Category: travel

Not Just A Name On The Map

(San Angelo Trip Part II)

Last month I shared my trip to San Angelo State Park with you. It had been the sole reason for our trip out there…well, I did tell my husband about the historic fort we could visit as a way to get him even more interested in the road trip. I ended up finding the town itself pretty neat and thought I would share more of our trip.

“a West Texas oasis” is the description of San Angelo in the Texas State Travel Guide, a wonderful free publication put out by Texas Highways Magazine (www.texashighways.com).

Where history meets geography meets art is how I would describe the town.

Here is a multiple choice quiz:

Which of these three things can be found in San Angelo?

  1. Statues of painted sheep
  2. International water lily collection
  3. Air Force Base

I you guessed “all 3”, you are correct!

According to Wikipedia a Spanish mission was founded here in 1632 to convert the native peoples (Wikipedia say “to serve the native people”). As the years went by the area was under the rule of Spain, Mexico, the Republic of Texas, and the U. S. The city itself began in 1867.

Today there are at least 99,853 people in the town and at least 121,516 if you include the area surrounding the town (2020 U.S. Census). Goodfellow Air Force Base is here, as is the historic Fort Concho (1867). There is a growing art and music community, Angelo State University, and several reservoirs based on the damming of the Concho river. The surrounding area includes farming, agriculture, an oil and gas industry, and the wonderful state park we visited. Here are some of the things we saw:

Historic Fort Concho

Buffalo Soldier Exhibit In Fort Concho Museum

Old Barracks In Fort Concho Museum

Ground Squirrel Near The Fort

Flowers On Fort Grounds

Pond At International Water Lily Collection

More Water Lilies

Mural Of Willie Nelson

One of Many Decorated Sheep Statues In Town.

This one is on the grounds of a mortuary. We shopped at a grocery (HEB) that had one in its parking lot.

The train museum was closed the day we were there. And we also didn’t visit the downtown Concho River Walk. Maybe some day I will go back and explore more.

Lastly, I want mention that San Angelo was one of many smaller cities that had it’s own nice turnout of folks on the recent No Kings Saturday protest.

For more info: discoversanangelo.com

Photos by B. McCreary

Just A Name On The Map

(Or San Angelo Trip Part I)

On the 10 o’clock news I hear the weatherman say “And today in San Angelo it hit 100 degrees” and i see the name San Angelo on the big televised map of Texas. I have seen this name for years, but it meant nothing to me. I had never been there. I didn’t know anyone who lived there. And then one day, on Facebook, I saw a post about the San Angelo State Park. The poster had gotten some nice bird photos there. It was Spring, and I thought: “Road Trip.”

San Angelo is 205 miles to the northwest of Austin. We drove through rolling hills and interesting towns, the elevation gradually rising with each mile. The state park is on the outskirts of San Angelo. It has 7,677 acres and is a fairly new state park, having opened in 1995. There is a north shore area and a south shore area with a large reservoir made from damming up the Concho river. Check out the website for more information:

https://tpwd.texas.gov/state-parks/san-angelo

Here are just a few of the other things we saw during our all day visit:

Texas Longhorn Cattle

American Bison

Blooming Mesquite

Prickly Pear Cactus And Daisies

Female Red Wing Blackbirds and White Wing Doves Up Close At The Bird Blind

Turkeys

Scissortail Flycatcher

And as we neared the park exit…

Road Runners Mating…note the lizard in the male’s beak. When they separated he still had the lizard…maybe to attract another mate?

We also saw deer and ground squirrels and a fox. And we saw other unidentified birds that I didn’t get shots of. This is a wonderful place and I recommend it to all who love spending time in the great outdoors. Now, when I see the name on the map, it will bring back the happy memories of all that I saw.

Hello To A River And More

(original photo by Jerry Larson and used with permission of Jerry Larson and the Waco Tribune-Herald)

Who is this sun glassed adventurer?

He is my baby brother, Robert Richard Downes, kayaking on the Brazos River. The photo also adorns the cover of one of Robert’s books entitled Hello to a River, which chronicles his canoe and kayaking trips.

Texas is home to some wonderful rivers that have inspired many adventurers. My brother is one of those. He drew inspiration from several generations of outdoorsmen and women in our family. I remember canoe trips we took in my father’s canoe starting when I was 5 and my brother was 4. That canoe was inherited from my dad’s grandfather and currently sits on saw horses in my back yard. Robert tells of his journeys on Texas waterways (and a few others). His book includes the writings of our father, John Richard Downes, who kept notes about the canoe trips he took on the Texas Colorado river. I contributed one short piece about me meeting my father at the end of his last canoe trip to bring him and canoe home.

