The trip report

It was a long drive. I'm really glad I went; I needed that time away, time with a friend, being besieged by cats (and a collie, and a Japanese Chin), shopping, seeing historical stuff, but mainly being away from the little hamster-wheel that my life had become.

But still: it's nice to get home again too. (It was a very long drive back from Jefferson, Texas, our last stop.)

We met up in Carthage, as it was an easy location for me to find, there was a place to eat lunch (it's called a tea room but it's more of a country diner. The food was quite good. I got a cheeseburger) and a quilt shop, and then it was easy to caravan to Laura's place, because none of the roads to it were on my map.

But first, we made a stop before visiting Louisiana and I was able to do something I joked about years ago, when I first made my little stuffed Derpy Hooves (whose official name is Muffin Pony, but she will always be Derpy to me).

"Derp in the Heart of Texas." Like the song about the moon at night, and all that? Yes, it's kind of dumb and silly but my brand of humor is kind of dumb and silly.

So we stopped at a memorial to Jim Reeves (with a big statue of him) right outside of Carthage, and I was able to do so. (At first I worried about the disrespect of it but Laura said she didn't think he was actually buried there - just his dog).



I guess I cut his head off but the little grey speck there is Derpy:



That's better proof.

And an even better photo, which I would have taken first if I had seen it, with the historical marker:



I may have to try to do this a little more, as I take more trips around Texas. There are LOTS of historical markers in Texas....

And then, caravanning to her house, and how worried I was about losing her because I only had a vague description of what roads to take, and as I said, they weren't on the map (though I suppose if I got too lost - we both had cell phones).

But I made it. We planned to stop at her place so I could leave my car so she could drive around Shreveport (seeing as she knows it and I didn't, at all). And so I could drop my stuff in the room where I was sleeping.

And then this happened:



You can see at least part of eight cats in there. Five of them are the recent kittens (four of which are on me). The funny thing is, within ten seconds of my sitting down on the floor, ALL THE CATS - none of whom had ever seen me before - descended on me. The kittens started climbing me and Fiona (the grey girl to my right) was sniffing me and wanting pets.

The cat on my shoulder is named "Chunk" which I found pretty endearing because The Goonies is one of my favorite movies...Chunk really liked me, he kept climbing me and would sit on my shoulder and purr in my ear.

But after a while of hanging out with cats, we ran out because Shreveport has a yarn shop, and a used-book store, and one of those shops that sell "healing crystals" (or, if you are me: "pretty rocks") and we had to make some arrangements for food.

From the yarn shop, sock yarn for me:



The ball is kind of odd colors (hot pink and mustard) but I kind of like the weird-color self-striping yarns. The other one I just thought was pretty; I might make it into a shawlette instead of socks.

And the bookstore:



A book of British women's memories of teatime, with a few recipes (there is one for a "Plain fruited cake" that looks kind of good), and a book on cooking for one that tells HOW TO MAKE  A CHEESE SOUFFLE FOR ONE which is something I've always wanted to try but figured souffle leftovers were no good, so....

And the green book is yet another different Irish Pub cookbook from the ones I already own, I haven't even looked at it in any depth yet. And two mystery novels; the Jane Austen one just looked interesting and Louise Penny is my favorite contemporary mystery writer, and that's one of hers I don't have yet.  Oh, and a history book on the "Domesday Book," which was one of the first big collections of demographic-type information.

Oh, and stepping back a bit in time: here's the fabric. I THINK the shop was called Stitchin Chicken, but I didn't keep the receipt:



The three on the top right are for a quilt I am planning. I just liked the one with the herbs in it and might "fussy cut" squares and alternate them with squares of coordinating calicos set in a sashing.

 oh, and a closeup of one:
 

BUGS.

And then it was back to her place. We watched a couple of movies off of Amazon Prime - a really odd mockumentary called something like "What We do in the Shadows" about vampires trying to live in modern-day New Zealand and the problems they face (especially when they create a new vampire out of a sort-of-clueless 20-something who then goes around TELLING people he's a vampire, which is a no-no). And "Paint your Wagon," which is a musical from the late 60s (it is the one notorious for Lee Marvin "singing" "Under a Wandering Star.") It was....different. And we talked about how that movie COULD NOT be made today....for one thing, the idea of a poly-marriage ("Pardner," and Lee Marvin's character, and the woman he effectively "bought") was played as a gag then, but as we inch closer to such a thing being legalized....well, it feels kind of weird the whole "look at the crazy stuff happening in this frontier town" bit.

And the ending - or, the bit right before the ending when everyone decides to move on - well, it was kind of like a cartoon. (It felt to me like the movie couldn't decide whether to be social satire or simple slapstick, and perhaps those two things don't quite go together).

The next day, back into East Texas - first, to an old cemetery in Scottsville, which had a really beautiful church/chapel built in it by one of the local families:



It was locked (understandable, given the weird things people do) so we couldn't see the inside, though it would have been interesting to see.

Also, some very old memorial markers, including one for someone who fought in the War of 1812:



(It's hard to read because my camera is old and has lower resolution, but his name was William Pinckney Rose)

And Laura said this is one of five of this type of "weeping angel" (not to be confused with the "don't blink" kind of weeping angel statues) found in Texas. She's missing an arm, though:




This is the memorial for William Scott Youree, who was killed in 1904 in Mexico.

This was just part of the "curbing" around the paths, but it had an interesting lichen on it:



We also drove to Jefferson and saw the museum there, and walked around the town (even though it was raining at that point). Had really good barbecue for lunch. And then, a little before 1 pm, she led me back down to where 59 becomes 80, she went one way, I went the other, and not quite five hours later (it included a stop at the Kroger's in Sherman), I was home.