Innholdsfortegnelse for June 2017 i Texas Highways Magazine

ABOUT 10 MILES NORTH OF THE TOWN OF Palacios and Matagorda Bay, the scenery along Texas 35 begins to change. Nondescript coastal scrub morphs into something greener, and the air begins to carry a faint salt tang. To the east, colorful farmhouses punctuate verdant pastures where cattle graze beneath fluffy cloud formations. To the west, rows upon rows of neatly manicured crops—mostly corn but also soybeans and sorghum— glisten in the afternoon sunlight, like a blanket of green leaves covering the soil beneath. Founded around 1909, Palacios faces Matagorda Bay and lies roughly midway between Galveston and Corpus Christi. A relaxed town of about 4,700 residents, Palacios is so wellknown for its shrimping industry that its slogan is “The Shrimp Capital of Texas.” But the town also has a lot…

On the deck of the Texas State Aquarium in Corpus Christi, on a bright aft ernoon this spring, a group of school kids in matching red polo shirts pressed their noses against the glass to spy river ott ers playing in the artificial stream that courses through Ott er Creek. The ott ers slid and skitt ered in the water, occasionally posing for snapshots as the children pointed and laughed at their antics. Nearby in the aquarium’s 400,000-gallon saltwater Dolphin Bay exhibit, a pair of playful Atlantic bott lenose dolphins surged and dove, competing for the visitors’ att ention. Later, trainers stopped by with fish for the tricksters, who leapt and danced for treats. This sort of wildlife action made me feel young at heart, leaving me giddy despite my regrets…

GO, SEE, DO—TAKING IN TEXAS What’s better than enjoying a nice summer day at the ballpark? Perhaps when it involves watching the action from an inner tube floating in Dr Pepper Ballpark’s new Choctaw Lazy River. The $1.5-million development opened in June 2016: a 3,000- square-foot pool in the shape of a figure eight, just beyond right field. For $39 apiece, fans can float in their swimsuits during Thursday and Sunday games, complete with all-you-can-eat food, cabanas, and views of the entire ballpark. On other game nights, the ballpark books the lazy river for groups of 25 to 250. It’s a whole new ballgame. www.ridersbaseball.com.…

OUR FAVORITE SOCIAL MEDIA OF THE MONTH GOT SOMETHING TO SAY? I had lunch at Cupp’s Drive Inn (April) many times while at Baylor in the late ’60s. It’s a great oldfashioned, greasy burger with handmade fries. Tasty! ANN CORNWELL PRICE_ The Carrie Rodriguez interview (April) is a lovely article about a lovely person. KARL A. KRAMER, CINCINNATI, OHIO Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram Rocky the Rooster How did the photographer get Rocky the barn rooster to pose so beautifully? I want to know his magic. Lu Hollander, Brenham TH: “I whispered in his ear and told him how handsome he was. They like to hear that,” photographer Kenny Braun says of his rooster photo in the April feature about Washington County. “It was a pretty active barnyard…

ON TRIPS TO THE HAMILTON COUNTY TOWN OF Hico over the years, I’d wondered why the handsome 1896 Midland Hotel building had remained sorely neglected. An imposing corner building at the center of a charming vintage downtown, the two-story brick landmark had clearly been a showplace in its heyday. Happily, though, on recent getaway trips to Hico—an easy escape from my home in Fort Worth for a weekend of shopping, roadhouse dining, and stargazing—I watched with anticipation as the Midland began showing signs of renewal. Purchased by a local development group in 2014, the relic began to slowly transform. When the hotel reopened in January after two years of careful restoration and renovation, I made plans to stay overnight and delight in all the discoveries. Much of the credit goes…

