Good Afternoon ROAD TRIPPERS!!!!! Here we are Friday of our Mini Fall ROAD TRIP 2019!!! Yesterday was a blast!!! Six Flags really cranked it up a notch for Halloween Day!!! They had some of the same attractions that we saw in San Antonio but Six Flags Over Texas has many more that were so much more horrifying. This may be a long summary as I saw so much, I was in the park for about 20 hours!!!! First I saw an exhibit called the Art of Torture. It looked like an abandoned warehouse but it was an art studio and there was a creepy artist in there. The exhibits were all hideous things being done to people, and it wasn't paintings, I don't know if they were wax figures or real people that he had preserved in some way while he was torturing them to death!!! All I knew, was that I could not get out of there fast enough because I was not going to be one of his works of art!! Then I went to a place called the Curse of Ra. It reminded me of Sinking Sands!!! We entered through ancient Egyptian portals and were transported into the Valley of the Kings where the great Pharaoh Ra’s tomb is buried. According to the legends the ancient Pharaoh buried all of his 67 children and his entire fortune of jewels and gold within the tomb. Tomb Robbers and archeologists have been thirsting for the hordes of treasure that the infamous tomb is said to hold. However, those who enter never return. Despite the warning etched above the entrance, “Death To All That Enter,“ those who wish to find the treasure trove are not deterred, this is despite knowing that there is a curse of pain and torture to any that pass through the tomb’s opening. This reminded me of the Silent City. Next I stumbled upon an Alien Incubator, I think I was still dazed by the Curse of Ra!!! This is a secured secret military base and scientists have brought aliens back to study. The life forms have been kept secret for many years that is until now! These are the Roswell Aliens!!! The Aliens have escaped and are using park visitors as hosts for their newborn hatchlings. The life forms are spreading like wildfire inside the compound and the babies are growing at a tremendous rate causing the human hosts’ bodies to explode. For food, the hatchlings eat the host bodies before going to spread more spores to more humans. The military base has become a full on Alien Incubator ruled by a giant Alien Queen. This was a very scary place. I saw people exploding all over the place and was stealthing so they wouldn't find me and put spores in me!!!! Then someplace I thought I would understand Hellblock 6...Sentenced to Death!!!! It’s the one place nobody wants to go. This holding area is full of your darkest fears and the worst things your imagination can muster. Flies, filth, stench, money, and so much more await you as you prepare to meet the wrath of the worst Evil himself. There is NO Escape from HELL BLOCK 6! This is a Hellblock even I do not think I could walk and I did this for near 20 years, with 7 of them being with the criminally insane!!! After the ones above, I was a bit haggard and needed a drink and maybe something to eat to reenergize myself and walked towards what appeared to be a food court and when I stepped through the archway, I found myself at Piggy's Blood Shed!!!!! This is a long-forgotten roadside attraction along Route 666, it is a hog farm, famous for its bacon and BBQ, but it is now open under new ownership. Piggy, genetically altered porker, has taken over serving a whole new BBQ that tastes like anything but chicken. Piggy’s stockyards and smokehouse have, as my mum and grandma would say, the worm has turned, on people versus beast and now houses very human livestock. So no unsuspecting travelers may find themselves as the next blue-plate special on Piggy’s menu. Needless to say, I was not hungry for anything on Piggy's menu. I got out of there as quickly as I could!!! Not paying much attention after getting out of Piggy's Blood Shed, I walked right into a place called Blackout. This was completely dark and was a maze of sorts. When you moved through various areas you might be touched by something, or a smell would hit you, or a sound would hit you loudly all of the sudden and the way it is set up, you do not hear the sounds or smell the odors anywhere else, it just hits you in the one location. So you are at the mercy of your senses for this one. Are you afraid of the dark? If so, I would not recommend this as your senses are assaulted from all directions in total darkness. Also all of the coasters and log rides and splashdowns have been ramped up to include stuff for Fright Night!!!! They were amazing!!!! I also found out that all of the Six Flags Parks have a special Christmas Themed Event called Holiday in the Park. I was thinking, if there was enough interest, we could plan a pop over to one of the Six Flags Parks for a Saturday/Sunday, say December 14/15 around there? Today we are visiting Munster Mansion in Waxahachie, Mineral Wells Fossil Park in Mineral Wells, Goatman's Bridge in Denton, the Texas Eiffel Tower and Jesus in Cowboy Boots in Paris, and the 1800's Alien Gravesite in Aurora. Of course if we see something else of interest in any of these areas, we always have time to stop and take a peek!!! I have scheduled cocktail hour for 6 pm and dinner for 7 pm at Dakota's Steakhouse. Tomorrow, we will be moving to Austin, and checking into the Hyatt Regency Austin. I hope everybody is enjoying our Mini Fall ROAD TRIP!!! Even our Special Guests..
