Back at Lake Conroe, TX

We came back to Lake Conroe Feb 9. We like it here. It's a nice rural setting but less than five miles from here there's every kind of commerce imaginable; very convenient! Things have been pretty quiet. Carolyn does line dancing three days a week, we visit with Lara and family one day on the weekend and we go somewhere one day a week.

Last week we went to Huntsville, TX to the Prison Museum and did a driving tour of the town.
The museum was very interesting and we recommend it as a stop for those that pass close to Huntsville. A history of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice is presented. One thing that is pretty obvious, Texas takes things pretty serious when it comes to their prison system. This is old Sparky, in service from 1924 to 1964. 361 including 2 from Bonnie and Clyde's gang were intimately familiar with this chair.

Those that are incarcerated all wear a white prison uniform, get up at 4:00 AM, work at an assigned supervised job, and live in a 6' X 12' unairconditioned cell with one other inmate.
The only exceptions are those that are on death row. They don't have cell mates and don't get out to work.


Texas has about 150,000 inmates in it's prison system. Any one incarcerated in the Texas prison system is released in Huntsville when they get out. Each is provided a prison made suit ( it looks a lot like scrubs and is made in the Huntsville Prison), $50 in cash and a bus ticket to the Texas town of their choice or, if going out of state, a bus ticket to the Texas state line in their general direction of travel. The Huntsville Grey Hound station is the drop off spot for all inmates being released.

We had a nice visit with Lara, Jeff and grand kids on Saturday. We enjoyed a traditional tamale dinner of chicken and corn tamale's, fried corn, fresh tomato and onion salsa and guacamole. We're told this is considered special fare by the locals and would be typical of a new years dinner.

As a final note, today is Spanky's 2nd birthday. Time flies! It seems like yesterday when he found his forever home. He enjoyed a special dinner and a new bag for his special day.