Archive for the ‘Texas’ Category

Mexican Cemetery

Monday, October 11th, 2010

Click for Weslaco, Texas Forecast

Not only in Mexico are Mexican cemeteries scenic beauty.  As we get closer to “el Día de los Muertos”, the Day of the Dead, the decorations will only become more elaborate.  We experienced the Día de los Muertos when we spent the winter in Sayulita, MX.  We’ll never forget the loud explosions that were set off beginning at 4:00 AM and continuing every hour on the hour until about midnight.  This went on for several days in anticipation of el día.

Even here in Texas, all of the graves are decorated beautifully.

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This cemetery is near Weslaco, Texas.  and apparently each family has a designated section.

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The fence is marked with the family names.

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Progress?

Sunday, October 10th, 2010

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Is this progress or a war zone?   Our RV park is adding about 40 new sites.  Each site has its own septic.  This shot shows the ongoing excavation.

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Time to fill the holes and dig it up again for the water and electric, then add some roads.  Oh well, it doesn’t look like this new section will be occupied for a few months anyway.

Two Farm Girls Hunting for Dead Bodies

Wednesday, September 29th, 2010

Click for Lexington, Texas Forecast

Jenelle, my sister, is into genealogy.  She has information on our grandfather’s ancestors and is now looking up our grandmother’s ancestors.  When grandmother was about 90 years old she went to Lexington, TX and found her grandfather’s grave site.  This cemetery is located in a pasture.  Since Jenelle and John were coming to Dallas, Texas for the OSU /TCU  football game, Jenelle decided that she and I could go on a trip to Lexington (near Austin, TX) and find the cemetery and take pictures of the grave site.  Jenelle knew what highway it was on and about how far it was from town.

Here is a sign on the highway.

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This is the entrance to the  pasture you must drive in to arrive at the cemetery.  We chose to park our car on the side of the road and walk even though we didn’t know how far we would have to walk.  I grabbed a bottle of water and my camera and off we went.

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We walked about 1/2 mile and saw the cemetery.  The gate was tied with rope so we chose to climb over it, a skill  we learned growing up on the farm.

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The cemetery was not real large so we decided to divide up the cemetery between the 2 of us to look for the grave site.  I went to the end on one side and Jenelle went to the  other side.  We were looking for the last name of Barnhill, my grandmother’s maiden name. It was about 100 degrees so we walked fairly fast going down the rows of graves.

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I found it after going down 4 rows of graves.

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This was the grave we had driven to Lexington, TX to find.  It read Wm Barnhill died Feb 20, 1894 Aged 75 years.  (Click Photo to enlarge.)

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Right next to it was another grave that read Joseph, son of TJ and M F Barnhill, Born Sept 7, 1892, Died Dec 23, 1893.  This was our Grandmother’s little brother who lived almost a year and half.

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With the temperature over 100 degree we were hot and ready to get back in the air conditioned car.  Bringing the drinking water turned out to be a great idea!  As we were getting ready to climb over the fence we noticed a small gate close to the grave sites.

Look it opens!!!!!!!!  No more climbing over fences looking for dead bodies!!!!.

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Grandmother found these grave sites when she was about 90 years old.  We could just see Grandmother doing the same thing  we did as she was a very spunky lady.

Football Fanatics

Saturday, September 25th, 2010

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On a recent trip to the Dallas area we met up with Tinka’s sister, Jenelle, and her husband, John from British Columbia, Canada.  John is a die hard Oregon State Beaver fan and he sprung for some fantastic seats to the TCU – OSU pre-season opener.   We arrived early and John, Jenelle, and Tinka try out their seats.

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The game was held at the fantastic Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas.   This night shot shows off the glass and lighting effects. (You can learn more about the stadium by clicking here.)

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The huge TV monitor (160 feet long) is back-lit by the closed roof.

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At game time they played the Star Spangled Banner and opened the roof, which stayed opened throughout the game.

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The Oregon State visitors show their patriotism.

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By kickoff time, some 45,000 fans were in attendance.

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Even with our great seats, I found it easier to watch the action on the large screen TV.

Going even to a college game can put a hole in your wallet.  Seats – $150 each, Parking – $30.00, Beer – $8.00 EACH – Bottled Water – $5.00, etc.  You get the picture.

We got off a bit easy because our son Lance, who works at the stadium, fixed us up with a parking pass and shuttled us from the car to the stadium in a golf cart.  Thanks, Lance.

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We had a wonderful time.  Less wonderful for the OSU fans,  but they still enjoyed it.

Bloggus Interruptus

Saturday, September 18th, 2010

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We apologize for the lack of reports recently.  We have a few new entries that are almost ready to publish.

Unfortunately,  Rick has been in the hospital for the past couple of weeks and that has thrown us off our stride.