It really was a blast. The Christmas thing sounds like fun too! Let's do it. The dark one scared me the most. I kept thinking ewwwww Spiders AHHHHHH and I went running out.
after all that scary dark stuff I can use some light and love hugs not by giant furry gorilla monsters or a cold creepy ghost sorry but I think Santa is creepy too , wonder if his fat belly is from eating nice little ratongas . If you ever read the Dresden Files you know what I am talking about .
Oh, I think you may have stumbled into a university frat pledge night. Anywho, Who couldn't make it. I tried to talk my relatives into buying an old Victorian house years ago, we couldn't afford it... They asked me why, and I said Addam's Family House ! But they were 'Not Amused'. There was a movie back in the 1950s called 'Tarantula !' about a 50' tall tarantula that attacked a small desert town. EEEEE !
you know you can eat tarantulas tastes like chicken ( o come one not a chance ) no tastes like crab legs , and a 50 foot version would feed a small town for a week or 2 , longer if it first ate half the population .
*huggles Schmet* Nope, not eating any tarantulas, nope, not getting near any tarantulas, or any spiders for that matter!!!!!
The Christmas one isn't just Santa. There are tons of Elves, Looney Toons, Christmas Mice, tons of lights, tons of Christmas trees, and lots of yummy sweet Christmas goodies to eat, and Hot Chocolate galore!!!!!!
Good Afternoon ROAD TRIPPERS!!! Today we are in Austin and will be enjoying a lot of things that Schmet researched in the areas of Austin and San Antonio. Tomorrow and Monday, we will be heading to El Paso and checking into the Radisson El Paso Hotel and Spa and exploring the sites that Schmet found in the area around there. Yesterday we toured a lot of things that Schmet researched as well as couple add-ons!!! First, we went South/Southwest of Dallas to Waxahachie and visited Munster Mansion. I always loved this show and have watched reruns a thousand times. I did not want to take away from what the owners describe their property as, so here is their description: The Munster Mansion is the proud home and hard work of Sandra and Charles McKee. The Munster Mansion is a replica of the house used in "The Munsters" 60's sitcom show. It has been painstakingly recreated room by room, through watching and re-watching footage from the show. Many pieces in the house are from the show or exact matches of items from the show. This is a living work as each year more detail is added, and more items collected to make this as exact as it can be. It was a challenging project, as there were no plans or blueprints to go by. The house was completely designed by the use of the show footage. Living in the Munster Mansion is a dream come true for us. This is outstanding. They have put a ton of time and effort into this and obviously a lot of money having items recreated or in obtaining the actual items from the tv show. I applaud their effort and dedication. If only I could decorate like them, although they have inspired me for one of my empty prestige homes!!! How about you Breanna and Uwkete? Next we went to Mineral Wells which is just west of Dallas and north of Waxahachie. Here we visited Mineral Wells Fossil Park. This park used to be a landfill, but 20 years of erosion of the landfill’s borrow pit, which was closed in the early 1990s has revealed a ton of fossil beds. The erosion of the borrow pit has revealed fossils documenting ancient sea species such as crinoids, echonoids and other historic sea life from the Pennsylvania Period- over 300 million years ago. What is special about the park is that you can take what you find home with you and there is an abundance of fossils to choose from. After Mineral Wells, we went to Denton which is Northwest of Dallas and North of Mineral Wells. Here we visited Goatman's Bridge. This is an old Iron Truss Span that once connected Denton to Copper Canyon and is formally known as Old Alton Bridge. Many who have crossed the Truss at night have claimed to have seen the demonic figure of a man with a goat’s head waiting for them at the other side. There are a few legends and ghost stories connected with the Truss, here is the most popular one that I found online: The bridge got its nickname from a popular local ghost story. The legend concerns a successful African American goat farmer who, in 1938, is said to have been murdered on the bridge at the hands of local members of the Ku Klux Klan. It’s said that the Klansmen lynched the goat farmer, hanging him with a noose over the side of the bridge, but when they went down below to confirm the goat farmer was dead, his body had disappeared. They say if you knock on the Iron Trusses 3 times you run the risk of calling out the Goatman. Others say the ghost is the wife of the Goatman. Either way, I do not think I wish to see the Goatman. Next, we headed east to Paris!!! Which is Northeast of Dallas. Here we had 2 stops from Schmet's research. First we visited the Texas Eiffel Tower. The Eiffel Tower was built by an Ironworkers Union in 1993 and is 65 feet tall, that same year, Paris, Tennessee moved their 60 foot Eiffel