Monday Jan 15 Texas Prison Museum Huntsville Texas

Huntsville Prison Museum

Some stats

• one out of ever 50 Citizens of Texas are part of the prison system, incarcerated,on parole, or community supervision
• 150,000 are incarcerated
• 470,000 on parole or community supervision
• there are 109 correctional institutions located in the State
• 300 people are presently on death row
• Texas executes more people than any other state
• 21% are back in the system after 3
• When you include all of the staff, support industries etc this is a huge industry

Website
Texas Prison Museum

Texas Prison Museum

System  1848- 1871

1871-1912

1912-1948

1912-1948

stats for 2015

Electric Chair

Articles made by the prisoners

Saturday Jan 12 Gladewater Antique Capital of East Texas

Gladewater is a small city of about 6000. Most of the down town is antique shops. Lots of interesting items and Junk. 100's of guns available. Handguns run about $500.00

Saturday Jan 12 Kilgore East Texas Oil Museum

East Texas is where oil was discovered in the late 1800. The makeup of the soil made it perfect for easy oil extraction. The city of Kilgore was at the heat of this oil rush. It went from a population of 800 to 8000 in just one yea. after the discovery. The museum in itself is rather simple but the films were out standing in explaining the whole storey.

Website

History of East Texas Oil Explained

Museum entrance

How oil is pumped out of the earth

Oil extraction explained

HL Hunt  

Friday Jan 12 Carthage Texas Country Music Hall of Fame

Carthage Texas Country Music Hall of Fame and Tex Ritter Museum

Over 50 artists have been inducted into this hall of fame. The museum and Hall of Fame are co sponsored by the city and the Tex Ritter family. Each inductee has a show case of their memorabilia. We have only photographed the plaque with the write up.

This is a memorial to Bill Anderson located about 2.5 miles north of Carthage

Friday Jan 12 Jonesville

Jonesville

This is a general store that is a combination museum and store. It is still fixtured and stocked as if it was  early 1900. Still owned by the same family since it was opened. About 10% of the inventory would be current merchandise, local jams, coffee, toys, camping and souvenirs. One of the ladies who works there and is part of the original family is like a local historian and loves to chat. 

Map of the 1st leg of our journey

Thursday Jan 11 Texarkana Texas

  Drove from Hot Springs and finally arrived in Texas at noon. Texarkana is situated on the border between Arkansas and Texas . We stopped at the visitors center and picked up maps and about 3 bags of brochures.  Parked and spent the afternoon going through the material and enjoying a break from the driving.
Tomorrow the touring begins

Wednesday Jan 10 Hot Springs Arkansas

The north western part of Arkansas is almost like our prairies. Flat beautiful farmland. They must have had a lot of rain lately as the fields looked flooded in al of the low areas. Even though the temperature was 15C there is still ice in the bush so spring is just arriving. The southern part of Arkansas is an out door paradise. Hills , bush and lakes. Everywhere there are tourist places catering to the outdoors and nature people.

Stopped in Hot Springs for the night.

This field is covered in Canada Geese and Snow Geese

Tuesday Jan 9 2018 Jackson Tennesse

Left Louisville around 8:00 heading towards Memphis. We stopped at the Flying J about 37 miles north of Nashville to dewinterize . Must have been a bit early for them , after we dumped we discovered that they didn't have the water turned on yet to fill the tanks. We stopped at the Love's in Jacksonville and completed the task. Temperature got up to 9 C but still no sun.

Interesting  observation.  Once you get out of the urban areas at least 60% of the vehicles on the interstates are transports.

Another cloudy day

Monday Jan 8 2018 Louisville Kentucky

We woke up to find that 15-20 cm of snow had fallen overnight. The radio informed us that driving was not good, school buses cancelled , and everyone should stay of the road if they could. By 9:00 things had cleared up, and warmed up to around plus 4C, so we headed out. There was a least a couple of dozen cars in the ditch along the side of the highway from earlier. The roads were wet but  safe so we motored on. We stopped in Louisville Kentucky for the night. Michigan highways are more like Pennsylvania , buy Kentucky roads are really good.

  
Kentucky is all about race horses and bourbon. Beautiful farms along the highway was you get closer to Tennessee. Have to put this state on our bucket list, but it would need to be a bit later when it is warmer. Maybe on the way home one year.

Even though it was plus 5 or 6 the ice frozen on the rocks didn't seem to be melting

Too cool!  When I grow up I want one of these. 

Jan 7 2018 Texas Here we come !

Ceasar's  Windsor Casino

Off to a cold start
When we left home it was -27C . Good news was that after leaving the furnace on all night it was 18 C when we entered the motor home in the morning. Pleasant surprise, as we didn't think the furnace would keep up that well. It was clear and cold until we got to Belleville , then we experienced snow and wind until around Bowmanville. Toronto traffic was relatively light, (Sunday) so we sailed right through, only taking it of cruise a couple of times. We arrived in Windsor around 4:00 pm and parked at the Ceasars Casino , great spot, they even gave us a free electrical hook up.  Relaxed for a bit , had supper and then blew $30.00 bucks in short order. All in all a super 1st day on the road.

Goodbye Georgia 2017 Hello Texas 2018