We camped at Fort Richardson State Park last night. Loaf is loving these straight, flat Texas Highways and we drove about 400 miles yesterday. We pulled into camp around 7 pm—all of us glad to be stopped for the night. (We did stop at a road side picnic area and busted out a few sets of jumping jacks, squat jumps and pushups.) There was nobody camping…no surprise there…Texans are hunkering down close to heaters and blankets in these cold temps.
We woke up and headed out to Ft Worth to Tim’s German Auto (recommended from GoWesty.com) first thing –well, after coffee and tea(we still have our priorities)--to see if they could fix our oil drain plug issue. We had a quick and easy hour drive to the shop and were greeted by such nice people. Pat, co-owner, helped us immediately with her good Texan hospitality. Harlen, another friendly gentleman remembered speaking to Sonia the day before, and was very surprised we made it to Ft Worth all the way from New Mexico in a day. The mechanic , Larry, was able to diagnose the issue and was also able to track down the source of Loafy’s oil leak and fix it!! Luckily, parts were available. He carved out time on a busy Friday and got to work. Larry is a gentle guy who appears to be meticulous and methodical in his ways. He diligently worked on Loaf all afternoon to help get us on our way and outta there. All the people at Tim’s German Auto are/were awesome. They are more like family then just co-workers. (It reminded Sonia of her work crew at Mt. Stuart and Balance Point.) Its lunchtime and Pat decides that she’s not letting the mechanics go out for lunch because there’s too much work to be done. They’ll order sandwiches from nearby Baker Brothers. We put our order in too and offered to go and pick up lunch—even though our schedule is jam packed for the next 3 hours…haha! She gladly accepts our offer and even lends us her little VW Turbo Deisel Jetta to pick up lunch. We believe in reciprocity and happily clean up after being treated to lunch. These are some nice damn folks!! We both agreed that we are glad to be stuck here--if we have to be stuck somewhere. They ARE a big family—Pat even knew where everyone likes to sit for lunch—how cute. We chatted a bit and broke our separate ways. “On your feet and off your ass” as they say around here.
We were told by another office staff person to check out the Leonard’s Museum a few blocks away. (We managed to fit that into our busy schedule.) Leonard’s was a business enterprise built from the ground up by 2 young and very industrious brothers, Marvin and Obie Leonard. It began in 1918 as a small discount grocery store and just grew bigger and bigger by the decade. In the 1960s, when they sold to the Tandy Company it was 7 city blocks large, 2 stories and had its own private transportation system to and from the store. These guys were certainly ahead of their time. They knew how to treat people so their employees would keep working for them and the customers would come back again and again. Their business model was based on serving volumes of people rather than charging high prices. They would buy overstock items, buy inventory from trains that couldn’t afford to haul their goods further; Leonard Bros would swoop in and buy it all, whatever it may be-red pants to canned goods to bird food. They would take those items, add it to their stock and if there wasn’t a department for it, they’d build a department for it. For example, a local seed store was going out of business. They bought all the leftover inventory and started a garden center to Leonard’s. They had it all—like a modern day Super Walmart or Costco-groceries, butcher shop, farm and ranch, pharmaceuticals, optical department, clothing, baby, etc, etc. People would travel for miles and miles, across the state to shop at Leonard’s. It was the place to be. It was a scene, an event—THE event, and not a place to miss out on. Nearby farmers would haul truckloads of their produce and sell it to Leonard’s. Then they’d fill up their trucks with dry goods, clothes, and whatever else and make the trip back home. A funny story they had in the timeline was about a guy who needed dentures. He heard you could buy them at Leonard’s and drove 350 miles! He got there, tried them in, and found something to his liking and drove home another 350 miles!! Imagine this, you come out from the optometrist’s examination room and a lil’ ol’ cowboy is standing there trying on dentures and smiling at himself in a mirror. Putting the ones he didn’t like aside or, rather back in denture circulation, and starting his pile of “maybes” ….to ask his wife or daughter or buddy “which ones do you like?”. You wouldn’t believe your eyes!! It just paints a funny image in our minds. A lot has sure changed…with germ-phobias and OSHA standards….never could you try on dentures. But, in all seriousness, these 2 brothers had a very strong work ethic, knew what it takes to make a successful business and went after it. They made record sales compared to other big department stores all across the US. Stores like Macy’s in New York or Wanamaker’s in Philadelphia fell short of Leonard’s in Ft Worth, Texas. Good for these guys. Walking through this museum and reading the timeline, looking at photos, people were smiling and HAPPY…you can just tell people were treated really well and enjoyed being here to support this business. It was a cohesive network of people in all departments and workers were treated fairly. That’s what many modern day businesses are lacking that essential costumer service skill. How many times have you walked into a business and the person standing in the Customer Service Department doesn’t even smile or ask how you are or what can I do for you? It’s frustrating, infuriating and disappointing. That’s why we like supporting locally owned businesses versus major corporations. There are advantages and disadvantages to both, but we won’t get into that.
We bought Loaf a new little rug at a not-locally-owned store (in our defense we did look all over AZ and NM for a Mexican rug-couldn’t find the right size or one under $1000). We headed back to the Auto Shop, its now about 3:00pm…we’ve been hanging out since 10:30am. By about 4pm, Larry is finished we pay our bill and head out. Warm handshakes, smiles and good lucks we exchanged. We made sure to let them know how much we appreciated their kindness and hospitality and that we’d be sure to post comments on GoWesty to keep up their good business reputation. This whole experience restored our faith in humanity. There are lots of good people out there. When the Loaf Love Tour ends, these are the stories we’ll always remember. The kind acts from other people when we were in need. Our sincere thanks go out to Larry and Tim’s German Auto staff. If you ever break down near Ft. Worth in a german rig---limp on in there , they’ll take excellent care of you and your car.
The real reason we were in Dallas, TX was to meet up with Cristen (Jason’s sister) and Rachael (Jason’s neice). They were going to Rachael’s Volleyball Tournament on Saturday and since we were going to pass through—we met up. They also invited us to stay with them Friday night in a hotel room...don’t want to pass up an opportunity to shower without flip-flops! We got to the hotel—The Element near DFW airport—an Asian Motif claiming to be eco-friendly. A nice place. We all had dinner at a nearby Mexican restaurant and chatted. Early to bed so Rachel can get her rest for a big day tomorrow.
Saturday, we spent the whole day at the Volleyball Tournament. A loud and crowded gym full of 12, 13 and 14 year old girls….it was an estrogen dominant environment. We aren’t used to this type of scene and enjoyed watching the people, the games and hang out with Cristen and Rachael. We got Rachel drinking Chia in her water to help keep her strong and energetic all day. She said she felt good even by the end of the day and and was enjoying not having to constantly eat through the day. Her teammates were grossed out by the mold/ fish-egg-looking chia seeds floating in her water. It’s not too hard to grosse out teenage girls, though. Rachael is 13 years old and stands 6 ft tall! They grow ‘em big in Texas. She’s a blocker and is hoping for a scholarship to college with her Volleyball skills. We think she’s got the potential and it’ll be exciting to watch her skills and love for the game develop over the next few years. Thanks again Cristen and Rachael for sharing your hotel room with us. It was fun to meet up, even for just a short visit.
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| That"s Rachel getting ready for the kill. |
We decided not to go to New Orleans. It was 563 miles away. A lot of driving for just 1 night….we decided we’ll have to do that another time when we have a few more days to explore and soak up some local culture there. Our goal is Texarkana, Arkansas tonight. We pulled into a rest area to sleep just east of Hope, AR-birthplace of Bill Clinton- and called it a day.
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