October 23, 1993: Big Bend: The Lost Mine Trail/The Drive to Leakey
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Today we are planning very little- just a lazy day with Frank and Joe at the farmhouse they occupy on some land that belongs to Joe's family.

Frank and Joe live in a neat little farmhouse just off a farm-to-market just outside Leakey, Texas. Joe Wells' family owns quite a bit of land north of the town, and their farmhouse is on that land. In addition to the farmhouse, there's a barn where they keep the few animals they raise as well as a couple of corrals and some garden areas around the house.

I'd show you an aerial view of where they are, but I can't, because the little farmhouse was demolished quite a few years ago. It's a long story as to why that happened, and not something pertinent today. I have, however, marked the former location of their house on the current aerial view at left.

What was pertinent to our visit today is that for a long time, Fred has been telling me about Frank's search for some land of his own he could buy. The impetus seems to be that if something were to happen to Joe, then Frank, not being family, wouldn't be able to stay on at the little ranch, as he has no title to it.

So he is preparing for this eventuality by buying some land nearby where he can build his own house either now or later. I have marked that location, too, on the aerial view.

As it turned out, nothing did happen to Joe, and while he went through some tough times healthwise, he is now in the position of having not a terminal illness but a manageable one- just as diseases like diabetes are no longer terminal but instead quite manageable and even quite common. But buying the land turned out to be a good idea, for when events conspired to pretty much force Joe to vacate the ranch house, the two of them were prepared to start building their own house on the property that Frank bought. That is where they are today, and where they have been for the last fifteen years or so.

Frank just bought the land, and he wanted to show it to us, so we took their truck across the dry bed of the branch of the Frio River that runs by their ranch, and up onto the hillside to see it. There is a road on the hillside, and I think I remember there was one house already up there on that road. We went to the property and walked around on it for a while. The view at right looks from the property (which is 70-80 feet above the valley floor) out across their current property; their current ranchhouse is in the wooded area at the right of the picture; you can see the ranch driveway going out to the farm road that comes from Leakey.

Fred took another picture looking in the other direction- up the hillside east of the property. Frank's land does not include any part of the mountains themselves, but apparently that land is or can be used by anyone without any particular permission, and will never be sold or subdivided.

We spent a good deal of time hiking around on the parcel; there are a number of interesting features to it, including a line of low cliffs where it descends to the Frio river bed. Frank, Joe and Fred discussed some of his ideas for the dwelling he might build. Frank seems happy with the land, and Joe seems pleased that he has it. I hope he is able to do something with it in the near future.

Here are Frank, Fred and Joe at the ranch house shortly before we left for Dallas.

After lunch, we all went on a cactus-hunting expedition to the hills across from the ranch. There was a certain kind of cactus that Fred wanted to collect, and he and Frank knew that there were specimens to be found there. The hiking was fun, although I didn't find any of the cactus they were looking for, I found some more that I took with me so Fred could pot it up.

While we were walking around on the hills, an old friend of the three of them, Perrin Wells (no relation to Joe) showed up with his latest girlfriend. Fred has regaled me with all kinds of stories about how he and Frank tried during their time at Texas A & M to figure Perrin out, but were never able to, and concluded that there wasn't anything to figure out.

I found him to be a pretty nice guy, although he wasn't quite what I imagined after hearing all the stories. Fred was pleased to see him as he hasn't done so for a couple of years, and they had a nice reunion. I felt left out of all that, but that didn't bother me at all. You can see here the wild variety of plants that Frank and Joe have collected and planted around the house. The guys spent some time allocating out the cactus they had collected in Big Bend National Park.

Here again are Fred, Frank and Joe at the ranch house. Fred is carrying one of the plants he bought for Frank in Fort Davis.

We talked for a while and then Fred and I took our leave of Frank and Joe. Although I don't yet know Frank and Joe as well as I might like, I always find them great to be with, and I hope everything goes well for Joe in the future.

Leaving Leakey we took US Highway 83 north, then Texas Highway 41 to Interstate 10 and then east to Kerrville. At Kerrville, we struck off on US Highway 87 north, took US Highway 290 east at Fredericksburg, and then at Johnson City got on US Highway 281 north. We took that to Burnet, where we got on Texas Highway 29 to Georgetown, which is on Interstate 35.

We headed north, stopping for dinner at the Elite Cafe in Waco, where we have eaten before, and then reached home about 11 p.m.

As I have mentioned before, this trip, like all the others with Fred, was a pleasure, but it was good to be home. Fred stayed over and left for work early Monday morning.

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	October 23, 1993: Big Bend: The Lost Mine Trail/The Drive to Leakey
	Return to the Index for 1993