Art, Sue, Steve, Leanne, Sharon, and I left this morning at about 0830 for the Welder Wildlife Foundation. Established in 1954, The Welder Wildlife Foundation was founded to conduct research and education in the field of wildlife management and conservation. The Foundation is located on 7800 acres just outside of Sinton, Texas. When we arrived at the Foundation, Dr. Lynn Drawe, retired past director of the Foundation, met us at the entrance gate and led us to the headquarters building. Dr. Drawe took us into a large reception area where we he gave us a very good presentation of the Foundation's founders and history of the Foundation. One of the best, I believe, is the programs that allow graduate students to earn their masters and doctorate degrees in many of the wildlife management fields. We were then given a very good tour of the facilities, starting out with the museum, bird and egg collection, and then a driven tour of the reserve.
The pictures below will give you a good idea what we saw.
Front of the Welder Wildlife Foundation Headquarters
Inside the reception area of the headquarters. Dr. Drawe is to the left.
Dr. Drawe telling us about the Foundation.
Inside the museum
Some of the many birds in the Foundations collection. The birds have been donated from many sources. One of the birds in this picture dates back to 1890 from a donor's collection.
To the left in this picture is a display of bird eggs. To the right, behind Sharon and Steve, are cabinets that contain over 10,000 different bird species eggs.
This is a very rare Chinese Pink Headed Duck. We were told that only three exist. Actually, the taxidermist that stuffed the other birds created this duck from four other ducks, the pink head are Flamingo feathers. Looks like the real thing doesn't it.
Along the Aransas River that runs through the reserve.
If you look closely in the middle, along the dark area, you will see the head of an alligator sticking out of a culvert pipe. Dr. Drawe told us that it had probably been hibernating there.
In the middle of this picture, along the river bank, is another alligator.
Besides seeing the alligators, we saw many white tailed deer and wild turkeys.
After the great tour at the Welder Wildlife Foundation, Art, Sue, Steve, and Leanne departed for Sinton, Texas for lunch. Sharon and I split off and headed for Cuero, Texas. Last Sunday I was watching the public television station, the program was called Bronco Roads. The show visit different towns in the state of Texas and reports on places of interest. This show highlighted the Cuero Pecan House, and Ruby's Diner, just good cookin.
We went to Ruby's first for lunch. We arrived there at about 1400, and the place was pretty empty. The show had emphasized Ruby's famous Chicken Fried Steak. So, that's what I had. Sharon had the Chicken Fried Chicken. I can tell you that it was worth the hour and a half drive to get there. It was very good. Getting there after the normal lunch hour was good too, the food was cooked fresh. The waitress apologized for taking so long because the cook had to mix up fresh batter. It was worth the wait. After lunch we went up the street one block to the Pecan House. I bought two pounds of cracked pecans, and Sharon got a chocolate pecan praline. I had told the group that if they had pecan pies that I would bring them one back. The Pecan House had the mini pies, so I was able to get them a pecan pie.
Picture of the front of Ruby's. The American Legion also meets there.
After Sharon and I left Cuero, we headed back to Taft. On the way we went through Goliad, Texas. Goliad was a very important site in the Texas fight for independence from Mexico. In 1836, General Fannin, and 400 soldiers and civilians were captured by an overwhelming Mexican army. Taken as prisoners of war, the men were taken to Goliad to be imprisoned at Presidio La Bahia. On the orders of the Mexican commanding general at the Presidio, General Fannin and the other prisoners were taken out and executed. 361 men were killed, other escaped by swimming away in the San Antonio River, some were saved by a local woman that hid them. There were three doctors among the prisoners that were spared because of their profession. As you know from Texas history, this mass killing of prisoners, and the defeat at the Alamo, became the battle cry for all Texans from that point forward, and the defeat of Santa Anna.
We also drove through the historic town of Goliad. Some very interesting old buildings and court house were observed on the town square.
After driving through the town we went to the Goliad State Park where we were able to tour an old Spanish mission, Mission Espiritu Santo. The mission had gone to ruins, but in 1936, the Civilian Conservation Corp, CCC, with the guidance of a history architect, restored the mission to it's original state.
The court house on the town square in Goliad, Texas
Mission Espiritu Santo at Goliad State Park
Inside the Mission chapel. A young bride to be was coming in as we were leaving to have pictures made in the chapel. The wedding is scheduled for this weekend in the chapel.
The gray stones at the base of the white part of the mission building are original stones of the mission ruins. The white part is the restored sections completed sometime around 1936. The mission dates back to the early 1700's.
We had a nice relaxing drive from Goliad back to Taft with just one more stop. We stopped in Refugio to get Sharon a Choco Strawberry Blizzard at Dairy Queen. She did share a few bites with me.
Tomorrow looks to be another good day of enjoying some of the local sites.
Til later,
Remember, God Loves You
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