Trip to Stephenville ...

Today I packed up my book things, left the house at 5:45am and headed to Stephenville, TX for the 2013 Central Texas Child Care Conference, which was hosted by Texas A&M AgriLife Extension and Tarleton State University. I met many Child Care providers who purchased books and talked with me about hosting book events ... I was so busy talking with participants that I forgot to take pictures of my table and the event!

But ... I did take some pictures of my travels. Stephenville, TX is about 70 miles South of Fort Worth and I have never been to this town. I jumped on Hwy 377 and basically had the road to myself -- I love driving along in the early morning hours on a less traveled road in Texas - it gives me time to think and recharge myself ... seeing the world awaken is also always glorious to me. When I was getting close to Stephenville, I stopped on the side of the road to take this shot ... I also wanted to stretch out my back a bit, because it was hurting ... NO OTHER CARS for as far as the eye can see! The light you see was from some building pretty far away.

Just as daylight hit and I drove into Stephenville, I saw this beautiful house that is a renovation project for the city ... you may see an old, broken windowed, and run down property -- but I see a gorgeous piece of history and would LOVE that wrap around porch and would love filling it with antique furniture!

This house would make a beautiful Bed & Breakfast!




Another thing I love about driving to a new place in the dark ... is driving home in the daylight and seeing things that I missed on the way! I had been to Granbury before but I never made the jaunt from Granbury to Stephenville .... This sign DEFINITELY PEAKED my interest. So I made a U-turn and pulled into the parking lot and made my way to .... the BOOK yard!

They had FREE books in a bin on that table in the front and I picked up a 1950's Webster's Dictionary and a really cool Horizon Art Book. I went inside and found a ton of paperback books all neatly stacked on shelves and a woman who came out and apologized for being dirty but she was digging thru boxes of books to put out on the shelves! I told her I was a Kinder teacher and asked where the children's books were - she only SELLS children's books on-line she told me ... but directed me to 4 bins of kids books that were FREE! So I parked myself on the floor and looked through each and everyone one!

I found some really cool books I can put in my library at school and also a book called Puppets

U.S.A. - Texas that is full of folktales, art and crafts from Texas (very timely since we are beginning our lessons on Texas next week!)

And all my books were FREE! I did put a few dollars in the Friends of the Library Donation bucket and the owner told me to stop by anytime ... she said she puts new children's books out about every other day!

This is the town where the Book yard was located ... many of the stores were boarded up, but many are being renovated ... I love small towns like this! I love the architecture and I'm glad to see this small town is coming back to life!

Along the way I saw some beautiful ranches -- across the railroad tracks was a huge horse farm!

 

This house and 31 acres are for sale ...

                                                  

I don't think I sold enough books today to purchase this ....

 

oh well -- maybe someday!!!!!!

 

Another thing I love about ranches is the GRAND entrance ways they have ... I saw many cool ones on this journey, but there was lots more traffic and some of the entrances come up so quickly that I didn't have time to stop and be safe .... but .... I did stop for this one ... thought it was cute!

This property had another entrance farther down .... and it was super cool -- and had bigger L's but it was on a curve and felt it wasn't safe to stop! I'd love to see their house!!!!!

 

So, I continued on my journey ... as I was nearing Granbury I saw a garage sale sign so I figured I'd stop and check it out!

This family was wonderful! I purchased a brand new Candyland game, a bead bracelet kit, a bunch of puzzles, a wooden A,B,C puzzle, and a matching A,B,C card game all for 5 bucks ... while I was checking the A,B,C card game to see if all the letters were there, this sweet little girl helped me. We discovered the game is missing K ... it's okay - I think I can put FAKE pieces in there!  lol!!!!

I asked her what grade she's in and she told me first -- her mom wanted my name and contact info and said if they find the piece they'll get it to me ... I was in a good mood and since Josslyn helped me look through the cards, I gave her a Went Out To Get a Donut book! By the time I was leaving she was sitting in the chair reading it!  The smile on her face MADE MY DAY!

 

Going to book events in new areas are really fun for me and I love when I have extra time to stop and smell the flowers or in this case ... get some FREE books and see a smile on a first graders face!

 

Thanks for taking the time to see some of the sites I saw today on my journey to Stephenville!  

 

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