Noack, TX to Lexington, TX

This past week I took some vacation time. Not having anything better to do I decided to drive out to Noack on Farm to Market 112. FM112 was designated in 1944 and runs from Taylor to Lexington. It's a pleasant drive with a lot of straight sections and a few curves here and there. The road alternates between having big stretches of farm and ranch land and being lined with tall trees. One day I'll get a GoPro or something to actually record these road trips because it's hard to stop and take pictures when there's no shoulders and the roads are a bit narrow. Not that it was particularly busy, especially on a Tuesday.




At some point you'll come to a church that was organized in 1891. It's still active today, it seems.

Further on  there's a three way intersection where a bar grill sits. I don't know what the building originally was, but it's been at least two bars. It may have always been a bar. Anyway, it looked like a nice place but it wasn't open when I got there. 

I think I could live this way. Away from the crowds in what some people might consider "the middle of nowhere" with a local watering hole to go to. Maybe people would even acknowledge my existence. Greet me when I show up. That would be nice.

There's another building nearby but I couldn't make out what it used to be. One day I'll be old enough to not give a crap and just go and poke around.

As I usually do, I wondered what it was, what it did, who owns it now, and do they know they own it? I understand that a lot of people would probably look at buildings like this as a dangerous eyesore for the community, but I'm thankful that they're left standing. I would love to poke around and see if there's anything left inside that gave some kind of hint as to what daily life was like.

I took my pictures and with a lack of locals threatening me with shotguns headed back onto the road to Lexington.

Lexington was originally name String Prairie. The name was changed in 1850. It's a small place with a population of about 1,200. It's the only town I've been to where I was greeted and welcomed by a town official. I don't know what she did, exactly, but she worked for the town. In any case, it was nice.

I wish I could live in a small town.

Adamsville, TX

     Since there wasn't much to see in Izoro (at least, not from where I was; I didn't drive around the roads there) I decided it was high time to head back home. Maybe get some lunch. I meandered down FM 1690 (or is it RM?) and zoomed past a sign pointing to Adamsville. I remembered that there's a building in Adamsville with a plaque stuck on it, sighed in resignation, did a quick turn around, and headed up FM 581. Then I cheered up a bit because I wouldn't have to try and convince the navicomp lady that there is, indeed, an Adamsville.

It's right there

     It didn't take long to get there and when I got to the intersection I had to stop. There was a stop sign. But I would have stopped anyway because it wasn't what I was expecting. In front of me were a few buildings, three old pick-up trucks, and a lot of antique knick-knacks belonging to the Down Unda Trading Post. I then realized that there was actually another car behind me so I drove across the street and parked.
     The first thing I did was to walk past all the antiques and find the building that had the plaque in front of it.

Twice monthly fiddling jam sessions 

Bluegrass Played Here

     Then I went to see about the Down Unda Trading Post. The signs  outside promised genuine Australian meat pies and, by God, I was going to have one. I opened the door and was greeted by a very Australian sounding 'hello' and that's always a good sign.

Down Unda Trading Post

     The meat pies were excellent and I'm very glad I stopped in to have lunch. The inside has more knick-knacks and antiques. And a giant Terminator statue. And the walls are covered with writing from other visitors that have stopped. The proprietor is very nice and welcoming, as is her partner who, I believe, also fixes up the vehicles.

     If you ever happen to be going up US 281, stop and have a go at one of those pies.

Slightly more photos [HERE]

Izoro, TX

     I am guilty of being a "One More..." type of person. That is, I'll always play "Just one more round" of Civilization. Or have "Just one more" Dorito. Then, after six hours have passed and the Doritos are all gone I'll realize that I have "one more" timed myself into a sleepless night with orange fingers. So it was when I left Briggs I thought I'd just go another mile or so up the road. You know. Just to see if there was anything there.
     After twenty one more miles I ended up Lampasas. Lampasas is not a ghost town, although it has a sort of old timey look to it in the down town area, so I won't be going into much about it. Except that a couple of the early settlers in the area were brothers named Moses and Nimrod. Moses is a name you still see used every now and again. Nimrod, on the other hand, seems to be largely forgotten as something to name your child. Like Butch. After doing some research on Nimrod I'm a little surprised that anyone would name their kid Nimrod, as he sort of rebelled against God. But this isn't about Nimrod, or Butch, so let's move on.
     Lampasas brought me to an HEB parking lot where I stopped and decided to see how far away I was from Izoro. Once again, I got into a kerfuffle with the lady that lives in my GPS. I looked in the Cities list to see if it was there. It was not. I went to the Point Of Interest menu. It was not there. That wasn't surprising. I could put "Sea World" in there and it would list every Sea World in the USA, except for the one in San Antonio. Just to spite me.
     Being a man of livers, I used my phone and Google maps. It turns out it was another 20 miles up the road. I thought about not going, but, welllllll, I had already driven twenty miles from Briggs. What's another twenty? With that decided, how was I going to get there? I could use the phone GPS but it's easier to use the car's.  Luckily, there's an option to use a place on the map as a destination.
     I knew I had to take U.S. Route 281. According to Wikipedia, U.S. Route 281 is the longest, continuous, three digit U.S. Route. If you look at it on the map it basically bisects the country, starting about two miles from the border of Mexico and ends in North Dakota at the Canadian Border. None of that matters, though, because I wasn't going to be on it for quite that long. No, I'd be turning off on to FM 1690 and rolling through the scenery until I reached Izoro.

Scenery

Pattern matching

     One would think that was good enough, but I wanted it on the GPS so I poked at the screen going up 281 and tried to match the roads on the phone to the roads on the GPS. It wasn't working. Now, I know I'm an intelligent person. The problem here, it turned out, was that on the phone North was up. On the GPS, up is whichever direction the car is facing. So, while I was swiping to go up on the phone, I was actually poking to go south on the car GPS. Again. Intelligent. Just not too smart, sometimes. Anyway, after I got that straightened out, I realized that the highway numbers on the car GPS didn't match up with the numbers on Google Maps.
   
Much cursing and threatening ensued until I finally found the intersection I was looking for. By shape, if you believe it.
     TSHA doesn't have a lot of info about Izoro. There doesn't seem to be a lot there. Texas Escapes has a bit more info which, boiled down, would be that there was once a Romeo & Juliet thing going on that resulted in a gunfight, boll weevils invaded the cotton crop, and there was a woman who delivered the mail and assassinated questionable looking flowers.

No gas for you!

     But, as they say, it's about the journey -- not the destination. Unless you need gas.

     I wonder if this is the same Izoro Gillam. She would have been 13 when the town was renamed from Higgens Gap.