No coastal highway passes through Matagorda. But when you follow Texas 60 south from Bay City to its terminus where the Colorado River empties into the Matagorda Bay, prepare to be beguiled. Here, the mighty Colorado River watershed feeds vast marshes laced with leveed rice paddies and jungle-like wetland preserves such as Mad Island Wildlife Management Area and the Big Boggy and San Bernard national wildlife refuges. Back when Spanish cartographer Alonso Álvarez de Pineda first mapped the Texas coast in 1519, the Colorado River percolated its red clay-tinted waters into a large bay through hundreds of square miles of marsh filled with impenetrable canebrakes, thus both the bay’s and the river mouth’s appellation of “thick bush” (mata gorda in Spanish). Shielding Matagorda Bay from the Gulf of Mexico is…

REAL TEXAS STORIES BORN AND BRED IN A SMALL WORKSHOP ON THE GROUND FLOOR of Texas A&M University’s Anthropology Building, broad windows illuminate a faint dusting of sawdust covering tools, computers, and supply shelves. Three historical ship models rest on worktables in the center of the room: La Belle, a French sailing ship that sank in Matagorda Bay in 1686, and two versions of the Heroine, a steamboat that sank in the Red River in 1838. In various stages of completion, the models are so detailed they look like they could’ve sailed in from the past and docked right here in College Station. The models are the handiwork of Glenn Grieco, director of the Ship Model Lab in A&M’s Center for Maritime Archeology and Conservation, part of the Nautical Archeology…

TEXAS WILD + DETOUR + STAY + SOUVENIR NOT A HALF-HOUR INTO MY DAYLONG ADVENTURE, in the middle of a prairie of sea lavender and leatherleaf, I stopped my bike in wonder. A few dozen yards from the pavement, dozens of sandhill cranes comingled with a flock of ivory snow geese, completely ignoring my entrance into this unspoiled coastal scene. I had hoped for such moments when I decided to explore Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge by bicycle. Maybe the famous avian residents—and even its mammals—wouldn’t notice me like they would if I arrived in a noisy car? At the same time, I could pedal to some of the refuge’s more far-flung attractions— and there was a lot of ground to cover. At 97,000 acres, Laguna Atascosa is by far…

DURING FORT WORTH’S RODEO SEASON IN JANUARY and February, I’m the most popular person in my family and circle of friends. That’s because my home is just two blocks from Will Rogers Memorial Center, home to the Fort Worth Stock Show & Rodeo. Folks come from all over Texas and beyond to att end the world’s original indoor rodeo, and weekends bring visitors in droves to the fairgrounds and museums surrounding the rodeo arena—more than a million people each year. For my nearest and dearest, my driveway becomes a coveted free parking spot within easy walking distance of all that fun. It’s also the time I get to see my 12-year-old niece, Madison, shirk her soft ball-pitcher persona and dress up like a cowgirl in jeans and boots. So when…

I KNEW THE FIRST TIME I PULLED UP TO SYLVIA Mae’s Soul Food in Jacksonville that there was more than meets the eye. Sylvia Mae’s, which occupies a ramshackle, metal-sided building with red trim and a lopsided front porch, isn’t fancy. But it’s not supposed to be: Owner Sylvia Jones envisioned it as a soul-food sanctuary, and one visit will make you a believer. Jones has been cooking since she was seven years old. “I just love cooking, and I love to feed people,” she says. Growing up in Rosebud, a small community about 25 miles east of Temple, Jones and her seven siblings all pitched in doing daily chores, and Jones found her skills in the kitchen. After leaving home at age 18, she followed a career path in…

WHO NEEDS TO GET ON AN AIRPLANE TO DANCE WITH A FOREIGN CULTURE? Between Houston and Austin, a 90-minute drive from each, is Fayette County, “the cradle of Czech immigration.” In the 19th century, Czech immigrants settled in pockets around Texas— just follow the kolaches—but the concentration of new arrivals in Fayette County created a rich Czech tradition that persists today in the region’s music, food, and culture. Fleeing persecution in their homeland, a pioneering group of 16 families from Bohemia landed in Galveston in 1852 and made their way to Central Texas, according to the Texas Almanac. By the Civil War, about 700 Czechs called the region’s rich farmland home. Predominantly Catholic, the Czechs settled in such Fayette County towns as La Grange, Fayetteville, Schulenburg, Dubina, Moulton, Hostyn, and…