I went to my high school reunion in south Texas on Friday the 29nd and would be back home on Sunday. I tried to find a place to stay (with friends), but everyone was coming to town, and I thought about getting a room when I found out about an RV park, a much cheaper alternative. I ended up camping out there for two nights.

I left in the morning, since it would be about the same distance to Carrizo Springs as it would be to Lost Maples; just a little over 300 miles. I drove west on I-10 to San Antonio before taking loop 410 south to I-35. On the loop, I found this tractor pulling a motorhome-style trailer (it looks like the rear of a motor home). In between it and the tractor is a smart car!

I headed south on I-35 to Dilley, where I turned west on Hwy 85 to Carrizo Springs. I turned off onto Bermuda County Rd, where Bermuda Park is located. This road, going southward from Hwy 85, is not too far to the east of the short bridge going over the Nueces River. I drove about a mile down the slightly washboard road (I found I needed to keep it to about 20 MPH for this truck). Across the road from the entrance to the park is a drilling rig that is drilling for oil. I turned into the park just after 3 PM.

This is an RV park that has trailer and camping spots next to Bermuda Lake, which Nueces River feeds into. It is behind a piece of land with a house on it, owned by the park owner. There's a sign posted, "No Hunting." Well, it makes sense with people so close. I stopped by the house, with nobody there. There were a bunch of chihuahuas in a fenced off area. This was also a place for dog breeding. I felt sad for the dogs... I kept going west into the RV park itself, trying to find an office or someone who could tell me what was going on and where I was supposed to go. I drove in the area twice before a woman told me that the owner might be in the back area. I found him, and he showed me an area for tent camping and the facilities. The outhouse was fine, but the showers... No hot water? That was going to be a problem, with nighttime temperatures expected in the 40s at night. I noticed that the ground was very, very dry, with very fine sand almost like talcum powder. I asked if it had rained recently. He said it had been about three months since the last rain. Even walking the ground sends up dust clouds! He told me his wife was at a particular store near the town square, and I might be able to catch her there to pay the bill for the camping fees. I went ahead and made camp so all I would have to do is crawl into bed. I ate out of my fruit stash before heading into town to pay the bill.

I went into this thrift store that I'm sure I had visited as a teenager (I just don't remember what it was before). I talked with the lady, who gave me a $10 break off the price of $40 for both nights for $30 total. I went on, looking around town and noting the changes since I last lived there. There was a restaurant, legendary for its hamburger and fries and Mexican food, gone forever. It had been gone for quite some time, and there used to be a motel beside it, and beside that motel, the Dairy Queen, all on Hwy 83 just to the north of the intersection of highways 85 and 83. The Dairy Queen is the one thing familiar on that side of the road still standing within that block. This town has changed so much for a little town. Of course, the oil boom has brought business to the area. There used to be a pipefitting/supply store across from it, but has since been converted into a restaurant.

Pretty soon, I headed over to the school where it used to be the Middle Elementary school (5th-6th grade) in the 70s. Just before I walked in, a blast from the past hit me as I approached the doorway into the cafeteria. I could smell it and memories would flood back to me. The smell was very powerful and enveloping. It was exactly as it was! I walked in and saw the familiar, though older faces of my classmates. This was the first time I had stepped into the cafeteria or even the school since I went to 7th grade. I was moved by how everything looked the same. What surprised me, though, was how everything looked smaller. The performance stage to one side, the size of the cafeteria. Even the cook room where you gave your lunch token to the monitor just outside the entrance (flashback). You went in and picked up your utensils and tray. Wow, that slide for your tray in front of the food server was pretty short. I remember it being a lot longer. We hugged each other, dinner was picked up in line, and we all sat down and got caught up a bit on the last five years since the last reunion. I tried on class t-shirts before finding the right size in the tiny lady's room. All the walls and the fixtures were down lower for the kids. Before we left for elsewhere (the homecoming football game would be starting soon), I begged for a walk down the hallway of the school. We walked down the halls, looking into the now-tiny classrooms. I swear the rooms looked smaller than I remember them to be! I remembered my 5th grade homeroom, headed by a Mrs. Baker, whom I would see in the crowd along the parade route the next day.

