The following is an adapted excerpt from Unexpected Texas,my fun travel guide to quirky, offbeat and overlooked places near Dallas and Fort Worth. Check it out if you are looking for fun road trips in north Texas. Also, for a *FREE* 50-page guide to ghost hunting groups and haunted history tours in north Texas, sign up for my infrequent-but-interesting newsletter by clicking here: Located at the junction of US highways 80 and 69, Mineola is situated in Wood County which, true to its name, is a highly-forested section of the East Texas Piney Woods. Early industries included lumber, farming and…
Tag: featured post
All’s Fair in Love, War & Child’s Play A trip to Venice, Italy got me thinking about the model train set I had as a kid, and how it taught me the meaning of scale. For those who have never played with model trains, they come in two different scale sizes: N and HO. HO is the larger of the two, with a ratio of 1:87.1, while N gauge ranges from 1:148 to 1:160. Because of this difference in scale, an HO caboose seriously dwarfs an N caboose when sitting side by side. Serious model train aficionados (i.e. adults) would…
Like many older graveyards, Aurora Cemetery has a Texas State Historical Marker. While pioneers, cattlemen, farmers and soldiers often figure prominently on such signs, what makes this historical marker so unusual is that it mentions a spaceship crash in 1897, and that this cemetery is where the alien’s body is buried!
New Orleans’ Cafe du Monde: A Taste of History When you enjoy a cup of chicory-laced coffee and a plate of beignets at New Orleans’ famous Cafe du Monde (800 Decatur St, New Orleans), you’re ingesting a bit of history along with your sugar and caffeine. Coffee played a big role in New Orleans’ history, and at one point in the 1800’s there were nearly 500 coffeehouses in the French Quarter. Cafe du Monde is the sole survivor from that era, with a menu that is virtually unchanged since it first opened in 1862. Why do they put chicory in…