Cowboys and Indians

 My good friend (whom I've never met), STxAR, posted recently about the H² weather we've been having here in the great state of Texas. I can attest to the veracity of his description. Just finished mowing the guest house DIL is staying in for now.  According to the weather report on my phone, it's 89 out with a "Feels Like" of 92 and 51% Humidity.

I'm gonna call BS on the "Feels Like" calculation.  I know what 92 feels like, this wasn't it.  Went through 4x pint bottles of water (Yes, Beans, AKA 1/2 gallon) while mowing, and a couple more when I called it quits. (Still need to weed whack, tomorrow, earlier.)  What's my new "Feels Like" calculation method?  Temperature and humidity are additive.  So,  today's (Sunday) "Felt Like" was 140^o degrees Juvat. 

On a side note, Little Juvat reported in a few days ago.  Kuwait was reporting 53 degrees C or about 128 degrees F.  Wouldn't take much humidity to push the Degrees Juvat off the scale.

But....Now that I've got that off my chest, on with our regularly scheduled post.

Way back at the end of May, Mrs J and I took a little trip to Palo Duro Canyon in North Texas.  Loved it.  Highly recommend a visit.  Since it is a very long drive from our little burg, and we had brought the dogs, we decided we'd break it up a bit. Everyone needs a bathroom break once in a while.

In addition, both Mrs J and I enjoy learning a bit about the history of things in our area.  So...the stop this time was at Fort Chadbourne. The fort (or what's left of it) is about midway between San Angelo and Abilene.  A nice Texas Ranch Road connects to the fort from US 83.  It was the Tuesday before Memorial Day when we visited, so we pretty much had the place to ourselves.  

I went into the main building to find out what the "Rules" were.  A very nice lady said that we could walk around the buildings with the dogs or we could have a guide give us a tour in an ATV.  A small donation got us the latter.

Our guide was definitely a "Good ol' Boy".  Most of you will understand the term.  Had spent most of his life working the ranch on which the fort is located.  He'd also participated in most of the restoration projects that had been done.

He also had a great sense of humor.

Pretty much the "Good Ol'Boy stereotype

The fort had been established in 1852 as a stopping point for the Butterfield Overland Mail stagecoaches as well as housing soldiers to dissuade the Comanche's from interfering with stage operations.  

Ok, I always thought that life was pretty tough in the Cowboys and Indians Era.  But I got a much clearer picture after visiting this fort.  For instance, the above picture is an actual stagecoach from the time.  It held 9 passengers as well as the driver, his helper, and baggage.  It went from St Louis to San Francisco.  There were about 200 stations along the route and took about 540 hours one way.  A given stage coach would travel back and forth between 3 stations. Passengers would disembark and reembark on the next coach which left almost immediately, 24 hours a day for 24 days.  They were allowed two 40 minute rest breaks a day.

In order to seat all nine passengers, they sat 3 abreast with the front row facing back and the back two rows facing forward.  The front and middle rows would have to interlock their legs.  Since there was only room for 10 legs, the two outside legs literally were "outside".  With nothing to rest their feet on.  For 23 hours a day for 24 days.  

The fort's museum has a display with some comments on some of the aspects of the trip written by travelers.  One of my favorites was "Had I not just come out over the route, I would be perfectly willing to go back, but I now know what Hell is like.  I've just had 24 days of it."

Oh, and they had to pay for their meals also.

I asked how much the passengers had to pay for the privilege of riding in such luxury.  The guide said it was $200. which he said equated to about 6 grand today.  

We got around to the living area of the fort, one of the rebuilt buildings was the commander's quarters which he shared with another officer.

A bit tight, but... Oh, by the way, that's the "shower" between the bed and the table.

Next door was the remaining officer's quarters.

The "guest book" was a little rustic.  The fort was not considered a good assignment.  It could take a month or more to get mail.  Personnel transfers occurred from San Antonio, the next closest large base and could also take more than a month.  When a commander was called to San Antonio for a meeting, he generally relinquished command to a subordinate, left and then did what ever it took not to get sent back.

Consequently, maintaining discipline was not necessarily easy.

Our guide related a story of a group of soldiers that deserted.  They were unfortunate enough to get captured by Comanche's and most were killed, but a couple of them made it back to the fort with the Indians in pursuit.  They made it into the officer's quarters and, now rearmed, shot it out with the Indians.

This window was one of the soldier's positions.  Those are actual bullet marks in the wall.

Scratching your initials in the wall must have been how the "Kilroy was here" legend in WWII got started.  At this point, our guide related a tale of a tour he'd given to some people.  One of them asked who DT was.

The guide said "The President visited last month and carved his initials there."

Evidently she went on quite a rant about how that was just like him.  He started laughing and explained that they had no idea who it was.  Nevertheless, that didn't stop her rant.

Some folks!

I was impressed with how much restoration had been done and the care taken to be accurate in materials used.  Most of the stonework/brickwork was done with materials taken from the ranch where the fort is located.  Much of the fort had been in ruins when the effort started.

The restored building in the center had looked much like the building in the top right corner when restoration began.

That finished up our tour, The dogs had found it entertaining, several trees were watered and we were soon back on the road.

It also adds to our Texas Forts visited list.  Fort Martin Scott, Fort Mason and Fort McKavett were previously visited.  Our guide definitely made it the best so far!

Answering comments might be a bit spotty today.  MBD and SIL are in the packing stage of their move and have requested parental expertise in that endeavor.  So we shall be off to Sam's Town to assist.  50% chance of rain is forecast, so the Juvat family record is likely to remain intact.

Peace out, y'all!