TEXAS ON MY MIND

Mike and I headed west on I40 toward Texas longhorn country for two reasons: we needed some margin in our lives, and Mike wanted to kill a turkey.

We drove 333 miles across the middle of Oklahoma and into the panhandle of the great state of Texas.

They do everything big in Texas, with the exception of the first TX town on I40 big enough for a McDonalds...a town called Shamrock, Texas.

Population in Shamrock hit it's peak in the 30's with 4,000 folks, but they have half that today. Because the town is also on old Route 66, there are some really neat old restored gas stations in town.

State Hwy 83 runs north and south through Shamrock. Mike has hunted for ten years in that area. A rancher friend has property close to two nearby towns on Hwy 83. Wheeler is 17 miles north of Shamrock...and Wellington is 26 miles south of Shamrock.

Those two small towns each are county seats and both have nice courthouses.

You may remember Wheeler, Texas. That is where George Bush announced his candidacy for the presidency. He was having lunch at Maxie's when he made the announcement.

We ate at Maxie's and it was chocked full of people with straw cowboy hats and shiny buckles and iPhones...and the parking lot was full of pickups and Escalades.

Wheeler is oil country.

The town to the south, Wellington, has to work harder for their identity. When Mike and I pulled into the RV campground outside of Wellington, we parked under huge cottonwood trees beside the fork of a river. The helpful camp hosts (Austin and Patsy) had lots of information to help us settle in.

They told us that we were in an area without TV/cell phone coverage. They told us about the places in town to eat. Wellington has less than a half-dozen restaurants and they all close at 2pm, so you have to be purposeful.

Patsy and I talked a long time about their community and she explained that they were important because of Bonnie and Clyde...

In 1933 Clyde Barrow was barreling north on Hwy 83 (then a dirt road) going 70 mph (at night) in a stolen v8 Ford that could outrun every one of the "laws" that tried to catch them.

But that night, Clyde didn't see a detour sign and he plowed through a barricade, went airborne, and landed upside down in the Salt Fork of the Red River where Mike is wading.

If you would like to read more about Bonnie and Clyde, I would recommend the book ("Go Down Together") that the camp host shared with me. It came out in 2009 and was diligently researched. Because it had history about the founding of Dallas...plus history of the 30's...it was interesting. Bonnie and Clyde's lives were not the lives portrayed in Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway's 1967 movie.

https://www.powells.com/cgi-bin/biblio?inkey=62-9781416557067-0

After lunch in town at the Taco Shack, we headed back to the motor home. Mike was going hunting and I was going to read my borrowed book.

Mike left and I began reading and enjoying having the windows open and the breeze blowing. Then the wind picked up and the coach began rocking. After about an hour, I realized I was hot (think beaker frogs) and checked to find it was 91 degrees inside. Boy, I WAS into my book. I turned on the air conditioner and looked out at a brown sky. It was dark and there was a dust storm. We had noticed as we drove from town that farmers were disking to plant their cotton. My book was talking about the Dust Bowl in the 30's, and I could EASILY understand how that happened. I wondered how the farmer down the road could plant when most of his dirt seemed to be on my teeth...

Now my mind was multi-tasking (reading and watching the sky). Plus I was remembering the camp host's admonition about the increased rattlesnakes this year. My husband had worn his high snake boots, but he was out crawling around in shin oak underbrush. And also in this 35-40 mph wind, how was he even going to get a shot off that hit the mark?

I didn't stew for long...in 90 minutes Mike was back. When I first saw him, I figured he had given up hunting because he wasn't able to see 20 yards in front of his face. But no, he quit because he had a turkey. My husband is quite the hunter/gatherer.

Later, when Texas was in our rear-view mirror, Mike and I missed the longhorns and the big country. But we had claimed our "space" and our turkey. And now we know a little about Texas history. Someone said that travel broadens one's horizons and reminds us that there are other worlds out there. Texas did seem to be another world. A big one.

But an even bigger world is coming when we hear the trumpet sound...

"Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven saying: “The kingdom of the world HAS BECOME the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and He will reign for ever and ever.” Revelation 11.15 NET

Didn't someone named Handel write a song about that moment in time?