ABC's of Texas Touring

Once again, it's been a while since I posted anything.  I have taken some interesting trips in the last few months but unfortunately I got too busy upon my return to post anything.  Last Fall, I took 2 trips...one to the Hill Country and another to the Lone Star Rally in Galveston.  Both were enjoyable and if you're interested in pictures I can share them with you later.

This post involves traveling around Texas...mostly Central and East Texas...West Texas is too hot so I won't be venturing too far out that way...at least not until it cools down a bit.

Sharon and I had this idea that it might be fun to travel around the State finding city and towns with interesting and/or unique names, or in some cases some history that not everyone knows.  The idea came from a contest Harley Davidson National is doing but we thought it would be more interesting for our grandkids to keep it local.  The idea is to use the alphabet and find 26 or more places starting with one of the letters.  At some point down the road, once I collect all the locations I need, I'll put them in book form.  Perhaps the grandkids...and others...will find it interesting.

This blog will be mostly about the trips I take to gather the information for the ABC's of Texas Touring Book.

The first time out was only for a few hours on a Sunday afternoon and it involved cities and towns in the local area that are familiar names to the bikers around Brazos County.  On that ride I visited Anderson, Bedias, Carlos.  I may not use all of them in the final product because only Anderson is interesting with it's old historic Court House.

The second trip was much more extensive.  After visiting Baylor College of Dentistry on a Thursday for business, I spent the night at a hotel close to I-20 so that on Friday morning I could get an early start.  I had worked out a route through some of the lesser known East Texas towns within a reasonable area.  The route would take me as far east as Jacksonville before heading back toward the DFW area and my final destination in Arlington for a 1-yr old's birthday party.

On my way to Dallas, I decided to follow old Hwy 75 as long as possible.  I was surprised to find it was still in excellent condition, probably because the locals still use it extensively.  Along the route between Madisonville and Streetman...where 75 merges with I-45...there are numerous little towns with populations ranging from 110 up to 5800 or so.  There are houses, ranches, farms and all manner of commercial buildings along the route, but on this Thursday morning, I had the highway almost to myself. 

I crossed several creeks...Bliss, Keechi, Iron...and one river, the Navasota.  I also passed Fort Boggy State Park, which is just south of Centerville between I-45 and Hwy 75.  I made such good time that it appeared I would be too early for my meeting in Dallas so I stopped in Corsicana for lunch and to walk around Gander Mountain...no ammo there either!  I arrived at my destination with 5 minutes to spare.

On Friday morning, I got up early, had a little breakfast at the hotel...muffin and juice...and hit the road headed east at 7am.  My first stop was Van...about 55 miles down the road.  The weatherman predicted that the temperature would peak out near 102-103 by the end of the day but this early it was about 85 and the sun was hidden by a light cloud cover...at this point, the weather was excellent for riding.

In the interest of time, I stopped short of my original destination in Van to take a picture of a sign welcoming visitors to the city of Van...and then I was off to Jacksonville.  I decided, whenever possible, I needed to save a few minutes.  The Google map routing said that I was already going to have a six hour day, and that's without stops.  I figured it was going to take eight hours, at least.

The route to Jacksonville took me to the outskirts of Tyler and then out Hwy 79, a 4-lane highway, nice and smooth.  There was probably a shorter route available but perhaps not a faster one.  The area around Tyler is very pretty...looked like they have received a lot of rain so far this summer because everything was green.  I passed several estates that might be considered plantations...roses I guess...and the houses might be considered mansions...they were quite nice.

I pulled into Jacksonville at 9:30am, took my picture in front of their police station and hit the road again headed for Athens...about 50 miles away.  Unfortunately, those 50 miles took a little longer as Hwy 175 was under considerable repair...looked like they were resurfacing it.  At one point, the line being held by a flagman was over a mile long and the stretch of one-way highway was at least that long, if not longer...and it was getting hot!

Between Van and Athens I once again crossed several creeks, the Neches River twice and passed through some villages...too little to call towns or cities.  One such location, about 10 miles outside Jacksonville had two liquor stores, a car repair place and another abandoned-looking building...no gas station, no restaurants....the only housing I could see was mobile homes.  The name of the village was Cuney...my apologies if you're from there.

