A quick peek behind the Pine Curtain, then beyond

Apparently the Virginia state slogan works because less than two years after Tex got here he was engaged.

I wish I could take credit for the term “Pine Curtain” but it was Texas Monthly that coined this great phrase that indistinctly distinguishes the heavily-forested eastern portions of Texas from the remainder of the state. I’m not sure exactly where the line for the Pine Curtain should be drawn, but I do know we were deep behind it as we explored a good-sized chunk of East Texas after leaving Houston two weeks ago.

This is the part of the state most closely tied to the South, to the Confederacy and the stains of our Peculiar Institution (an 18^th-19^th century term for slavery). The region’s influence within the state has been declining for decades, seemingly frozen in time while much of the rest of the state has grown and changed dynamically.

Deepest East Texas along the Louisiana border is the part of the state we’ve visited the least, having barely more than driven through a time or two just to say we’d been there. That’s partly because it’s not on the way to anywhere we want to go (i.e. Louisiana); but it also might be because that invisible Pine Curtain can sometimes seem a little forbidding.

Departing Houston/Pearland on May 6 we set out to partially remedy our East Texas deficiencies by spending two days in San Augustine, Texas and making a 250-mile loop to visit three state historic sites; Mission Dolores in San Augustine, Caddo Mounds in Alto, and the Starr House in Marshall.

On our bicycle tour of San Augustine Betsy was super excited to discover the first First Presbyterian Church in Texas!

San Augustine may have the most churches, per capita, of any city in the U.S.

Around 900 A.D. the Caddo people established a village on the Neches River near present-day Alto where, over the next 1,000 years or so, they built several large, earthen mounds for religious ceremonies and burials. Portions of three of those mounds remain and are preserved in Caddo Mounds State Historic Site.

One of the many fabulous court houses in Texas designed by the prolific James Reily Gordon.

This non-descript Federal Court House across the street from the Harrison County Court House in downtown Marshall handles 40 percent of all the patent lawsuits filed in the U.S. each year, apparently due to East Texas' plaintiff-friendly reputation. The California tech companies, in particular, have objected to this "forum shopping" which has resulted in a single federal judge, T. John Ward, handling more patent cases each year than all of the federal judges in California, New York and Florida combined.

Physician-turned-land-agent Dr. James Harper Starr and his son Frank played a prominent role in the development of Texas in the 19th century and became quite wealthy in the process. Frank's well-preserved mansion, known as Maplecroft, is now a state historic site.

We also found time to stop at a top-rated Texas Monthly barbecue joint in Jasper and a TM top-40 small town cafe in Cushing for, of course, chicken-fried steak.

From San Augustine we followed the Camino Real across the Sabine River to Louisiana, setting eyes for the first time on Toledo Bend Reservoir, which many people consider to be one of Texas’s best recreational lakes. We followed the Camino to its historic terminus in Natchitoches, LA and then made our way to Poverty Point State Park, a beautiful and expansive facility near I-20 about 50 miles west of Vicksburg, MS. Signs warned us to be wary of alligators and bears.

The next day was spent driving 300 miles to another nice, heavily-forested state park in Alabama (30 miles or so SW of Birmingham) where the Tannehill Iron Works that made much of the munitions used by the Confederacy during the Civil War has been well-preserved.

Whatever life that may have remained in the rebellion was effectively snuffed out when the 8th Iowa Cavalry raided and closed down these munitions-making iron works on March 31, 1865.

When we are hauling the travel trailer we’ve found that 300 miles is a pretty good distance to cover without too much stress. So we knocked off another 300 miles the next day to encamp at an RV park close to I-40 just east of Knoxville.

The next day we met Rachel’s parents, Mark and Mary, at the condominium the “kids” have rented from our college classmate Alison who lives in another unit in the same complex, a 1920s-era elementary school that has been converted into condos.

Betsy had met Mark/Mary on a trip east earlier this year but it was my first time to talk to them in person and we had a fun day getting to know one another and the place where Tex and Rachel will soon be living.

The parents meet the parents.

Alison and Betsy recall their glory days on the Trinity University softball team.

Speaking of glory days, every school has a gym right?

Then it was on to Charlottesville on Friday, a rainy 350-mile pull up the western shoulder of the Blue Ridge Mountains; a route that I would soon get to know more intimately than anticipated.