Tower replica to their local university and added 10 feet to it. The folks in Paris, Texas were not happy that their replica was not the second largest Eiffel Tower in the world so they added a huge red cowboy hat to the top of theirs. But this only brought their replica to 69.5 feet tall, but as luck would have it, developers in Las Vegas erected their replica at 545 feet tall which is approximately half the size of the original Eiffel tower, so neither Paris in Texas or Tennessee came in second. After the Texas Eiffel Tower, we visited Jesus in Cowboy Boots. This is actually the Evergreen Cemetary, but a local businessman had himself memorialized with a large marker of Jesus wearing Cowboy Boots. This marker draws many tourists each year!! Funny, its not something I would normally put on my bucket list. The last stop on our itinerary for this area was Aurora, where we visited the 1800's Alien Gravesite. This one, I also didn't want to attempt to overshadow their descriptions, so I have copied what I found from the internet: On April 17th,1897, local lore tells of a "cigar shaped" spaceship crashing into a windmill belonging to a local Judge, a man by the name of J.S. Proctor. The local towns people report discovering a deceased alien creature in the crash debris. The pilot of this craft was given "proper burial" in the Aurora Cemetery. Ned – The Aurora Alien And the story goes…. There were several sightings of a “great airship” around Texas, in the spring of 1897. At least one of these flying crafts was reported to have crashed in Aurora, on April 17, 1897. The tall tale reports a “airship” crashing into Judge Proctor’s windmill and bursting into flames. Among the wreckage, Aurora residents found the disfigured remains of an alien creature. The alien, we now call “Ned,” was given “a proper christian burial” in the local Aurora Cemetery. A newspaper article of the event still exists. Please refer to the front page of the original Dallas Morning News (below) for the article written by S. E. Haydon, a reporter for the newspaper.Dallas Morning News. Excerpts from the article include the following information: “About 6 o’clock this morning the early risers of Aurora were astonished at the sudden appearance of the airship which has been sailing around the country. It was traveling due north and much nearer the earth than before.” “Evidently some of the machinery was out of order, for it was making a speed of only ten or twelve miles an hour, and gradually settling toward the earth. It sailed over the public square and when it reached the north part of town it collided with the tower of Judge Proctor’s windmill and went into pieces with a terrific explosion, scattering debris over several acres of ground, wrecking the windmill and water tank and destroying the judge’s flower garden.” “The pilot of the ship is supposed to have been the only one aboard and, while his remains were badly disfigured, enough of the original has been picked up to show that he was not an inhabitant of this world.” The original front page of the Dallas Morning News, April 19, 1897. This was provided to us by “Alien Agenda” author, Jim Marrs. Mr. Marrs pointed out, there are multiple stories associated with “flying object sightings” covering the front page. The newspaper article is huge but the print is so small you cannot read it at least on the town's website, you may be able to find a readable copy online somewhere. Since we still had time left before our surprise dinner and drinks location, I scheduled a stop at Dallas World Aquarium. This was fantastic. This is not only aquatic species but also birds and rainforest inhabitants. They have a full scale conservation program for every rainforest area in the world and are running breeding programs and studying various ways to breed the rainforest species that are on the brink of extinction in captivity. Many of the creatures on the Earth will not breed in captivity and Scientists are learning that the closer they make the habitats and foods they give them and ecosystems to where they normally live, the more they behave as they would in their normal environments. Imagine that, it has only taken them what 100 years and a few billion dollars to figure out what common sense should have told them? But enough of my ranting on that topic. I still appreciate the efforts of anybody working to save our animals whether they have fur, feathers, scales, or just skin whether I like them or not like spiders and snakes and scorpions *shudders*. For our last meal in Dallas, I scheduled us a BIG surprise that I hope everybody truly loved. We had dinner and drinks at Medievil Times Dinner and Tournament in Dallas. This was fantastic, with jousting, falconry, swordsmanship, fencing. It was truly incredible and the food and drinks were to die for. I will try and get the summary of our day in Austin/San Antonio up a bit earlier tomorrow, but no promises. I have been tutoring so I haven't even had time to log into EQ2 I still have goodies for each and every one of you from our days at Six Flags and from a few of our stops since then!!! Now get back out there and enjoy Austin/San Antonio.
