Girls, Girls, Girls and a War

Location: Holiday Park Campground (COE); Benbrook, Texas (elev. 700 feet)

all pictures taken with Nokia Lumia Icon 929 Cell Phone
click pictures to enlarge

Well it's hot, but the humidity is down to about 50% so it is tolerable but I'm ready to move farther north to more moderate temperatures. There was an "orange alert" issued yesterday. At first I thought "Oh no, what have they done to the oranges now. First the ice cream, now oranges." But it really had something to do with Ozone, UV's, UFO's or something like that. They advised everyone to stay indoors if possible. It sounded very ominous and if I was going to be around here longer, I would look into it deeper to find out what the heck is going on.

The campground hosts tell me the lake was at flood stage back in May when it was 20 to 25 feet higher. At that depth, where Liberty sits now, she would have been under water. Wow.

To comply with the "orange alert", I found a couple of indoor things to do. The first was the National Cowgirl Museum. I had high expectations for this museum and hoped to learn some new things about cowgirls. For me, whenever I think of a cowgirl, it is either Annie Oakley or Dale Evans. Annie was  a sharpshooter and performer in the late 1800's. She toured around the country and Europe with Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show. She surely deserves to be in the Hall. I expected Dale Evans to also be in the Hall since I grew up hearing her sing Happy Trails with her husband Roy Rogers. I was surprised to learn their marriage was the third for Roy and the fourth for Dale. They didn't publicize those two facts back then because it would have been frowned on by parents back then as a bad influence. But what we didn't know couldn't hurt us,,,,right? I was surprised Calamity Jane wasn't in the Hall but then I remembered she was a little on the trashy, rough, drinking, fighting, not bathing side of life and probably didn't fit in with most of the "ladies" in the Hall. The museum is kind of big for the small amount of exhibits. I was expecting more. Overall, I was disappointed in the museum and felt it was overpriced. However, I did enjoy reading about a lot of the ladies in the Hall, but read about them on the Hall's website and not at the museum. 

The side of the Museum with a nice picture

Front entrance. Pretty impressive building uh? 

One of the exhibits that caught my eye. I didn't know what it was so I had to read the description. It's a "shoofly". You put it over a horse and the strings move just enough to keep fly's from biting and bothering the horse. Pretty neat idea from the past. I wonder why it isn't used anymore. Or maybe it is, I don't know.

The second indoor space to escape the orange alert was the Texas Civil War Museum. They claim it is the largest and most comprehensive Civil War museum west of the Mississippi River. I had to check that out to see if they were fibbing or not. This museum was advertised as to highlight the Texas involvement in the war. Their movie was pretty good and, it alone, was worth the price of admission. I've been to a lot of Civil War places in my travels and have found them to be somewhat repetitive. You will see old uniforms and stuff but basically a lot of the museums are the same. There are some very good ones though, don't get me wrong. Appomattox Court House, Vicksburg and Fort Sumter immediately come to mind as unique and nice. This Texas museum will not rank real high on my list of war museums, but it was worth the hour or so it took to make the tour. One thing I did learn was there were only two capital cities of the Southern states that was not invaded, pillaged and burned during the war. They were Austin, Texas and Tallahassee, Florida. As the old saying says, Live a little, Learn a lot.

It's a different looking type of Civil War museum.

This was the best exhibit of the museum. A line of different types of cannons used during the war. 

They also had a pretty good display of fancy dresses from before the war years. Most came with an artificial bustle. I was thinking, there were sever women on TV now a days, with a natural bustle. 

Tomorrow is moving day and I'll be heading a little farther north to a campground I stayed at a few years ago. I'll have to dodge a few low hanging limbs to get out of my campsite. The Corps has not done a good job at keeping the limbs trimmed. They cover their a$$'s with a statement on their campground map saying, "The wooded aspect of Holiday Park is part of its beauty. If you have a new RV or one that is 12' or taller, get out and inspect your campsite and tree clearances before you pull into the site." I always inspect my sites before pulling into them, however the one I'm on now is off of a one-way road with two campsites along it. It was fine getting to the campsite but the road leading back out to the main road has some low hanging limbs. If it doesn't rain, I plan to cross a grassy area to avoid some limbs.

That's the way out tomorrow. My plan is to cut across the grass on the left and quickly go out the one-way road. 

Ya'll take care of each other. I'll Cya down the road.