Buffalo Gap and Phantom Hill

On today's agenda was planned a trip to the Buffalo Gap Historic Village, located about eight miles south of Abilene and to Fort Phantom Hill, about 11 miles north of town.

Buffalo Gap got its name from the "gap" in the Callahan Divide, a range of hills that extend twenty-six miles from west to southeast through Taylor and Callahan counties and separates the Brazos River from the Colorado River. Thousands of buffalo traveled down from Kansas in early October when the first cold winds began to blow, and traveled down through the "gap", migrating back north in early March. Because of the availability of so many bison, they brought the Plains Indians (mostly the Comanches) to the area. The Indians were very dependent upon the bison, and it was their downfall.

The U.S. Government wanted to contain the Comanches after the Civil War, so the bison were targeted to be killed. The government's thinking was that if the Comanche's food supply would be eliminated, then maybe there would be a chance of ending the hostility on the frontier. This, in turn, brought many buffalo hunters to the area. Buffalo Gap became one of the main gathering spots for the civilian hunters. The American hunters were only interested in the buffalo hides, which brought in around $2.00 to $2.50 each, and the tongue and the hump of the bison. They left the rest of the animal to rot. This was very different compared to the Indians who used every part of the bison.

The real money was made by those who outfitted the hunters, supplying them with all their hunting needs and every day necessities.

The first buffalo hunters came in 1874, and by 1877, the buffalo were all gone. Many of the hunters stayed in the area and became ranchers and farmers.

Buffalo Gap was the first township in Taylor County and served as the county seat until 1883 when it was relocated to the town of Abilene. The Buffalo Gap Historic Village takes you through the last 50 years of the Texas frontier - from horses to horseless carriages. The site is divided into three historic areas: 1883, 1904, and 1925.

In the 1883 area, there are three authentic buildings: 1) The John Thomas Hill House, which was built in 1881 and was the home of Abilene's first marshal. It is the only remaining structure of box construction left in Taylor County. 2) First Taylor County Courthouse and Jail - construction started in 1879 and was finished the following year. This served as the Taylor County Courthouse until the county seat was moved to Abilene in 1883. Bottom floor contained County Clerk, Sheriff, and Judge's office as well as the courtroom. Upper floor contained a cell for hostile prisoners and a larger "run about" for general prisoners. 3) Knight/Sayles Cabin: Built in 1875 by J.M.C. Knight, a former buffalo hunter, for his family. Six of the family's thirteen children were raised in this cabin, which was originally located six miles to the west.



In the 1904 area, the buildings are typical of what you would find in a small town; a doctor's office, post office, barber shop, railroad depot, blacksmith shop, and wagon barn.





In the 1925 area is the two room rural schoolhouse dating from 1930, a Texaco Service Station that was built in 1926, a banking institution from the 1920's, the original free standing post office in Buffalo Gap built around 1950, and the Print Shop.



The Nazarene Church was built in 1906 and was originally located nine blocks from the current location. It is one of the first Nazarene Churches in Texas.

All of the artifacts are original in the buildings.

It took all morning for us to complete the self-guided tour of the Buffalo Gap Historic Village. We had really enjoyed ourselves and had worked up an appetite so we left to grab some lunch before we headed up to Ft. Phantom Hill.

It was a beautiful sunny day to go strolling across what was left of Ft. Phantom Hill.

In 1851, Lieutenant Colonel J.J. Abercrombie brought five companies of the Fifth Infantry to build Phantom Hill. This fort and the other nearby ones were built to protect the settlers who were moving further west on the frontier, from the Comanche Indians. There was a lot of hardship at this fort due to inadequate water supply (Elk Creek was often dry and the waters of the Clear Fork of the Brazos were brackish), and scarcity of building timbers. A stone quarry was located two miles south. Despite the shortage of timber, the officers' quarters and hospital were built of logs which had to be brought in by ox wagon from 40 miles away.

The fort was never officially named; it was referred to as the "Post on the Clear Fork of the Brazos." It became "Fort Phantom Hill" because of the hill on which it was located. The name refers to the fact that from a distance, the hill rises sharply from the plains but levels out as it is approached, retreating like a phantom.

