The Cullen Baker Country Fair

Saturday morning,  Bloomberg, Cass County, Texas. 

We hurried off to the Cullen Baker Country Fair with cousin Betty.  Jean stayed at home that morning. Betty told us Cullen Baker was ‘some sort of outlaw’, and yes, the fair was named after him.  More on Cullen himself later.  We made it just in time!  The parade had already started!  

Majorettes and cheerleaders.....

John Deere tractors and dear old John......

Cars, cars, cars.......

Horses, covered wagons, more horses........

And the results of good nutrition for horses.   Careful there, Betty!

Food, most of it quite naughty, much fried, high fat, and really delicious!

Yes, the fried pie was out of this world!

Cowgirls and cowboys start young in Texas, spurs and all!

Don't miss the spurs!

Art works and crafts, though perhaps not quite our California style, still quite inventive.  The bird feeders are made from old dinner plates and crystal bowls, mason jars, and chicken feeders,  drilled with, yes, folks, a dremmel drill.  the very kind Leslie wouldn’t let me bring along.  I’m just sayin’.......

Hook 'em Horns!

So, it seems Cullen Baker was quite a badly behaved man. A true desperado. 

He had a hot raging temper, drank heavily most of his life, maimed and shot lots of people, often in the back, a merciless, ruthless killer. After deserting the Confederate Army,  he became a member of  the Independent Rangers, after the Civil War. You can read about them for yourself. A racist, violent, sadistic group.  It’s not a pretty story.

And, it seems, in 1869, whether first his wife’s father poisoned him with strychnine in his whiskey; and then he and another bad guy Dummy Kirby were shot up, or the man his wife may have been having an affair with shot him; the end result was that he (and Dummy Kirby) were shot numerous times and killed, in this town of Bloomberg, Texas. Their bodies were dragged through town, then taken and put on display at the US Army outpost near Jefferson. 

And the town of Bloomberg, TX commemorates this event with the annual Cullen Baker Country Fair, and proceeds benefit the Volunteer Fire Department. It’s a yearly event  everyone looks forward to!

I wonder how many people eating fried pie and barbeque turkey legs now actually  know the whole story?

There you go. Come on now, it’s Texas. What did you city folk expect? Some hippy dippy bedtime story with a happy ending? 

Having teased about it, I have to say, I love the people in Texas.  We spent ten days in Texas (more stories to come) and we enjoyed every day there. It is quite a contradiction, I realize.

I won’t get into politics, or religion, or ‘abstinence only’ human growth education.  

I just love the people of Texas!  I can’t wait to go back............

It’s my story, and I’m stickin’ to it......

After the fair, we returned to  Betty and Jean's, said our farewells and thank yous, 

and  headed south.

We miss you, Betty and Jean!  Thanks again!

Nightfall found us in Martin Dies Jr. State Park, full of bayous, sloughs, fishing spots (not that we brought fishing gear), the worry over alligators, and water snakes

This is the first night we used Leslie's phone to become its own WiFi hotspot, and we were able to blog from our campsite on the slough (instead of finding a library).  Gone to the dark side of electronics!

Our morning's excitement was thinking we had actually spotted an alligator!  Sigh, it turned out to be a really large (really!) red-ear slider turtle.  Look at the size of the shadow of its body!

Written tonight in Casa Grande, Arizona.  This is our last night before re-entering California.

Wow, what a trip.  Wouldn't have missed it!  One week more before home to San Jose.

Thank  you, Leslie!  

RJ