Texas Road Trip (Chisholm Trail Series)

A compilation of author and journalist Bryan Woolley's The Dallas Morning News columns from 1999 through 2003, Texas Road Trip explores back roads, small towns, and Texas originals. Follow him on his road trips across the Great State as he meets interesting people and hears fascinating, even bizarre, tales. As Woolley says, Texas Road Trip takes us beyond the "super highways spewing diesel smoke and danger to the sparsely traveled farm-to-market roads and the old highways that used to connect the little towns before the interstates bypassed them."

Tinged with nostalgia for a bygone way of life, the essays acquaint us with the pleasure of drinking a Coca Cola in a bottle that sports ice crystals ("Cold Drink") or a Comanche ceremony in Palo Duro Canyon to re-sanctify the canyon that was once sacred ("Quanah's People"). He also explores more personal terrain in such stories as "Boys," in which he recounts a trip he and his grown sons took in remembrance of their summer vacations in Fort Davis when the boys were young.

Woolley's thoughtful take imbues each essay with a generosity of spirit and a real enthusiasm for his subjects. From the stars of the Davis Mountains to the sophistication of Austin and Dallas, Texas Road Trip is an homage to Texas--its history, people, and culture.