Cy & Schmet thank you guys for doing all this research and story telling. This has been a fabulous road trip so far, and it wouldn't happen without you two. I just LOVED the munster house. Go cousin It!!!!!
mpf shoves more chicken in her mouth . I's goth chew chew a big bag's of left over food from that show Stretches out arm to offer some to Breanna I banged on that bridge like a mad drummer but I's think the goatty man was scared of 's a little ratonga.
About 1960, a Goatman was supposed to be haunting camp sites in central Texas. This version was more of a goat with human/mannish features. The folks of Aurora moved the head stone many years ago. I have been told they discourage those trying to find that grave. One thing I like about Austin is the number of book stores. Found a few items from the 1950s when I was last there, last century. Saw snow, just scattered flakes, in Austin in the mid-1970s. People were freaking out ! When it was noticed I wasn't rushing around looking for shelter, I was asked why ? I pointed it was just flurries and they were melting when they hit the ground.
Good Afternoon ROAD TRIPPERS!!! Here we are in El Paso. We have a lot to see and do today and tomorrow. I hate to see the ROAD TRIP end tomorrow, it seems to have gone by so quickly!!! I did decide to do a Mini Winter ROAD TRIP 2019, starting on Thursday, December 12th, through Sunday, December 15th, and returning to your homes on Tuesday, December 17th. This entire ROAD TRIP is to experience the holidays at 3 of our favorite theme parks. And Leloes, everything is wheelchair accessible, so please feel free to come along and join the fun. I have already booked us into the Country Inn and Suites by Radisson in Atlanta on Thursday, December 12th. Then moving to the Bay Lake Tower at Disney's Contemporary Resort on Friday, December 13th for Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party. Then on Saturday, December 14th, we will be moving to the Hard Rock Hotel at Universal Orlando, the suites here are booked for Saturday, Sunday, and Monday nights. We have the park hopper passes at both Disney and Universal so you may visit any of the parks as much as you wish, during the Saturday through Monday period. Even though we will be moving to a Universal Hotel, your Disney park hopper pass will still be valid through Monday night. You do not have to start the ROAD TRIP on Thursday and you do not have to stay the entire time if you do not wish. The Cabana Boys are at your beck and call as usual with a push of your red button. I have some extras should anybody forget theirs. Now, on to a summary of our day yesterday in Austin/San Antonio. After settling into the Hyatt Regency - Austin, we were off!!! First we headed Northeast of Austin to Hearne. Here we visited the Grave In the Road. This is a single grave, which they have officially termed a one woman cemetery. The single grave is marked by a large oak tree and two plaques set in an almond-shaped median in the road. The first plaque says “COME YE BLESSED”, the second says, “TO THE MEMORY OF ‘OUR MOTHER’ HOLLIE TATNELL 1859 – 1911”, and below that, “MRS. GEORGIA E. GARTER Washington D.C. ANDREW L. HUNTER M. D. Marlin, Texas”. Hollie Tatnell was born into slavery in Texas in 1859 and was buried in Hearne's colored cemetery upon her death in 1911 which was originally a slave burial ground. Hollie Tatnell was one of the last people interred in this cemetery as it was closed in 1912. Real estate developers purchased the land in 1947 and forced out the families of color in the neighborhood, who were then forced to exhume and rebury the remains of their ancestors in the cemetery. Only one family refused and that was Hollie Tatnell’s children, Georgia and Andrew. The developers, were eager to move forward, so they had to construct a median around Hollie’s diagonal grave. As proof of their triumph over the developers, the Tatnell children placed the second marker on their mother’s grave in addition to her original headstone. In 2007 the median also received a sign from the Texas Historical Commission, denoting it as a Historic Texas Cemetery despite only containing the remains of one person. “This single grave,” it reads, “serves as a reminder of the area’s early African-American community and of the sanctity of burial grounds.” Very interesting history. Next we headed South to Smithville which is Southeast of Austin. Here we visited the Giant Luecke Signature. A Texas landowner spelled out his name with over 3 miles of living trees. NASA uses the Giant Luecke Signature to evaluate satellite imagery. This was pretty cool although I did not care for the helicopter ride to view it. I also found this in Smithville so it was a must see!!! The Scream Hollow Wicked Halloween Park. This was outrageous and scary. There were 4 Haunted Houses. The first was Mansion of Terror Phantoms. I am just going to copy their descriptions