Starting at the end. In the middle:
“Sometimes the cards ain’t worth a dime if you don’t lay ’em down.”
I was vacillating between two songs, the lyrics running back forth in my head, see: these are tunes from an old “road mix” CD, just odd collections of material. Really odd. Consider the other batch of lyrics was something about a man in coonskin cap wants 11 dollars and I’ve only got ten.
Mix that material with some 80’s disco music, then add a touch of 90’s metal & punk, and a little techno & country on top. It’s a strange brew. However, at 2 in the morning, making a dash through the Gulf Coast night, the roar of the casino still in my veins, yeah, odd works.
I’ve got a half dozen shots that turned okay, and pretty much cover Friday’s madness. Started out slow and easy, picked up a rent car, out of Neons, so I took the big white whale (for a small surcharge). Pointed it down the road, and even before I was out of Austin, I had ideas running around my brain.
There’s a shot of the front seat of the car, road mix CD, iPod, phone, coffee, it’s all there. That’s where I started. The main destination was the Gulf, but I’d pretty desperately wanted some pictures from Goliad. I cruised through Luling, saw a picture I wanted, spun the car around in main street, pulled over, rolled down the passenger window, reached over and took a quick shot of an honorary oil rig in downtown.
See, Luling hit oil in 1922, pretty much put it back on the map for a little while. Makes an interesting triptych, an old, possibly abandoned, oil collection set, two pumps, a couple of separation tanks for storing oil and gas – a typical ignored piece of history, and back to back, there was a new cell tower. Mineral rights used to be money, now it’s cell towers?
Fast U-Turn, back down the road.
Next up was Gonzales. Yeah, [i]that[/i] flag. October 2, 1835, a plucky group of Gonzales residents refused to return the canon lent to them by the Mexican Army (in San Antonio), and that same group of Texicans raised the famous flag: “Come and take it!”
I did a quick lap through downtown Gonzales, and I found an image that begged to have me take the picture, so I popped out of the car long enough to grab a good picture, next thing, I was slinging gravel, and tires squealed.
I passed the famous site of that first stand., where that flag came from, and I spun around on the highway, bounced through the ditch, and pitched the car sideways, snapped two quick shots of the granite roadside markers, and spun the wheel, headed southbound again.
The background music stated with that mixed CD, then I popped in some Brian Burns, and he lightened the load, especially with his version of Col. Travis’s letter, and the ballad of the battle. (Songs of the Texians album).
Remember the Alamo, remember Goliad!
As I coasted through the little towns, I got to where I had to get a picture of [i]every[/i] roadside historical marker. Didn’t have time to read them – just quick, snap a picture, then spew gravel and fishtail back out onto the pavement.
The drive-by method of tourism produced a couple of interesting shots. The Feed Mart of Goliad was one such shot, as was one that followed that, the “Welcome to Nowhere” sign.
Goliad, actually, just the [url=http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/park/goliad]State Park[/url] was all that interested me. 318, 342, whatever, Texian prisoners were slain, in cold blood, but due to my delicate nature, I’m not about to poke around that gravesite. Got a picture last time, in other words. So all I wanted was updated material from Mission Nuestra Senora del Espiritu Santo de Zuniga. It’s an old CCC project (your tax dollars at work).
I questioned the staff about the skull and crossbones logo, and the staff had their facts wrong, but I was double-parked, I tossed them my two bucks admission fee and hustled on down the road. In case you’re wondering, Texas Parks are protected by duly sworn in peace officers. No gravel slinging there. Have to show reverence in the State Historical Parks.
I passed up the concrete structure place, but I didn’t pass up Concrete, TX. After reviewing the film, I decided that pictures of every roadside historical marker would be kind of dull. But I do have them for archival purposes.
The dash through the countryside, back roads through the Post Oak Savannah, dropped me off into the coastal plain.
Just in time to make dinner aboard the Texas Treasure – [url=http://www.txtreasure.com/]Casino[/url].