Flashback Friday - Abilene, TX - Part One!

Hee-Haw! Today we are taking a trip to Abilene, Texas! It just happened to be a resting point for us on our way to Arizona, but this little town sure packs a wallop!
We stayed in a campground with few amenities. Wait, who am I kidding? There were NO amenities except the usual water, electric, and sewer. And if I remember right, the campground owner looked a little frightening, like any minute he'd hop over the counter, knock me down on all fours, tweak my ear and ask me if I could squeal like a pig, while his cross-eyed kid plunked the theme song to Deliverance. Jim reassured me that everything would be okay (how he knew this was beyond me), and we signed our life on the dotted line for  three nights.

I know. We like to live on the edge. Thus the name of this blog.

Unbeknown to us, the campground was situated right on the flightpath for Dyess Air Force Base. The first time those fighter jets came screaming overhead, we both jumped up and ran outside thinking WTF?

Another morning several C-130's took off; barely letting one get off the runway before the next one started down it. This photo shows six in the air, but there could have been more after that.

We went to the Visitor's Center, located in the Frontier Texas! building. Frontier Texas! is a neat experience and is fairly reasonable in price - $8 for adults, $6 for seniors/military. You can experience 100 years of the Texas frontier from 1780 - 1880. You meet some of the actual people (re-enactments) who had lived in that time, through film clips and holograms.

At one point you sit in a theater in the round on seats that turn completely around to get the full effect of the show.

The Town of Abilene offers a "Round-up Pass" for $15. You can see 6 attractions at one low price. We opted for that and actually went to four out of the six attractions in 3 days! (Frontier, Texas! being one of them.)






We went to the Abilene Zoo, and although it was small, it was very nice. It was clean and not crowded at all.

East African Crowned Crane

My favorite animal at the zoo!

Nap time! Can't you see  the "Zzzz's" above his head?

Look at the face on this monkey! Doesn't it look like a mask?

Abilene has 25 sculptures throughout the town, so we picked up a map and made a point of seeing each one of them. I will only show a few of the photos, but click here to see all the sculptures.

This one is called Jacob's Dream and consists of a 32.5-foot bronze sculpture of four angels descending and ascending a ladder between heaven and earth. Surrounding this beautiful sculpture are almost 100 limestone blocks, each etched with the words of scripture. Also at the site is a baptismal pool and a hidden cross/portal that can only be seen from only one vantage point. Jim found the "cross". Do you see it?

Pink Flamingo

 

 

 

 

This next sculpture is called, "Childhood's Great Adventure" and is based on the book "Santa Calls", about three children from Abilene. It was written and illustrated by William Joyce.

The Pig

Bull Skull

We visited the Grace Museum, which actually houses three separate museums inside  - the Art Museum, the History Museum, and the Children's Museum - all for one price. I will talk about the visiting exhibition at the Art Museum in another post.

The first floor is the Art Museum, which has five galleries. This was on one of the walls.

It was an inter-active musical instrument made of wood. Each piece makes a musical sound when pushed, from a horn blowing, to the beating of a drum, to the strumming of a guitar. Jim and I had so much fun with this!

On the second floor is the Childrens Museum. We were the only ones there! This is a large Operations Game.

The third floor housed the History Museum. It had a 1940's boot shop, and period rooms furnished from 1910-1948. It was quite interesting.

I decided to break this up into two posts because there was so much to see in Abilene! So part two will be the next Flashback Friday, September 3rd!

Run for Cover!!

On our drive from Dallas to Abilene, we saw a few funny things. One was a large Campbell's Tomato Soup can on the side of the road. We have no idea why it was there but I was able to snap a picture of it. We also saw one of those "God" billboards and I got off a quick snapshot of that, too.






A little less than 200 miles later and we arrived in Abilene, TX by mid-afternoon. Right before we got to the campground we passed this sign.



It's supposed to be for refrigeration service. Really.


We pulled into the campground and was greeted by an individual who looked straight out of the movie "Deliverance" and spoke just like "Larry the Cable Guy". That was a little frightening.

The campground was decent enough, and on our site was a beautiful mesquite tree with a twisted trunk that had a lot of character.



We didn't realize until later that this particular campground was right in the pathway of the Dyess Air Force Base runway. The fighter jets went screaming over our trailer. Our trailer was rocking, but for all the wrong reasons! Our floors actually vibrated from the sound. That night, the jets took off till midnight.

The best place to go when you arrive at a new place is the Visitor's Center, so that's where we headed. This visitor's center was in the Frontier Texas! building. Frontier Texas! is a neat experience and is fairly reasonable in price - $8 for adults, $6 for seniors/military. You can experience 100 years of the Texas frontier from 1780 - 1880. You meet some of the actual people (re-enactments) who had lived in that time, through film clips and holograms. At one point you sit in a theater in the round on seats that turn completely around to get the full effect of the show.

The Town of Abilene offers a "Round-up Pass" for $15. You can see 6 attractions at one low price. We opted for that and will try to attend as many attractions as possible in the time we have in Abilene.

There are 25 sculptures scattered throughout the town, and over the course of the next three days we will stop to see the majority of them.