Moving on.... to Denton, TX

So, we said goodnight and goodbye to Connie (and Alice!), packed up all our stuff, pulled the sides in, and moved on.  We didn't go far - just down the road to Denton, TX, to a buffalo ranch!  Oh yes!  Don't ask me how we found it, it was just a happy accident.  This little old lady named Jackie owns it, and she has several hundred acres and about 23 bison (6 of whom are this year's babies!) and a flock of Canada geese call this their prairie home.  There's a slightly run down hotel and event center, along with a couple of little round houses and a waterfall and pond feature, but apparently, she's given that to her late husband's son, and he is more than content letting all that become his tax-writeoff/shelter.  He had a couple other event venues and a great big concrete company in Colorado, so he's doing well enough and just doesn't really care what happens here at the ranch.  It's kind of heartbreaking, but Jackie says she has let it go and turned it over to the Good Lord; it's the only way she can cope with it.  So sad.  It could really be a money maker, but it will take some long, hard days and some manual labor to turn it around and realize its potential.  This is what greeted us as we entered the gate.

The dusty road to the 11 site campground was long and bumpy, but our excitement built as we neared the compound.

And then there were the bison!

And the geese!

Before we left the other park, we had asked Jackie if we could get mail up at her place, and she said, sure, to we ordered a new fender and light assembly for our tow dolly.  We still haven't heard back from the construction company about reimbursement, but the stick-on lights are not gonna cut it for long!  The fender arrived the day after we did!  It took Dick longer to open up the box than it took him to install the whole thing!

Meanwhile, back on the farm.....the buffalo were getting closer and closer!  To our camper!

Dick thought it would be cool to get a close-up!

Didn't take us long to see that there was absolutely nothing else to do on the ranch, except maybe WORK, so we headed into town.  The nearest town is Denton, about 7 miles away.  Denton is home to Texas Woman's University, originally founded in 1901.  They've been allowing boys in since 1972, but I cannot imagine too many men that would want to say they graduated from Texas Woman's University.  I dunno.  We were there on a Friday and Saturday, but it is summer, and we really didn't see many students.  All those we saw though, were women.  

The courthouse, though, was amazingly beautiful.  They've turned the whole thing into a museum, and it's totally open to the public, and FREE.  The woodwork and craftsmanship is simply stunning.  I'll take you on inside...

The actual courtroom...

The balcony, where the women sat.  You see, women were way too frail to sit amongst the accused.

The view from the speaker's podium.  This room is still in use today, but as a County Commissioner's meeting space.

Every ceiling was made of these tin tiles.  Looked like a quilt in the making, to me.

The "wallpaper" appears to be leather.  The docent was unsure.

They even had some quilts on display, and this one was my favorite.  It was hung in a stairwell, and I was afraid to get closer to the railing, so, sorry for the blur.  

There was an old-time buckboard on display as well.

Of course, there was an old-time ice cream parlor on the Square, and we stopped to get the obligatory shot.  We went inside to peek around, but we didn't buy anything here.  Beth Marie's was established in 1998, and it was highly recommended to us more than a few times.  😋

Even the outside architecture was beautiful!

They really took pride in their craft back in the day!

The local musicians come together every Saturday morning for a jam session on the courthouse steps.  Here's a short video clip:

If you are reading this in an email, click HERE for the You Tube version.

After touring the courthouse, it was suggested we go visit the Bayless-Selby home several blocks away.  We didn't want to lose our parking space, so we hoofed it.  Yup, it was longer and hotter than we had thought it would be, but, we managed.  Not too bad for a couple of oldies! The gingerbread was just adorable, and inside was all period and original pieces from the family.  

OK, so the sign says, Samuel died, right?  Well, he didn't just "die."  What happened was, he had an old sharecropper helping him do his cotton.  The sharecropper did ALL the work of raising the cotton, and when it was time to sell the harvest, the sharecropper was instructed to bring a bale to Mr. Bayless (Samuel) for inspection.  Samuel was to determine the acceptable price, and the sharecropper was to tote the harvest on down to the auction house, and return with the monies received.  All that, and he would get 40 % of the profits.  Well, this one time, he decided he would skip the inspection part and took the harvest down to the auction house without getting the minimum price established by Samuel.  Of course, Samuel found out, and when the sharecropper brought him the monies, well, Samuel sort of lost his temper and slapped the sharecropper upside the head with a 2 by 4 and knocked him to the ground.  Well, now the sharecropper was mad, so he jumped back up, pulled out his knife and stabbed old Samuel a few times, right in the belly and heart.  Samuel made it up the steps and back into his house, but there he bled to death, in front of his wife, Mary.  She didn't want to stay in the house where her husband was killed, so that's when she sold it to the Selbys.  As it turns out, the Selbys bought her house and she bought theirs, so basically, they just swapped homes and moved their furniture to the other house and carried on, as if that were perfectly normal.

The rest of the story about Quakertown was really interesting.  Not exactly the town's finest hours, but very interesting, nonetheless.  You can read more about it HERE...The happy ending came when a group of middle school students learned what happened and petitioned the townspeople to rename the park Quakertown, in honor of the residents that had been so rudely displaced.

There were actually TWO old movie theaters in town, and this one was still in use and still had all its marquee signs.  The planters were thriving and graced every single street corner around the square.

So that was our tour of Denton.  Saturday morning we went to the Community Market and tried to stock up on veggies for the coming week.  Ummmm....nooooo.  We were only able to purchase a quart basket of tomatoes.  They were pricey, but, boy, were they good!!  We found a Kroger on the way back to the camper and were able to get our veggies, as well as a few pounds of cherries.  Oh.My.Gosh, they were good!  They're also long gone.  😊