Now Entering Texas

In Santa Fe, I learned that it used to be part of the Santa Fe Trail. The pioneers who traveled on that trail had to face high winds and other disasters. The museum that we visited was fun to look at. I learned about the sculptures too.  Fort Worth is six hours from Santa Fe. My mom’s friend, Mr. Ty, lives in Fort Worth.  It will be fun to visit with him!  We hope to see him today.          

We were camping at a very beautiful place called Copper Breaks State Park.  This part of Texas is in the Great Plains and the interesting part is that the sand is red in the Panhandle, which is the northwestern part.  So when we camped this time, it was warm and sunny, there was a swimming pond nearby and a playground.  We had to watch out for rattlesnakes!

We learned about Quanah Parker who is well known in these parts because he was the last great chief of the Comanche people.  They named the town nearby after him.  Quanah was an Indian whose mother was taken away from her white family when she was little.  She grew up with the Comanche people and became part of their tribe.  When Quanah was an adult, she was taken from the Comanche people by the white people.  So she was kidnapped twice in her life.  She had a little daughter with her when she was taken the second time.  She was not allowed home again to the Comanche and was forced to live with the white family that she didn’t know.  The baby died of illness and Quanah’s mother died of sadness a little while later. 

Once you get to Central Texas, you are roughly halfway to New York. We are on our way to Fort Worth, which is right outside Dallas. What is Interesting about Texas is that the roads are different.  Mama thought that the cars were coming from in front of each other, but they were coming from behind.   The lights are horizontal, not up and down.  There are five lights at the intersection instead of three.  The exits are not like in California.  For example, if you want to go to the gas station, the driveway to the gas station is actually ON the freeway.  That makes it hard to slow down fast enough without getting hit from behind to get into the driveway.  Mama sure is glad she doesn’t have to do that with a trailer!