Innholdsfortegnelse for March 2021 i Texas Highways Magazine

This month’s cover is an homage to the well-known Lady Bird Johnson quote, “Where wildflowers bloom, so does hope.” This spring, perhaps more than any in recent memory, we are in need of the hope and optimism of the season. Throughout this magazine’s 48-year history, hundreds of pages have been devoted to wildflowers—from where to find them, to how to identify and grow them, to photo spreads splashed with their beauty. But heading into a wildflower season knowing more than 36,000 of our fellow Texans have died from a pandemic over the past year called for something different. And who better to write authentically and eloquently about loss and rebirth, grief and hope, than a poet? While Austin-based poet ire’ne lara silva has written about mortality and grief throughout her…

Not only are trucks useful and reliable—they are timeless. Not only do I use mine to haul my horse trailer, but I’ve found that I feel safer on the highway in my truck. Glad to see Sarah is a convert! Amber Parker, Oak Leaf Rich History Very cool [“My Hometown: Palestine,” January]. Historical driving tours have become a new hobby during the pandemic, and I’ll check this one out soon. Heidi Vance, Austin Nonalcoholic Options I don’t drink, but I hang out at a craft brewery in Brownwood called Teddy’s Brewhaus [“The Toppling of the Tipple,” January]. They give me the most awesome root beer ever made! Michael Evans, Brownwood Sea Shell Shoppe Back in the ’50s my grandmother made shell jewelry [“See Shells,” January]. She bought her supplies here.…

Legislators named the bluebonnet the state flower in 1901, but the man who would become famous for painting them, Julian Onderdonk, was leaving Texas for New York at the time. Up north, Onderdonk studied with painters Robert Henri and William Merritt Chase, who convinced him to get outside in the open air and pay close attention to light and shadow. After years of struggle in New York, Onderdonk returned to his hometown of San Antonio in 1909. With fresh eyes on his native state, he found his ultimate subject, and painted the bluebonnet-covered landscapes that would make his name. Tragically, he died at the peak of his success in 1922, at only 40 years old, but he left a trail of imitators behind. Some now call him “the father of…

1. Use a 4-by-8-inch block of untreated wood, or combine other sizes to form a block at least 8 inches tall. 2. Drill holes varying from ¼- to 3/8-inch diameter, 3 to 6 inches deep, spaced ¾ inch apart. Stop holes about ½ inch from the back of the block. Use a sharp drill bit at a high speed to create a smooth interior that won’t damage bee wings. 3. Attach a roof. 4. Secure firmly to a building, fence, or post at least 3 feet above the ground. 5. Orient the face toward the southeast. 6. Leave in place through winter—the bees will vacate the space for hibernation—or put in an unheated garage and replace outdoors in late winter or very early spring.…

Even before the pandemic swelled interest in outdoor activities as never before, a growing number of Texans were heading to our hills, lakes, beaches, and mountains for adventures al fresco. And for many, the experience isn’t complete without the simple joy of waking up in a campsite, surrounded by the beauty of nature. Camping’s popularity means demand for sites frequently outpaces supply in Texas. Many federal, state, and county campgrounds are booked months in advance, particularly on the weekends. When making camping plans, flexibility is key, both with your dates and your destinations. Camping has many interpretations. Some people prefer a busy park with electricity and flushing toilets nearby. Others prefer the solitary backcountry, opting for the company of coyotes over humans. Some hardy souls sleep best under the open…

A few weeks ago, stir-crazy from pacing around the house, I stuffed a change of clothing, food, and a tent into my backpack and drove to Pedernales Falls State Park, near Johnson City in the Hill Country. The campgrounds were booked solid, even midweek, but plenty of primitive walkin sites were still available. My husband and I reserved a spot online, printed the forms, and checked in at park headquarters, where a park ranger asked me, “You know it’s a 2-mile walk, don’t you?” Absolutely. The hike was just what I needed—45 minutes of crunching across a gravel path, hauling everything I’d need for the night on my back. I like backpacking because it tests my self-reliance. Even at a busy place like Pedernales Falls, I knew I wouldn’t see…

As a child, Roberto José Andrade Franco spent summers in the El Paso-Juárez borderland where he would accompany his family to lucha libre matches. He wrote about the sport in “The Good, the Bad, and the Exótico” (Page 52). “It was one of my early goals and dreams to be a luchador in Juárez,” says Franco, now an Arlington-based writer. “I think that was more of an 8-year-old’s dream.” That aspiration was partly inspired by his uncle’s career as a luchador and his grandmother’s love of the sport. “My grandmother’s a big sports fan and a lucha libre fan,” he says. “One of the things that distinguishes lucha libre from wrestling in the U.S. is audience involvement. It’s like a Greek chorus.” Franco, who will join the Texas Highways staff…

