Alright, a little prelude: Angie and I are starting to take day trips to places that are close to College Station. The two biggest reasons for that are: 1) We don't have a whole lot of time to spend together before I have to start runnin' around with the Army, and 2) it's good practice for us before we get to Germany when we'll want to travel all over Europe. So, we decided that we'd go to Caldwell and Lake Somerville for a Saturday. We chose Caldwell because I'm one quarter Czech (said like
check) and it has a small Czech museum there
and because it's on the way to Lake Somerville. Why Lake Somerville? Mostly just to check it out and go to the Country Inn, a steakhouse known for its
BIG steaks.
For those of you with short attention spans, thank you for plugging through this far. Pictures will tell more of the story from here.
This is our packing list. Angie and I used crayons for some of it.
And this is us right before we left. I need to practice looking photogenic while concentrating on holding the camera out with my arm in pictures like these.
When we got to Caldwell, I wasn't exactly sure how to get to the Czech museum. I had always seen the brown signs as I drove through Caldwell on trips between College Station and San Antonio, but they weren't as helpful as I had hoped. So, I stopped at the Civic Center to ask for directions.If I hadn't done that, I would never have met Jacque (juh-KAY) Bray . She was the curator for a small museum there and was the classic small town lady that I needed to show me where to go. She was so excited that I had asked her for directions because that meant that she got to show me her
quilt map of Caldwell!
Jacque was so pumped about it, I asked her for a picture with her beloved quilt map. She stood on a chair for it, and you can see just how big this thing is. "What other town do you know of with a map of their town that's a quilt?" she asked with pride.
If you didn't know, Caldwell has deep Czech roots, which surface in funny places. Caldwell folks are generally proud of both their heritage and their creativity when injecting a Czech flavor into things.
Jacque displayed consistent pride as with her quilt when showing me this "NO SMOKING" sign that's posted on the door to the Civic Center. "You won't find many places that have a 'no smoking' sign that's translated in Czech! And our mayor speaks fluent Czech," she added.
Mission accomplished. I got directions to the Czech museum with a bonus experience. Away we went to the museum.
As you can see, it looks just like a house and has no eye-catching sign outside. We probably passed it three times circling around, doing three point turns, and reversing before we realized it.
This here is a picture inside the museum. The woman's name is Margaret Haisler. She's the curator. The man introduced himself as Benard Rychlik. As I asked them questions about Czech stuff, Benard translated something into another language. Here's our dialogue:
Jonathan: "Was that Czech?"
Benard: "Yeah! You're pretty good!"
Jonathan: "Do y'all know Jacque Bray down at the Civic Center? She said the mayor of Caldwell speaks fluent Czech."
Benard: (Chuckling) "Well, I are it!"
So how 'bout that? We met the mayor of Caldwell. He gave us a business card:
The top line says "Preparing for the future with respect for the past", which is a good nutshell description of Benard's mindset. I liked it. Look at all the phone numbers he has. He stepped out about four times to take calls on his cell phone.
At one point, Benard and I were talking while Margaret and Angie were in another room the lights flickered on and off. We looked at each other, looked at the lights, and back at each other and Benard said:
"Uh-oh. Looks like we're having problems with electric...and I'm the mayor...ain't
that hell."
Benard was full of interesting information. He said that Dime Box is also a Czech community. I know Dime Box because it's also on the drive between CS and SA. I asked him if he knew where Dime Box got its name. Here it is:
Back in the old days, before Dime Box got its name, the roads leading in and out of the little town were near impassable, especially when it rained. The only person who could consistently come and go was the mail carrier because he had a team of horses big enough to pull his wagon over the craggy roads. The farmers in the little town loved snuff, which was 10 cents per can in those days. However, the little town didn't have a store that sold snuff. So the farmers would put dimes in a box for the mail carrier, who would go to a bigger town, buy cans of snuff, bring them back and fill the box with snuff cans (this process might've taken several days). This repeated and continued for such a long time that the little town began to be associated with, and was eventually named, "Dime Box".
Man, this is turning out to be a good trip already because I like knowing that kind of stuff.
The next stop for us was Lake Somerville.
Because of all the rain we've had, the lake was up four feet! That doesn't sound like a lot, but some of the picnic tables and volleyball courts were knee deep in water. We picnicked, lounged, swam, and fished (which was unsuccessful). Our next stop was for dinner at the Country Inn at 6:30pm. But that wasn't for a few hours, so we drove around in Somerville, went to a farmer's market, and took pictures.
A quasi-panoramic of Somerville's downtown.
Angie is so hungry that she pretends to munch on a green tomater under this historically significant bell. I rang it...to Angie's dismay.
Yay, it's finally time to go eat!
This card says it all.
Another homely looking establishment. It's a popular place for guys with Harleys to stop and eat. Steaks here are served by the
POUND. There was a 3 lb Porterhouse on the menu.
Angie's commentary: "That's just sick."
They sure are good though. Angie and I split a 1.5 lb T-bone with a side of green beans and mashed taters. Dessert was banana split pie. Yummy.
Ah, fat and happy. Tried to get the Country Inn in the background and ended up cutting off Angie's little chin.
Angie looked so cute as she waited for me to open the door for her.
It only took about 30 minutes to get home. That was great because we were ready to vegetate after that T-bone. This trip was great. We'll plan another one for sure.
This is a picture of him right after he took the official oath. The picture below is of him getting commissioned in a formal ceremony, and then given his official commissioning papers by none other than the US Secretary of Defense, Mr. Robert Gates himself!
Sorry the picture is small, but he's in the upper middle of the picture. Did I mention he also graduated with a highly deserved MECHANICAL ENGINEER degree! This is him right before he got his diploma.
This is another picture of Jon saying the officer's oath in a private ceremony, all by himself. He said it proud, loud, and clear! We were so dern proud!
Did I mention that we are so very proud of Jonathan?! He has worked hard, very hard over the last 5 years. Everything he has accomplished he knows and acknowledges that they were truly from God's blessings. And his list of accomplishments is long;) From being the Guideon for his outfit, to Sergeant Major of the Band, to Band Commander, RV Platoon leader and now 2LT in the US ARMY and with a Mechanical Engineering degree is AWESOME!! But if you know Jon at all, you know that he will never admit to these many accomplishments because he is so humbled by the gifts God has blessed him with. In addition to so many loving friends and especially family support, Jon has only been able to accomplish all of these with His help. I am so very proud of my husband and can officially say I'm an army officer's Wife :) We (Angie and Noah) Love you!!!
