This Adventure Called Retirement

After a morning coffee we hit the road departing Grapevine TX to continue our journey west to Santa Fe NM. We travelled across the Texas panhandle and came upon a historical site worthy of investigation. Mary found reference to the Charles and Mary Ann Goodnight Ranch House. Another interesting find.

Anyone who has read the novel, Lonesome Dove, would be familiar with the legendary rancher and cattleman, Charles Goodnight. He was one of the first ranchers in the high plains area and, with his partner, Oliver Loving, carved out the first cattle drive trail from Texas to Montana known as the Goodnight-Loving trail. In the fictional novel, Lonesome Dove, the leaders of the cattle drive, Captain Woodrow Call and Gus McRae and , are based on the real life partners Charles Goodnight and Oliver Loving. After Charles and Mary Ann established the largest range ever in Montana, they successfully operated it for decades before selling it and moving back to Texas where they established a smaller ranch and founded the town of Goodnight. This site we visited is the original Goodnight ranch house as well as a museum that highlights the significant contribution Goodnight had on settling the frontier through ranching. Mary Ann, whom Charles called Molly, took a special interest in protecting and preserving the American buffalo. There is still a remnant of the descendants of their herd on the property today.

The home had been fully restored to the 1890s and contained some unique furnishings. we were especially interested in the buffalo horn sofa and chair. There was even a windmill driven pump house, cowhand bunk house, and smokehouse in the back.

Following our visit with the Goodnights we stopped at the one location necessary for every visitor to Texas – Buc-ee’s. I have to admit, it is a sight to see. Buc-ee’s not only had the lowest price gas in the area, it’s fresh food items smelled fabulous. We made the tactical error of having eaten before we stopped there, so unfortunately we could not sample the sweet smelling delectables they were preparing. We did pick up some Buc-ee nuggets and gummies as snacks for the trip.

Our drive to Santa Fe was non-eventful and west Texas is very flat with few trees. We arrived in the small capital of New Mexico just before sunset. Tomorrow we plan to visit the miraculous stairs of the Loretto chapel in downtown Santa Fe believed to have been built by Saint Joseph or an angel sent by him.

After all the excitement of Sunday, Monday was a very relaxed day. Being our last day in Texas, we did laundry, took another walk in Parr Park, and had a delicious dinner prepared by Chef Michele. Michele prepared a pork loin with a chimichurri sauce accompanied by Irish potatoes. It was, as expected, delicious. A fitting end to a wonderful visit in Texas.

Sunday was meant to be a relaxed day and so it began. We started by enjoying breakfast with Jeff, Michele and Kim along with a nice morning conversation on family and current events. Around noon Kim needed to leave for an appointment in Dallas and the rest of us were planning an walk in the park. Unfortunately, Kim had other plans for the afternoon.

Jeff and Michele’s driveway is fraught with hazards. Their house is on a hill above the court, but rather than a straight driveway, it takes a 15 degree turn at the crest of the hill before running parallel to the house. When backing, this 15 degree jog is not visible (you just need to know it is there). Additionally, they have a 2.5 foot diameter oak tree growing on the house side of the driveway directly opposite a six foot fence. The tree trunk required a six inch cutout on the driveway, making it an extremely narrow portal into the side parking area. Although there is street parking available, the HOA does not allow overnight parking of any vehicles on the street, so all cars need to be in the driveway or garage. Finally, on the far side of the driveway is a three foot drop down to their neighbor’s driveway which is sustained by a rock wall, the top of which is ground level to Jeff’s driveway.

Kim had difficulty backing her car down the driveway when she left and only made it halfway before suspending her car over the neighbor’s rock wall with both the front and back passenger side wheels dangling 6 inches above her driveway and the frame of Kim’s car lying solidly on the rock wall. Jeff and I came to assess the situation.