My next stop was Athens.  Already I felt pressed for time so I took a picture of the city limits sign and pressed on.  I stopped long enough for the picture, take a drink and reprogram my GPS for Canton...not on my route originally but I thought I should add it as almost everyone I know has been there at sometime in their life...it was only 25 miles up the road so I added a total of 50 miles to the trip.

One thing I had not considered was that this particular Friday is First Monday weekend...that's when hoards of people typically descend on Canton to shop the huge flea market and sample the great treats that are everywhere.  Fortunately, the traffic had not picked up much and I was able to get a picture of the market entrance and get out of the way without much trouble.  By this time, it was getting close to lunch and I was hungry so I stopped at a little place on the town square and had a very good hamburger.  The air-conditioned shop was really the best thing about the stop but the burger was good too.

After an hour of eating and relaxing, it was time to head on down the road...next stop, Gun Barrel City.  I plugged the location into my GPS and headed out, not caring what highway I was on but knowing the GPS would get me there by the quickest route.  I passed through several small towns with names such as Tundra, Jackson and Phalba...no, I didn't misspell it.

As I arrived in Gun Barrel City, it had a familiar ring to it, although I had never been there.  It reminded me of the Conroe area near Lake Conroe.  Gun Barrel City is also on the shores around a popular boating area...Cedar Creek Reservoir...a very large body of water.  As I drove along the road, there were restaurants, convenience stores, boating and fishing supplies and all manner of other places, just like Conroe.

I took my picture in front of city hall and headed on down the road across the bridge that divides the reservoir.  I don't know how many square miles the reservoir covers but it is quite large and appears to be a very popular destination.

My next stop was Tool, a small town on the western shores of the same reservoir.  I never found the post office...my original destination...so I took a picture of the volunteer fire department.  Tool wasn't much of a town, or should I say there wasn't much of a town present.  It appeared all the housing was between the road and the water....definitely a water loving folk.  I noticed a sign for the turn off to the Auxillary Coast Guard station but I never could find it either.  However, it gave me an opportunity to see some of the houses better.  Some of them were nice and just about all

of them had some sort of boat in the driveway or in the carport.

At this point, I was still at least 2 hours away from the end of my day and I could tell that the weather forecast was right on...it was at least 100 at 2pm.  As long as I could keep moving it wasn't too bad.  I also stopped occassionally to take a drink out of my thermos.

My next stop was Eureka...once again a tiny village along Hwy 287 on the way to Corsicana.  The map showed the town being on the shores...or near anyway...of Richland-Chambers Reservoir but I never saw the water.  I also couldn't find the post office so I took a picture in front of a church and got back on the road.  Hwy 287 merges with I-45 at Corsicana up to a point just south of Ennis...a section of highway that I had been on just the day before.  Traffic was fairly light on the interstate so I made good time safely.

I exited on Hwy 287 headed west towards Waxahachie...my last stop for the day.  The road is pretty good but the closer I got to Waxahachie, the more crowded the road became.  I hit the city limits about 3pm and the traffic was terrible...you would have thought it was a Saturday and everyone was out shopping.

My destination was supposed to be the city hall building, about 2 miles down the road, but the traffic was so heavy and slow moving and I was so ready to be in Arlington that when I saw the high school sign, I pulled in and got a picture.  The good news was that this was only 2 blocks off 287 so I got back on the highway relatively quickly and continued to Arlington.

I pulled into the driveway in Arlington at 4pm...nine hours after leaving the hotel in Mesquite...tired, hot and thirsty.  After unloading everything, and taking a shower, I tanked up on water and cooled down.

Sitting there relaxing, I was able to reflect back on the day's journey and I realized that Texas is full of people spread out all over the place...big cities to tiny villages, many of them having less than 100 citizens.  I passed over so many creeks that there was no way I could remember the names...although I did manage to remember Fish Creek, Aligator Creek and Hog Creek.  There is also an abundance of cemetaries spread out around the State...most of them named after the town nearby or some person I never heard of.  Most of them are very small but probably have very old headstones from the town's ancestors.  In addition, there are lakes everywhere...some not very big, but others just the opposite.  They may be called reservoirs or something else, but for all intents and purposes, they're lakes.

I don't know when my next trip will be or where but I have a quite a few towns to visit before I'm done so stay tuned.