Messin' with Texas

We spent last night at a rest area on Interstate 10. It's legal in Texas to park at any scenic overlook, picnic area, parking area, or rest area for 24 hours, and so we took advantage of a free night. It was some distance before we left Louisiana, but eventually, we made our way across the state line into Texas.

It's the Lone Star State.

As you already know, we had a weak cell signal, and no internet connection. Also, no electricity, and so no television either. We had leftovers for dinner, because you know I wanted to get those out of the refrigerator. After dinner we spent a relaxing evening. Mike read his book, and I stitched for hours on the Snow Globe block. The Snow Globe is finished now.

All that's left to do on this one is to stitch the base of the Snow Globe. These stitch up pretty quick, especially when there's nothing else to do.

We had a bit of bad luck with our first try for a freebie at a rest area. For one thing, it was noisy because it was just off the interstate. We could live with that because it's a steady noise...a realtor would probably tell you that it "sounds like the ocean!" Which it doesn't, but it's kind of like how everything you've never tasted tastes just like chicken.

So the bad luck came when someone with even worse luck was involved in a pile-up on the interstate right next to the rest area. They were routing traffic through the rest area, which meant huge trucks were flying right behind the trailer at about 40 miles per hour. Also, there were helicopters flying overhead. This went on for hours. The kitties were nervous, and we were too. Mainly, we were nervous that the noise would continue all night. As it turned out, things quieted down and the accident was cleared around 10:00 p.m. We actually slept pretty well.

The weird thing was when we woke up and looked outside. At some point in the night, we'd been hemmed in with trucks on all sides. They were so close, we could have reached out the window and touched them. On one side was some sort of fuel tanker.

On the other side was a tank full of hydrogen peroxide. Note the sign that says "Corrosive." Also, both trucks were flammable. We weren't really worried...much.

So, okay...we did have a little bad luck there because of the accident, but we've decided not to do this again. It was a little too noisy, busy, and otherwise not worth the money we spent to stay there...which was nothing. But when you think about it, sometimes even free can be too expensive.

Both trucks moved on before we did, and eventually, we got on our way too. We drove the beltway around Houston. The roads here were absolutely terrible.

We got off to put diesel in the truck, and I went into the convenience store to use their restrooms and buy some coffee. Inside, I saw this.

Say it with me: Squee!

Just a little further and we were in La Grange, where I visited the Texas Quilt Museum. La Grange is a cute little town, and I enjoyed the quilt museum.

It's a small museum with three "galleries." Just inside the front door, I purchased my ticket for the senior price of $6. Mike waited for me in the trailer. He made himself some lunch and took a nap, and we were both happy campers.

As you might guess, there was no photography allowed. In the main gallery, there was an exhibit of antique quilts, all done in indigo and white. Those were very interesting. Most dated to the mid-1800's and I enjoyed looking at the hand-piecing and hand-stitching.

In the second gallery was an exhibit by a quilter named Jane Dunnewold. You can find her website right here. The work on display in the gallery was from her line "Inspired by the Masters." Her quilts are mixed media, and not necessarily the kind of quilts I would want to make, but I was interested in her use of antique doilies. Also, she incorporated grandmother's flower garden blocks into some of her pieces. She used a lot of crewel embroidery and needlepoint, and I believe some painting on fabric, although I'm not sure about that. In any case, it was lovely, and interestingly unique.

In the third gallery were a few of the winners from the International Quilt Festival 2017. You can see the winning quilts right here. Not all of them were on display in the museum, but the ones I totally loved were the quilt entitled "Wearable Art," a small piece with exquisite machine quilting done on a domestic machine; also, "My Town and Country," a large quilt featuring machine embroidery digitized by the quilter. It was exquisite. I could have looked for an hour and not seen all the details. Also, "See the Leaves for the Tree," which was just plain interesting. It was a simple concept. The quilter had some tree fabric, which she cut into pieces and created a fractured forest using that one fabric and including a few others. It was very eye-catching. Finally, "Lines of Communication #7." Very striking use of line and color. So, if you haven't clicked on that link I provided, I would encourage you to do so. There are beautiful quilts pictured there. There was a quilt shop right next door to the museum, and so you know I visited there too. I'll tell you about that in a separate post.

After that, it was just about an hour to our final destination at McKinney Falls State Park. We're here a day earlier than anticipated. Along the way, we saw a bunch of painted water towers. Pretty funny.

Shortly after that, we drove into the park and registered. The ranger talked me into purchasing a Texas State Parks pass. Texas State Parks charge each visitor $6 per day, in addition to fees for the campsites. The parks pass was $70, and we were going to suck up $48 of that just in day use fees between the two of us. Since we know we'll be staying in more state parks in Texas, it made sense to buy the pass.

We have a nice big campsite here, and Smitty has already been out for a walk. I had to discourage him from chasing imaginary mousies into stands of cactus. There is quite a bit of prickly pear.

And I believe this is known as pencil cholla. It's getting ready to bloom.

So, except for the quilt shop, I've caught you up on the latest from the Traveling Three Cats Ranch. Tomorrow we have some business to take care of in nearby Austin, and then Saturday I'll be visiting with my cousin. I haven't seen her in years, although we correspond regularly, and so that will be great fun.

Also, I have a goal for:

There is bound to be some down time this month, and so my goal is to finish the quilt top from the blocks I made for last year's Marvelous Monday Minis from Temecula Quilt Company. I'm borrowing an image of the finished quilt top from Temecula Quilt Company for this post. Mine, of course, will look different.

(image source)