We went our separate ways to get ready and head for the stadium near the school building. While I was behind my truck changing my shoes, I heard this drum cadence, the one our age group created back in the 80s! I couldn't believe that it was still being played! Anyhow, I walked into the small stadium and started looking for my classmates in the bleachers. We had a good time catching up on the news and occasionally watching the football game (we were losing). We were seated to the marching band's left with the percussion section down on the tracks in front of the bleachers, where I spied my former band director (he's been there continuously since the 70s!). I went down to talk to him briefly. It was chilly that night. I should have put my long underwear on! Some people went to eat, and I went with the crowd to a bar attached to a restaurant that was closed for the night. I hated the smoke in the place (they still allow it there!), but I had a great time there, watching one of the classmates just get smashed. I don't know how the heck he was able to wake up the next morning to meet us at the parade preparations, but he did! Since it was our reunion, we listened to a mix of country, tejano, rock, and techno music from the 80s. I kept pulling song after song from my memories and requesting it from the DJ. We danced and talked with one another for much of the night.

Finally, I went back to my campsite after 3 AM. I was really tired! I was in my tent without the rainfly (I never did use it), even though it was chilly (upper 40s), and there were those street lights on. Fortunately, I had my eye shades so I could get some sleep under my toasty sleeping bag. The drilling rig could be easily heard several hundred yards away, but it was easy to solve - hearing aids off! Sometime during the early morning, I woke up, lifted my head from the pillow, and as soon as my head hit the tent wall, I felt a light hit against my head. I thought, "What the?" I turned my head and looked up towards the lit tent wall and saw the outline of a cat! Fortunately, it was the house variety. She was about two feet away, wondering what this big thing that moved slightly was. I tried to call out to it to see if she would come closer, but she wouldn't. I think two hours later, she did it again, but I didn't see her after waking up.

Finally, I got up to get ready and head to a gas station in town to clean up a bit and be ready for the homecoming parade starting at 10 AM. I made it to the area where the parade started out of, by the cemeteries. To the rear of the parade line...

And to the front of the parade line.

We had fun getting our float ready, airing up balloons and running the streamers around the trailer before setting the chairs on it.

Then we piled in before the parade got underway.

Early in the parade, we passed by this building. It was a bar, called the "El Taconaso," in reference to a type of music played in that time. I don't know when it closed.

Here, people on the floats would toss out candy to the crowds along the parade pathway.

This little bitty store used to be a plumbing business in the 60s, before it became a place where you could buy beer before you were of age, if the owners knew you or your family.

This much larger building was a mexican movie theatre, Benito's Theatre, where some classmates saw many a luchador. Check out three, maybe four pieces of candy flying out of my classmate's hand!

Then there's this old, old drug store that I don't recall being open since I moved there with Daddy in 1974.

An old service station that's been closed for a long time like the other buildings.

Some of the colors of houses in town...

This is a local grocery store that's still in business after more than 35 years. There was a chicken place to the right of it, in the middle of the parking lot, but is not there anymore.

Look at some of the rides people have nowadays!

I took this next photograph because it means a lot to me. This is the intersection where the North Elementary school was once located (1st-2nd grades). I don't know what it's used for now. It was at this intersection late in 1974 where I said bye-bye to my Dad's Scout 80. Just as we headed around the corner just before I was to be dropped off for school, in the direction the black pickup is parked in, the Scout's right rear wheel fell off, the end of the axle housing breaking off and dropping the wheel under the end of the axle housing. I don't remember ever seeing the Scout again after that.

This elementary school building was not there when I was in the 3rd and 4th grades playing PE. It was an open field.

If you look way in the back, in between the palm trees, there stood a two-story building, a very old one that was the Central Elementary school building. Unfortunately, it burned a few years after I graduated from high school.

The town's water tower was built in 1970. When we won a football game, the tower would be lit up after the football game, which is how we knew in those days.

This used to be the administration building for the school district.

Heading for the town square...

The town square area.

The Style Shop used to be a tire place, hence the diagonal driveway at the corner.

