Category Archive:Moose Nuggets

Part of the fun of traveling is getting the “local feel” of a place. Denton offered that to me in spades via my travel guide, Shelly who is an awesome guide and has a wealth of knowledge about her town.

It all starts with coffee, right? And a tour around the square, which is quite active, no matteer the time of day.




Ms. Shelly leads a ghost tour around the square – that is, she tells stories of those who may be walking still among us. It’s a 90 minute, very fun an informative tour – do take it if you are ever in the area. Can’t be Dentoning without doing it.

Interestingly, the moose became a part of that ghost tour . . . it all started with a visit to Recycle




So, you want to hear the story, eh? Well it all started as we wandered through the store looking at books here an books there, stopping to admire leather bound tomes, exclaiming over books older than we. I stopped in front of a set of educational children’s books, then turned and stepped about two feet away to look at children’s books that I remember – and some I do not . . . suddenly a book from the shelf I had been standing in front of moments before LAUNCHED itself from the shelf an hit my right calf. Now, when something FALLs, it falls straight down . . . this came across the way and hit me. “Shelly . . .” We both laughed nervously, then placed the book back on the shelf.

Sigh – yes, you read that right. We placed it back on the shelf. We did NOT buy it! Argh!!!! And, when we had thought about that and decided to go back to buy that book . . . it was no longer there – the shelf was bare where it had sat.
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Ah, well . . . a book came into play later that night . . .

We decided to attend the first Twilight Tunes event, which, because of the cold temps (!!!!) had been moved indoors to Sweetwater.




Yes, 45 degrees is perfect for an Alaskan, but Texans seem a bit put off by it. Thus the music was moved indoors. Before I tell you the story of this book, take a closer look at the bass guitarist . . . looks sorta like (what I would call) a “skater dude”, doesn’t he? Sorta out of place in a “chicha” or “salsa” band? Yes, I thought so, too . . . but he was GOOD! Los Patos Poderosos was rockin’ the house. We did a lot of “chair dancing” but others, as you can see, were not so “shy” and got up to dance.

The book story . . . thought you’ never ask. See the little old lady sitting there? We asked her to join our table and when she moved over she brought a newspaper, a book and a scarf. She placed them in her chair and sat on them while watching the band. After an hour or so the band took a break. She stood up grabbed the stuff from her chair, put them on top of the table and began wrapping the book furiously in the newspaper, tying it up tightly with her scarf. She patted the result, turned, and walked into the bar.

A young man seated nearby jumped up and came to talk to us. Seems the book in the bundle was his! He proceeded to extract the book, leaving the newspaper an scarf intact. We couln’t help it . . . we started laughing sooooo hard and had to leave before she came back. Not sure what happened next.

But, on telling this story to my boss . . . her only comment was . . . that book is following you! Nawww, I said. Are you sure? she asked. Ummmmmm, nope. GULP!

There is at least one more installment of “Dentoning” I want to share with you. It will have to wait . . . and so will you. Be back soon.

Another picture-full post. I won’t get them all here, but wante you all (oh, no! My first full day home and I’ve lost my “y’all”!) to enjoy some of the visit with me. Click for larger views.




The hotel in Austin was so nice. Not sure how, but I was given a room on the courtyard – on the second floor. There were patio tables right outside my room and I enjoyed sitting there at night getting some breeze. One night a storm threatened and I got that last shot.

Staying with the hotel theme for a minute: one of the things I was keenly needing was color and flowers. Both hotels (Austin and Mansfield) gave me plenty of both. Yes, there are pictures.




FOOD! Oh, my . . . so much food. I didn’t get a shot of each place, but here are a few I visited:



Hoochies in Denton . . . deep fried prawns – deep fried catfish – and, of course, hush puppies!

Meanwhile in Mansfield, one of the places we ate was Cha Cha’s – great Mexican food. Yum!




The colorful tooled leather mirror was impressive. Loved the blue tiles on the building as well.

In Fort Worth we ate at Joe T Garcia’s. Mexican delight – great old building and surrounding gardens.




Can you see how my color starved and winter weary eyes were just digging this?

While in Fort Worth we were totally tourists. That means The Stockyards! Ms. Shelly was a great tour guide – taking time out of her busy day to lead me on a great day trip.




Along the street the above stars are inset into the sidewalk much like Hollywood for cowboys. These were a few that caught my eye. The Cowboys Working for Cowboys is inside the colliseum.

Not to be missed at the Stockyards is the daily “cattle drive” complete with a whistling cowboy.




Hokey? Not at all. That was serious business – especially when one ornery steer decided to meander a bit. A very serious cowboy nudged him back into the center of the street with his horse. Well done – those are some serious horns!

Just a few more for this post. I may put up some more pics later – but will save it for another post.




A few fun pics from the Stockyards: Gene Autry, the Singing Cowboy, a booted steer, and the King with Shelly.



We followed the brick road to Leddy’s Boots. Oh, my! You will need a healthy bank account to shop there, but check out the tooled leather doorway.

That’s it for tonight. Hope you enjoyed.

This will be a photo entry . . . of the ones I got to meet and love while in Texas.



Cousin David played the part of chauffeur, even meeting me at the hotel with sign and cap.



Aunt Barbie, my Mom’s youngest sister.

