Exploring Linden Texas & Cass County

-Music City Texas Theater-
-Avinger Steak & Hughes Springs Browsing-

We kept to our February Future Trips page plan of a journey to northeast Texas and Cass County.

We’ve stayed at this RV park years ago, when attending many T. Bone Walker Blues Festivals, as well as gathering with other RV friends for a New Years Eve party at Music City Texas Theater in Linden. The city rv park offers a wonderful walking park with exercise equipment, frisbee golf, sand vollyball courts, playground & restrooms with showers (for rvers only).

Tom had to use a few boards to get the TomsMaHauL motorhome close to level, without raising our wheels after the on-board levelers were extended. The new park host came over and told Tom to plug into the 30amp outlet, as the 50amp power outlets in the park are in need of proper wiring, which is on the list of things-to-do for the new park host. Full hookups (sewer, water & power) are offered. It’s merely 75 – 100 yards off of Highway 59, but no road noise was heard, and we experienced very quiet & restful nights. The price was just $15 per night, and payable by using the city’s website, or by stopping in at the downtown Linden City Hall. We will plan to return to this rv park when we’re in this area in the future.
***More on the Linden RV Park HERE.***

***Teri stopped along the Linden City Park’s walking trail to try out the exercise equipment***

***Photo of Teri walking through the park. We took morning and evening walks on the Linden City Park walking trail, which is right next to the city rv park.***

**During our 3 day/night stay in the motorhome, Tom did some voice-over work, as well as posting on social media ( TomsMaHauL Facebook and 98Rocks Facebook ).**

Tom was visited by a friend, Frank, that works in Cass County, and they enjoyed coffee and conversation…. until, a lady stopped next to the motorhome with her fast Ford Mustang and a bag of tacos. She lured Frank away from the premises. We must reveal that the nice lady behind the wheel of the fast Mustang, was Frank’s wife, Cathy. We’re planning to do an Alaska cruise with Frank & Cathy in May.

Among the celebrities from the Linden, Texas area are blues legend T. Bone Walker, ragtime piano great Scott Joplin, Don Henley (of the supergroup The Eagles), guitarist & songwriter Richard Bowden (Pinkard & Bowden) & others.

***There are several wall pantings around town. There is a map with the location of the downtown wall paintings, across from the city’s courhouse, next to the huge Music City Texas wall painting.***

There are restaurants and shops in the downtown Linden area. We always search out local flavor, and support locally owned businesses, so we ate at a few of the downtown restaurants. We looked forward to shopping at The Groovy Armadillo, but there was a sign on the door that it was closed, due to the shop owner’s illness. We looked in the storefront window at all of the “cool stuff”, and will plan to browse through The Groovy Armadillo the next time we are in this area.

***Linden is the county seat for Cass County, with a beautifully restored old courthouse.***

Tom drove the Jeep to Avinger, Texas where we browsed through the Harris Mercantile & Trading Company. What a wonderful store! We crossed the city’s main street for a steak dinner at well-known 5 D Cattle Company. After the dinner, we drove up to Hughes Springs (in Cass County) and looked at an amazing collection of antiques & memorabilia in a store on the Hughes Springs main street. Then it was back to Linden for a wonderful evening of entertainment at Music City Texas Theater.

3 young ladies, known as The Purple Hulls, were the first act on stage. They were excellent entertainers. The two on the left in the photo, are identical twins (born 38 minutes apart). The stand-up bass player was a young lady that changed her wedding date, so that she could appear at this show. One of the twins mentioned that the band name “The Purple Hulls” came from their youth, when they helped their father on the farm, and sold purple hull peas to go towards their college fund. In Tom’s words “these 3 ladies put on a helluva show!”

It was great to see some old friends in one of this region’s top bluegrass bands, Hickory Hill. The band is celebrating 40+ years of entertaining crowds all around the region.

*Teri’s Hickory Hill photo:* Center stage was John Early, who is always entertaining with the crowd, and very passionate about the music that the band plays. Stage right in the photo, is guitarist & songwriter (and often funny-man) Richard Bowden, who has performed with many of the greats in the music industry, and is a long-time childhood friend of Don Henley (of The Eagles).

Tom says that he recalls The Four Speeds (later became Shilo) with Richard Bowden and Don Henley in the band, and Tom said that if his memory is serving him correctly, he recalls seeing one of those bands perform on (what was known as) The Bossier Strip (Hwy 80/E. Texas St in Bossier City). We recall the early 80s when Tom was the emcee at Shreveport’s Municipal Auditorium, when Pinkard & Bowden performed with Neil Young & The International Harvesters.

Hickory Hill peformed an awesome show while we were at Music City Texas Theater during this annual February event. Richard Bowden played a few of his comedy songs (hilarious!), and the band did a wonderful tribute to the late Glenn Frey (of the Eagles) as Richard played every guitar note perfectly, on the Hickory Hill rendition of the Eagles hit “Peaceful Easy Feeling”.

During the closing minutes of the show, Hickory Hill brought the ladies from The Purple Hulls back on stage to join in on a few songs. The performance of both bands together was amazing, and highly entertaining.

Music City Texas Theater has featured many top names from various forms of music on stage, as well as the first several years of an annual event known as The T. Bone Walker Blues Festival. Tom emceed some of those festival events during the early years of the festival in Linden (great memories). We’re hopeful that, someday, the festival will return to T. Bone Walker’s hometown, and Music City Texas Theater in Linden.

Teri’s father served in the U.S. Marine Corp & the U.S. Air Force. He was known as “Buzz”. After retiring from military service, Buzz frequently performed with various bluegrass bands, and attended bluegrass gatherings. Buzz is on a plaque in Music City Texas Theater. Joie (Teri’s Mom), Teri & Tom are included with Buzz on the plaque. It had been several years since we’ve been to Music City Texas Theater, but Teri noticed that the plaque was, still, on the wall.

Teri’s mother, Joie, often traveled with us on our TomsMaHauL rv adventures, and Tom, often, jammed with Teri’s father, Buzz. It’s been several years since Buzz & Joie’s passing, but we, often, recall the wonderful memories of our time with them. Teri’s parents, Buzz & Joie, are now buried together in Arlington National Cemetery in Washington D.C. More on our recent TomsMaHauL journey to Arlington National Cemetery & the Maryland Eastern Shore HERE

The Sunday morning, after the wonderful Saturday night Music City Texas Theater concert experience, we hooked up the Jeep to the TomsMaHauL motorhome, and rolled south on Highway 59 through Jefferson & Marshall, where we got on I-20 East and headed back to Louisiana.
Hickory Hill website HERE
Music City Texas Theater website HERE

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We welcome you to check out some of the places that we enjoy exploring around the ArkLaTex region and… beyond the outer parameter. Visit our Journal page HERE
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You’re Trippin’ With Tom & Teri. Our location is a space in time. No matter where you go, there you are, and at the moment, We Are HERE.
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Tom shares some of our motorhome preparation, maintenance & projects…along with expecting the unexpected. Visit our Projects page HERE
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