as I cannot improve upon them in any way: In late fall of 1842, a wagon train rode into the Bastrop area, but not before cholera and Comanche Indian raids left many of the children without parents. A mysterious woman, Adella, took the orphaned children in. She built an orphanage among the towering loblolly pines, yielding plenty of wilderness for the children to play. The locals called her Saint Adella. Little did they know about who, or what, she really was. There was little known, however, about the terror that lie within the ornate walls of this enormous mansion and of Adella’s gift with black magic and the conjuring of spirits from the other side. Adella’s orphanage filled at a rapid pace, and it became necessary to bed the children in the dismal, damp basement below. Many of the children died of starvation and disease, Adella claiming smallpox and cholera. Throughout the mansion are displayed sketches, crystal pendants and a room doused with dried pigs feet, rooster talons and squirrel tails, and severed heads of the dolls she confiscated from the children. In the midst of the mansion, a Spirit Board summoned souls from beyond sending Adella in a trance; excreting foamy vomit, demonic moans and voodoo chants where she inhabited the essence of the Baba Yaga, a Demonic Goddess, whose survival depended on the devouring of children. The center of the floor still bares a star, an altar of sacrifice. Most of the children who died at the orphanage were buried in the cemetery out back at the entrance of the currently standing abandoned church. Legend has it that Adella conjured up a creature to protect the cemetery and keep the Comanche away from the woods around the mansion. Is it a demon or just the fear of an imagined boogeyman? One of the children wrote on the wall in the mansion, “Don’t go near the cemetery… if you look at him, he will get you!” To this day no one dares enter that cemetery, especially at night. For decades the mansion has laid abandoned and lifeless. But if you look hard and listen intently, you can hear the nursery rhymes playing in the old nursery, and hear the faint screams of children coming from the basement below the mansion. Some say the mansion is forever cursed. Some say Adella still roams the halls. Some say the mansion itself is alive. Welcome to your nightmare, The Phantoms of The Mansion of Terror! The second Haunted House was Lost Pines Asylum: Choose your path…in the New “Lost Pines Asylum” as it towers over the dense oak trees to create a terrifying experience you won’t want to miss. Enter if you dare into the Asylum to discover the bodies of a victims lost to horrible mental and physical experiments and ghastly diseases. Decide your fate with the splitting pathways. Get out before you’re the next one on the autopsy table… Lost Pines Asylum opened in 1913 and flourished for over 100 years until the allegations of mistreatment and unnecessary experiments of the residents surfaced. The hallways echo with the sound of screams and terror. The rooms look like they had housed rabid animals and not human beings with severe mental ailments. Patients were unaccounted for and probably died of mistreatment, starvation and failed experiments. In 2019, on a cloudy summer day, something went wrong... An explosion rocked Lost Pines, knocking out power and security. The patients snapped and began to revolt. Patients broke out of their cages and mutilated the nurses and doctors that had mistreated them. The staff that did survive began to show symptoms of rage and dementia. Who is running the Asylum? Take a walk through the dimly lit hallways, passing by the rusty instruments and stained walls. You can’t help but notice the dirty patient records scattered on the floor, the broken furniture, the torn walls, the hidden torture rooms and the sounds of the insane. As the ominous metal Asylum doors slam shut behind you, you enter the playground for the wicked, the insane, the inhabitants of the Lost Pines Asylum. The third Haunted House is not a house per say but more of a maze, Wicked Darkness, The Maze: There are places in this world where the boundaries between this plane and the next are weak. Many are known places where the leylines of the earth intersect, these places are often avoided because they are thought to be hotspots of the paranormal. There are however, some places on this plane that cannot be explained by the latent energies of this world, but by something much more sinister and demonic one of which is here, known only as “wicked darkness”. Do you dare delve into the musty evil that lies within? Will you be one of the few survivors of this soul wrenching terror? Enter and we shall see. The fourth haunted house was The Slaughterhouse 2: Lunatik's Revenge: Virgil truly got the last laugh as what he thought was the final clown was slain on that moonlit night. As themist cleared all the clowns lay dead in a graveyard