Each trip down a river will be different. The traveler might encounter sudden storms, miserable heat, mosquitos and unexpected currents. But, along with the unpleasant, there is the pleasant: the helpful people met along the way; the sightings of birds and other creatures; the time spent with one’s own thoughts. The lone traveler becomes the philosopher.

This book is a fun and readable true story that will fit nicely on the bookshelf next to Robert Graves classic Goodbye To A River. And this is a good gift for lovers of Texas rivers and nature.

Here are Robert’s Other Books:

A collection of essays about the author’s adventures in Texas, Mexico and other Latin American countries. Gift this to anyone with an interest in foreign travel and Texas.

This is a true crime mystery about a case my brother worked on when he was employed by the U. S. State Department in Mexico. It is about the disappearance of American professor Nicholas Schrock while he was traveling to a summer teaching job in Guadalajara. Great details about the investigation and a good look inside of the everyday work of our government employees.

This latest book is a departure from Robert’s past work and is a fictional spy tale. Here is the opening line: “It all started innocently enough, at least to an outside observer, but appearances can be deceiving.”

These books are available at Amazon.com and BarnesandNoble.com. (search for his full name “Robert Richard Downes” because there is another author with a similar name)

Here is the “About The Author” bio at the back of his latest book:

Robert Richard Downes is a retired Senior Foreign Service Officer with over 37 years of federal service, the majority served overseas with the U. S. State Department. He lived and worked in Australia, Germany, Guatemala, Mexico, Nicaragua, Thailand, and Venezuela as well as studying in Austria, Germany, and Hungary. After leaving the State Department, he returned to his native Texas where he fills his time reading, writing, kayaking, and volunteering for local charities and international organizations.

He can be reached at Longhornbarbooks@gmail.com.

Gift a book to someone you love!

Some Things Old, Some Things New III

(Musings on our trip to the Bay State- Part III)

By Betty McCreary

We just came out of an insane election time and I hope this did not put a damper on your sharing a Thanksgiving table with family and/or friends. And if you were alone, I hope you treated yourself well and found some things to smile about.

My husband and I listened to the music from Hamilton while we prepared our big meal. Just us this year, but we made our homemade mashed potatoes and I made my special spicy cranberry sauce. While I am nostalgic for the Thanksgivings of years past at my grandma’s table and later my mother’s table, those days can not be recreated. Our holiday celebrations morph a bit each year. I am thankful for getting to spend the holiday with my husband. I am also thankful for calls and texts from family and friends we could not be with.

As I get older I am working on a daily gratitude practice, which simply calls me to find small joys each day and share them with others. This practice has really helped me get past the anger and sadness I felt at the election.

And I am so thankful for the big trip to Massachusetts that we took in July to visit our family members there.

Because of a resurgence of Covid, we tried to find things we could all do together outdoors. The whole group of 7 of us met at the New England Botanical Gardens at Tower Hill, west of Boston, at Boylston, Mass. We ate lunch at the little cafe there. It has an outdoor seating option. Then we hiked around the grounds. It was hot and humid trekking, but was fun being together and sharing the joys of this beautiful outdoor space. First we walked down a hill to a pond. There was a pavilion for sitting and looking for birds and pond critters. Then we continued on through tall trees until we came to several interesting structures and statues. Here is one of them:

Temple In The Woods

Then we headed up hill to the more landscaped part of the gardens.

Saw some plants I was familiar with like this milkweed:

Monarch On Milkweed

And some others that were new to me:

Anyone Know What These Are?

There were a couple more ponds:

Frog On Lily Pad

And some interesting landscape choices:

Plants Planted In A Pattern On A Vertical Wall

The next day we headed to another outdoor spot, minus one of our party. Mirror Lake is on the old grounds of Ft. Devens, north west of Boston. Ft. Devens was an old army base from 1917-1996. Part of it now serves as a training center for the Army reserve and National Guard. A small township has evolved there.

Mirror Lake

We parked and walked down a hill to the entrance station and paid our fee. After staking out a spot for our chairs, we all went swimming. The water was perfect for a hot day. My husband was experiencing a bit of nostalgia at being here. When he was in the Army, he did his Individual Advanced Training (AIT) at Ft. Devens. The 4 months he spent here training was in the winter and so he had not been swimming here before. This is a family friendly area with life guards and boat rentals. One of our group was a regular there this summer, getting his exercise after work. We splashed around and laughed and looked at fish in the clear water.

And then this happened:

On Our Youngest Member’s Finger

A little dragonfly took turns perching on our fingers. Dragonflies can be symbols of change and transformation. I think our family bonds changed a bit and got stronger on this trip. I am thankful for that.

I hope you enjoyed this little personal trip report and maybe will visit some of the places I did. And I hope you find some small joys each day.