Uncle George

Together at their fave restaurant, Olive Garden
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I was also blessed to meet some online friends for the first time. (Click these for larger view)


(left to right) Fran Hart Corina Shelly and Eric


My friend, Lisa and her husband, Mark and little one, Ava


It was a great trip, but I am tired, tired, tired. Maybe more pics tomorrow. For now, this Moosie is out of it.

I have made my weary way back to Alaska – started out Saturday mid-day and arrived Kenai Sunday morning early – about 24 hours travel and lay-over time. To continue our story – where did I leave off with the first part?

Ahhh, yes . . . we were headed to Ft. Worth and the cattle drive. Now, you have to understand, Ms. Shelly is a patient tour guide. She has seen all this before, but wanted me to get the full Texas experience. So we chatted and laughed and drove up to Ft. Worth and looked through the Colliseum at the Fort Worth Stockyards Saw tons of Hall of Fame pictures of rodeo giants an rodeo clown giants. Took a peek into the arena itself and listened to bits and pieces from a guide with a group of school kids.

Then we wandered through some shops (grin) and meandered off to the street for the drive. 16 head of steers and a group of yummy cowboys made their way past in a slow procession. One got a little antsy and wandered toward the crowd, but was mustered back into the herd. Yippie-ky-yay!

After all that, of course we had to EAT! So we were off to Joe T. Garcia’s aka Joe T’s, for lunch. Whoa! What a great place – and way too much food. We ordered a combo fajita plate (just 1) and both ate from it . . . then took leftovers home where the mister and we ate from it again . . . and then he had the rest of it for lunch the next day. I highly recommend.

We drove past someone who might be a relative (haha) at Mulholland Custom Imprints (my maiden name) on our way downtown Ft. Worth where we gandered at some of the old buildings (soooo much history!) on our way to the Central Square Ft. Worth Water Gardens. Just lovely!

Thursday night was a special one for Denton Main Street Association as they held the first of several Twilight Tunes events at Sweetwater. Shelly and I decided to go to see if we liked the music of Los Patos Poderosos and discovered we LOVE Chicha. Entirely too much fun.

Friday dawned windy and cold and I took the heat for bringing Alaska weather to Denton. It was to be a special day – Good Morning Texas was coming to town to do a live remote on the Square. Of course, the Moose an Shelly had to go “Dentoning” so we stayed up late the night before getting high . . . erm . . . making signs with markers. Of course we had to stop by Jupiter House Coffee for our morning warm-up go juice. Yum!

After that it was hurry up and wait as the appointed time of 8:30 came and went. We braved it nonetheless and as the day warmed I even shucked my jacket down to short sleeves – to the consternation of several teeth-chattering locals. Heh. Alaskan in the mix. The festivities did finally start and you can even see me (sans jacket) at about 30 seconds in an 40-45 seconds in. After that the host stood directly in front of me and I was the “invisible moose”. lol It was great fun.

We then drove to Rose Costumes . . . and, let me tell you . . . you NEED to go see Rose Costumes! So many things – so little time – we had a ball . . . AND I found somethings for daughter, Lessa’s, wedding next year. Yes, yes I AM that kinda mom.

A siesta was in order afterwards because I had a big evening ahead of me.

It was time to meet internet friend, Lisa and her hubby and baby. Lisa and I have been internet buddies for such a long time that we can’t remember NOT being friends. She doesn’t post much at her blog anymore, but we see each other still on fb. We had a lovely visit – much too short because they were headed further south and east and on a deadline. Like Fran, Corina and Shelly, we really MUST do this again . . . next time y’all come to ‘laska.

To top off a very full day, it was time to take the Ghosts of Denton tour with master storyteller, Shelly! In honor of my being there . . . and First Friday . . . AND Paranormal Day, Shelly offered a BOGOHO – go ahead sound it out. LOL – Buy One Get One Half Off sale. We were joined by about 10 other folks for the trip around the Square and yonder to hear tales of ghosts seen, ghosts felt, ghosts experienced. An extra story was added about an experience Shelly and I had the day before at Recycled, a book store on the Square, located in the Opera House building.

Saturday arrived much too soon an it was time to say goodbye to my hosts, Shelly and Eric. Shelly brought a muffin an mocha to my room while I was in the shower – of course it was from Jupiter! Awww! Then the three of us sat and chatted and got to know each other still better. Then Eric went off to get brunch – BBQ from Rudy’s . . . at 10:30 a.m. Y’all are awesome in Texas!!!

Eric then loaded me up and we headed off to DFW to say goodbye. You can find more stuff about the trip home in my Moose Meandering posts on fb.

It was lovely to visit with everyone. Lovely to be home. Hubbymoose picked me up at the Kenai airport at 6:30 after he got off the night shift. We went out for breakfast then came home so I could catch a nap. I’ve been writing this all afternoon while doing laundry.

Now . . . I will go edit some pics and get them added to this and the first Texas post. Thank you, Texas!!! You did yourself proud.

Hooves clash and nostrils flare
The color purple is everywhere
The question looms รขโ‚ฌโ€œ whatever to do?
PurpleMoose comes to the rescue

Hip hip hooray!
We live in Alaska
we make our own fun

Picture borrowed from Seattle Mariners page for the weekend Super Hero challenge at Trifextra.