The ‘g’ is silent, so you pronounce it like Nacõ-doches. The last sylable is pronounced like the doches in super-cala-fragilastic-X-P-ala-doches.  Most people round here say Naca-doches though.  Nacogdoches is described as the oldest city in Texas because it is built on or near the site of Nevantin, the primary village of the Nacogdoche tribe of Caddo Indian some 10,000 years ago. In 1716 Spain established a mission here, and after the French and Indian War (1760’s) the town of Nacogdoches was established.

Let’s get back to the beginning of the day though.  Three years ago when I was in the area I made sure that I had my “ten to get in” and was looking for that “shack outside LaGrange” from the ZZ Top song (they got a lot of nice girls….)    This time I decided to stop by a town with at least as much musical notoriety and that would be Luckenbach, TX. This place was put on the map by Waylon Jennings back in April 1977 with the first release of his album Ol’ Waylon. 

I wanted to see what it was all about so I looked for Luckenbach on a map and it almost doesn’t exist!! The town was established back in the 1840’s by a group of mostly German immigrants and named after it’s first postmaster.  It was mostly a trading post that never broke the treaty with the Comanche Indians they traded with.  But thains weren’t goin’ too good in Luckenbach and by the 1960’s it was a virtual ghost town. An ad in a local newspaper read, “for sale, Luckenbach, TX population 3.  Hondo Crouch bought the town and turned it into a place where he and his friends could hang out and play and enjoy music.  After Jerry Jeff Walker recorded an album in the dance hall in 1973 Luckenbach became a more popular venue.  They still advertise live music there every night.My visit to Luckenbach was short as there is very little to see but I nevertheless enjoyed talking with the clerk in the 150+ year old General Store.  She has been there for 12 years and is part of the nightly music performances.  I grabbed a little memento and was back on the road less than 10 minutes after pulling up.

My major goal today was to pick a good line and get as far east as possible without getting REALLY wet.  The forecast for the area is rain followed by more rain, which is something southeast Texas has seen way too much of.  Since I try to travel on county roads vs. highways or interstates, they are much more subject to flooding. So, I’d like to get out of the major rain threat ASAP.  I made it through the whole day without getting wet with the exception of a 15 minute downpour just north of Austin.

East Texas is where the environment starts to get green. The desert landscape is behind me now, but gone too is the almost guaranteed dry weather that goes with it.  From what the forecast said on the news tonight, tomorrow will likely be a rain suit day.  As Ella Fitzgerald said back in 1944 Into Each Life Some Rain Must Fall…..