This building used to be the Western Auto store, where Dad would buy parts and tires for my go-kart back in the 70s.

The end of the parade. My classmates, my friends... I miss them already, though I keep in touch with them. This was unfortunately a very small group this time. We were a class of 166 (160 alive still). Only about 25 showed up. Hopefully, the 30th will be a lot bigger.

After we got back to the prep grounds where we left our cars, I did a solemn tour of one of the cemeteries. I wanted to see if I could find a very good friend there and say hi. She was the mother of a friend of mine. She was a dear woman who died young, unrelated to her mental illness. I have to go back some day when I have time. I know she's buried there, but I couldn't find it (it had been near 20 years since I last saw her grave). Walking along, I found Ben "Doc" Murray's grave. I knew him as the county sheriff who was killed in his home in a struggle with two criminals out for revenge for arresting them in the past. He was a very nice man, who would do anything for you. I cried for him, never having seen his grave since his death in 1991. One of his killers, Jose Briseno, is still on death row. He was supposed to be executed last year, but was stayed for mental illness... I don't know... I know Doc is gone from our lives. From all who knew him.

Anyhow... I went driving around town, now that I had the afternoon before I would go over to a classmate's house for the party that night. I spied this Scout II sitting in the driveway a few blocks from an old friend's house.

I drove over to find a house where my former nanny still lives, in a hard part of town, but she wasn't there. The following is a bit hard, like the sheriff's story. I went over to another friend's house. One of the daughters was there on a visit from a nearby town to take care of her mother and father on the weekend. This was a hard visit. Her mother is slowly dying, with Alzheimer's if I'm not mistaken, and has other health problems. She has been bed-ridden for a very long time, well over 10 years I think. It was heart-breaking to see her like this. She couldn't see, and couldn't hear very well anymore, so she didn't know I was there. Her husband is still in reasonable health, but has been blinded for a very long time by a blow to his head in an attack. The couple have a caretaker with them during the week, but the daughter is there every weekend. She's got issues of her own that she's dealing with. We were able to visit for a short time before I went over to her brother's house to track him down and visited with his wife instead. In the living room, there is a great photo of her father in his prime, as I remembered him to be before his attack. But just the same; it was good to see them again and be inside the all-too-familiar house I visited many, many times in my childhood. That house is over 100 years old, built out of stone and concrete with a traditional look in a similar part of town. The few things that don't change much in a confusing world of change.

After I visited her sister-in-law, I went on to eat before the party, which got underway after sunset. But first, I wanted to drive around my area, east-southeast of Carrizo Springs, where I lived most of my time there. I drove, looking for one place I lived in for a few years, and then to another property that I lived at in my senior year (it's still there, just slightly different). I went up an old road that used to be a highway, an abandoned section that runs between two dirt roads that cuts it off at both ends. I drove up one of the dirt roads to see if an old house was still there (this particular property used to be my father's rental property, where one of the oilmen lived for a few years). It wasn't, so I wondered what happened. Continuing on, I drove on to another paved backroad that is maintained and took in the flat landscape as I drove along in my CR-V. It was quiet and peaceful, with a stillness about it.

It was pretty chilly that night and wished that it had been warmer. The party was outside in the backyard. We had a great time in spite of the chill, but I was getting tired from lack of sleep the night before, so I called it a night and bid everyone a goodnight until next time, whenever that is.

I got back to my campsite and promptly fell asleep. The next morning, I woke up and saw the cat that swatted at me the previous night. She was carrying babies! She wouldn't let me get close to her, though. My campsite.

I got ready and packed up for the drive home. I walked to the east shore of Bermuda Lake.

Pulling out of the RV park, I saw some deer crossing the road.

I pulled up to the house when I saw that the landowner was home and loading up his truck. I saw something(s) move to the side of the house! It was white-tailed deer! The deer crossing the road were headed for their morning meal! The man puts out corn for the animals every day right by the house. It turns out that this land, including the RV park, is a sanctuary for animals. He doesn't want to hunt them for the same reasons I wouldn't. It was set up as a respite from all the hunting going on around the country-side. As it was hunting season, you would see hunters everywhere in town. Here, animals could just be...