Kingsville Texas

We had been to Kingsville before, and saw the legendary King Ranch which in the 1800’s was at one time the largest privately-owned ranch in the world. My mom had dated a descendent of Richard King, but something better came along. What we didn’t know when we visited Kingsville last was that there was a business associate of Captain Richard King, and his name was Captain Mifflin Kennedy. Both had come to Texas from the East Coast, essentially penniless and destitute. They both became steamboat captains on the Rio Grande River, and amassed enough money to begin their ranching empires.

At its peak, the King Ranch claimed over 15 million acres of grass lands. Mifflin on the other hand managed his ranch holdings to over 400,000 acres. However, his innovations in managing his ranch were innovative for the time. He actually fenced his earlier held Laureles Ranch, requiring over 36 miles of fencing. He didn’t end up fencing in his ultimate La Parra Ranch, but continued to exercise innovative ranch and livestock techniques.

Sadly, the Kennedy lineage was doomed. The eldest son of Mifflin and Petra Vela de Vidal Kennedy purchased the Kennedy Ranch from his other siblings. John Gregory Kennedy had two children, John Gregory Jr. and Sarita. Both had become sterile in their youth due to illnesses – chicken pox and influenza. So, when Sarita died in 1961, there were no Kennedy heirs in line to continue the legacy. The ranch lands are held to generate funds for various Texas charities.

We visited the Kingsville campus of Texas A&M University. Enrollment at Texas A&M Kingsville is over 9,000 full time students. On the campus we discovered a museum that we really enjoyed.

The John E Conner Museum is on the campus. John E Conner was the first Dean of the Kingsville campus of Texas A&M. The museum is some natural history, some local artifacts, and some local artists works. But the exhibit we enjoyed most was about Kingsville born Richard E Cavazos. Cavazos was the first Hispanic brigadier general in the US armed forces. Being awarded Distinguished Service Crosses twice, once in Korea and once in Vietnam, he completed his Army career as four star general and the head of US Army Forces Command.

Talk to you soon!

Effects of Harvey

It’s only been short of 3 months since Hurricane Harvey left much of the Texas Gulf Coast in ruins. As I mentioned, we had seen quite a bit of impact in the areas around Houston with parks being closed as they were trying to clean up the debris. But we really didn’t see the bulk of Harvey’s impact until we got down to the barrier islands near Corpus Christi.

We had heard that Rockport had been perhaps hit the worst. In our many trips to Port Aransas we enjoyed Rockport a great deal. Although we had heard it had been leveled, we weren’t mentally prepared for what we saw. In the hundred-foot-wide center median of Highway 35 were literally miles of storm debris – entire collapsed buildings and everything – that simply had been piled there by the cleanup teams as there was nowhere else to put it.

After driving through all that devastation, we took the ferry ride across to Mustang Island to see how Port Aransas had fared.

Port Aransas hadn’t apparently been leveled by Harvey, but I don’t think we saw a single one of the dozens of tourist gift shops that wasn’t blown out or boarded up. Our favorite lunch haunt in town, Moby Dicks, was in shambles and it was hard to tell how long it might be before it is open for business again, if ever. We had planned to spend the month of March here, but as of now Surfside RV Park where we had reservations is still closed, and will no doubt miss this entire winter season.

Talk to you soon!

Victoria Texas

Making our way to the Padre Islands, we keep getting nearer the coast. We saw some Hurricane Harvey damage in the Houston area – a lot of their public parks are still closed due to in-cleared debris and other damage. When we got to Victoria Texas we saw even more clear signs of Harvey. Even the RV park we were reserved in took a bunch of damage to their tiki huts near their pool area.

We also found crews occupying all of the RV parks in the areas hit by Harvey. I know that these crews are performing a much-needed service in this hard-hit area.
But its also hard to ignore the fact that these crews are also taking advantage of huge potential income opportunity. Hopefully most of the focus is on the first thought and the second aspect is simply an outcome.

When in Churchill Manitoba looking at Polar Bears, one of the Canadian couples told us that the best barbeque they had ever had was at Mumphords Place in Victoria Texas. So, even though we had been to Victoria before, we made a stop here just to take in Mumphords Place. While it was really good and we thoroughly enjoyed the atmosphere, were not sure that Rudy’s barbeque isn’t just a bit tastier, and a little easier to find.

We hit a gem in Victoria we never expected to find. Founded in 1854 it turns out that this area was occupied by Europeans two hundred years earlier. The Museum of the Costal Bend introduced us to the first European settlement in Texas. In 1685, very near Victoria, Robert Cavelier de La Salle, in search for the mouth of the Mississippi River, missed and found himself near current day Victoria Texas. He established a settlement here, called Fort St. Louis in deference to the King of France that funded his expedition.

The museum is dedicated to the remains of one of La Salle’s ships that was found in Matagorda Bay. La Salle loaded all the primary supplies onto the La Belle so that a warship could return to France and be re-provisioned. The La Belle sank in a storm, and its remains were discovered in the 1970’s. Louis XIV had backed the La Salle mission because all the new wealth of Spain was coming from silver mines in northern Mexico. Louis XIV figured that if the French could establish a foothold in Texas, they could eventually loot the Spanish mines and maybe concur them entirely. Sadly, the mission failed, and the occupants of Fort St. Louis were ultimately killed by local natives.

Talk to you soon!

