October 2025 Trip to Texas
We visited with my brother in Austin this past week (October 12 through 18). I wanted to stop at Black Mesa State Park in Oklahoma on the way there, but the skies were cloudy, so there wasn’t much to do astrophotography-wise. So instead we went on to Lubbock and slept at a Love’s RV stop.
Seeing my brother was good. All was well with him. His self-driving Tesla is impressive, but not foolproof. It took us at full speed into a right-turn-only lane at one point, and he had to brake hard to keep from going off the road or worse.
It was also good to see my nieces and one of their significant others. Ardith got to play some tennis with one of my nieces and two of her friends, and the next day we all had dinner at my brother’s house.
We were foiled again on visiting the Trinity site. We were planning to do this on October 18, on the way home from Austin. The government shutdown means that they’re not allowing visitors in.
We decided to try going a different way back. The first idea was through Norman, Oklahoma City, Bethany, and all my old stomping grounds. But instead, we decided to go to my parents’ grave in Fort Gibson, OK.
We’re breaking the trip home into three days, two nights. The first night was at Lake Eufaula, where I spent many vacations with my family. My parents bought a piece of land, and a friend of my dad’s from work bought the lot next to ours. They had a daughter my age, named Laura, and we used to play out there. I think the first picture is of “Sandwich Mountain,” a big rock we used to hang out on. We’d play “house.” I declared that a circular depression in the top of the rock was “the trash can,” and Laura would immediately say, “No, that’s the snake can.” Unfortunately, I can’t see the snake can. It was hard to get close to Sandwich Mountain. I was wearing shorts, and there were thorny vines all around. Or maybe I had the wrong rock, but I’m pretty sure that’s it.
Sandwich Mountain, from the Nidells’ former property by Lake Eufaula
Laura tragically died of leukemia at age seven. In later years, I was friends with Russ, a boy who lived full-time across the street from our cabin. He had a younger brother and sister: Thor and Jennifer. We played games like baseball and freeze tag, but mostly we walked around with BB guns and shot things. It’s a wonder I still have both of my eyes. The next picture is of Russ’s house. It’s been abandoned.
The Kaiser House, or what’s left of it.
Nothing of our cabin remains. It had concrete footings, but otherwise it was all wood. We couldn’t walk around on their land, but I’m sure nothing remains. When my cabin was there, it was very dense with trees. The new owners cleared almost all of them.
Tonight we’re camping at Wilson State Park in Kansas. We camped in almost the exact same spot on the trip home from picking up the van in April 2024. Tomorrow we will stop in Ellis before heading home.