Our first thought was if we could raise the suspended wheels to the level of the rock wall. it may be possible to build a bridge to drive the car back on to the driveway. Jeff also lacked a helpful and cooperative neighbor. After an hour of working to lift and stabilize the car, his neighbor came out and was quite concerned that we were somehow going to cause the car to roll over and damage her house. It was all we could do to avoid engaging in a heated argument. Instead, lacking the needed materials to achieve our goal, we called AAA to get the assistance of a tow truck. This took about two hours. During this time, the neighbor’s adult son brought out a folding chair to keep an eye on us and decided to draft up a release of liability agreement that he wanted Jeff to sign. THe agreement would have had Jeff agree to pay them no more than $100,000 for potential damages (jeff wisely did not sign it). They constantly told us that our plan was seriously flawed and we should “wait for the experts from AAA”.

When the tow truck finally arrived, we explained our plan and pointed out that he could pull his truck around Kim’s car, hook up a winch chain and tow it back on the driveway. They neighbor (once again) pulled the driver aside and said they thought our plan was flawed and would result in the car rolling into their house and damaging it. The “AAA expert” calmly explained to them that he would not let that happen but that our plan was the best option. He pulled his truck up alongside Kim’s car, but unfortunately his truck was too wide to fit between the oak tree and six foot fence (which the neighbor installed after Jeff and Michele moved in). Luckily, Jeff’s son, Kevin had left his Ford F150 monster truck at their house but it lacked a tow chain. The AAA driver agreed that using one of his chains on Kevin’s truck would do the trick, and so it did.

Final result, no damage to Kim’s car or the neighbor’s rock wall. Unfortunately, we lost our opportunity for our walk in the park. Instead we went to Sunday Mass at Good Shepard Church and then joined Jeff, Michele, Rachel and Will and their children Alexander and Madeleine at an authentic Italian pizza restaurant in grapevine named Mister 01. The owner immigrated on an 01 visa which is reserved for experts in certain fields that are underrepresented or lacking in the US. Apparently, authentic Italian pizza-making falls into that category. Having now eaten there, it is very much like the pizza you get in Italy rather than the Americanized version at most pizza restaurants. Delicious. We finished the evening with Kilwin’s chocolates and ice cream.

Our day began with a positive development. I noticed on my phone that it was syncing with my presumably lost fitbit, meaning that said fitbit must be somewhere in our room (and not lost in Knoxville as thought). A new search through our bags discovered it in the bottom of the bag holding our keurig and coffee. Mystery solved.

We began at St Joseph Catholic Church for daily Mass. St Joseph Parish in Conway is actually a large campus of buildings which includes the church, cemetery, grade school, middle school, and high school all co-located. The church is beautiful and has had continuous, 24 hour Eucharistic adoration for the past 30 years. Throughout the day everyone we met, even on the street, were exceptionally friendly and went out of their way to help us. After leaving Mass we met a parishioner, Carol Hambuchen, and asked where the parish office was located, only to learn that this week the office was closed due to Spring Break. After explaining the purpose of our visit and desire to locate David Anthony’s burial site, Carol escorted us to the cemetery and made some calls to get the name of the person who manages burial plots. She then directed us to a building across the train tracks which I presume to be the parish office but in reality was an endowment office for St Joseph’s School. She said there may be someone there, if we see a car, and they might be able help. Sure enough, there was a car so we checked it out. Here we met Jacqueline. Although she was not knowledgable about the cemetery plots, she made some calls and took my number to get back to me. She did have considerable knowledge of the history of St Joseph’s and had been a life-long parishioner. She gave us a history summary and showed us pictures from the 1950s when Conway was still very rural. Unfortunately, the man she called informed us there was no listing of David Anthony in his records. There are, however, many unmarked gravesites that had recently been confirmed to hold remains but have long since lost their markers.

We decided to check out the Faulkner County museum which advertised having mortuary records dating back to the time of David’s death. Perhaps the mortuary would have a record of the plot where David was buried.

