stick shift

 

My phone and I went for a walk at the Ranching Heritage Center this morning. The purpose was two-fold:  exercise and practicing photography with my phone.  The result?  2.093 miles on the pedometer, some perspiration, a few inadvertent selfies, and this image of the old DeSoto pickup on display.  Brought back memories of my high school ride - 1959 green Chevy pickup with stick shift, but I had a radio!

 

National Ranching Heritage Center

Lubbock, Texas



buried on the lone prairie
 

The intersection of Farm Road 298 and washed out County Road 123 marks the final resting place of some 65 souls who lived at Baileyboro.  Only a few markers stand visible above the prairie grass to catch the eye.  One must walk the cemetery to feel the desolation of the place.  Only a few graves remain to mark a one-time community on the plains.  Times must have been hard.  It was sad to note the number of children's gravesites. 

 



 

G. D. French buried two infant sons at Baileyboro and marked the places with hand-chiseled rocks.  The family must have moved on because there are no other French family members buried there.  The boys were gone but not forgotten because nearby are two modern headstones simply inscribed "Baby Boy French" and the dates 1924 and 1931.

 

 

Scattered among the old tombstones and unmarked graves are newer stones placed to remember loved ones.  There was a burial as late as 20 years ago.  Even if the town no longer exists, it was still home.

Baileyboro Cemetery
Bailey County, Texas
8.29.2015



 



 

 

 

baileyboro east

 

Today's destination was Baileyboro.  Any trip requires a plan-- consult the Texas Backroads Atlas and select a place you've never been to or even heard of!  And if the map shows a cemetery nearby, even better!  To get there I drove through Bula, Circle Back and Needmore.  Baileyboro is on Farm Road 298.  It's not only a wide place in the road -- it's on the curve.  When the community was settled in 1900, the road was only a wagon track.  In 1921 the community built a school and for a short time had a post office. According to the 1941 Texas Almanac, Baileyboro had three stores, a school and a population of 100, which was its peak. In 1980 the population was sixty-one. In 2015 the population was zero and only a sign marks the site of a former community.

 

baileyboro west

 

 

Baileyboro

Farm Road 298

Bailey County, Texas





balcony art

 

If you go to Carrizozo on a Wednesday, this (and painted burros) may be all the art you see.  Plan your visit for a first Friday or the annual Art Fest.

 

Carrizozo, New Mexico

8.5.2015

del sol

 

The sun no longer shines so brightly on the Del Sol Motel.  What once must have been a great motor court with Spanish style has been reduced to apartment "rooms to rent" but with only one or two with parked cars (and BBQ grills and lawn chairs!)  The Del Sol's location was once great -- right downtown with the action-- but today's passing tourists, if they stay in Carrizozo, choose one the four more modern (relatively) motels on Highway 54. Convenience usually trumps character!

 

501 12th Street

Carrizozo, New Mexico

8.5.2015

 



hitchhiker

 

As Pop and I drove the farm on Friday, checking the pivot, we picked up this hitchhiker.  He seemed curious about us as I took as the camera.  He even waved before flying off.

 

Hale County, Texas

sunset

 

After the heat of the day, the summer sunset paints the evening with a brief burst of color.

 

Canyon Lake #1

Buddy Holly Recreation Area

Lubbock, Texas

lonely star

 

Advertising for the Dairy Queen calls its logo the Texas stop sign.  Well, no one was stopping at the Dairy Queen in Hale Center so it closed.  The place has tried to be other things -- unsuccessfully.  Even the Texas Observer has mentioned the Hale Center Dairy Queen in its article on the demise of a small town.  If you'd like to compete with the Owl Café, I think this place is available.  It has a great exterior paint job--on the south side at least.

 

Hale Center, Texas

you are here

 

This metropolis has new signage.  Do you know where you are?  It's the intersection of Loop 461 and FM 1729 -- or Monroe Street and Main, if you will. Yep, my hometown of New Deal, Texas.  In my growing up years Loop 461 was US 87, which disappeared when I-27 went to the west.  This intersection had the blinking traffic light, now gone.  The Post Office was downtown, before the new one was built to the north and there was no City Hall. And Taxas Tech (that's the way you say it BTW)-- that the Texas Tech New Deal Farm about 6 miles east.  Just in case you get lost downtown.

 

New Deal, Texas

horseshoe handles

 

Repurpose, reuse is nothing new.  What do you do with your old horseshoes?  If I had some, I think gate handles are a good idea.

avocets

 

The storm clouds gathered and the skies darkened. The avocets darted over the mudflats to finish the evening meal before the rains came.

