The Lone Star State
"To get home?"
"No, to get out of Texas."
Departure from Van Horn with no particular challenges. The terrain had modulated to pretty monotonous, level land:
"To beautify and give variety to the Earth..."
Not too much planned for viewing, and there wasn't, anyway. The most interesting thing for us was to see something fun in Odessa.
Odessa
Judging from the plethora of oil pumps and derricks, active and/or past, this is the heart of Texas' oil country. The smell of oil was everywhere! (Is that the smell of money, too?)
Odessa was founded in 1881 as a water stop and cattle-shipping point on the Texas and Pacific Railway. It became an incorporated city in 1927, after oil was discovered in Ector County on the Connell Ranch southwest of Odessa.
With the opening of the Penn Field in 1929, and the Cowden Field in 1930, oil became a major draw for new residents. In 1925, the population was just 750; by 1929, it had risen to 5,000. Due to increased demand for oil during the second world war, the city's population had expanded to 10,000.
Photo: Richard Masoner
Oil refinery in Odessa
That was all interesting in its own way, but this is what we were looking for: something quite familiar, but in a wrong place...
Stonehenge Replica
The Stonehenge replica is located on the campus of the University of Texas in Odessa. About 20 stone blocks, similar in size, shape, and appearance to the ancient Stonehenge in southwestern England, were unveiled in the summer of 2004. The replica matches the original Stonehenge horizontally, but it falls some 14% short in height from the English monument. The tallest stone on the original is 22 feet, while the highest in the Odessa version is 19 feet.
While the original may have taken 2000 years to complete, the replica was placed at UT in six weeks. The stones were moved two at a time on tractor-trailers and lifted into place on footings made of reinforced concrete. The original Stonehenge marked the summer and winter solstices. The replica is the dream of a citizens group who believe the exhibit will draw visitors and also enhance the cultural environment of the dusty Wesy Texas city. Each stone weighs more than 20,000 pounds and is composed of limestone slabs donated from the quarry of TexaStone. The exhibit can be accessed at any time off East University Boulevard in Odessa.
The original Stonehenge in England:
"Shabby chic"?
Windmill farms as far as eye can see:
Final destination for today:
Dr. Seuss!?
Not a Dr. Seuss fan at all, in fact, I was rudely turned off when I had to read his "Green Eggs and Ham" to the kids I was baby-sitting during my first complete summer in the States... "Green eggs"? I mean, what nonsense! But then something happened. My youngest loved Dr. Seuss; in fact, she has a collection of all his books, and I actually helped her acquire them. So when I heard of the Everman Park in Abilene, TX, (of all places!) and the collection of Seuss character statues there, and since this town was going to be on our path, there was no reason not to go see them! And here they are (some of them):
And finally, another Nissan adventure
Maybe you remember the incidents with our car on our travels, such as having to get a new windshield, warning light and nearly running out of fuel. Add this to the list:
We decided it was important to have a Nissan dealer look at our SUV because of the warning light and the fact that the engine sounded strange. The car ran OK, maybe burned a bit more gas, but that seemed to be all. Well, anyway, we took the car to the dealer in Abilene for their word on it. After a very short time (we were actually ready to be taken to a restaurant to have lunch while the car was being attended to), the repairman came and said something to the effect that he was surprised we had made it this far... See, the Jiffy Lube place where we had had the oil changed, did not "reconnect the air hose to throttle body." So the engine did not get filtered air. Hmm. Goodbye, Jiffy Lube.
No comments:
Post a Comment