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Volume 1 - Number 7
howard.jpg (11711 bytes)Conan the Barbarian
by Cork Morris
On a journey to Cimmeria, described by Homer as a region of perpetual mist and darkness, the author seeks the birthplace of his childhood literary hero, Robert E. Howard, author of Conan the Barbarian. Naturally, being a legend and all, Howard was a native Texan who lived his entire but brief life in Cross Plains on the northern edge of the Hill Country.

History's Longest Train Ride
by C.F. Eckhardt
What’s the longest train ride in the world? There are a lot of answers, of course—the Red Express on the trans-Siberian railway that goes from what used to be Leningrad and is now, mercifully, once more Petrograd (St. Petersburg) near the Baltic to Port Arthur on the Pacific, is probably the best one.
bigfoot2.jpg (17717 bytes)Bigfoot Wallace
by Steve Goodson
As I watched Mel Gibson’s production of Braveheart, I remembered the Texas connection to that story of Scotland’s struggle for freedom.  If any of you have ever been to Mount Bonnell outside Austin, you’ll recall an historical marker that relates how an early frontiersman, Bigfoot Wallace, spent several weeks in a cave on the mountain, recuperating from an illness he contracted in what was the early frontier settlement of Austin.  This pioneer whose given name was William Wallace was a descendant of a Scottish Clansman, William Wallace.
FoggyMornSM.jpg (5881 bytes)along281SM.jpg (8477 bytes)Wallpaper by Ira Kennedy
Here are two new Wallpaper photos taken along Hwy 281 between Blanco and Johnson City on the same morning.  I found these photos and hundreds of others after cleaning out a storage shed I steered clear of for over a decade. Click on the images to download.