Greetings from Luling, TX!

Run Stats:
Day: 211
Miles Completed: 779.7
Miles to San Diego: 1320.3
Avg Miles/Day: 3.7
Marathons Completed: 29.8
Longest Running Streak: 9 days
Current Running Streak: 9 days
Shoes: Skora Fit/Skora Tempo
Playlist Favs: Donald Miller Storybrand Podcast, Paul McCartney - Wings Over America

Bible Verse of the Day: For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. 2 Timothy 1:7

Run Reflections: Good morning from (virtual) I-10 West. Today I will am passing through Luling, TX. It's already 81 degrees with a forecast high of 97 today. Despite the heat, I'm making pretty good progress across TX and should be reaching San Antonio in a few weeks.

This has been a running week with some real highs and lows. On the high side, besides the temps, I'm on a running streak of 9 consecutive days. It's been interesting to see how each of these runs turns out as the days go by because they are all starting off with pretty tired legs. I'm finding that this forces me to start more slowly and then things get better when I get loosened up. I continue to be thankful for shade and some breeze, both really make a big difference.

On the low side, I had a fall this week, nothing broken but my left side got pretty scraped up. I was moving out of the bike lane (as a bike was coming) to the gravel road side and caught my toe on a rock. Next thing I know I'm down in the dirt. I was able to finish the run but my fitty-six year old body has been sore and I have some pretty colorful bruises :-(. This happens a couple of times a year but is never fun. I hope the bike guy (who kept going) appreciated me making room for him.

Luling, TX: Sources for the information presented here on Luling came from wikipedia and the Texas State Historical Association. Luling is a city in Caldwell and Guadalupe counties in Texas along the San Marcos River. The population, as of the 2010 census, was 5,411. The town of Luling was named after a New York banker, Charles Luling. He provided the financing for the railroad as well the purchase of the land that became Luling.

Luling was founded in 1874 as a railroad town and became a rowdy center for the cattle drivers on the Chisolm Trail. Contempt of the law by the cowboys helped Luling become known as the "toughest town in Texas." After the great cattle drives ended in the late 1880s, Luling quieted down to a town of about 500 and cotton ruled the local economy. Perhaps due to arrival of immigrants in the late-19th century, Luling began a long, slow, period of growth and by 1925 the population reached 1,500.

One of the most significant events in Luling's history was the discovery of oil by Edgar B. Davis. Davis mortgaged everything he owned to finance drilling operations around Luling. On August 9, 1922, The Rafael Rios No. 1 well struck oil at 2,161 feet, producing 150 barrels per day. Davis' discovery opened up an oilfield 12 miles long and 2 miles wide.

The economy quickly moved from the railroad and agriculture to oil. The population of the town rapidly increased to over 5000. By 1924, the Luling Oil Field was producing over 15 million barrels of oil per year, and oil formed much of Luling's economy for the next 60 years. As oil grew in importance in the 1930s and 1940s, the railroads that helped form the town declined and largely pulled out of Luling. By the 1950's, local farmers had diversified their crops to include watermelons and tomatoes. Truck farming became such a large industry in the area that residents began holding an annual "watermelon thump," a festival that included a seed-spitting contest and prizes for the largest watermelon.

I had a hard time finding a lot of information about the town of Luling today but I did find some pretty cool pictures. The first is a picture of the William Johnson cabin (originally taken by Billy Hathorn CC BY-SA 3.0) which is a Texas Historical Landmark. Rev. Johnson was a farmer and Baptist minister who came to Texas in 1833 and built his shotgun-style cabin near Tenny Creek (11 mi. NE of Luling).

The second is a picture of a decorated pumpjack (originally taken by Larry D. Moore CC BY-SA 3.0). This one shows WW I flying ace Snoopy from the Charles Schulz Peanuts comic strip flying his sop with camel biplane in search of another great battle against the infamous Red Baron. In case you were wondering (or you are an engineer), a pump jack (also called an oil horse, donkey pumper, nodding donkey, grasshopper pump, thirsty bird, cricket or jack pump) is the overground drive for a reciprocating piston pump in an oil well. It is used to mechanically lift liquid out of the well if not enough bottom hole pressure exists for the liquid to flow all the way to the surface. Pumpjacks are apparently common in oil-rich areas. I remember seeing some of these when I was on a business trip to Oklahoma several years ago. I thought it was pretty cool that the local residents decorated them to make this common site (to them anyway) both interesting and entertaining.

I guess it's fitting that I experienced some bumps and bruises this week - what would you expect when passing through the toughest town in TX! I hope you enjoyed learning a little about this town.

I want to send a special shout out today to my beautiful, talented and awesome daughter Meredith who turns 16 tomorrow! Watch out world (and local drivers), this young lady is unique and special and I am excited to see how God is going to use her gifts and talents to make a difference in this world!

Hope you all have a great week. Stay tuned next week for the July charity reveal!

God Bless,

Pat