Location: North Toledo Bend State Park, LA
We are now officially in East Texas. How do I know? People greet us with "Y'all", sweet tea is ubiquitous and I'm a bit dewey. (We southern ladies don't perspire, we just glow and get dewey). Yep, we've officially left the dry baking heat and entered into the land of humidity. First destination today was Corsicana, Texas. Home of Lefty Frizzell and Collin Street Bakery. What, you don't know Lefty Frizzell, honky tonk country legend of the 1950's? Perhaps this will refresh your memory. Lefty Frizzell
The Lefty Frizzell Museum is located in Pioneer Village, a reconstructed little hamlet that has a blacksmith shop, old cabins, law enforcement and crime museum, slave cabin and a trading post. This little village was created in 1956 by the local historical society, and God love them, they preserved it ever since in exactly the same state. This includes the worn and yellowed newspaper clippings, black and white photos and hand written references to things such as "This is how your grandparents lived." The Lefty Frizzell museum is a real little gem. It pays homage to many country music legends, including Merle Haggard who was first asked on stage by Lefty. I especially liked the custom Lefty cowboy boots, embroidered jackets and photo of Lefty with a very stoned looking Johnny Cash. The local park also has a statue of Lefty. To my fellow country music fan Eric, you would have loved this! I so wanted to get a postcard, but as the sweet elderly volunteer at the museum said, "Oh my, we haven't had those in years!". Well a fellow or gal can work up an appetite looking at all this memorabilia (oh did I mention the Bonnie & Clyde gruesome death photos?) so a trip to the world famous Collins Street Bakery, renowned for their DeLuxe Fruitcake, in downtown Corsicana was in order. Ned remembers "fondly" as a kid receiving this fruitcake with a cowboy on the tin lid each Christmas. We each got a sample, but in all honesty I ate them both. (Truth is I love fruitcake!) I was disappointed in that they only give factory tours during the fruitcake making season. Sigh.
We thoroughly enjoyed the drive today. This morning, traveling through the prairie and lakes section of Texas, we passed fields of corn, wheat, sorghum, sunflowers and cotton. The wild flowers were abundant and lined the road. This afternoon we crossed into the Piney Woods area and were overjoyed with the dense woods and rolling hills. Dogwoods, mimosas, pine trees and lots of big broad well kept lawns were mostly what we encountered on the back roads. We made a few stops at some farmer's markets picking up peaches, mangoes (different variety than we get back home), and veggies for dinner.
Finally we left the great State of Texas behind us and crossed over into Louisiana. Every time we've traveled to Louisiana we've had some incredible experiences. Today was no different. We are camped at North Toledo Bend State Park on a peninsula jutting into the Toledo Bend Reservoir. Best campground of the trip so far!
It's a heavily wooded area with generous space between campsites and the facilities are top notch. And for some reason on a Saturday night it's almost vacant. Another great perk is it has free laundry facilities. One week on the road and it couldn't be better timing. We got here a little late to use the swimming pool so we hopped on our bikes to explore the vast park. For those of you worried about Ned getting his grove back I can honestly stay - The Nedster is back. We had a bike race up a hill and he beat me fair and square. All the more incentive to hit Fit Culture gym when I get home!
