the .: fyr :. light

Yesterday, I went out sightseeing. Listens to the collective gasp Yes, I went out sightseeing. I do that occasionally. Much as I love sitting right here in front of my computer, sometimes I like getting out and seeing and doing too.

At Tuesday’s FRG meeting, another spouse invited me out with her saying “I’ve been wanting to get out and I may as well just do it since I am not getting to do it with my husband”. Which is kind of how I feel. When hubby gets home, he’s tired, in pain, frustrated, and would rather do absolutely nothing. Not that I blame him, when I hear about his days I feel frustrated, tired and pained-up too.

So anyway, we took to the road with the plan to drive to Waco and take in some museums and tea shops and just the sights. Considering we started out at a little after 11, we got as far as Belton (it’s the little town right where SH 190 meets I35).

There isn’t a lot to see in Belton, frankly. But by the time we got done seeing most of it, it was time for lunch and the closest spot we found to have lunch was also an Archery Pro store (oooh Heaven!) so we had to stick around there and get an impromptu lesson too.

Our directions led us to Main street just past the city center looking for Ambrosia Tea Room. Instead we found the Bell County Museum TX. Now, I’ll grant you that the Bell County Museum can’t be all that much of a museum since Belton is still a small town. It IS a small museum. But we learned lots… not the least of which was the story of Bell County’s most famous Governors’ Ferguson (“Ma” and “Pa” Ferguson).

From what I understood, her husband, James Ferguson, was impeached, charged and convicted of charges for misapplication of public funds, embezzlement, and the diversion of a special fund. As part of the conviction, he was barred from ever holding public office again and as a result nominated his wife Miriam for Governor instead. She in turn ran saying she would listen to the advice and council of her husband thereby giving Texas “two governors for the price of one”. It seems it was quite the excitement of the day for not only was she outright saying she would uphold the same ideas and stand as her husband had, but she was also the first woman governor of Texas and the second in the Nation.

Bravo, Miriam Ferguson, bravo!

The museum also had exhibits for:

• The Gault Site

  an archeological excavation somewhere in north-central Texas which seemed to me mainly to be exhibiting archeology more than anything else but claimed to be exhibiting the finds from the site that “has been home to human beings for over 13,000 years”. I wasn’t so impressed with that exhibit as I thought I would have. I think every child at some point in their lives aspires to be an archeologist. Well, I either outgrew that, or the exhibit just didn’t do it for me.

• The Passport through time

  which was an exhibit spanning the era from before the civil war to just after world war II it looks like, with items from Indian culture, cotton-picking history (that noticeably ignored the contributions of slave-pickers) early hand guns and muskets, hand-made stirrups, arts from the period, main stream cultural symbols (the mail crane, for one) … among other items. It was here also that I read what seems to be a history of Fort Hood and that the land was claimed without compensation from the farmers and homesteaders of the day. Amazing… but as I said on-site, it wasn’t the first or last time a government had taken that kind of high-handed action and ousted civilians in the name of what’s best for the country. Just odd how no one has never mentioned it as a BAD thing … isn’t it strange how some things aren’t a violation of personal freedoms, yet other things are a cause for riots and dissent of the worst kind?

• The Moustache Cup collection

  which made me giggle .. a cup to help the gentlemen protect their moustaches from being “soiled” by their coffee, tea or cocoa? Brilliant! I wonder why this idea didn’t last? Seems like a perfectly good idea to me. *giggle*

• The Miniature Room

  our final stop, it had miniatures of all the major structures in the history of Belton – including a miniature of the house of the famous Governor duo – the Fergusons. I have always loved miniatures. As a child, I wished for little other than to be given a dollhouse to play with. To a young female child, a dollhouse is as good as it gets when trying to express an interest in something such as miniature buildings. The CSI miniature killer episodes intrigued me more so than normal simply because the miniatures were perfect and the process fascinating.

Once we left the museum, we needed food, so went in search of the tea room once again and found instead a coffee house that sold no food but sent us a block away to a little diner. To our delight, this little diner sits in it’s own corner of an archery pro shop. After we had finished eating, we got the tour of the shop including where all the heads came from and stories about who shot them and when and where along with a basic explanation of the types of bows and what is needed to shoot one. I gotta tell ya – I am going to be saving towards getting me a bow … I have ALWAYS wanted to shoot bows. Maybe I can be good enough to compete – who knows?

After that, a walk through the historical district finished off our day for more than one reason – my aches and pains kicked in BIG time and it was nearing 4 when the hubbies were rumored to be headed homeward. And so we planned to do more sightseeing another time (and I promised to bring my pain pills next time so I am not such a party pooper) and we left for home.

A good day, I enjoyed it thoroughly and I can’t wait to go again.

BTW: in case you were wondering … the photos? Taken with the iPhone! Gotta love my iPhone.

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