H. W. Bush Library and Harry Butt's Store

I uploaded Friday's blog post while at the George H. W. Bush Library and Museum in College Station, TX.  Since all Internet usage is monitored at the Library, perhaps the statistics on the number of people reading my blog will spike for that day. ;)

This Library is #3 in TX and #4 on our list, with 9 more to visit. That means we have seen 32.5% of them. It has whet my whistle to start reading some presidential autobiographies.

I enjoyed learning about President Bush.  His sense of humor and that of Barbara were highlighted during the exhibit called Making the White House Home, where a film showed the retired President being mocked by Dana Carvey and snubbed by dignitaries who wanted to talk to George W., not the first George Bush.  It also depicted out-takes of George and Barbara making commercials and cracking each other up with their bloopers.  It really made them much more human to me.

In the exhibit was also a full sized replica of dog house belonging to First Dog Millie.

There was a section of the Berlin Wall in one exhibit--very cool.

While driving to the Library we asked my sister about H-E-B grocery stores...such an odd name.  These are Texas based stores that were founded by and named after Harry E. Butt, an unfortunate name if I ever heard one.  In NJ we have convenience stores named WaWa Stores, which out of staters love to mock (WaWa being the Native American name for the Canadian Goose.) in my mind, the H-E-B story is much more amusing.

On Sunday we pulled up stakes and said farewell to the Temple, TX area as we drove southward. We spent the night in a town called Three Rivers, TX in a campground called Tips State Recreation Area which is just past the oil refinery in town. If I were rating this place for a vacation spot I'd give it 1 out of 5 stars. There is an odor in the air, there are trains blowing whistles that pass close by, as well as traffic noise and a constant whooshing sound from the refinery that can be seen from the camp. As a one night stop on the way to someplace else, however, it is nearly ideal. It is right off the highway, costs only $15 for a single night with full hookups, and the refinery actually provides an interesting backdrop. Bob and I enjoyed watching the buzzards circling the refinery towers as we sat at our dinette for dinner.  The scene looked like a macabre take-off of Disney's Sleeping Beauty's Castle, and was remarkably lovely at night.

There is a nearby river with a sign that notes the presence of alligators.  

Gosh, it will be hard to leave this place! But today we are moving on to our destination for the month of December, in Mission, TX