The
two RV Gypsies
at Frontier Texas Abilene
625 B. 1st Street
Abilene, TX
September 12, 2022 |
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Below: The two
RV Gypsies inside The Frontier Texas General store that has Texas souvenirs,
books, t-shirts, jewelry, canned goods and unique items made by local
artisans. But since the two RV Gypsies live in their RV (or sometimes
in their daughter's garage), they do not have room for souvenirs other
than things that can hang on their Christmas "Travel" tree.
But they like to browse. |
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Below: The two
RV Gypsies at a Buffalo statue outside.
(below quote from http://www.frontiertexas.com/exhibits/buffalo-hide-trade):
"The discovery that buffalo hides were suitable for industrial
leather created an industry that transformed frontier Texas. Soon after
the Civil War, eastern capitalists ordered as many buffalo hides as
could be supplied. Hunters responded, first decimating the herds on
the Northern Plains, and then coming after the millions of Texas buffalo.
A government treaty protected the Texas buffalo for Indians, but hunters
ignored it. The military “looked the other way” as the loss of buffalo
would force the Indians onto reservations. Texas buffalo were killed
out in less than a decade." - so sad !!!!
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Below: The outside area alongside
of Frontier Texas Abilene. |
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Below: A zoomed-in
photo on the water tower that can barely be seen in the background of
the above photos (photo taken from a location around the corner, of
course). |
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Below: Buffalo wind vanes
- so yes, they do spin in the wind. |
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Below: Karen
Duquette beside the World's Largest Buffalo Skull, weighing two-tons,
and stretching 26-feet across. It is an iconic symbol of the old frontier
cattel trails. The skull was sculpted by Joe Barrington in June 2012
from steel salvaged from old Texas oil tanks. This spot was once a vast
buffalo bone yard. The skull is finished without rough edges so kids
can climb through its eye sockets and slide out its nose. Karen passed
up on the "sliding" part. |
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The two RV Gypsies
then took a short walk to see the famous "Singing Ringing Tree".
They did not choose to try to cross a lot of heavy car traffic to get
closer to it, because there was no crosswalk, or any place they could
see across the street to drive to and park. So they photographed it
from across the street.
It is constructed of varying thickness of metal pipe. The 54,000 pound
sculpture uses wind energy which passes through the precision-fabricated
pipes with special holes in specific pipes to create musical notes.
Unfortunately, there was NO WIND on the date that the two RV Gypsies
were here, therefore they did not get to hear the amazing sounds. Very
disappointing.
The wind-powered sculpture won the National Award of the Royal Institute
of British Architects for architectural excellence in 2007. This project
took four months and was built in Cypress, TX. This Singing Ringing
Tree was also featured in the October 2020 issue of The Welder Magazine.
The original “Singing Ringing Tree” is located in Lancashire, England.
So take the opportunity to learn more information on this amazing
piece of art, go to https://jkwelding.net/the-making-of-the-singing-ringing-tree/
- But be sure to return here, to continue on with the Two RV Gypsies'
travels in Texas and more. |
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