Photographer Theresa DiMenno discovered this bluebonnet field near Whitehall during an April 2009 scouting trip for spring wildflowers. She has since returned to Grimes County during wildflower season and ventured to other Blackland Prairie areas known for blooms, including Brenham and Chappell Hill. Despite the lack of fall rain, which could mean fewer blooms this year, DiMenno plans to hit the road again this spring. “I don’t need an immense blooming field to tell the story of a wildflower,” says DiMenno, who lives in Austin. “I also love the chase of searching for peak blooms while driving endless country roads.”…

Mention bees, and most people picture the familiar little honeybee, Apis mellifera. Native to Europe and first domesticated in Africa or Eurasia thousands of years ago, this species produces honey and beeswax and pollinates plants and agricultural crops. But Texas is home to more than 800 native bee species that pollinate the state’s plants. While most of these natives don’t produce honey, their life cycles are synced with those of native flowers, and they have physically adapted to the shapes and needs of Texas plants. For example, since bluebonnets bloom early, their pollinators can withstand cooler temperatures. And bluebonnets’ pollen-producing parts are tucked behind fused petals known as a keel, so bumble, digger, and mason bees know to put weight on the keel to open the flower. These subtle connections…

Sixteen years ago this month, I took one of the most beautiful road trips of my life. Not a very long trip—only slightly more than 200 miles—at least 10 of us in two cars, making our way from Austin to San Antonio to Uvalde to Brackettville. Warm sunshine rendered the roadside wildflowers incandescent with color. I wasn’t driving, so my eyes were free to drink in the trees bursting with new growth, lush grasses, and flowers blooming everywhere—bluebonnets, Indian blankets, dandelions, thistles, sand dollar cacti, and nightshade. Less than half an hour west of San Antonio the landscape shifted markedly—scenic creeks and small towns, farmhouses and little wooden barns, a few horses and cows wandering in flowering meadows. Scenes so picturesque it seemed a shame to be without a camera.…

The first time I seriously considered buying an RV was in the aftermath of a family tent camping trip to Kerrville-Schreiner Park. Highlights of the weekend included rainstorms, a nauseous 1-year-old, and very little sleep. My wife and I were accustomed to shrugging off the discomforts of tent camping. But the addition of a baby in diapers presented a new challenge, particularly when it came to sleep. When I found out a second baby was on the way, I knew my tent camping days were numbered. The first lesson I learned about RVs is you should never attend an RV expo unless you’re OK with the idea that you might leave owning one. On a February day in 2012 at the Dallas RV SuperSale, we marveled at the hundreds of…

Every day at 7 a.m., Arturo García walks into an El Paso panadería. Because of his former profession, he moves even slower than an average 75-year-old. He broke his ankle once. His knees ache from the countless times he's jumped from turnbuckles high above a ring. He has a broken clavicle that never healed properly. His forehead is full of scars that look like vertical striations. He has more scars on his torso from emergency surgery after a stranger stabbed him with an ice pick. García comes from a family of bakers: first his grandfather, then his father, now him. He spends most days making cookies to fill the display case at his Five Star Mexican Bakery. He looks like a typical grandfather. It’s easy to imagine a young grandchild…

If you’re talking about Guy Clark, there’s no place better to do so than at the Texas Chili Parlor in Austin. And few living people are more versed on the subject at hand than Tamara Saviano. A veteran journalist and record producer, Saviano has spent more than a decade chronicling the life and music of the Texas troubadour. Starting as his publicist in the 2000s, Saviano co-produced a Grammy-winning 2011 tribute album, This One’s for Him, and wrote the 2016 Clark biography, Without Getting Killed or Caught. In March, Saviano and Paul Whitfield, her husband and co-producer, will debut a film of the same name at the South by Southwest Film Festival. Clark was born in Monahans and grew up in Rockport before eventually moving to Nashville, where he passed…

Photographer Basil Clemons rambled the West and served in World War I before he arrived in the North Texas town of Breckenridge in 1919—on tour with a circus—and decided to stay. His timing was fortuitous: The next year, drillers struck oil, and Breckenridge boomed with industry and newfound wealth. Clemons, who died in 1964, documented all aspects of daily life in thousands of pictures, including this one of women enjoying a spring day in 1935. He developed his photos in his home, which was a 10-by-6-foot wagon without electricity or running water, parked on a vacant lot. An eccentric artist with a keen sense of innovation, Clemons cared little for material wealth and lived for 40 years in the iron-wheeled wagon, often sleeping out under the stars. His best images…