May 15, 2021
Day 37 - Weatherford to Jacksboro
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We started the day with a visit to the Doss Heritage Museum in Weatherford. The showpiece of their exhibit is this Overland Stageline coach, which is new reproduction of an original. The builder has designed and built stage coaches for many movies and TV shows.
There is also "Rawhide", who lived on an area ranch. He is impressive. With all the cows we've seen, I haven't found a living Texas longhorn to photograph, so he'll have to represent his breed.
A well preserved field wagon on display.
Part of the museum was dedicated to cattle drives and drovers. These were the major routes through Texas. Our route will take us near the green line through north Texas, Oklahoma and into Kansas.
A local man is credited with inventing the chuck wagon.
I had forgotten that Mary Martin and her son, Larry Hagman, were from Weatherford. There was a room with displays about them.
Larry Hagman may have been most famous as "J.R.", but to me he's always Major Nelson.
Leaving Weatherford, we took the Lake Mineral Wells State Trailway 11 miles to Garner. The surface was described as fine screened limestone.
Much of the trail surface was eroded from rain and suffered from lack of maintenance. I don't have any pictures of those areas because I was trying to be very still and hope not to fall. Kerry said my fears were exaggerated, but I really hate riding on soft/loose surfaces.
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Once we finally got off that trail, the ride was more fun. We saw the usual things - cows
and goats
and oil wells.
At the end of the day, in Jacksboro, we stopped at Fort Richardson. It was built in 1867 and remained active until 1878. The US Army fort was built to protect white settlers from Native American attacks.
This railroad trestle was relocated from Lost Creek, 500 yards away. There are plans to move it to serve as pedestrian walkway.
Fort Richardson plaque
We got to Fort Richardson just as the buildings were being closed to visitors, so we did not get to tour the buildings. This is one I'd like to have seen - the camp hospital. I took a few pictures through the windows.
We made it to our motel about 5:00. The woman in the office said her rooms were too small for our bike. We checked and she was right and also the rooms were old and rather shabby. She recommended that we go back two miles to the other motel she and her husband own and get a new, larger room. It was worth the drive back there. We got a newly remodeled, large room which had plenty of room for the bike. It was the same price as the old, small room at the other place. The only problem was that the WIFI was excruciatingly slow. That's why I'm a day late with this entry. Now that it's done, I'll start today's. :-)
Today's ride: 56 miles (90 km)
Total: 1,585 miles (2,551 km)
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3 years ago