The fort was abandoned in 1854, and shortly thereafter, was burned mysteriously. Those accused have ranged from an irate officer's wife to Indians to Federal sympathizers. No evidence existed to prove who did the dirty deed.

This is what is left of Phantom Hill.

Some of the chimneys.




Remnants of the Permanent Commissary Storehouse





The Guardhouse



The Magazine (where the ammunition was stored)

"A" is for Abilene, Animals, Aprons and Art

Our plans were to tour the zoo in the morning, then see what the Grace Museum had to offer in the afternoon. We ate breakfast and got ready to leave. Right then, 8, count them, EIGHT, C-130's took off right over our head, probably heading off for some kind of mission. If we weren't fully awake before that, we surely were by the time the last plane flew over!



The Abilene Zoo is quite small, but still enjoyable. My favorite exhibit was the giraffes, of course, my all time favorite animal. There were two of them and wherever we would walk along the perimeter of their pen, they would follow us, their heads bent curiously watching us. It was advertised in the paper to "feed the giraffes", but I didn't see any evidence of that, or anyone to ask how we could go about doing that. But I suspect that was why the giraffes were watching us so copiously.




Many of the other animals were not in open areas with moats and walls; but in cages with bars so it was not conducive for photos.

The buffaloes happened to be in a nice open area, and there was a large blue heron in there with them. Jim made some kind of call out to the bird and it responded. Then Jim walked away, and the bird began to follow him, just like in the movie Evan Almighty when the animals followed Steve Carell. First the giraffes, then the bird - it was quiet funny!

We finished off the morning at the zoo, grabbed a quick lunch, then tracked down some sculptures.





In the afternoon we went to the Grace Museum. It was constructed in 1909 by Colonel W.L. Beckman and named for his daughter, Grace. It was Abilene's premier hotel for many years, and since it was located right across from the train depot, one of the first sights seen by the passengers. The hotel was remodeled in 1946 and the named was changed to the Drake Hotel. In 1973 the hotel closed when its boiler failed. The Abilene Preservation League purchased the hotel in 1986 in order to preserve it. It was renovated and restored in 1992.




It now has three museums under its one roof. On the first floor is a large ballroom, the beautiful lobby, and three galleries. They have both permanent and rotating exhibits. One of the exhibits was a large display of cut up wooden pieces on a wall. If you pressed a piece it would make a musical sound - from a blast of a horn, to a piano key to drums. It was really cool.



In another gallery was the visiting exhibit, "Apron Chronicles". We entered a large, rectangular room and saw the crissed-crossed clothes lines with aprons from the 1950's, clothes-pinned to the ropes. I immediately started to cry because it reminded me of my mom - she always wore an apron when she baked.

Photographs of the people who had been interviewed for the book were posted on the walls, along with a copy of their interview. They talked about the wonderful memories they had of someone in their life who wore an apron - a mom, grandmother, or a wife. To learn more about this exhibit go to their website: http://www.apronchronicles.com/, or read the book, "Apron Chronicles", Stories collected by EllynAnne Geisel and Photography by Kristina Loggia.

The second floor was divided in half; to the left was another gallery - to the right was the Children's Museum. We quickly perused the museum. It had a lot of fun things to do like play with a large size "Operation" game; an exhibit on poop; an ambulance that you can sit in and pretend to drive, along with a body in the back; and a little theater. Kids could easily have a ball in this place.



The third floor is the History Museum with authentic recreations of kitchens and dining rooms from 1910-1948, representative of life in Abilene, although it looks like it could have represented life in anytown, USA. The kitchen tile in the 1948 kitchen looked awfully familiar to what we originally had in our kitchen back home, when I was growing up! The third floor also features an authentic recreation of a 1940s boot shop, from Albert J. Mallouf, who was a local bootmaker . The shop has some original equipment, handmade tools, samples of many types of leather, even the original cash register used in Mallouf's shop, and Mallouf boots, all set in a working environment of a brick facade and old plank flooring.