Although the museum hours stated it should have been open, a paper note on the door stated it was only open on Tuesday and Thursday. I checked the door which was locked, but a gentleman inside opened it and let us in. He said ti was closed because they had just lost their full time curator and only volunteers (such as himself) were available. However, he told us to look around and he would wait a while. We asked about the mortuaruy records and he said that the archivist was who we wanted to see, but she was not in. Alas, no luck.

We walked through old town Conway and happened onto the Toad Suck Square. Another local asked if we were visitors and then proceeded to explain the Toad Suck festival and it’s history. Toad Suck is actually a town on the river near Conway. Turns out, a section of river that gets narrow and shallow is referred to as a suck and such an area was just down river from Conway where the ferry used to run. This area began having an annual festival which became known as the Toad Suck Festivial.. In 1990, because of flooding at the original location, the festival was moved to Conway where it has remained. It is a huge event which draws many vendors and fills the old town area for the week. If you are near Conway in early May, check it out.

We decided to see if our other Lachowsky relatives were in the Lachowsky section at St Joseph cemetery and we texted my first cousin once removed and self-made family geneologist,, Debbie Brigante (daughter of my cousin, Betty Brigante) to confirm our relatives identities. Thanks to Debbie, we found the location of my great grandparents, Edward and Catharine Lachowsky (David Anthony’s grandparents). Very near to them are several unmarked plots. One that I keep getting drawn to is a stone cross that has long ago lost the wood or metal name plate that identified the individual. Could this be David’s plot? Or perhaps he could have been buried with his maternal grandparents, Paul and Magdelena Loetscher. Again Debbie informed us that the Loetschers were buried in a public cemetery, Oak Grove cemetery. It was a half mile from St Joseph so we headed over there to see if we could find a Loetscher section. After a lengthy search, we finally discovered the very small headstones for both Paul and Magdelena side by side. They were the only Loetschers we found. Curiously, right next to them is the buried remnant of a third headstone broken off at ground level. Could this be David, or perhaps his aunt Antoinette Loetscher who died in childhood? Interestingly, Antoinette’s death certificate specifies her burial in Conway at St Joseph Cemetery but David’s death certificate only states burial in Conway without a specific cemetery identified. We’ll likely never know for sure. Debbie then informed us that, after Paul was murdered, the Loetscher family left Conway and moved to Colorado Springs. This is likely why there are no other Loetschers in Oak Grove.

We finished the day with a dinner at the O’Malley Irish Pub in Old Town COnway.

Prolog – this is the first attempt at a blog and we are going to fumble through the first few days I’m sure. That said, we will attempt to capture the essence of our travels and hopefully make it fun to read.

We left our home in Nags Head at about 9:30am, having packed our minivan with everything we could think we would need for this multi-week adventure. It was a sunny but cool morning and we had our coffee to give us a warm start.

North Carolina is a looong state. We spent most of the first day crossing from east to west. We stopped in Greensboro for a picnic lunch and chose to visit the Guilford Courthouse National Battlefield Memorial. What an interesting stop! This is the location from the Revolutionary War where the colonial force of 4500 militia including some regulars under Major General Nathaniel Greene engaged the British Army force of 2100 under General Cornwallis in 1881 along the Great Salisbury Road (now New Garden Road). Cornwallis believed if he could secure control of the Carolinas he would be able to get the Colonials to submit and end the war. Nathaniel Greene aligned his men in three successive fronts along the road with the militia in the first and second line and the regulars in the third. This tactic proved fatal for the British troops and they lost 25% of their men. However, when additional British troops arrived on the scene, Nathaniel Greene prudently withdrew, resulting in a nominal victory for the British. However this battle and the high losses caused Cornwallis to decide to move his operations north into Virginia which resulted in his becoming trapped at Yorktown and forced to surrender to Washington.

After our lunch and walk through the battlefield we returned to the road. Our trip continued west on I-40 through Ashville and the devastation from Hurricane Helene was still visible in places. I-40 was completely washed out in places by the Hurricane west of Ashville along the Pigeon River and only recently reopened in January with one lane each direction. It was an interesting drive. We crossed the Smoky Mountains into Tennessee and finished the day in Knoxville.