March 15, 2014 was a dreary day but you would have never guessed it by the thirty-six eager travelers (Mary Brown, Howard and Mary Lee Cameron, Gwen Dickey and her friend Stella Speed, Patricia and Richard Collier, Ralph and Estella Garcia, Israel and Nora Morales, Jean Houston, Tom and Cindy Croissant, Lilly Brown, Rolly and Belen DeMeza, Joesph and Theresa Nguyen, Diane Murry, Artye Matthews, Deloris Baugh, Tom and Fermine Sutter, Bernadine Dennis, Hilda Nanez and her mother Elida Gonzales, Joan Robertson and her sister Joyce, Bobbie White, Yaoqi Pang and her husband Andy Tang; along with her friends: Ty Teng, Fred Wang, Huamin Tan, Yuying Chen) that boarded the Precinct 3 County bus before dawn. As you can tell by the list of names, we had a few new travelers with us. We started the trip with the same continental breakfast I serve on the Coushatta trips. It was no wonder that some tried to pay me for the BINGO cards. We had some first timer's luck at BINGO. Joan Robertson won 3 games and Elida Gonzales (Hilda's 88 year old mother) won twice. Elida wants us to know she shared her winnings by buying a friend lunch when she went home to Cuero, Texas. She wanted to know what Joan was going to do with her winnings. Joan's reply was, "She would never tell!" Our first stop in Nacogdoches was at Millard's Crossing. We were greeted by Rosaline better known as "Roz". Roz was grateful that we were running a little late due to the fact that the office had been broken into the night before. This disaster did not dampen the enthusiasm that Roz had for her job/calling. She was very animated as she explained the bull blinders. She implying it could have been a part of Madonna's costume. She took us back in time to a one room school house were we donned bonnets and straw hats. She made her inspection of us as if we were student and she was the teacher. A few of us were threatened with a switch because our nails were too long or were adorned by polish. A few opted to try writing with a quill. She asked them to make their first letter large and bold thus keeping from making a blot on the paper. She explained that is why the first letter of the sentence in old manuscripts was large and bold. We were unable to visit the other buildings that Lera Millard Thomas had saved from destruction by moving them to Millard's Crossing. We had to go to lunch. You know how this group likes to eat! On our way to lunch many were saying how they wished we had more time to explore and maybe bring their grandchildren back to Millard's Crossing.

Clear Springs Restaurant was our next stop. This restaurant had a wide selection on their menu. I believe we were all a little wider for dining there, but oh so good. As the day progressed the weather seemed to worsen. We picked up our docent at the Visitor's Center. She was to give us a tour of the city and then we were supposed to have a tour of the gardens on SFA's campus. The rain was coming down pretty heavy when we reached the gardens so we opted not to brave the weather like the wedding party in the garden. It was wonderful that we had the docent on board because she was able to arrange a different venue for our enjoyment that was indoors. We went to the original building that started Steven F. Austin University. We were given a brief overview by the docent and then were left to explore on our own. The building was full of artifacts from the different time period that the building had been in service. On the way home several shared with me that many of the items in the building brought back memories of their childhood.

As we headed back to Bayland Park we had Jean Houston call BINGO getting her ready for the April 26th trip to San Marcos Outlet Mall. If you want to sign up for the San Marcos' trip give me a call at 832-498-5980.

I hope to hear from you soon.