Texas Highways Magazine December 2014

GOT SOMETHING TO SAY? CHUCK LEE, banjo maker pictured on the cover of the November issue Playing for Keeps In October 1976 while on the way home to Wichita Falls, we stopped in Nocona at the Nokona baseball glove factory [November]. While there, we purchased a baseball glove for Paul, our 10-year-old son. Over the years, he used the glove for Little League, Pony League, and Babe Ruth leagues. He used the glove during high school, college intramural, church, and independent league softball play. During these times, the lacing was changed several times as well as the padding, but overall, a large percentage of the glove is original. Paul still uses the glove when playing toss with his children, nieces, and nephews as he always carries it in the trunk of his car.…

For more information about the San Antonio River Walk and the holiday event schedule, visit www.thesanantonioriverwalk.com. The San Antonio River Walk becomes even more magical during the holiday season with thousands of lights draping the trees. One spectacular and popular scene can be found from the Market Street bridge looking down over the colorful umbrellas outside Casa Rio Mexican Food. A staircase leads to the River Walk so that travelers can explore by foot or take a boat tour of the river with Rio San Antonio Cruises. To order a print of this photograph, call 866/962-1191, or visit www.texashighwaysprints.com.…

THE SHOPPING SPIRIT Round Top kicks off the season December 6 with Christmas on the Square. ROUND TOP is in Fayette County, 16 miles northeast of La Grange. For lodging and events information, call the Round Top Area Chamber of Commerce at 888/368-4783; www.roundtop.org. MY FAMILY OF 12 WAS ONCE referred to as “a small country.” Growing up in a four-bedroom house in Houston with six sisters, four brothers, and two parents fostered close ties among my siblings. Our adult lives took us on different paths and to different places, so in the 1980s, I proposed our first “Sisters’ Getaway,” a weekend escape for us to get together in a small Texas town. Thirty years later, the tradition continues, usually scheduled during the first weekend in December when the towns of Texas come alive…

THEY HEADED NORTH FROM CARDwell Flats on April 1, 1866. Crockett Cardwell, who operated a trading post and stagecoach stop near present-day Cuero, had gathered some 1,800 rangy Texas Longhorns for trail boss Thornton Chisholm and a handful of cowboys to drive to a railhead at St. Joseph, Missouri, a journey that would take them seven months. Over the following decades, their general route would come to be known by one of the most storied names in the West—the Chisholm Trail. Like many Old West legends, the Chisholm Trail, with its many branches and stories of origin, is a tangle of tales and trails. Disagreement has long simmered, for instance, over whether it was named for Thornton Chisholm or for Indian Territory trailblazer Jesse Chisholm, or possibly even for Texas/New Mexico…

PEAK PERFORMERS Enchanted Rock State Natural Area’s nine miles of trails offer major challenges and spellbinding views. WE’VE BEEN RUNNING for about 15 minutes— skipping over small boulders and sidestepping cacti that spike up from a trail winding the perimeter of Enchanted Rock State Natural Area. Tiny rocks slide and crunch underneath my feet as I try to stay balanced. I know that bits of gravel are flying back and pelting my boyfriend, who’s a couple of paces behind, but there’s nothing I can do about it. I focus my eyes down and in front of me, on the wiry legs of Ranger Scott Whitener, who glides across uneven terrain with the muscle memory of a veteran trail runner. While most of the other park visitors are hiking the Summit Trail—a .6-mile incline…

THE CHRISTMAS STORE is at 155 E. Main St. in Fredericksburg. Call 800/944-1882; www.fredericksburgchristmasstore.com. THIS DECEMBER, WHEN I STRING MY LIGHTS AND trim my tree and light my menorah, I have four new friends to help me ring in the holiday cheer. Four miniature ceramic figurines, to be exact. Dressed in wintry clothes and perched on patches of white faux snow, my people are all busily headed somewhere. One lady, clutching a bag of wrapped gifts with another under her arm, is “walking” so swiftly her scarf flies behind her. One of my men is pulled along by his dog, which wears a red flannel sweater to match his master’s. I impulsively purchased my figurines, which are meant to be part of a sprawling Christmas-village display, last spring at Fredericksburg’s Christmas…