We found the Yellow Brick Road and it is in Liberal, Kansas. Liberal is recognized as the official home of Dorothy Gale and the Land of Oz. Dorothy’s house is a 1907 farmhouse donated to the Seward County Historical Society. It was carefully restored and furnished to resemble the house in the movie “The Wizard of Oz”.
Goodbye Texas – what a relief, and now we are in Liberal, Kansas. Don’t worry we have not changed our political afflication and we wondered whether the name was a political statement but found out it came about through hospitality and generosity. In the 1880s water was scarce in Southwest Kansas and what was available was often expensive. S. S. Rogers dug a well for his own use yet always allowed travelers access to his water. The travelers offered to pay, yet Rogers said “Water is always free here”. The story goes that most travelers replied “that’s mighty liberal of you” and the area become known as “the liberal well”.
One more day in Texas – hopefully! Texas is big and hot and we are working our way out of it. For our last night we stopped at the Ole Town Cotton Gin and RV Park in Goodlett, TX.
Knowing we were going to hitch up and leave Hord’s Creek Lake in Coleman, TX today, we decided to have our morning coffee outside during the coolest part of the day. Realizing it seemed dark for 6:30 in the morning, I opened the door to a dark sky and realized rain must be in the area. This part of Texas, as most of Texas, has not seen rain in a very long time and we were happy for them. For us it meant either packing up and leaving
in the rain or staying an extra day. We opted for the extra day.
In May we were running from the high water in Louisiana and now in Texas they are praying for any amount of water.
We have all heard about the drought in Texas. Laurie’s sister lives outside of Austin and whenever we talk with her, the drought is a prime topic. So yes, we knew about the drought, yet to see it first hand is totally different. Today we passed fields of crops that were totally brown and others that were struggling to survive. Crossing bridges we saw little to no water where rivers and lakes should be. We don’t know how much water Texas needs to get back to normal levels yet it has to be a large amount.
Felipe Enrique Neri, Baron de Bastrop, a prominent Dutch nobleman, was one of Stephen F. Austin’s primary negotiators with the government of Mexico for the original Angelo American colony. Because of this Mina was renamed Bastrop in the Baron’s honor. The only problem was the Baron was a fraud. He was born in Dutch Guiana to ordinary Dutch parents. None the less, the name remained and Bastrop is a thriving community with
more than 130 historic structures listed on the National register of Historic Places. Bastrop is also home to The Bastrop Advertiser, the oldest weekly newspaper in Texas which has been in operation since 1853. Continue reading
Another town, another engine.
Like many areas we have visited, Livingston, TX’s economy was largely influenced by timber. The W. T. Carter & Bro. Engine #5 is a coal burning steam engine which signifies the importance of the timber industry established in Polk County over 150 years ago and continues to be of importance today. The engine was built in 1911 by Philadelphia’s Baldwin Locomotive Works and was in operation until 1952.
There is no place to run; the heat is everywhere!
Leaving Lake Charles, LA we headed to Livingston, TX to check out Escapees National Headquarters and Rainbow’s End RV Park. Escapees is an organization catering to Full Time RVers offering mail forwarding services, RV insurance services, financial planning services, Escapees Care Center, easy access to Texas auto registration and licensing, etc.
As we start our “Most Excellent RV Adventure” we are not sure how long it will last or where it will take us, but here we go. Join us on our first leg of the adventure dubbed “Operation First Run” for no other reason than we needed a name and it is our first leg. Our longest trip to date has been two weeks, not long by RVing standards.
“I smell gas.”
“No, it’s just the heater you smell.”
“No, I smell gas!” BOOM!
The explosion rocked the campsite and sounded
like a huge firecracker going off under the tent. The problem was, the explosion was at the entrance to the tent so people were fighting their way through the tent sides
to escape. After the explosion, fire enveloped the cutoff valve and regulator so we could not turn the gas off on the propane cylinder.