We will be here nearly two weeks in an RV “Resort” near Crozet, VA, in the foothills of the Blue Ridge about 15 miles west of Charlottesville.

Rachel was in Washington DC for the weekend for her bachelorette (Rachelorette?) party so we fed Tex a few times and he came out to the trailer to watch the Spurs heart-crushing, game-one collapse against Golden State on Mother’s Day (fortunately the Astros won, again, to salvage the day for Betsy).

Tex pulled out all the stops to please his mother on Mothers Day by wearing an Astros jersey.

On Monday we picked up the largest pull-behind-your-own-vehicle trailer that U-Haul rents and started loading Tex and Rachel’s possessions. It didn’t take too long to realize that we were not going to get everything from their apartment into that trailer. After a brief flirtation with the idea of renting a separate U-Haul truck we settled on the idea of making two trips to Knoxville with the trailer we had.

UVA Law Grad & Dad!

So Tex and I set out for the six-hour drive to Knoxville in the afternoon and arrived in time to get everything unloaded and up two flights of stairs by 10 p.m.; with the help of Brent, a neighbor who just happened to be walking by when we arrived and spent the next two hours or so helping us schlep heavy boxes and furniture up the stairs.

I want to give a Texas-sized shout out to Brent! You did us a solid brother.

Speaking of solids, Alison and her wife Martha stopped by just after Tex and I had finished downing some KFC and beers to drop off mugs of coffee for us to microwave the next morning. Thanks ladies!

Meanwhile, back in C-ville, Betsy stood in (as best she could) for Tex and picked Rachel up at the train station.

The next day Tex and I hit the road about 7 a.m., drove to C-ville with the empty trailer, loaded it up for the second time and Betsy and I set off for Knoxville in the truck/trailer following behind Rachel and Tex in their fully-loaded Honda van.

It was after 9 p.m. when we finally arrived back in Knoxville and I was whipped. However, Alison and Martha had filet mignon ready to grill and baked potatoes in the oven. So I rallied to stay awake long enough to quaff some beers, eat the steak and splatter myself with wine after wrestling with a cantankerous cork in an episode that I’m thankful was not caught on tape.

The next day we got the trailer (and the van) unloaded (again) without (unfortunately) Brent’s help but with plenty of enthusiastic encouragement from Rachel and Betsy. Soon enough the truck was permanently disengaged from that pesky U-Haul trailer that had been stalking me up and down I-81 for two days.

With everything moved into the condo our work was done (at least as far as Betsy and I were concerned) and we were able to drop the trailer off and still catch the tail end of the Class AA Tennessee Smokies game against the Montgomery Biscuits (the Biscuits won 3-2).

Alison and Martha had decamped to one of their three other residences and turned the condo over to us so we did some ready-to-eat shopping at one of Knoxville’s more upscale (meaning that a majority of the customers appeared to still have a majority of their teeth) grocery stores and hosted the kids for supper and then breakfast the next day.

Here is a HUGE shout out to Alison and Martha for their incredible hospitality.

With President Tru...er...Johnson's fate hanging in the balance Betsy contemplates her impeachment vote.

But I had no hesitation.

On the (thankfully) trailer-less and (thankfully) final trip north on I-81 we detoured slightly to Greeneville, TN to visit the Andrew Johnson National Historic Site. The visitor center, restored homes and cemetery – all maintained and operated by the National Park Service – are an impressive remembrance for a man widely considered to be one of our worst presidents.

This serendipitous detour from I-81 may, perhaps, seem prophetic in retrospect because Johnson is probably best known for being the first president to be impeached, surviving conviction in the senate by a single vote and our visit came less than 24 hours after the announcement that UVA Law graduate (class of 1973) Robert Mueller had been appointed as special counsel to investigate the ties between Donald Trump and the Russians. Time will tell the extent of the coincidence.

Yesterday Betsy and I enjoyed walking around Mr. Jefferson’s University and we are looking forward to graduation ceremonies tomorrow.

By most accounts the author of the Declaration of Independence, envoy to France, governor of Virginia, first secretary of state, second vice-president and third president considered his greatest achievement to be the founding of the University of Virginia. In conceiving the university Jefferson said he wanted the school to; "...be a temptation to the youth of other states to come, and drink of the cup of knowledge & fraternize with us."