Texas Adventure Day 8

6/24/17

Today was a day set for family and we did see family, but it ended up being a day trip into itself.  We got up around 10 (slept in a bit), grabbed some breakfast at the infamous Waffle House and then headed over to Sandra's house.    But before we talk about Waffle House let us talk about the Waffle House visit.

We get our seat in a bench and I go to take the normal group picture I take and post to FB before every meal.  Only this time an elderly gentleman sticks his tongue out behind the girls heads... which I post to FB anyway :)   Then Mama decides to go get a picture with him... which was hilarious, and it gets posted to FB too.  Only my Mama... I wish I could be that way with strangers.

After breakfast we rode over to Sandra's, my cousin, and almost immediately got into the cars to go see Kilgore.  Kilgore is the home of one of the major oil boons during the 30s.  We went to the Oil Museum, which was great.  They made it look like an old town and it wasn't "stuffy" like many museums are.  You could touch things and well just have fun with it.  They taught about the different soil layers and how oil is made.

They have a pretend elevator ride to take you "8 miles" into the earth.  It has the cheesiest puppets you have ever seen or heard tell of, but it was cute.    They also had a movie about the "oil boon" that was actually pretty interesting, until the end when they shook your seat like you were at an oil drill... that was pretty high on the cheese factor.

I actually had to change my Card in my camera today at the museum.  I started shooting RAW a while back and this is the first big trip since then.... 32GB card filled up :(  I am using my 8GB card now, but I see a purchase in my future...  Ah well, back to the adventure.

We then went to the oil derricks in Kilgore, took some pictures and visited a bit before getting back in the car.   Then we drove and kept driving to see an Indian Burial ground.  What was funny about this is that I had no idea where I was going - I was just following Sandra.   For those that know me, they know this lack of control is a pretty big deal, but I was game so here we went.   When we got there Sandra actually passed it - there was the ground and some type of teepee.   We stopped and took pictures, then headed on to catch up with Sandra.  Only to see her driving back, she thought the burial ground would be like a cemetary vs. a mound of dirt.   It was so funny - the priceless look on her face.  It made the journey worth it.

We then drove down to the New London school memorial.  It was blown up in the 1930's due to a gas leak and over 300 people, mostly children, died.  Very sad...

We then stopped for some dinner at What-A-Burger (where I failed to get my group photo), had dinner and then went on our way again.  We drove down to an Indian Massacre Site and took a few pictures.    I believe Sandra got turned around a bit on the way they stopped and asked a guy directions.   He was gesturing and we have video of him giving them directions which I hope is as funny as I think it will be.

Once we got there and looked around for a bit we headed back to Longview.  When I had Amanda put our hotel in the GPS I realized we are over an hour out - I think we drove around all of East Texas today, but it was fun.  Murrell rode with us the entire day, so her and Mama were talking and visiting which was good.   Overall it was an enjoyable, but long day.   Now Murrell is staying with us the rest of the visit.  Her and Mama are on the sofabed, Amanda and I are on our bed and Kaylee (the smallest of us) has a bed to herself.  It's pretty funny.

Tomorrow we go visit some additional family and go see Mama's parents graves.    Sleep well blogland.