of colors…or did they? Years ago, a beautiful young circus performer fell in love with laughter…the laughter of a clown. She grewup traveling town to town performing in what folklore called Slaughter Circus. The beauty was caught and thrown into the asylum where she learned she was pregnant. A clown child was born on a dark Friday the 13th night. As the baby grew the workers tortured and mistreated him. The boy would not speak, only laugh...but he was truly brilliant. The orderlies would yell down the steel panel hallways, “Give the Lunatik his meds”. The boy came to believe that was his name… “Lunatik”. halls echoed of stories from the mentally ill, some told stories of a crazy traveling circus that was raided and some performers were kept in the asylum, others told stories of how the circus traveled back to the hollows of Bastrop County and set up camp in the woods where the Redneck Clan, “The Palmers” resided. He knew where he had come from and wanted to join the family of evil bloodthirsty circus freaks that would accept him as their own. Late one night, a fire broke out in the asylum. The asylum was burned to the ground. Through the flames of Hell, Lunatik saw what appeared to be the Demon. The demon spoke to him and taught him that laughter was his weapon. Louie encouraged him to follow his destiny and use the very mind games he was tortured with to plot his revenge. He vowed to carry out the plots of these stories, wreak Havoc, mayhem and Karnage on the world. He was out and his name would be feared by all. Lunatik Karnage was on a mission. He formed a small clown army and headed out to the woods of Scream Hollow. He set out to reclaim his birthright as a savage, funny, bloodthirsty clown. He arrived only to find the very meaning of his name. Karnage. The Karnage of his own people. The clowns of Slaughter Circus were gone. The bloodbath stained the trees in the hollow. The colorful clown costumes littered the grown covering the bones decaying underneath. The King of Clowns laughed. Lunatik's low sinister laugh could be heard for miles. Lunatik's clan chimed in and the laughter penetrated the forest. The killers were close and Lunatik knew his destiny. Take control, leave no survivors….and laugh while slitting your throat. Welcome to Hell. Welcome to Slaughterhouse 2, LUNATIK’S Revenge. When you think about it, most people are naturally afraid of evil clowns. They are the pinnacle of most nightmares. Come watch as the demented clowns reclaimed the woods of Scream Hollow. The Palmer Family has no idea what is coming and bringing hell with them…Maybe in the End there IS NOTHING scarier than an evil clown... I have never seen haunted houses like these before and I don't think I ever want to again!!!! They also had the Rabid Bat Vampire Bar, the Cackling Witch Bakery and Café, and Madame Tinker's Magic Emporium. Overall, this was a really great place!! Next we went to Comfort, which is West/Southwest of Austin. Here we visited the Seashell Graves of Comfort Cemetery. A lot of the graves in this cemetery are adorned with seashells. Some only have a simple cross made of seashells across the top of them, others have an entire raised mound in front of the tombstone covered in seashells. These graves are the older graves in the cemetery, ranging from the mid 1800s to the early 1900s and most are the graves of children. Nobody knows why the graves are adorned with seashells and there is no plaque or marker in the cemetery that explains it. A very interesting mystery. I also found the Hygieostatic Bat Roost which has been home to malaria fighting bats since 1918. This is a shingle-style, pyramid-like that stands over 30 feet tall. There were 16 of these structures built around the country and this is the only one that remains. The bats were welcomed into the community as malaria was a huge concern and mosquitos were the cause. An adult bat can consume as many as 1000 mosquitos in a single night and greatly reduce the risk of malaria to nearby communities. Another interesting scientific tidbit. I had no idea this even existed!! Next we headed north to Sonora, which is west of Austin. Here we visited the Caverns of Sonora. This is a spectacular show cave approximately 155 ft below ground level. It is still active which means the speleothems are still growing and changing. We took the 90 minute guided walking tour which was fantastic, I wasn't sure how everybody would feel about the other tour which was 4 hours but would have required us to rappel 50 feet into a black pit, that part didn't really excite me. We were also able to pan for gems, buy FUDGE and other goodies in the candy shop and gift shop. After this, it was back to the Hyatt Regency - Austin so we could shower and change and then down to Marker 10 Spirits and Cuisine on the Second Level of the Hotel for cocktails and dinner at 6 pm. I hope everybody had as great of a day as I did.