La Grange Texas

Since we were driving within an extra 15 minutes of the town, we decided to check out La Grange. The subject of perhaps the most infamous ZZ Top song ever, and the location of the original Chicken Ranch brothel that inspired Dolly Parton’s movie The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, La Grange was founded in 1854 and is a typical old Texas town. Sadly, the Chicken Ranch is long gone, and there is no roadside bling to let you know where it was, and no larger than life statues of ZZ Top. But we enjoyed our visit anyway, and now I can honestly say I have been there!

Talk to you soon!

More Katy

The Woman enjoyed her time with Kendy and Mike, as did I. We hit a bunch of local gems, including the Museum of Natural Science in Sugar Land Texas, another upscale suburb of Houston. Housed in the old Central State Prison Farm building constructed in 1939, the museum is an interesting mix of dinosaur remains and other prehistoric fossils combined with mineralogical and hands on exhibits.

We also visited San Filipe, a booming town in the early 1800’s. Sam Austin was an activist in San Filipe, and actually spent two years imprisoned in Mexico City for having the audacity of establishing a local government in San Filipe. 

In 1836 as Sam Houston and his Texas troops fell back after the defeat at the Alamo, he came through San Filipe, not wanting to accidentally provide Mexican General Santa Anna any supplies or materials, he ordered the town of San Filipe burned, and it was. We visited the J.J. Josey General Store there, the longest continuously operating general in the state. Built in 1847 after the end of the Mexican American War, it was continuously operated as a general store until 1942.

We also visited a Texas landmark, Buckeyes. A truck stop on steroids, Texans love Buckeyes. We drove through the stop, and found gas pump number 260 – can you believe 260 gas pumps! Our daughter Karen, a Texan at heart, told us to be sure to get one of their kolaches, which we failed to do. But we did gawk at the Guinness World Record holding longest car wash in the world. Great fun!

Talk to you soon!

Katy Texas

Our only reason for being in Katy Texas was so the Woman could give thanks with her good friends, Kendy and Mike. Kendy was the first friend the Woman made in Las Vegas back in August of 1995 when we moved there, so she holds a very special place in the Woman’s heart. Not far from Kendy and Mike’s house is Katy Lake RV Park, and we get to have this view out Colectiva’s windshield all day, every day.

The Pooch really likes his strolls around the small lake in the middle of the RV park. We actually enjoy them as well, not in part as a result of the abundant birds that seem to enjoy the lake as well. Every day we take in Cormorants, Egrets and a host of other aquatic and non-aquatic birds. It’s a real treat!

Talk to you soon!

Beaumont Texas

We visited our first National Preserve. In fact, it turns out that Big Thicket National Preserve about 20 miles North of Beaumont, was the first National Preserve established in the US. Often described as one of the most biodiverse areas in the World outside of the tropics, Big Thicket has been designated as a Biosphere Reserve by UNESCO.

We learned that the way the Big Thicket looks today is not that different than it looked 10s of thousands of years ago. During the ice age, most species anywhere North of Arkansas could not adapt to the sheet of ice. Moving South as they could, many of these species ended up in the Big Thicket, which was never covered by ice. Accordingly, many species that would never be found anywhere else in the World in the same area could be, and still can be, found in the Thicket.

Since the ice age, and into the early 1800’s, the Thicket covered nearly 4 million square acres. The Thicket is characterized by forest sized trees of all sort (various pine, various oak, beach magnolia, etc.) and very thick ground cover that made it almost impenetrable by man. We hiked many trails carved out as logging access in the mid-1800’s when White Europeans did their best to harvest the wealth out of the Thicket. By the time some conservation minded clear thinkers got involved to try to preserve this wonder, nearly 97% of it had been plundered. Thankfully, the 3% that remains is pretty impressive.

While the wildflowers are missing in November, we did manage to find an immense grove of Water Pitcher Plants. We’d never seen these guys before and they were very interesting. They emit a sweet scent that attracts insects into their tube-like flower. When the insects get caught in their hair like cilia they fall into a pool of digestive fluid at the bottom. While I had seen carnivorous plants before, I had never seen them growing wild in such huge quantities. Cool!

There are tons of museums in the Beaumont area to the point that we couldn’t possibly take in them all. If we ever get back to the area, we plan to take in the Clifton Steamboat Museum. Although closed the day we could have seen it, the grounds looked Intriguing.

Kona the pooch liked this museum the best. Again, being closed the day we had available we weren’t able to take in the Fire Museum of Texas. But we did get a chance to stop by and see the largest fire hydrant in the World!

We did manage to get a tour of the McFaddin-Ward House. Built in 1905 for William McFaddin, the Beaux-Arts Colonial Revival house (I should say mansion) is nearly 13,000 square feet. Nearly everything about the mansion speaks to the very wealthy ranching family that lived there. In 1919 their daughter Mamie married Carrol Ward, and the newlywed couple moved into the mansion along with the McFaddin family, and spent their entire married life there.

Having lived in the home nearly their entire life, Mamie created a foundation in 1982 to preserve the home. Because of that, nearly all the furniture and furnishings in the home are the originals that the family had used as they lived out their lives here. Not only was the mansion nearly 13,000 square feet, but the carriage house where the family's servants lived was over 8,000. We enjoyed this slice of the past, and would take in this home again if given the chance.

Talk to you soon!