Texas: Murderous Beans and Moldy Tamales

The pool at Aunt Paula's ranch was like a desert oasis for all sorts of wildlife.

I paid special attention to these velvet ants. They are actually wingless wasps, and they make up for the fact that they are more vulnerable on the ground by having monstrously powerful stings. We were warned not to walk around without shoes on because of the fire ants, but I added this to my personal list of reasons as well.

I searched local supermarket's webpages for things with the word "Texas" in them to make sure I didn't miss any of the local flavor.

A town about 2.5 hours away called Poteet is famous for its strawberries, so I made an effort to buy products that contained them. So local, so cool.

We did a little strolling in nearby downtown La Grange.

One interesting thing about Texas is that they have like another layer of war history that states in the midwest for example don't have, or at least pretend that they don't. All of the fight for Texan independence from Mexico stuff was a bunch of battles that are unique to the area.

Anyway there was a Black Bean incident that took place that I have seen referenced a few times in the area, and I believe bodies from the event were buried nearby. I'll let the Texas State Historical Association tell it:

"The Black Bean Episode, an aftermath of the Mier Expedition, resulted from an attempted escape of the captured Texans as they were being marched from Mier to Mexico City. After an escape at Salado, Tamaulipas, on February 11, 1843, some 176 of the men were recaptured within about a week. A decree that all who participated in the break were to be executed was modified to an order to kill every tenth man. Col. Domingo Huerta was to be in charge of the decimation. The victims were chosen by lottery, each man drawing a bean from an earthen jar containing 176 beans, seventeen black beans being the tokens signifying death."

We bought a bunch of tamales that looked super legit and delicious.

I was really excited to eat them until I noticed they were all moldy. Sad!

Goose Jurassic Park

We did a hike around a lake in Cuivre River State Park that was surrounded by wild flowers. I had to stop every few steps to take more pictures! The park began as a federal rec demo area in the 1930s created by the CCC and WPA.

I was impressed by how tall these plants were.

I found this cool snake skeleton.

We stopped by Hannibal, Missouri to do some fence whitewashing.

You can never get enough Mark Twain.

The six lakes of Wakonda State Park near La Grange, MO were created when Ice Age gravel deposits were mined for use in road surfacing. They were a great place to do a little kayaking.

Our campsite at Wakonda was very nice and right next to the water. But a predator lurked nearby.

There were geese everywhere and they were not very afraid of humans. You could tell that they had played this game before because they kept checking the fire pit for fallen food.

I find it kind of reassuring that the State Park Rangers are on patrol while we are asleep in our tents.