New hobby to go with the old hobby . . .

Haven't been around much lately. I got a new hobby--bought a motorcycle. I took a short road trip through some twisty rural Texas roads and thought I'd share here as well as in the Motorcycle group.

This is Blooming Grove, one of many small towns in East Texas. This is just south of where I hit a bird with my face at 70 mph. Here a kind young woman at the only gas station/convenience store taped my face shield back to my helmet so I could continue my ride.


It may be hard to read in this low rez image, but the sign says "City Hall and Municipal Court". I've got a feeling they hang bikers here instead of issuing citations.


This is the General Store. I think there was another building between this one and the next. Probably a victim of a tornado.


This is the other end of the photo above. It's a Real Estate office.


This isn't part of Blooming Grove, it's just one of several houses that have accumulated an awful lot of garage sale stuff without the will to actually hold a garage sale. This isn't the worst example of pack-ratism on this particular route but I was afraid the others had pit bulls guarding them.

relationship of love/sadness/and utter fascination with the rural parts of this country, no matter where, and seek them out always if I have the choice of back roads vs. the highway.

Maybe Bush should drop his idea of applying for greeter at Walmart, and start cleaning up in Texas.
Jimmy Carter would.
:)

I wish I could see the mural better.

This from a few weeks (or so) after Ike, in Seabrook:







Most everything in this photo was about four feet underwater during the hurricane. Mixed with raw sewage from the nearby treatment plant that was also underwater.

I haven't been to Galveston, so I don't know if there are still debris fields there. I know there are such things still to the east of the bay...

cut the rez to 1 meg just to save the memories. I'll re-shoot with a nice empty 2 gig card next time I make the trip.

You certainly captured its character.

......Cryer Creek.

Both are your typical, sleepy, little Texas towns located southeast of Dallas, just over an hour away. My wife's "ex" was born in BG (population about 850), and now lives in the metropolis of Cryer Creek. Blooming Grove considers iteself The Friendliest Community in Texas, on the "unofficial" town website. Both are deep in the heart of red-state Texas, so perhaps it's not the best place for a flamin lib to have equipment trouble. :eyes:

Unfortunately, there are far too many little towns like this across the state, that have fallen on hard times. Projects to revitalize the old town squares and Main Streets often generate very mixed results. It's really too bad, because many of these places have a unique quaintness and charm about them.

Thanks for the pictures. Ride on!

same size as Cryer Creek--I really don't recall actually seeing a group of buildings to assign the name to.

There are a lot of little places like this and more than a few places that look like a flea market but are actually somebody's house.

One town, Wortham, has a cemetery that's almost as large as the town itself and there are dozens of tiny cemeteries scattered along the route. Someday when I'm not on a mission I'll stop and explore them. Many times the gravestones tell quite a story; a twenty year old woman buried next to a child with only one date on the stone. It was tough living in rural Texas in the 1880's.

...and they'll look like stills from The Last Picture Show.