This is the most beautiful sculpture that we saw today. It is called "Jacob's Dream". It is located on the Abilene Christian University Campus and was created by Jack Maxwell. Inspired by the biblical account in Genesis 28, the sculpture site consists of a towering 32.5 foot bronze of four angels descending and ascending a ladder between heaven and earth. The sculpture is surrounded by almost 100 massive blocks of limestone, each etched with scripture.

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.

American Bicycle Tree

This was our last day in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area. We didn't have any big plans as we were a little tired from our big touring excursion of yesterday.

The only place I really wanted to see today was the bicycle tree. It seems this individual out towards Ft. Worth has a tree in his backyard that he hangs bicycles, and even a small motorcycle, from its branches.




Now, I don't know about you, but what could possibly have been going through his mind when he came up with this idea? Was he sitting outside one day, drinking a beer with his neighbor, possibly cooking on the grill? Maybe he sees his kid's bike, lying on the ground. Maybe the kickstand is broken. Or maybe he's sick and tired of yelling at his kid to stop throwing the bike down on the grass. So he figures he's going to teach the kid a lesson and he grabs the bike, heaves it up into the tree, and well, the rest is history. I don't know, what do you think? Why would anyone start hanging bicycles from a tree? I'm only sorry we didn't get to see this tree in the dead of winter when all the leaves are off of it. Then you could clearly see the 5 to 7 bikes hanging in it.

The best part of this road trip with the stop at Dairy Queen on the way home. Yum!

So much to see, so little time

We drove in to downtown Dallas and was lucky to find outside parking for the truck. It was very, very windy out. And I thought Chicago was named the Windy City! We walked down to the Kennedy Memorial Plaza where the Cenotaph (empty tomb), designed by architect Philip Johnson, is placed. Towering beyond that is the Old Red Courthouse. This is like the little red engine that could. It was the original site for a log courthouse built after Dallas County was created in 1846. When Dallas became a permanent county seat in 1850, John Neely Bryan deeded the property to the city, and a larger log building was erected. In 1856 county offices occupied a two story brick building, rebuilt in 1860 after a fire that almost destroyed the city. The fourth courthouse, a two story granite structure erected in 1871, survived one fire in 1880, before it burned again in 1890.

The Old Red Courthouse, the 5th Seat of County Government, was begun in 1890, and completed in 1892. A clock tower with a 4,500 pound bell originally topped the building, but was removed in 1914. Two of the four clay figures perched on the roof are removed. A new courthouse was built in 1965. Some office remain in the 1880 structure.

Across from The Old Red Courthouse is the John Neely Bryan Cabin. John Neely Bryan was from Tennessee and founded a settlement in 1841, which is now known as Dallas. He built a one room cedar cabin similar to the one in the plaza, which is of the same time period.

On the next block is the infamous Texas Book Store Depository (now the Dallas County Administration Building).

"In 1963, the building, originally constructed in 1901, was in use as a multi-floor warehouse for the storage of school textbooks and related materials and an order-fulfillment center by a private business of the same name. On November 22, 1963, Lee Harvey Oswald, a 24-year-old former Marine who was working as a holiday-rush temporary employee at the building, fired rifle shots from the sixth floor of the Depository into the Presidential motorcade of John F. Kennedy, killing the President, who was rushed to nearby Parkland Memorial Hospital.

The Texas School Book Depository Company moved out in 1970 and the building was purchased in 1977 by the government of Dallas County. After renovating the lower five floors of the building for use as county government offices, the Dallas County Administration Building was dedicated on March 29, 1981. On President's Day 1989 the sixth floor opened to the public (for an admission charge) as a museum of the assassination, known as The Sixth Floor Museum. On President's Day 2002 the seventh floor gallery opened."

(information directly from Wikipedia)

We toured the Sixth Floor museum, watching the videos, pouring over the pictures, reading the letters, looking at the clues. Although I was pretty young when President Kennedy was assassinated, I remember the impact of his death. It was hard not to be emotionally moved while viewing all the memories.

We stepped outside of the building and walked over to the grassy knoll to where the crowds were gathered when the motorcade drove by. There are two large white X's painted in the street where the motorcade passed indicating where the two shots hit the President's motorcade. It was very eerie to see this.

