Retired Drifters: Storms

Bay City, Texas

Weather: low 57 degrees in La Grange, high 72 degrees in Bay City, cloudy early, strong thunder storms in Bay City

When we got up this morning, we checked the weather to see what effect it would have on us leaving La Grange. After discussing the different scenarios that the weather folks talked about, we decided to leave La Grange and travel to Bay City. The primary reason for leaving was that the winds are supposed to be up to 35 mph tomorrow, and I don't like to travel with that much wind. Overall, driving conditions were good, with mostly light winds and scattered showers around El Campo. We made good time and were set up in Bay City before the rain started. Late in afternoon, the sky opened up with high winds, heavy rains, lightning, and thunder. I am glad we were not on the road.

We expect to be here at least a week, and may have to move after that time because all the RV parks are full because of pipe line work and outages occurring at the different plants in the area. In the meantime, I have an appointment to see our CPA tomorrow about some tax matters. UGGGHH!!

After dinner, we went to our daughter Lori's house to see her and her family. It was great to see them again, and everyone is doing well. Zoe seems taller every time we see her. Julian was working on his algebra homework. Good kids. We will see them more later on this weekend and over the next week.

Yesterday, I promised I would tell you about our visit to the Monument Hill/Kreische Brewery State Park. As I mentioned yesterday, a young lady named Dorothy at the park welcomed us and told us a little about the park. We had a nice conversation with her, and we found out she is the mother of twins that are 16 months old. Wow!! That is great.

The state park is actually two parks combined into one. The Monument Hill part of the park is devoted to the memory of early Texans who died at the battle of Salado Creek, a battle that was carried out to push the Mexicans out of San Antonio in 1842, and the Mier Expeditions. The Mier Expeditions were Texans who were captured by the Mexicans in 1843 and transported to prison in Mexico. Approximately 180 of them escaped but were recaptured. General Santa Anna decided that all the men involved in the escape would be executed. The governor of the Mexican state refused to carry out the executions. At that point, Santa Anna modified his command and placed 17 black beans in a bag along with approximately 163 white beans. Each escapee had to draw a bean. The men who drew a black bean were executed before the day was over in what became known as The Black Bean Episode. The leader of the escape did not draw a black bean, but was executed later on by special order from Santa Anna. The bodies were buried in Mexico, but were returned to Texas later on. The state placed them in a mass grave at Monument Hill with a monument to mark their sacrifice.

Here's the view from the monument. It is a great view of the Colorado River and valley.

The other part of the state park is the Kreische Brewery, the first brewery in Texas and was built in the 1860s. The site includes the ruins of the old brewery, which stopped producing in the late 1880s, and the Kreische homestead, consisting of the old house, smokehouse, and barn. The house is situated on a bluff overlooking the Colorado River and the valley below. The first floor of the house is built into the side of the bluff. It was fun imagining what everything would have looked like when the farm and brewery was a busy place. Below is a picture of the ruins of the brewery.