Crowning Queen Willy

One view from the Talimena Scenic Drive

Last year on our trip to see the Crystal Bridges Museum, we traveled down the Talimena Scenic Drive but couldn’t stay at the Queen Wilhelmina State Park Lodge because it was under renovation. This year we remedied that situation. The lodge is actually in Queen Wilhelmina State park which is crossed by the 54-mile Talimena Scenic Drive and the 225-mile Ouachita National Recreation Trail. Designated a National Scenic Byway, Talimena Scenic Drive runs along the crests of Rich and Winding Stair mountains within the Ouachita National Forest; it also links Arkansas and Oklahoma. The Ouachita National Recreation Trail connects Pinnacle Mountain State Park in Arkansas and Talimena State Park in Oklahoma; 192 miles of the trail are within the national forest. The scenery, alone, is ample reason to stay in the lodge; however recent upgrades have made this place lovelier than ever.

Looking around Lillian

It’s hard to know if Lillian, Texas is coming or going. It is located along Farm to Market Road

Downtown Lillian

2738, about fifteen miles northeast of Cleburne. Never having been a large town, it appears as though the only business operating at all is a pizza place. There is not a single historical marker nearby, but there is at least one building old enough to warrant a plaque. Some new houses being built close to what was downtown, so who knows what the fate of this hamlet is going to be. Named for the wives of G. J. Renfro and J. W. Cunningham, Lillian hit its heyday in the 1920s as a stop for the International-Great Northern Railroad. At that time it was a retail center for farmers and ranchers, hosting churches, a school and an active mercantile area; the original post office building is gone, but there is a new post office just off the main street. Growth of business centers in Dallas and Fort Worth, as well as World War II and the Great Depression, changed the development of the area, leaving Lillian behind. The population of 350 shrank to less than 100 but has slowly rebounded to around 400, today. Children from this community go to school in Alvarado, and most business is carried out in other surrounding towns, making Lillian a quiet, rural community.

Will travel for food….

Dave, Vince and I eat out a lot. Sometimes it’s because we want to travel somewhere and

L to R: Dave, Cynthia, Vince

take in the sights, but other times we’re running errands, get hungry, and see a place that we’ve not tried. This rather short blog is a review of several places we’ve eaten while we’ve been between adventures. For information about my rating system, see Reading the Reviews.

Inside the Amon G Carter Museum of American Art

Museum Entrance

Dave enjoys the art of Thomas Hart Benton and there was an exhibition of his works at The Amon Carter Museum of American Art in Fort Worth. Since I’m pretty much up for any adventure, off we went. It was a bright day, but the wind was blowing a gale, so rather than wander through the park-like areas surrounding the museum, we hurried inside. One of the nice things about the Amon Carter is that it’s free all of the time – and the traveling exhibitions are free, as well. I hadn’t been to this museum in probably ten years, but I remembered it as a collection of western art. That is no longer the case.

Granbury, again!

Old buildings and car

It’s just too easy to run down the road to a historic town with good food. We gave in to that urge and went back to Granbury, this time in search of German food and to test the Texas History app, again. Associated with this little town are oodles of historic buildings and a nice lake that has attracted lots of new residents, retirees and those still working, to the Granbury area.