It was time to move on to happier things. We had heard about some large murals painted on the sides of buildings a few blocks away so we headed out. The wind had died down a little. We passed a local hot dog vendor and I convinced Jim that we should grab a little lunch. I wanted to take a picture of the hot dog stand with the little umbrella and the vendor putting the dog on the bun. I asked him, in advance, luckily, if he minded if I took his picture. He said, "No." Oookay. He then went on to explain that it was against his religion. Well, I'd understand that if he were Native American. Jim said it probably had more to do with immigration papers - he appeared Russian or Polish. Maybe we were wrong.

Anyway, we found the large murals, snapped some pictures, and had one more stop to make - the large bronze sculpture called "Cattle Drive" in Pioneer Plaza near the Dallas Convention Center. At this point my hip decided to "go out" so I started to limp. By the time we walked the five more blocks to the sculpture, I was almost in tears and walking at a snail's pace. But it was worth it. This is the world's largest sculpture of its kind with 3 cowboys and 50 cattle coming down a hill and crossing a small creek. The cattle are life size and in various poses.

We had dinner plans that evening, and I was taking pictures, so I told Jim to go back and get the truck and I would finish up with the pictures. No sooner had he left, and I was approached by a middle aged woman. She told me that her mother had just been hospitalized in Tyler, TX and that she needed to get to her. She only had $7 in gas money and could I spare her any money? She even asked the police for directions on how to get to the hotel. She "conveniently" didn't have her ID with her, but she was willing to go get it in the car. I actually didn't have any money on me but change, and I told her that. She replied that she would take my change. So I emptied my change purse into her hands. It was less than $5. I thought, "What the heck?" Maybe she really needed it. A few minutes later I turned to look for her and she was gone, baby, gone. I didn't mention to Jim what I had done.

Later that evening we met up with old friends and co-workers of Jim. I told the women about what had happened early in the day with me and the panhandler. It turns out that the SAME woman had asked one of the couples for money - WITH THE SAME STORY when they had been in downtown Dallas at a restaurant. We laughed so hard that we cried. The more I told her about my story, the more she agreed and said, "That's what SHE said!" Oh well, hard lesson learned I guess.

Laundry, birds, and hemorrhoids, oh my

We were happy to stay put for the next four days. We were at a campground in Carrollton, Texas, just outside of Dallas. The first spot they tried to put us in didn't work because it had a big hump in it. As we were backing in, the rear of our trailer scraped the driveway. There was NO WAY we could do it. So we called up to the office and they told us to go to the spot a few sites down. That one was flatter, but we were still close to neighbors, REALCLOSE.

Friday we just ran some errands, got a feel for the place. We did our laundry at a place who must have got a discount from the sign place because it was hung upside down!

The boat-tailed grackles were all over the campground and I love their high calls and whistles. They just make me laugh. I don't care if they are common birds and a nuisance.

Saw this hemorrhoid sign along the highway and just had to snap a picture. I've seen a lot of take offs from the "Got Milk" campaign, but this one takes the cake.

Are we there yet?

Day three on the road and it's already getting old :( We stayed in Marengo for just about 6 months, that's the longest we have parked anywhere. Now we're driving each day and stopping each night to get to Dallas for the weekend. Normally we stop for a couple of days. We really don't drive too far - anywhere between 200-300 miles in a day. But in the truck that's enough. Jim doesn't like to put the pedal to the metal - he tries to get better gas mileage. He's so proud if he can get around 7 mpg. Whoopee! He said that he notices when I drive,the gas mileage always goes down. I wonder why? I don't pull the trailer, but I drive the truck on its own. I love driving the truck.

Have you seen those rubber testicles they sell that hang from the back of the truck, usually from the hitch? They are pretty obscene looking. I told Jim about them and he said we'd have to buy a really big set of them for our honking truck. I believe, since I drive the truck, too, that we'd have to buy a set of boobs to put on the front grill to let everyone know I'm coming.

Anyhoo, we pulled in Tulsa, OK late afternoon, tired, and hungry. We set up, didn't leave the campground. Just ate and tucked in for the evening.

