Well, here I am in Texas, and life just got a little bit better. Those of you who have never attended Howard Days really need to try to get here. There’s nothing better for a Howard fan. Anyway, I’ve gone to ground in Weatherford, just a few miles from Howard’s birthplace, Peaster, which I’ll probably cruise through in the morning on my meandering way to Cross Plains. My parents are staying in Coleman this year, and if they have an internet connection, I’ll try to post a Howard Days update or two. But don’t count on it.

Every year I like to try to go to a few different places that Howard mentioned going to in his letters: Fort McKavett, Mineral Wells, Fredericksburg, etc. I’ve got a full itenerary planned for the rest of the week, but today — the travel day — was pretty much going to be wasted. My flight into the Dallas/Fort Worth mega-airport was delayed and I didn’t get on the ground until 5:00 p.m., Texas time. Luckily, I’d scribbled some notes before I left California.

In a letter to August Derleth, dated September 4, 1933, REH runs through a laundry list of places he’d visited recently:

I’ve done a little running around in a modest way since I wrote you last, three or four short trips within the confines of the state. I’ve been over to Dallas a couple of times, which lies a couple of hundred miles east of Cross Plains; up to old Fort Griffin, on the clear fork of the Brazos; to Stamford, about a hundred and thirty miles north west of this town, where they have the big annual West Texas rodeo and cowboy reunion the third, fourth and fifth of each July. On one trip to Dallas I had intended going on up to Durant, Oklahoma, and guzzling some legal beer, but circumstances prevented, so I turned south into the rich cotton country, and visited the beautiful old town of Waxahatche, the seat of Trinity University for the first time.

And on it goes. But, I decided, since “circumstances prevented” (my delayed flight) my original plans, I decided to head on south to Waxahatche, just as Howard had done.

I won’t go into detail about the town here, but Howard wasn’t lying: it’s a beautiful old town, as the photos in this post attest. Some good old local boys pointed me in the direction of Trinity U, which is now Southwestern Assemblies of God University, so I’ve managed to knock a few more of Howard’s haunts off my list.