After all this driving, my car was due for a tire rotation and oil change. I drove by a Discount Tire this morning on my way to the gym. What better place to get the tires rotated and balanced than Lubbock, Texas! I stopped by Discount Tire and had them rotate and balance my tires. I'll get my oil changed in Fort Worth or Dallas.
Besides lack of a state income tax, low gas prices are another advantage Texas has over California. Gas prices are almost twice as much in California as in Texas.
I read about a interactive Western Texas History museum in Abilene when I was looking for interesting places to stop on my way across Texas, and I'm glad I stopped because I really liked it! The museum is named "Frontier Texas!". It has an introduction movie, and then you walk around reading about the history and interacting with holograms who tell about the history from a historical individual's perspective.
The Apaches took over the Jumanos around 1400 AD, and we're the dominant tribe in the area. They were nomadic and moved their tipis around. Then around 1700 AD the Comanches got horses and took over. They were skilled horsemen and hunters and attacked the Apaches, took captives, etc.
The white men with their 50 caliber rifles decimated the buffalo herds. The railroads gave a way to transport all the hides and also opened the way for new settlers. With all that grazing land and no buffalo, it was an ideal time to import longhorns from Mexico and start a cattle trade. That's my short oversimplified synopsis. It's all from the white man's perspective. Even the tribe names are names the white men gave them... not the names they called themselves. At any rate, it was very well done and I highly recommend this interactive if you are I the Abilene area. I even got to stare down a stuffed bison, haha!
Texas had its share of outlaws and colorful characters.
One of the holograms was of a man who became a teamster, driving people and goods out West. He's awesome it as a career with a future -- until the railroads became the preferred means of travel. The story reminded me of my progenitor (Ebeneezer Robert's Scoville?) who came out West as a teamster.
Abilene is also home to a nice chocolatier! I stopped and had a few samples. My favorite was a lemon filled chocolate. They also had chocolate covered grapes, strawberries, brittle, etc. If it wasn't so blasted hot around here and hot in my car I could have taken some for the road. They were really good, though, and the prorpietors were friendly.
The hot weather inspired me to have some cold Bluebell ice cream, though. 😋
It wasn't a bad drive from Abilene to Fort Worth. I eventually arrived at my campsite at the South Holiday Campground on Benbrook lake, just south of Fort Worth. I set up my tent and then did a dry run of driving to the gym and church so I'd know where to go in the morning. The campground gates are closed from 10 pm to 6 am, and by that time it was 9 pm, so I grabbed a quick bite to eat at In-N-Out and hurried back to the campground so I wouldn't have to walk from the gate to my campsite.
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