They did have a beautiful sculpture of an Indian Chief, Squaw and baby that had been carved with a chainsaw in an old cottonwood tree that had been struck by lightening. It took the carver two days to finish this piece of art.

Fork You

Today is Jim's birthday! We set the alarm to make sure we got up early. We are driving 326 miles today to Lebanon. Missouri, that is! Jim and I have been setting up and taking down the trailer for over three years now, so it's like second hand to us. Although it's easy to forget a step. We've classified the tasks as "Blue jobs" - which are Jim's, and "Pink jobs" - which are mine. We learned that from a couple we met camping in Washington. Pink jobs consist of everything inside, except Jim moves the stuff in our back area before we close up. Blue jobs consists of SP, or shit patrol and anything else outside. Yuck. I couldn't do it. I would be puking - I know it. How did I get on this subject anyway? Oh yes, packing up. We've got it down to a science. We can pack down or set up within 30 minutes usually.

I wanted to make some stops along the way before we reached our destination. We like to go off the beaten path a little bit, and thanks to www.roadsideamerica.com, that helps us out a bit. That is one of my all time favorite websites. We just type in the name of where we are going, and if there is anything weird of any nature, it will be listed. We see how far away it is off our route and if it's worth it to venture out there. Usually it is worth it. For instance, today's detour took us to see Stubby Stonehenge in front of the Mines & Metallurgy Building on the University of Missouri campus. This half-sized Stonehenge replica was built by the high- pressure water lab as a way to showcase their stone carving skills. "In ancient times, carving these stones would have taken years," a plaque explains. "These stones were carved in a month." Rolla boasts that its Stonehenge is the only one in America (there are four others) that can be accurately used as a clock.

Next stop - the world's largest fork in Springfield, MO. It is 35 feet tall in front of a three story building where Noble & Associates reside, a local ad agency. This building is the company's "idea center" and a lot of their clients are with the food service and retail business.

The third place of interest was the Jefferson Avenue Footbridge, built in 1902 for people from the north side of town to cross safely over the 13 train tracks to get to the commercial part of town. The bridge is 562 ft. long, crosses 13 sets of train tracks, and is the longest in the country!

We stopped to eat lunch at a favorite restaurant of mine called Lambert's Cafe, home of the "throwed" roll. It's got a lot of character. Once you order your main meal, the servers walk around with food and ask if you'd like to taste some. It doesn't matter if you have your meal or not. You just rip off some paper towels that are already at your table and then they'll spoon out whatever they have in their bowl. But their REAL specialty is their home-baked rolls. The server comes out of the kitchen rolling a cart of steaming fresh rolls. He'll yell out, "Fresh rolls! Fresh rolls!" That's all you have to do is put you hand up, and then he'll toss you one. He's a pretty good pitcher - Jim did all the catching. I didn't trust myself . Last time we ate there, I couldn't catch a bun if it saved me!

It was later in the afternoon when we pulled into Lebanon, MO. The campground we selected was Passport America friendly, meaning we'd get a discount since we were a member of that club. I wasn't too thrilled with the outside of the place. Jim said that it couldn't be that bad because all the sites were filled but one - ours. At this campground we were greeted by a calico cat named Mrytle. She followed us into the office. If the outside of the campground look a little iffy, the inside surprised me. It was decorated like Americana - everything was red, white and blue - even the ceiling fan! We were only staying for one night so whatever thoughts I had about the campground, they could be pushed aside. An elderly gentleman guided us to our site - and when I mean guided - I mean LITERALLY. He walked in front of the truck! (Usually we are escorted with a golf cart.) Jim had to keep riding the break so he didn't plow the old man down! He led us to the far corner of the campground. "All the sites were taken." Yeah, all three of them! And on our site, the old guy couldn't find the water spigot. He wanted us to use one over 200 feet away. Like we'd carry a hose that long. So we had to get our money back and find another campground to stay at. It wasn't like I was crying over this latest development ;) Luckily there was another campground right in town that had an available site so we drove over there and spent the night.

On the road again!

