a whole lotta fun, with a little bit of history and a lot of BBQ thrown in! All told, the round trip miles added up 185 door to door. We cruised down 35 from Belt 8, stopping in West Columbia for a guided tour of the Hogg Plantation. BTW, did you know why Ima Hogg never married? Turns out that she fell in love with the guy that started up the HEB Food Pantry stores, Howard E. Butt. In the end, she just couldn’t live with the fact that her new name would be Ima Hogg Butt, so she turned down his proposal. Badabing.
After the tour, we headed up 1301 to Pledger, then over to Newgulf, which is about a mile or 2 south of Boling. Cruised around the deserted town but noticed that several of the houses have residents in them now. I wonder if squatting laws are still on the books. Hmm. Then we rode over to the deserted plant, which still has the smokestacks standing. These things are humongous, at least 200 feet tall, with a base diameter of around 30 feet. Entirely made of fire bricks. Awesome sight. But that wasn’t enough, so Bear and I found a small opening in the base and crawled in. Me first of course. It was incredible. I think I’ll attach a picture but it cannot depict the immenseness (is that a word) of these 2 structures.
Here is a small picture of the 2 stacks when the plant was running:
When I was almost inside the stack, I noticed that there was a DOOR on the other side!!! ‘Course, I let Bear continue on, why let him miss the fun of crawling.
After we left Newgulf, we found a great roadside BBQ stand in Boling, Uncle Rudy’s BBQ. I went with the small plate that featured a taste of brisket, sausage and pork ribs. All were above average, the ribs were a bit greasy. All in all, a good meal. And Rudy was working hard.
After lunch, we settled in for the ride home, 78 miles to my door. Wow, I was tired. But what a great day!
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