Hanging Out In Texas

While we were spending a little time in Paris, Texas, we did our usual poking around for interesting features. Historical sites usually attract us, so when we learned that John Chisum was buried here we went looking for the memorial to the man who forged the cattle trail from Texas to Kansas. Well we found the grave, secluded in a not-so-nice section of town. But we soon learned that this cattle baron was not the Chisholm who the old west had memorialized. His family had considerable land and herds and were often confused with the other Chisholm.

Anyway, as we were driving away from the grave we noticed the entrance to the local cemetery. Our literature talked about the huge size of the cemetery, 44,000 graves, and made note of one unique grave. So why not drive through, just since we were in the neighborhood. There's not much chance we'd find this one grave but we'll take a look. Low and behold as we drove down the lane, there was the Babcock name that we were looking for.


Mr. Babcock died in 1888. He has a 15-20 ft. monument that is slightly impressive. That's not unusual on its own. But wait,
look closely at the statue of Jesus on the top of the monument.


You'll notice that he is wearing cowboy boots.
That was a first for us!




Since we were taking a spot at the civic center in Paris, we thought it best to move on. We have moved to a nice Corps of Engineers park, Lavonia Lake, just east of Dallas. Gustav brought us clouds and strong winds today. We are rockin, but feel safe and sound. This will be our location until Sunday when it should be nicer down south and we will go back to Livingston to get new drivers licenses and registration. For the time being, the price is right here, with our Golden Age Pass it's $9.00. Also, we have a strong internet connection and a nice view of the lake. That will satisfy us for a few days.