Whoops!

It would appear that we went too far north too quick!!! Last night it snowed and left us with this scene this morning. Fortunately it is melting and should not be around very long!

We are in Salina, OK for a visit with Neal's sister and her husband for a few days prior to going up to Miami, OK to have some work done on the coach by Newell Coach next week.

The temperatures are much lower than we had down in Mission, TX where we had to have the airconditioners on!

Gentry's 90th Birthday Party

We adjusted our travel plans when we recieved an invitation from Cathi Dalton to attend the 90th Birthday of her father Gentry Davis who is the elder statesman of our family! The party was held in Plano, TX at the home of Cathi and her husband Dave where Gentry is now living. Gentry came to Plano from Pheonix some time ago and has his own apartment in the home so he can have his collection of model cars and the model airplanes that he has built over the years.

The party was well attended by family and friends. Bob Davis brought his wife Arlene and his daughter Kelly, Jan Palm and her husband Ralph came from Alamagordo, NM, several of Gentry's friends from the senior center were able to come as well as some of Cathi and Dave's friends.


Here Gentry is showing off the goodies before the party got under way.








Here is a picture of Gentry with Cathi, Barbara, and Neal.













This is a photo of all of the cousins. From left to right Ralph Palm, Bob Davis, Arlene Davis, Neal Weckworth, Cathi Dalton, Barbara Weckworth, Jan Palm.







This is the imediate family. Daughter Cathi Dalton, Son Bob Davis, Gentry, Daughter in law Arlene, Granddaughter Kelly, Son in law Dave Dalton

Chaparral Race Cars

One wing of the Petroleum Museum in Midland, TX contains a wonderful collection of race cars that were designed and built in Midland for racing around the world. They were very successful and won many races.

Interesting what you find hiding in strange places. I never thought I would find race cars in a Petroluem museum!
Here Neal tries his hand at the wheel.
This is a scaled down version that they intend for kids to sit in and have fun. (Neal's scaled up body barely made it in to the cockpit!)

 

Petroluem Museum Part 2

Here are some more of the minerals on display at the Petroleum Museum. Very striking in person. Click on the pictures to get a larger view.


 

Petroluem Museum at Midland, TX

We went to the Petroluem Museum in Midland, TX and were fortunate to arrive a couple of days before a traveling exhibit of mineral specimens was to leave. These were the best and largest samples of Geodes, Quartz crystals, etc that I have ever seen! The following pictures are but a small sample of these wonders. I had Barbara place her hand in the photo to give a perspective of the size of these monsters!



 

Whitehead Memorial Museum

NO! It is not named for a pimple! It is named for a family named Whitehead that donated the building and land to the museum! Real nice to visit and has a lot of interesting stuff, a very little bit shown below.






This was an interesting building. I had a lot of items to see inside.




















This is the parklike setting for the museum. Quite pleasant and peaceful.
The buildings around the perimeter held the exhibits. Lots of old tools etc. One of the best was of Baker's Cave. It held artifacts from a cave found on the Baker Ranch in the early 60's. Lots of Indian grindstones, arrow and spear points, etc. 

Del Rio Radio Station

One of the things that made us want to go to Del Rio, TX was the fond memories of the radio station that we listened to as teenagers riding around late at night. XERF was a high powered station of 50,000 watts at that time and it could be heard clearly in Kansas at night.

The station started in the depression years and it's history is recorded in the picture to the left. Click on the picture and it will enlarge and become readable.

They placed the transmitter on the Mexican side of the river and had as much as 500,000Watts at one time. They later made the signal directional which boosted it to the equivalent of 1,000,000 Watts! It was very popular and well known. If I recall correctly Mr. H. L. Hunt of the oil fortune put programs on this station. The Mexicans took it away in the end.

This photo shows the station as it was during the time that we would have been listening to it in the late 50's.
This is more history of last iteration of the station. It was taken by the Mexicans during the 1966 revolution.

Old Photo

I came across this old photo of the original Pecos High bridge and thought I would share it with you. The passenger trains would slow down and stop in the middle of the bridge so the passengers could see the view. I suspect some were a bit scared at the prospect as well as they looked into the abyss!

Pecos River Crossings

When the pioneers were building the Southern Pacific Railway in the early 1880's they were presented with a challenge by the canyon that the Pecos river had cut across their path. They had to make many switchbacks and tunnels down to the river and the same up the other side. Later they build what is known as the Pecos High Bridge over the entire canyon from wall to wall. It became a very famous bridge for its height and length. In 1944 they rebuilt the bridge to strengthen it to handle the heavy war materials the railway was carrying. They were allowed to use scarce materials as it was so important.

Later when they built the highway bridge they built another Pecos High bridge for the vehicles to use.

Click on the pictures to get a larger view.














This is a picture of the Highway bridge taken to the north from the overlook.
The river level is a lot higher here now because of the water backed up by the Amistad Dam










This is a telephoto shot of the Railway bridge. Could not get closer.


















This is a look to the south to the confluence of the Pecos and the Rio Grande rivers.

Eagles Nest

Near Langtry, TX we came upon a lovely canyon named Eagles Nest. It even had eagles flying around but I was not able to catch them with my camera. We climbed down from the road to the edge of the canyon to take these pictures to share with you.

 

A World Championship Bass Tournament

When we arrived in Del Rio, TX we had to go through the town from the south to the north to get to our campground. All through the town there were numerous fancy trucks and fancy bass boats on trailers. Now I am talking FANCY here. They have a lot of the advertising plastered on the trucks and boats. Turns out that they are having a bass fishing tournament at what a banner across the highway proclaims as the Number One Bass Fishing Lake in the World! Amistad Lake and Reservoir.

This lake is just north of Del Rio and is huge. It backs up the Rio Grande River for 74 miles! It has 850 miles of shoreline of which 540 is in Texas the other is in Mexico.
This is a picture of one of the contestant's boat who is staying in our campground.
You can see how beautiful this lake is in the following photo. The water is very clear. Bass here can reach 8 to 10 pounds.



Acutally caught a couple of fishermen trying their luck in the shallows.






The last photo is of another contestant here in the park. As you can see he is decked out quite well with a brand new Newell to sleep in while traveling to the tournaments. The car and boat have the advertisement for backwatersonline.com.

Judge Roy Bean

We drove to Langtry, TX from Del Rio today to see the place where Judge Roy Bean held court! He was a true character who was a legend in his own time. He was appointed the first Justice of the Peace for Pecos County (Now Val Verde County) in 1882. He was a saloon keeper and held court in the bar whenever one was needed. He was known for his sentences as they were harsh even for the frontier times. There is some confusion in that some call him a hanging judge but there is no evidence he ever hanged someone. Most often he used banishment as his most potent weapon. Taking a man's horse, gun, and money he would then banish him with the threat of hanging if he ever came back to Langtry. As harsh as the surounding country was it was something to cause even the stoutest to take pause.

He flaunted the law when he promoted the Maher-Fitzsimmon prize fight in 1886. Prize fighting was against the law in Texas at the time. He overcame the legal problem by having the fight on a sandbar in the Rio Grande river on the Mexican side of the river!! I won't go into a lot of more history here as you can Google it and read a better version online!


Here Neal is in the bar. Of course this was the first place he headed!











The building on the left is his home. It is a adobe house with plaster over the adobe.
He named it Roy Beans Opera House Town Hall and Seat of Justice.







This is a picture of the bar called Jersey Lilly. The bar is on the left and the pool room is on the right.










Some pictures of how it all looked during Judge Beans lifetime.

He died in the Pool room in 1903 and is buried in Del Rio, TX