OMG I was scared out of my ........ The orphanage really did it. (Actually it almost reminded me of Unrest) nothing scarier than the moans and screams of children. I wasn't a big fan of the clowns they are way to spooky. I can't wait for our mini winter trip, at least I won't be scared to death. I kept looking for Schmet and couldn't find her anywhere, I hope she got out ok.
Hmm... the things they didn't teach us in Texas History class, a required high schol subject when I lived in central Texas. Schmet made it out okay. We all did. bwa-ha-ha ?
I am a stealthy little rat , had to help ttobey out , he tried to get some lessons from some of those scary residents , they wanted to make him one of theirs .
Good Afternoon ROAD TRIPPERS!!! Today is the last day of our Mini Fall ROAD TRIP 2019!!!! We are still in El Paso at the Radisson El Paso Hotel and Spa and exploring everything we can around this part of Texas. Today we are exploring West of El Paso. Yesterday after we settled in and had a nice hearty breakfast, we were off and running, well not really running, but, moving along. First we went East of El Paso to Midland, there we visited the Permian Basin Petroleum Museum. This museum has the world's largest collection of antique oil drilling equipment. There were many interactive exhibits and displays as we walked through an ancient sea and a 1930's Boom Town. There were immersive environments with game based learning experiences. There was a mineral gallery, YAY!!!! A gallery featuring paintings of the cultural aspects of the Permien Basin and a transportation wing that had some pretty cool race cars in it!! Overall a fantastic place to visit. Next, I found, wait for it, the Marian West and William Blanton Blakemore Planetarium!!! This Planetarium features dome shows with a 360 degree state of the art Digistar 5 system with 3D capabilities. The dome show was Bella Gaia (Beautiful Earth), which was a panorama of 360 degree pictures of some of the most beautiful places on the surface of the Earth. Following this, I had reserved us two private Dome Shows the first is called Astronaut, here is their description: The exploration of space is the greatest endeavor that humankind has ever undertaken. What does it take to be part of this incredible journey? What does it take to become an astronaut? Astronaut, the latest immersive planetarium show to be created by the National Space Centre, takes you from Earth into space... and beyond. Experience a rocket launch from inside the body of an astronaut. Explore the amazing worlds of inner and outer space, from floating around the International Space Station to maneuvering through microscopic regions of the human body. Discover the perils that lurk in space as we subject 'Chad', our test astronaut, to everything that space has to throw at him. The second one and my personal favorite was the Apollo Story. This one is an immersive historical documentary that begins with the inception of the Apollo program and showcases the achievements and exactly what it took to put a man on the moon. It examines the challenges that had to be overcome as well as introduces people to the thinkers, the dreamers, the scientists, the engineers, the astronauts, and everybody else involved with the Apollo program. It has stunning photography both on Earth and in space. This is a Dome Show that you will be happy that you did not miss!!! This Planetarium also has a Southwest Archeological Collection and an outdoor sculpture garden that contains 15 sculptures. The Archeological collection has fossils, lithics, pottery shards, manos and metates, and projectile points. There are lithographs from the Audubon Collection and Karl Bodmer engravings. Many Native American works of art, paintings, baskets, pottery, weaving and textiles. There is a history collection that includes items from Spanish colonial armor and weaponry to frontier blacksmithing tools. And the Scharbauer Collection which was donated and consists of a variety of trophys, plates, plaques, ribbons, and other awards including the 1959 Kentucky Derby Trophy all related to horse racing. A myriad of items I personally have never seen at a planetarium before. Next we moved a bit West/Southwest of Midland to Odessa. Here we visited the Odessa Meteor Crater. This crater was formed 20,000-50,000 