2Free Texas: Free Things to See and Do in the Lone Star State. By Tab Lloyd. Xavier Publishing House, 2008. Paperback, 268 pages, $24.95. ISBN: 978-0-9790-2272-2 268 pg http://www.xavier-house.com
Tab Lloyd spent considerable time and, even more importantly, thought to what to include. There are over 120 places identified here in several categories – churches, famous people, trade, art, beer and wine, farms and gardens, outside, military, historical places, historical museums, and, of course, unique places. Each gets a page that begins with contact and website. Whether by advertence or inadvertence, she's selected good places, some of which you've not heard of but will appeal to your very heart.
For instance, out in Lubbock there's the Breedlove Dehydrated Foods plant. Hold on, just listen a minute. Well, it is the biggest dehydration plant in the world, Tab tells us, and, and this part I really like, "Breedlove gives their food away," and Guinness recognizes them as largest food charity bank in the world. Tab also takes you to the Bureau of Engraving and Printing in Fort Worth, where they do not give the green stuff away. But in Dallas at the Mary Kay Museum you can see all the pink you desire, and maybe get beautiful and rich at the same time. Then head south to Corpus Christi for the Texas Surf Museum; no it's not old surf, it old surfing artifacts and photos. But it would take a lotta surf to fill up Odessa's Meteor Crater found in 1892 (did they fall in?) and said to be the 2nd largest meteor crater in the U.S. at 550' across. One day I've got to go to the First State Bank of Uvalde; it's all decorated up by Janey Briscoe just about any way she wanted; that being before she decorated the Governor's Mansion. I have been to the Edison Museum in Beaumont – rather nice too, thanks, Tab, for the memory. Lastly, I've also seen the modified English gothic architecture of St. Paul's United Methodist Church in Houston. As a matter, a few year's back I used to quietly slip into the back of the sanctuary on Wednesday nights after work to listen to the organist practice while the soaring walls were barely visible in the darkness. And it was free.
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