For More On The New England Botanical Garden:

http://www.nebg.org

(Photos by Betty McCreary)

Some Things Old, Some Things New II

(musings on our trip to the Bay State-Part II)

Salem, Massachusetts is northeast of Boston on the coast. The highlight of our trip there was the Peabody Essex Museum (pem.org). The museum has something for everyone, from Asian contemporary art to native American art to a natural history exhibit (with live bats). There is a snack bar and we took a museum tour break there to fortify ourselves. Our small family group only had time to sample some of the museum’s treasures. Here are a few photos:

Yin Yu Tang Home Outer Wall

This house was the familial home of the Huang family in Huang Cun, Anhui Province. It was built in the 1790s and was the home to eight generations. The name Yin Yu Tang means “The Hall of Plentiful Shelter.” It was last occupied in 1982. The whole house was dismantled and shipped to the U. S. as part of a “cultural exchange agreement.” About 40% of the objects inside belonged to the Huang family.

Kitchen Outside Courtyard

Image On Courtyard Wall

Interior Room

View Of Upstairs From Courtyard

Visitors can go upstairs and visit the rooms in the upper floor.

Interesting Chinese Statue In Hall Adjacent To The Old House

“Magic Crow” by Rick Bartow (2014) In The Native American Art Exhibit

“All The Flowers Are For Me”

Art projected on walls of museum room by artist Anila Quayyum Agha

Although I only took “mind photos”, one exhibit keeps coming back to me. A small room showing many examples of illustrations from the book Moby Dick. From early editions to comic books. One was a book of t-shirts, each illustrated with single lines from the novel. The exhibit is called: Draw Me Ishmael: The Book Arts of Moby Dick.

The creativity of artists never ceases to amuse me and fill me with hope.

Within walking distance of the Peabody Essex Museum is the historic Charter Street Cemetery. The oldest burying ground in the U. S. is what the brochure says, but that ignores the burying grounds of the Indigenous People….just saying…. There is the grave of a person who came over on the Mayflower and other early townspeople. Nearby are monument memorials to the victims of the 1692 Witch Trials.

All of these victim memorials had offerings of flowers, fruit, coins and other tokens. The victims are honored and remembered.

If you ask people what they think of when you mention Salem, Massachusetts, they are likely to say “The Salem Witch Trials.” There is a whole museum dedicated to this history and if I get back up there I will check it out. So many things to see, so little time.

This is a fitting place to end for today. Happy Halloween!

(Photos by B. McCreary)

Some Things Old, Some Things New

(Musings On Our Trip To The Bay State – Part 1)

In July, my husband and I flew north 1,963 miles to Boston, Massachusetts to visit family. We have been there before and seen most of the historical sights related to the birth of our nation. This trip would be a little bit different. Here are a few highlights:

One of our resident family members suggested going to the Paul S. Russell, MD Museum of Medical History and Innovation in Boston (russellmuseum.org) at 2N. Grove St. We saw all sorts of interesting things such as an iron lung and early medical instruments.

Mosher Coin and Button Tube (for removal of foreign objects)

Foreign Objects Removed After Accidental Swallowing

Fascinating and disgusting!

Glass Eyes

It is a small museum with a nice roof top garden with a city view. And admission to the museum is free!

Our family member guide had been wanting to try a Uyghur (pronounced weegur) restaurant in Cambridge (west side of Boston). Neither my husband or I had ever tried Uyghur food or even knew what kind of food it might be. It turned out to be pretty good. All of us ordered noodle dishes.

The menu has lots of noodle dishes. The meats range from lamb to chicken to shrimp.

Check out Silk Road Uyghur Cuisine at 645 Cambridge st., Cambridge, MA.

Silk Road Restaurant Window Curtains

Hopeful Graffiti Spotted In Cambridge

We chose to stay in Somerville, Mass. (northwest of Boston) in an area called Assembly Row. An old Ford factory used to be at that location. Now it is a mixed use area with hotels, shops, restaurants, and sports grounds. One tourist highlight is the LEGO Discovery Center (legodiscoverycenter.com/boston/). Lots of Lego displays and kid friendly activities. And, of course, you can buy Legos there. We didn’t actually go in, but I shot this Lego giraffe outside the place.

And last, but not least, we visited the New England Aquarium (https://www.neaq.org.We) had been here before, but this time our family member guide happened to volunteer there and gave us a personalized tour. The aquarium is a must see. Only draw back to me was how crowded it was.

The Large

Sea Lions

Myrtle The Turtle

The Small

Penguin

The Tiny

Sea Horses

The Secretive

Octopus Leg (the creature was hiding)

The Other

In Your Face Fish (don’t know species)

Just a few Summer Trip Tidbits….

Photos by B. McCreary