We awoke to the gentle screeches and panicked squawks of the resident flock of peahens this morning. We might have become angry at the early hour but watching the goofy girls is hysterically funny. They all browse in a big group but as soon as one of them detects anything moving or making a sound, they all bolt in all directions for a moment before realizing they are now separated. Then the real high speed action begins as they attempt to regroup. They run faster than they fly.
After watching the birds and the deer for a while, we hopped in the truck and took a drive into Nacogdoches. We initially wanted to follow a driving loop through town where an abundance of azaleas were to be seen but we are a bit early for the bloom. We saw a few early bloomers but mostly we saw sticks. We also found that our map of the flowery streets was totally inaccurate and my navigation suffered. I directed Peggy into many dead ends.
We then took a more informal, random course and checked out some of the gorgeous Nacogdoches houses and there are a bunch of them. Steven F. Austin college is also here in town and they have a very nice campus with some historical buildings and adjacent gardens.
After a bit, we got bored and decided to see if we could find our way to a very smoky fire burning in the forest northwest of town. Although we did have to resort to dirt roads, we found the fire. Some enormous ranch’s staff was burning the undergrowth out from beneath their trees. It wasn’t too exciting.
We continued our rural drive by closing a loop back to town where we pulled out at a restaurant called the Cotton Patch. Peggy was delighted with her grilled pork chops, fried okra and cinnamon apples and I thought their chicken fried steak was almost as good as Dean’s or Jake’s in Oregon. A strange thing happened halfway through the meal. My big, ornate gold crown came off the expensive remnants of tooth #19 and that started a series of events nobody cares to hear about. Wonderfully, we found a nearby dentist who had me back with a full set of chompers before dark.
The sunrises and sunsets here are spectacular.
There are a few Nacogdoches pix to see by clicking here