It was a full day today. It was about a 40 minute drive up to the King Ranch Visitor Center. The privately held King Ranch owns 875,000 acres in the US. We arrived at 10:30 for our 11:00 bus tour. The small tour bus was full. The 90 minute drive around the ranch was interesting. The driver is a history teacher at the Kingsville branch of Texas A&M. His narration was good, you could tell that he loved the King Ranch and its history.
Our tour route was all within the 200,000(?) acre Santa Gertrudis Division of the ranch.
We learned a lot about the ranch's cattle and horse breeding programs. We also drove by the Main House. No one has been a permanent resident of the house for 50 years but the family still consider it their private residence. The tour bus is not even allowed to stop for people to take photos. I found the photo below online. It is kept up and used for family reunions, weddings, etc. The 38,000 square foot complex cost $350,000 in 1915 (over $10 million in inflation adjusted dollars).
An aside, Nolan, our great-grandson always talking about "race cars". When Kathy and I see a "hot" car we often make a comment about race cars and think of him. This car was in the parking lot of the Welcome Center. As we walked back to the parking lot after the tour we saw this old (he made me look younger) guy with a scraggly beard get in it and drive away. More later.
While at the Welcome Center we saw some of the yellow flower that intrigue us.
After the tour we stopped at the El Dorado for a good lunch. I think my meal was $12.49, a steak and a beef enchilada.
Then it was on to the King Museum.
Before I saw the sign that said no photos inside the museum I had taken a photo of the room that was being set up for a wedding and reception.
The museum was quite interesting. There were a lot of blown up black and white photos of ranch activities, they were awesome. One action photo of a cowboy herding a steer back into the herd was nothing short of amazing. The hooves of both the horse and steer were buried in the soft ground and dirt was flying as they were spinning around. Almost all of the photos had lists of the names of the people in the photos.
Another aside. When we pulled into the museum parking lot there was the race car, in the handicapped parking area.
After the museum we drove over to the King Saddle Shop. It was very disappointing. It was mostly an upscale clothing store for people who wanted to wear clothes that said King Ranch. I looked at a nothing special belt hanging on a rack, $125. It didn't look any better than the $16 belts I saw at the Don Wes flea market a few weeks ago. A small portion of the store was dedicated to saddles. I think the saddle in the middle of the photo below was being restored.
Back at the campground we took a short rest and then went over to the bay and walked out onto the pier. There were lots of fishermen on it. Several were on the end where I took the photo. I ask a young guy how the fishing was. He said he just arrived but grabbed his camera out of his pocket to show me a photo of a huge fish he had caught last weekend. It was nice to see several families fishing. Most of the Mom's and younger kids were in lawn chairs watching, but they were together. I didn't seen anyone with their nose in a phone/screen.
God is good. I pray that He blesses you and yours. He has blessed me.
No comments:
Post a Comment