 

Lubbock County, Texas

wreck 'em tech

 

I admire the willingness of this business to capitalize on the driving habits of Texas Tech students!  Did you notice the increase of traffic in Lubbock today with the influx of students and parents? A&J's business just might improve!

 

A & J Collision Tech

335 Buddy Holly Avenue

Lubbock, Texas

no matinee today

The sign on the Lyric Theater appears to have regained its glow -- thanks to photoshop magic -- but the only life there is the pigeon perched atop it. Cinema Treasures had this to say:  The  “Lyric Theatre” in Carrizozo was built in 1916 as an Opera House; in 1918 the name changed to "Crystal Theatre”and began to show silent movies. When sound movies came along, it reopened with sound on June 13th,1931 and re-named “Lyric Theatre”.  It remained open until 1979 when it closed due to some rating dispute over the Exorcist .  I don't know about demons but the place surely has ghosts!

Lyric Theatre
Carrizozo, New Mexico
8.4.2015

windmills

 

There was nary a breeze this early summer morning to turn the blades of the windmills.  But the towers stood ready to catch the wind, to pump the water, to sustain life on the Plains.  Have you visited the largest windmill in the world -- right here in Lubbock, Texas?

American Wind Power Center
1701 Canyon Lake Drive
Lubbock, Texas

converging lines

 

Pedestrian Bridge

Marsha Sharp Freeway

Lubbock, Texas

Carrizozo cowboy

 

The sign welcomes you to eat and drink in Carrizozo but the place is closed -- literally shut down and boarded up! If I had "do-overs" for this photo, which shows 12th Street Historic two blocks in Carrizozo, I sit on the ground and shoot up, silhouetting the cut-out against the sky.  However, these days shooting from low angles is easier said than done!

 

Carrizozo, New Mexico

8.4.2015

Lucy's chickens

 

Lucy's chickens are free-range which just means they are raised the old-fashioned way -- allowed the run of the farm to forage on their own.  That doesn't mean that they don't occasionally pilfer grain from the miniature horses!  The new city ordinance allows me to raise up to four chickens in my yard but this isn't an enterprise I'm interested in (traumatic memories of feeding Baba's chickens as a child!).

 

Juicy Lucy's Veggies

5524 E. Erskine

Lubbock County, Texas

texas art

 

If you live in Texas, chances are the you, or someone you know, has a skull hanging on a wall -- living room, den, barn or fence!  The barbed wire is just trimming.

moon and stars

 

I like screen doors and many buildings on 12th Street in Carrizozo have one.  This one, appropriately adorned with a crescent moon and stars, opens into the Dreamspace Gallery in Carrizozo.  The town is described as a quirky art community but schedule your visit during an event like the festival next weekend.  Otherwise everything on 12th Street was closed but the coffee shop.  Window shopping only.

 

Dreamspace

Carrizozo, New Mexico

8.5.2015

yum....

 

Silver Mist, a miniature pony colt, joins Piggly and Wiggly and the free-range chickens at Juicy Lucy's Veggies.  Standing only thigh-high, Silver was kicking up her heels and acting out like any toddler!

 

Juicy Lucy's Veggies

5524 E. Erskine

Lubbock County, Texas

shadows in roswell

 

Do you believe that the unidentified flying object that crashed near Roswell, New Mexico in 1947 was a space ship?  Were those bodies in small, hermetically sealed coffins aliens?  Is there a government cover-up?  If you are a believer, then you missed the 2015 UFO Festival the first week of July.  If you are uncertain, check out this: The Roswell Files

UFO Museum
Roswell, New Mexico

painted burro

 

The Painted Burros started as an annual fund-raiser auction.  Today some of these colorful, life-sized figures can be found atop roofs overlooking the art district in Carrizozo.  If you stand carefully on a bench, then you can see this painted burro reflected in the second-story window across the street. Unfortunately, on a this Wednesday morning, it was just me and burros in the historic district.

 

12 Street Historic District

Carrizozo, New Mexico

I only stopped for a newspaper

 

The sign says the Win Place & Show was voted the best bar in Ruidoso-- don't know when or by whom!  However, from previous years I know it's a great, dark, smoky CW honky-tonk.

 

Win Place & Show

Ruidoso, New Mexico

lacy things

 

Silent Night Village is a dozen or so shops in downtown post.  While Christmas is the big season, the village is open on the first weekend of the month.  The small boutiques are fashioned after historic Post buildings -- from a chapel to the courthouse.

 

Silent Night Village

Main Street

Post, Texas

8.1.2015

ruby, the bookstore cat

 

Today I ventured to Post for Market Days and the Silent Night Village.  While there I visited Rosa Latimer and her Ruby Lane Books.  Named after the book shop, Ruby is the resident literary expert.

 

Ruby Lane Books

135 Main Street

Post, Texas