Brrr! It was colder than a witch's boobie outside this morning. It was about 27 fun loving degrees when we were packing up. There is a cord that comes off the trailer and hooks on to the truck called the "break-away" cord. It is a safety mechanism that if ever the trailer should "break away" from the truck, the breaks on the trailer would lock up. Well, it was so cold out that Jim had to "break away" the ice from the "break away" cord. If that isn't an indication that it's time to leave for Arizona, I don't know what is!

We pulled out of the campground and I was dismayed not to see a cow in sight to say goodbye. Jim told me that they were probably moved to a shelter because of the cold weather. We passed the horse farm that I had visited a few weeks ago and I yelled out, "Goodbye Rita Mae Hall!" She was one of the beautiful horses that ate right out of my hand and didn't like it if I stopped paying attention to her to take pictures of the other horses. She'd nudge me a few times so I'd put the camera down and pet her and grab some fresh grass to feed her. All the horses had little white tags with their names on them hanging from their halters. Rita Mae was a beautiful horse with a sweet personality.

It was sunny when we left Marengo, but the further south we drove, the more overcast it became. We stopped in Lincoln, IL, for lunch. There we saw the World's Largest Covered Wagon (although when we saw it, it wasn't covered!) I got a shot of the St. Louis Arch from the truck, you can see how overcast it was.

We drove a total of 281 miles and arrived late afternoon at a small campground in Mulberry Grove, IL. There we were greeted by a miniature pincher named Rufus who didn't think he was so miniature!

The campground had many trees; from oaks to maples to osage. Osage is where hedge fruit comes from. It's not the kind of fruit that you can eat; even the animals don't like it! Some people believe that placing these fruit in your basement or wherever in your home can keep away anything from cockroaches to crickets to box elder bugs. I had a couple of them in our trailer to help with a mouse problem - that's all it did was look like we gave ET a lobotomy.

Nuttin' but cows

There is a pasture right next to our campground where several cows graze. I’ve come to know their daily schedule – when their morning hay is thrown out for them to feed, when they move to the front of the pasture towards the road to get relief from the hot sun, when they move to the back of the pasture later in the day. They’ve become quite used to me coming up to the fence, clicking away with the camera and talking to them. In the beginning I was charged by a brown bull. It was frightening and I was happy he was on one side of the fence and me on the other. Once he saw that I meant no harm and I spoke calmly and quietly, he just turned and walked away.

I would love to watch them eat the hay. They would immerse themselves in it. They’d grab some hay, throw it up in the air – some would land on their backs, some their necks. Sometimes two cows would be chewing on the same wad of hay and it would look like the scene from the Disney movie, “Lady and the Tramp” when the two dogs share one piece of spaghetti and chew it till their mouths meet in the middle. I loved the stillness of the countryside except for the steady munching of the hay by the herd of cows.

I liked to rip out the tall grass growing along the fence line and reach far over it to feed the cows. Their big, wet noses would sniff my hand and out would come their black tongues to lick up the sweet grass. Their breath would smell like warm milk. One day a cow got a little too close to the electric fence and got a shock from it. I heard the zap and he jumped back and boy did he give me a dirty look. I tried to explain that it was not my fault, but I don’t think he believed me.

I usually tried to capture the beautiful sunsets which always occurred just beyond their pasture. By now the cows were so familiar with me that they would start to congregate near the fence - I suppose hoping for a hand out. I didn’t bring my tripod along for the camera, so I rested my elbow on the fence post to steady my arm, looked in the small viewfinder to focus on the sunset and began clicking away. I didn't realize that the cows were crowding in around me as close as was possible without touching the electric fence. One tall cow, who’s head came over the fence, leaned over and snorted his warm breath and wet nose right in my ear. I let out a yelp because he scared the bejesus out of me, and that, in turn, caused a little stampede! The cows all scattered about 10 feet away from me. After I stopped laughing I told them I was sorry that I had scared them but turnabout was fair play.

I came to love these giant, gentle beasts with their big eyes, long eyelashes and comical ways. I wanted to name each and every one of them instead of calling them by their tag numbers clipped to their ears. I will miss them when we leave here.