordered a small caramel sundae and enjoyed it in their air conditioning. At this point it's just after 2:00, I've already gone 350 miles and this route looks like a bust. Not too much interesting stuff to go explore! With this in mind, I hit the road.
I am riding along on the highway and for some reason, I feel drawn to take the exit to Ozona, TX. You can't see the road from the highway but something tells me I should go have a look. I've never heard of this town and I have driven most of the roads in south Texas at some point or the other in my youth. I get off the highway and onto a road lined with huge beautiful trees. This town is exceptionally clean and the houses on this road are super nice. Looks like something out of a magazine. I follow the road and it leads me into the center of town. If I wasn't there in person, I would swear this was a town out of a TV show from the 40's or something! The center of town has a park with these really interesting buildings all around. I rode around the square and opted to get on the road again. I don't want to end up trapped in a Norman Rockwell painting or anything!
I get no further then Stockton, TX before I have got to pull over. This place is as flat as you can get. I’m betting I can see over a couple of states! Out in the distance is what I can only describe as pyramids. Talk about something looking out of place! With no way to tell how to get to them, the picture I take leaves much to the imagination! Somebody like National Geographic should pay me for finding the "Lost Pyramids of Texas"! Well Stockton gets funny and strange for another reason. I opt to fuel up a little early in case gas stations get rare. I don't want a repeat of New Mexico here! I pull into this gas station and can't help but start laughing almost immediately. I go in and find an older lady sitting at a small table playing cards with 3 other people. I decide I want some bottled water for the road and everybody has to get up to make room for me to get anywhere. It was hilarious because here is this tiny place, so small that if you go to do anything, everybody has to stop the game, get up and move so you can shop and then back to the game. The lady sees my license plate and it gets interesting. Now, remember that I said there were two bikes getting on the ferry ahead of me when I left Ketchikan, AK. The lady at the gas station proceeds to tell me there had been a couple of Brazilian guys there about a week before headed to Alaska. She described the two guys I had seen in Ketchikan to a "T" including the fact that only one of them spoke English well. I asked her if they were riding BMW motorcycles and she described the two bikes in the picture I took in Ketchikan exactly. I was floored because I am now sure these were the same two guys! Talk about a small world!
I'm headed into Pecos, TX and now I am wondering where the heck all the cows are. I haven't seen one in at least 200 miles! I remember as a kid my next older sister Mira and I sitting in the back seat looking at all the cows and arguing which of us owned which of those cows. It gave us something to do without driving my parents insane on the road trips. So, you know how they portray Pecos, TX on TV? Well, they lie! I kept looking for the OK corral or something like that and remembering all the shootouts from the old westerns I watched as a kid. I stopped by the rodeo grounds and this place is deserted! They claim to be the World’s First Rodeo. There's hardly anybody out and about in this town. I took a ride through town and found some funky mural on an old building and the museum that unfortunately was closed by the time I pulled in. I figured I had covered so much ground; I could flake off and visit the museum but nobody was home. I decided I would just go ahead and get a room here in Pecos for the night and start fresh in the omorning. I found a tiny motel with tiny rooms but at least the room was cheap, clean, and air-conditioned! I hadn't realized till I checked my odometer that I had covered 560 miles today. Nothing much to see on the route so far so I guess I lost track of time and distance!
Following are some details on the pictures:
Pic 1 - Making Gas: Just a quick shot of one of the refineries on the way out of Corpus Christi. When I was very young, I used to work at these installing Kalo. That's a hard insulation on pipes. Looks just like a huge block of chalk.
Pic 2 - Adios Corpus Christi: Adios Corpus Christi! The road back to Alaska beckons. Home sweet home.
Pic 3 - Huge Tree: Just had to pull over to take a pic of this huge mesquite tree in Beeville, TX. Beautiful and plentiful. This tree is as common as alders back home. Best wood for BBQ and smoking meats though!
Pic 4 - My First Apartment: Balcones Heights, TX is actually part of San Antonio. I just had to pull over to take a pic of my old apartment complex where I lived in about 1980. Trust me, it didn't look much nicer then but it was a great little apartment.
Pic 5 - Time For Some Shade: Great little shade break just north of San Antonio and south of Comfort, TX. Gotta keep cool to enjoy the ride!
Pic 6 - Easy to Miss: This is Junction, TX. No really, this is all of Junction, TX. One little gas station and that's about it. If I didn't have to stop for gas, I would've missed it.
Pic 7 - Pretty Rocks: Yes, that's my finger. The cut away rock in this area is pretty cool looking with a bunch of layers. Right by Roosevelt, TX.
Pic 8 - Ice Cream Time: Small DQ caramel sundae in Sonora, TX. Just what I need! 350 miles already and it's only 2:15 pm. Making good time cause I haven't seen much that's interesting. Better luck down the road I hope!
Pic 9 - Drawn off the Road: On a whim, I chose to go through Ozona, TX since I had never heard of it. The road into town is tree lined. Looked like an interesting stop and it was. Very clean town.
Pic 10 - Pretty Houses: The tree-lined road has houses just like this all up and down and they look really cool.
Pic 11 - Downtown Ozona: Center of town has a park that's really nice and has buildings just like this one all the way around.
Pic 12 - Interesting architecture: This is another building on the other side of the town park.
Pic 13 - Still Ozona: This is the county museum that is also on the side of the park. The architecture is pretty interesting.
Pic 14 - Pyramids: This is proof that Texas has pyramids. I had to go to Stockton, TX to find them but they are there! I need a reward for finding them.
Pic 15 - It's a Small World: This gas station is in the middle of nowhere. Otherwise known as Stockton, TX. The lady saw my plates and started talking about two Brazilian guys who were headed back from Alaska. She described them and I asked if they road BMWs. Turns out they are guys I saw on the ferry down.
Pic 16 - No cows: Been seeing lots of these windmills lately. Must be abandoned because I haven't seen a cow in at least 200 miles. You would think Pecos, TX would have plenty of cows!
Pic 17 - Not like TV: Made it to Pecos! Had to stay in a town mentioned in all the old westerns at least once. Kept the gun handy in case of a shootout at the OK corral.
Pic 18 - Rodeo: This sign is right outside the rodeo grounds that looked like they were kept immaculate.
Pic 19 - Museum: Too bad the museum was closed by the time I pulled in. I could use the culture.
Pic 20 - Graffiti: Funky mural in a part of town that looks abandoned.
Pic 21 - Bedtime: My tiny little room for the night. At least it's nice and cold and clean!
Pic 22 - End of Day Miles: That's right, first day mileage of 560 miles. That's from Corpus Christi to Pecos! Didn't really mean to go this far but there weren't many towns on this route.
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