|
|
|
Traveling the South........Slowly
12th Southern Leisure One ‘n Two-Cylinder Tour
North Texas Regional Group
(Special thanks to Debi Sanders and David Groves for sharing these photos,
and to Tom & Evelyn Timmins for recapping the tour )
The 12th Annual tour had 17 pre-16 vehicles (’09-‘15) and 35 people who assembled in Jefferson, Texas, on Sept. 22-25, for two and one-half days of touring in the area. We tried to keep our max speed at 20 and about 60 miles daily. Especially nice for us, since we are often on the trouble truck, is that no one had to use it at all! Those old cars are something!!
Thursday afternoon we started off with getting acquainted with Jefferson, a quaint town with tour attractions reminiscent of its heyday. This city of 2200, 165 miles east of Dallas and 50 miles west of Shreveport, played an important role in Texas’ early development as a river port town on Big Cypress Bayou. Before the railroads came to north Texas, boats came up the Mississippi River into the Red River, through Caddo Lake and up Big Cypress to the “Turning Basin.” This was the main way to ship goods into and out of northern Texas. Jefferson was second only to Galveston in tonnage shipped.
We wanted to “live” some of this Texas history on our tour. We visited the Jefferson History Museum, formerly the Federal Courthouse, shared car stories with Jimmy Moore at his Lafayette Vintage Vehicles museum, and after our tour, tried to take pictures in front of the House of the Seasons (1872- Italianate), made more difficult by the sudden rain storm. No one complained as we had very little rain since January and were in a severe drought. The most unique features of the house are the cupola and the murals. In the cupola, under the picture, each wall contains a different colored stained glass that creates the illusion of the seasons of the year. The Excelsior House Hotel (1850) thought we looked so good parked there for the museum visit, they came and offered us fresh lemonade and cookies! No wonder it was Lady Bird’s favorite!
Friday morning found us looking at a smoky parking lot at the hotel! It was early so we watched the news; nothing noted there. The hotel manager called the sheriff’s office and they reported no fires in the area. Jefferson had been on warning to evacuate the week prior, so we wanted to take no chances, especially since we would be driving in backwoods roads away from any quick exit. There were firefighters at the hotel and they left every morning to dig trenches and work on fires in the area of Bastrop. Later that night they did inform us there was a fire, but not impacting our itinerary. We drove around the Lake o’ the Pines, some 60 miles through parts of 3 counties, eating catfish on the way. In typical Texas fashion, we ate “Mexican” that night.
On Saturday we drove another 60 miles circling part of Caddo Lake, the largest natural lake of fresh water in the South, covering about 27,000 acres which goes to 35,000 acres in times of high water (certainly not this year!!). We stopped in Karnack for lunch at the Riverbend Café, overlooking the water. Lady Bird Johnson was born in Karnack and attended school in Jefferson. After lunch we went for a boat trip on the “Graceful Ghost,” a wood-fueled steam powered paddle wheeler. Our embarkation point had to be moved and our trip altered due to the low water levels. Up until that day, we were not sure we could go at all, but we had a good time, several taking turns being the “captain.”
In retrospect, the hardest thing we had to do was decide what to leave out of this trip. There was a lot to see and do, and from the comments of attendees, we think we made the right decisions. There are lots of nice antique shops there and several said they would come back just to go through them and eat at the places we could not visit. If you time it right, you can even see Civil War reenactments. There are train rides and “ghost” walks held regularly; we want to try them ourselves. Come on the next tour; it is truly leisurely.
