Hi everybody! Guess I'm playing catchup again. We've been to several places since I last blogged. We stopped in Estelline, the first stop the boys made so long ago. It was a quiet little town. I wonder just how much it has really changed since Bud and Temple were there. We stopped at the post office. It had more cars than any place else. That would be two cars. We really enjoyed talking with Gayle and Eleena. We left a book with them to pass on to Mack, the local historian. We hope to get in touch with him soon to see if he can help us with finding out more about Estelline and see if he has knowledge of any records or stories of the boys visiting Estelline. Our new friends gave us directions to get down to the Red River.
When I think of a river, I think of a moving body of water. Not so in this case. The river was dry here. The patterns caused by salt and previous movement of water was fascinating. I was actually walking on the bed of the river. Didn't get wet, but still managed to find mud. The only thing that kept it from being 100% enjoyable was remembering stories from people in Frederick talking about quicksand incidents. Luckily we never experienced this stuff first hand. From prints in the dirt I figure deer had no problem with quicksand either.
We then moved on to Turkey. We made our way to the Bob Wills Museum, which was in a building that also housed the library and senior citizen center. Our initial attempt was for the library, but it was closed. We entrusted our Bud and Me book to the museum where they said it would be passed on to the library for the citizens of Turkey to enjoy. While there, Bob Wills' daughter walked in the door and we got to meet her. How's that for timing? On our way out of town, we stopped to take a picture of the Bob Wills memorial. Across the street was a garage where we were greeted by Israel. He showed us around. We saw two buildings that had been made out of oil cans. One of the buildings was a house that Bob Wills had lived in at one time. Israel insisted we had to visit the hotel which has been around since 1909. Of course we headed over, wondering if Bud and Temple had been there. As it turned out, it was dated 1929. It was gorgeous and had a lot of antiques. To add to all the "coincidences" we have experienced, the owner knew a man in Quitaque whose mother was the first woman to become a member of the American Motorcyle Association. She would demo Indian Motorcycles! This is one of those times when answers lead to a lot more questions.
On we went to Quitaque. There we almost missed meeting Larry Henderson, the man who's mother I just mentioned. If she could, he thinks she'd still be riding. I am hoping he gets in touch with her about some of her pictures and hopefully those will come with stories. We then went to the Caprock Cafe. Out of curiosity I starting talking to some local gentlemen, asking if they knew what Quitaque meant. One said it means "horse manure". The other two argued and said it means "End of the Trail". The end of the trail comes from the times when people travelled in a covered wagon. When they reached Caprock, it was too difficult to take the wagons further, therefore they settled in Quitaque, the end of the trail. The horse manure comes from a story about Indians that left a false trail of horse manure to cover their escape in another direction. In Quitaque we took a book to the librarian. Her grandson was also there. They were very happy to receive the book. If my guess is right, I think he planned on digging into the book rather quickly. Several people encouraged us to go to Caprock Canyons State Park. Majestic. The lake has to be man-made because everything was so dry. It was scary on some parts of the road that seemed to go straight down. It was a good promotion for wearing a seatbelt!
By time we got to Silverton, just about everything seemed closed. We went to the Baptist church. We got there right before the 6:30 services. We left the book with Ms. Reed and her son to give to the library. Ms. Reed has a sister that lives in Perkins. We talked to a man outside a convenience store. After hearing our story, he talked about a group of men who had come through a couple years ago, riding horses to Wyoming. They stayed in Silverton for several days before the weather let them continue. We think it may have been the Longriders.
Our goal was to reach Roswell by the end of the day. It was late when we arrived. Roswell is known as the UFO capital of the world. We enjoyed a lot of laughs. From a long distance we could see a LOT of blinking lights. What were we to think?
We began our day visiting the Roswell Daily Record to look at microfiche to hopefully find articles of Bud and Temple's stay, but came up empty. We then went to the library to give them a book. At the Chamber of Commerce we were given several pamphlets on the historical society and museum. We also got into a discussion about Peruvian Paso competitions where they have the riders hold a glass of champagne and ride their horses across planks. They are scored by who has the most champagne left in their glass. We stopped in the UFO museum. The recorded radio announcement was one of my favorite parts. We wanted to visit the Archive Museum, but it wasn't open on Thursdays. We continued toward the Historical Society for Southeast New Mexico. One of my favorite exhibits was theHall of Music. All things were organized by decades. It was really fascinating. The highlight of the day was meeting Mr. Morgan. He was able to tell a LOT about the history of Roswell. He was in the legislature. He was able to tell us about several of the governors who had held office. I wonder what the population was when Bud and Temple went on their journey. How many people did they meet? What kind of people did they meet? What did they learn? One of my favorite things on this journey is the people we meet. We need to listen more to the older generations. They have a lot of stories to tell!