Going Home...When?

Faithful, The Guardian and Beloved at the spillway of Lake Texhoma.

The hike to the bottom of the spillway and back up again. After climbing Cardiac Hill all week I was content to stand at the top and take pictures. Beloved is way down at the bottom of the hill. Oh allright, I gave in and went half-way down and back UP!

Dwight D. Eisenhower's Birthplace Texas Historical Park - Denison, TX. The house is surrounded by flowers. There is a butterfly garden - the house is on the flight path of the monarch butterfly.

This house and family were considered to be from the wrong side of the tracks. But that didn't hold back Ike. Both of his parents were well educated and from well to do families but got married in college and all their support came from themselves. Looking around for work they heard about a job in Texas so they packed up and left Kansas, family and friends.

His mother was set apart from her neighbors because she was educated, yet she had no money and could not move in the social circles she was used to. This must have been very hard to live between the two worlds. She was befriended by a local teacher who later help bring out that Ike was born in Denison.

Nothing in the house is personally from the Eisenhower family. The Eisenhowers did move back to Kansas and family and as their fortunes turned around they tried to put this part of their history behind them. But Ike came from strong stock - survivors - that stood him well in WWII.

Being watched. This cute little fellow paused to watch me as I was watching him. He was pulling up the grass by the handful and munching away. I think he sympathized with me being hot and tired. After all this wasn't what I had planned for the day.

The Guardian and Beloved dropped us off at camp and then picked us up. All I could think of was air conditioning, cold showers, my soft bed and maybe some tv, but definitely alot of sleeping. The two of them had different plans, they came to play tourist for the day.

We went out to Lake Texhoma and the state park. We roamed the hills of the spillway. We hiked! We went wading on the other side of the spillway. My boys really endeared themselves to all the fishermen down there. I don't think there were any fish left when we took off.

We went to Denison to the borthplace of Dwight D. Eisenhower - the 34th president of the United States. The lady who gave us the tour was wonderful to talk to. She was well versed in history. She redeemed the whole experience for me. It was fun to walk through the house and see how different they lived. Then we went out to eat at IHOP. We went home about 8 hours later. It was a different day than I had planned but I wouldn't trade it for anything.

I got home in time to wash clothes, repack and trade out kids. Stay tuned readers for the next episode, Beloved and I are off to Camp Constantin on Possum Kingdom Lake.