years ago by a barrage of meteors that hit about 10 miles west of where downtown Odessa now stands. The crater is 550 feet wide and is one of the largest meteor craters in the US. There was a museum here as well that contained a large sampling of iron meteorites. A nice crater, but not quite as impressive as Meteor Crater in Arizona. Next we went back into El Paso to see some of the sights there. First we visited Casa De Azucar, the Sugar House. A man by the name of Fred Loya, who retired from Levi Strauss, promised to make his wife something beautiful at their home. He carved some decorations in concrete and painted them in pastel colors of blue and pink or white. After that, Mr. Loya was hooked and spent 30 years carving concrete around their home and the result of his efforts is Casa De Azucar. I found this YouTube video, words cannot explain this. Then we visited Concordia Cemetery. This is the Texas version of Boot Hill with more than 60,000 people interred here including the notorious outlaw John Wesley Hardin. This even though creepy is amazing to see. To walk amongst all these tombstones you are walking through history and for people that like to do tombstone etchings its a gold mine. Next we went to the Chamizal National Memorial. Part of the National Park Service, the Chamizal National Memorial commemorates the 1963 Chamizal treaty that ended a century-old boundary dispute between the United States and Mexico caused by a change in the course of the Rio Grande River. There is a Keystone monument, a museum, theatre and art galleries. One of the displays in the museum was of particular interest, here is the online description: A Little Black Box This ISN'T a black box you would find inside an airplane. So what is it? On December 13, 1968 in El Paso, Texas, President Lyndon B. Johnson and President Gustavo Díaz Ordaz met on the Santa Fe Bridge for the Inaugural Ceremony of the new concrete-lined channel named in honor of President Adolfo López Mateos, who had initiated the settlement of the Chamizal dispute five years before. So why the black box? A temporary dirt dam to hold back the water had been built upstream and the plan was to have both presidents turn the key to arm the box. A light would come on and then they would simultaneously push the red buttons to detonate an explosive charge to blow up the dam and have a gush of water flow through the channel. As it turns out, the Secret Service did not allow for all that wiring to be near the presidents. Instead an engineer was on standby and when he saw that the presidents had pushed the red buttons, he radioed down to another engineer who was supposed to detonate the charges. Well, when the charge was detonated, nothing happened! All that was seen was a puff of smoke! In haste, engineers bulldozed the dam so the river could flow through, for two nations and two presidents were anxiously awaiting the gush of water from the Rio Grande to flow through the new channel. Leave it to the Secret Service to mess up a perfectly planned event!! There is a botanical and wildlife of the Chihuahuan Desert area. This was really a very nice area to walk around in, there were cottonwood trees, creosote bushes, sagebrush, devil's thorn, tarbrush, acacias, and more. There were squirrels, coyotes, jackrabbits, rattlesnakes, desert cottontails, spotted ground squirrels, white winged doves, mourning doves, American Robins, great tailed grackles and more. I just adore animals so this part was for me!!! Then we took a walk through the hummingbird garden, this was incredible. I have never seen this many hummingbirds in one place. They have more than 40 varieties of hummingbirds in this garden that survive by eating the nectar from the flowering plants in the garden which in turn keep pollinated because of the hummingbirds. Its absolutely gorgeous. The last stop here was a quick run through the gift shop so I could pick up a couple goodies for everybody. Finally we were headed back to the Radisson El Paso Hotel and Spa to shower and change and relax for a bit before cocktails and dinner. We had cocktails at 6 pm and dinner at 7 pm at the Cattleman's Steakhouse. I was told this was a must go to if we went to El Paso, so here we were and they had a gift shop with turquoise jewelry, t-shirts, leather goods, and more!!!!!
