Go West – to New Mexico – Day 5

11 July 2021

I was wide awake by 4 am. Apparently Jo was also. Instead of a leisurely morning and later departure, we were away and out of the house by 7:15 am. Of course that was after Jo had remembered 32 things she needed to add to the jeep, not counting the six purses she brought. Who needs six purses – my cousin Jo.

After we got on the road, Jo reminded me of one of our past trips where my brother Archie and I drove out to San Antonio in my old 1985 red Chevrolet pickup and gathered Jo and her dog Cody to bring her back to Mississippi. I had forgotten that Jo was sitting next to me – I was the driver – and Cody was between her and Archie who was riding shotgun. Sometime during the trip, Archie put his cowboy hat on Cody and commented to Jo what people would think. He said people would say the driver had a pretty good looking woman next to him in the truck but the guy riding shotgun’s woman was a real dog. Several minutes of giggles ensued.

We took 186 north and when we got to Lampasas we were getting stiff. Jo noticed a Ferris wheel next to a river and as we got to looking, it was some type of festival going on. We agreed we needed to stretch our legs so I turned around, found a parking space and we walked into this really neat little park called Hancock Park and into the festival. They were just getting set up.

The first thing we ran into was Hancock Springs, oldest spring fed bathing pool in Texas. It was built in 1883 and rebuilt in 1911. At one time Lampasas advertised itself as the “Saratoga of the South.” Hancock Springs is a mineral springs and it flows into the Sulfur Creek.

There’s a neat suspension bridge that crosses the Creek. It was inspired by a bridge near the current location during the turn of the century and was constructed in 1976.

Additionally, there was a ferry across the creek manned by two young me.

By the time we made it back to the jeep and on the road again, we decided we were hungry. No matter that we had just passed up 20 food trucks at the fair.

As we pulled into Hico, I noticed a place called Koffee Kup that advertised family dining. I did a u-turn and we pulled into a very, very crowded parking lot. I always say, eat where there are a lot of locals eating. We must have hit the after-church crowd.

The place is noted for 17 different flavors of pies.

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This was a good call. Both Jo and I agreed it reminded us of the old Gulf Cafe in our home town of Morton. I had the chicken fried steak. It reminded me of the exact same meal in Morton. The chicken fried steak there had a bit of strong taste to it. I suspect it was the cheapest cut of meat available but also very flavorful. It came with the mandatory white gravy. I didn’t even feel guilty eating it. Jo had the turkey and dressing. Our meal was the Sunday lunch special so it came with homemade fruit cocktail, a drink, dinner rolls with honey, a choice of one vegetable with the entrée and Doctors Office pie, all for the outrageous price of $9.50. It was too much food.

From Hico, we were around an hour from Mineral Wells. I was a little worried Jo wouldn’t like this particular side trip. I loved the old buildings in town and they reminded me of my small home town of Morton. I was relieved when she really liked the town. To her, it reminded her of Morton and New Orleans.

The Baker Hotel is the famous hotel and it is currently being renovated into 156 units.

The popularity of this area was due to the mineral springs. People came from all over to “partake” of the healing waters. This was before the time of penicillin and doctors would actually recommend to their patients to come here.

There was some truth to the healing water spiel. The springs in the area are heavily laced with lithium, the major ingredient of valium. Once penicillin became readily available to the public after WWII, there was a steady decline in occupancy in the two major hotels in the area and the city pretty much dried up.

The last time I was in Mineral Wells was in 2o16. I was on my way through to Little Rock for the night and stoped at Coy’s Barbershop for a trim.

It was Coy who told me about the history of the town and recommended me to see a little of the place while I was there.

I’m glad to say the town has made a turn around. There were more active businesses this trip and the little town looked as though it was thriving. The estimated completion of the renovation of Baker Hotel is 2022. If that becomes successful, the town will continue to boom.

By the way, the original bottling company for the mineral waters is still in business and still selling liquid valium.

Tomorrow, we drive to Palo Duro Canyon State Park. Our intention is to do a drive through the canyon and scope out what we want to see the second day. Hopefully, we’ll beat the heat on the second day and do some short day hikes.

Stay tuned!