Getting to the bottom of the 'must see' list!

Yesterday being Wednesday, Carol and I sallied forth on one of our 'adventures'.  They're not adventures really...just tame outings but we like to dress them up a bit!  We never quite know what were going to find or see and yesterday was a case in point.

We headed for Hearne, about 40 minutes drive up the road from College Station to visit Camp Hearne - a second world war internment camp for German soldiers, mainly from the Afrika Korps.   Apparently the Geneva convention stipulates (and I paraphrase) that if a soldier is captured in a hot place, he must be held as a prisoner of war in a similar environment.  So when Rommel's desert campaign collapsed and Britain had no room for more prisoners of war, and was too cold anyway, thousands of German soldiers were shipped to Texas.   Now did you know that?

We arrived at Camp Hearne to see acres of nothing and a few rusty remnants of water tower etc, but in one corner of the plot, a reconstructed watch tower and a long hut - clearly the museum.  There was only one car parked outside.  We ventured in.   The woman behind the computer leaped to her feet and welcomed us.  We should have been warned by the light in her eyes and her fevered reception of us!  For the next hour she did not stop talking!  She was a mine of information and we had uncorked the bottle and let the genie out!  How's that for a mixed metaphor...

Actually, for a small museum, it was well done.  Lots of photos and artifacts, models etc., well displayed and a very interesting short video - during which the guide DID stop talking.  After an hour during which she had us pinned to the wall with information and no time to look at anything for ourselves, I could sense that Carol was getting restless.  Suddenly she looked at her watch and announced, breaking into the stream of information, "Sorry, we have to go" and we made an unceremonious dash for the door, leaving our guide a little crestfallen.  We sensed she had only just got started!   Outside Carol heaved a sigh of relief.  Clearly the intensity had been too much and had left her battered! 

We were going to explore restaurants in Hearne, but didn't feel like exposing ourselves to more excitement, so headed back to the safety of Bryan and the Village Cafe.   After lunch we went into the dress shop next door and Carol bought a very nice scarf and probably felt a whole lot better!