Back Road Whispers: August 2012

Awhile back (another one of those things we say in these parts) Walt and I headed to Corpus to celebrate our anniversary. Corpus is like Drippin' - Texans don't say Corpus Christi or Dripping Springs...it is Corpus and it is Drippin'. Anyhoo, we had a choice, take I-35 to San Antonio and pick up I-37 down to Corpus...or we could take the back roads - wanna guess which one we took?

This should give you a clue :)

See the post office across the street?

Back of the store

Front with closed sign...darn

In Hocheim one stop was at either the Hoch Genera or the Heim L Store. Since we needed neither Genera or L's we weren't too disappointed it was closed. We went by a year or so ago and I was devastated to see they were ruining this beautiful place, had it all spiffied up with fresh paint, windows replaced, weeds pulled, etc...

A couple of the architectural details at the store.

Although it was tempting we resisted the urge to sit a spell and cool off

Since they were closed we headed on down the road....and found the Berclair Mansion.

Quite the place, open for tours for two hours on the last Sunday of each month..which wasn't when we were there, so we looked around a bit from outside the gate.

The mansion has 22 rooms over about 10,000sf, all with original furnishings including antiques that date back to the 1600's. It was built in 1936 by a 75 year old woman, Etta Wilkerson Terrell. She had lost a previous home to fire and was intent on that not happening again so this one was built out of steel, concrete, and brick. She was widowed and asked her four sisters to live with her. The last one died in 1968 leaving the home standing empty for many years, however the antiques and furnishings remained inside. I remember reading somewhere that clothes from Dillards, still with price tags are hanging in closets.

Miss Etta, and perhaps her sisters, still haunt the home. Workers and volunteers have reported many unexplained happenings around the house.

Across the street from the mansion is the old schoolhouse. That is the extent of my knowledge...it is old, it was a schoolhouse and it is in Berclair.

Nearby is Medio Creek where it meets up with Blanco Creek. This is the home of Buckner Ranch, an archeological and paleontological site. It was here in 1938 and 1939 they found the fossilized remains of a 1,000,000 year old mastodon, rhinoceros, camels, elephants, alligators and three toed horses. Besides all that cool stuff there is a fabulous bridge crossing Medio Creek.

Medio Creek gets its name because it is about the halfway point between the San Antonio and Nueces Rivers along one of the three ox cart roads leading from Mexico to La Bahia in Goliad.

A bit further and we come to Oakhill Cemetery.

The cyclone of May 18, 1902 devastated the town of Goliad and killed 114 residents. The courthouse served as a hospital and a morgue. There are many small white markers on graves from casualties of the cyclone of 1902.

Near the Northeast corner is a low rock wall in a rectangular shape with something like a jungle growing in it. This area is where the people who were hung on the hanging tree were buried.

Near the Southeast corner are the only above ground crypts in Oak Hill. These are from a typhoid epidemic. At that time, no one was sure how typhoid was spread and the people did not want to contaminate the ground. They buried the victims in these above ground crypts.

There are 22 Confederate Veterans buried in Oak Hill.

The above poem was found on one of the graves....the grave was that of a man! Guess they got a good bargain???

Not sure where we found this guy so I'll just toss this in here....

Well, some people have flamingos these people have a rhino.

Continuing our journey we come to Skidmore, Texas.

Skidmore was named after Frank O. Skidmore, the son of Samuel C. Skidmore, cousin to Stonewall Jackson. Samuel came here from Virginia in 1857 and settled on Aransas Creek. His son donated land for a right of way along the railway line and when the third post office was established it was called Skidmore. The first two were Riverside, obviously for its location and Lattington after the first postmaster.

Now I'm sure Skidmore has a lot more to offer, but we stopped specifically for a cache at the old calaboose. Unlike the beautiful jail in La Grange, this one would put me on the straight and narrow for life. One tiny window for ventilation and light, room for maybe a cot and a chamber pot and lots of time to regret the poor choices made.

Growing beside the calaboose was a plant threatening to take over as you can see by the picture of Walt. Another tree decided to grow up through a piece of road equipment.

Finally got to our motel .... and this view

We were fortunate to have a local guide that took us around, one of my Shutterbug friends, NonnyMouse. She has left us now, much too soon, but I am so blessed to have had the chance to spend time with her.

One of the first stops was at the Texas State Aquarium, where Nonny was a volunteer. A beautiful afternoon spent admiring all the exhibits in a beautiful setting.

We saw....

Pretty fish doing the fish equivalent of strolling.

Mean looking fish that were prowling.

Fish that didn't look like fish....

And fish that were weird...this one had four eyes, two to look above water, two to look below.

We saw...

Cute little gentle seahorses.

Different corals waving in the water

And jelly fish of gold....

We saw...

Itty bitty gator types...think it is a Cayman

And turtles gliding around their pool.

We saw...

Otters

and baby porcupines.

We saw...

Birds in groups and birds having a quiet moment.

We saw so much and were surprised and pleased to see this display.

Nonny was an active volunteer in the release of baby Ridley turtles, going at dawn to help give them a fighting chance as they headed for the waters of the gulf. There was the story and the picture SHE took. I changed the signature to that of her screen name. Boy it isn't everyone that has their work displayed at a state aquarium.