Landmarks

Happy Thursday!!

Today was sort of a different day. Joy had an online meeting for two hours so I took off to explore Mother Neff State Park. The history of the park is interesting. One of the state governor’s mothers donated the first six acres of land in 1923. In 1933 the Civilian Conversation Corp (CCC) completed several projects as the parkland grew.

In my walk to the pond, I saw many wildflowers along the way. I’m not sure of their names but they sure were pretty. If you know the names please respond with a comment.

From the pond, I walked to the Rock Tower.  The tower was one of the CCC projects. Pretty good construction considering it is approximately 82 years old. The interesting thing is even though the tower is only 30 feet high I could still see a long way because:
              
Texas is so flat!

After the Tower, I walked along to “The Cave”. I remember walking along with my mom one time and she said: “if these stones could only talk”. She said the stones could tell us stories of the many people who walked and lived here before us. When I got to the caves I saw a sign telling how the Tonkawa Indians once lived here. Again…if these stones could only talk…

As is our practice, Joy and I look for heart shaped rocks as we walk. I did look for such rocks but didn’t find any. To my surprise, I did find this heart-shaped fallen leaf arrangement right along the trail…imagine that. This trail leads to the Wash Pond.  See the comment by Chief Seattle? I swear he sat in our backyard and heard our frogs, too.

This evening I worked on a Jenga game project. I cut some spindles from Tim’s front porch with the idea of making a Jenga game. I thought we’d  have some downtime sometime during our trip so I brought along the wood, some sandpaper, and a wood burning tool. We’ll see how it turns out.

The park ranger stopped by and said the burn ban was lifted due to the rain last night. So Joy and I enjoyed a nice fire and some guitar music. 

Side note: I visited my brother here in Texas nine years ago. One day I went to the store to buy some batteries. There were only two people in line to make purchases. I thought this will be quick. Well was I wrong? The cashier and the customer talked and talked and talked some more. "How was so and so doing….and how is your mother’s aunt’s best friends neighbor"… I couldn’t believe it. Didn’t these people know I wanted to make a purchase??? When I got back to my brothers I told him about how long I had to wait at the store. He said that’s pretty much how it is in Texas. People are very friendly and like to catch up when they can.

Well, yesterday morning I attended a men’s prayer breakfast at my brother’s church. As we sat around talking with one another the pastor shared a testimony. He said he was at the store the other day and as he was putting his things on the counter for checkout someone tapped him on the shoulder. It was someone he knew from a while back, someone who needed prayer right then and there. Based on my experience nine years ago I knew where this was going. It was neat to hear Pastor Butch share how he stopped right there and shared all of Romans 10 with the young man…right in the checkout line. It was awesome to hear that nobody in line said anything. They all just stood there and listened. Wow!!

I share this little story just to remind me of how busy I can be sometimes and I miss out on the special moments….even in the grocery store.