Historic Waxahachie

Ellis County Courthouse

Today, I got to visit historic Waxahachie. Waxahachie is the County Seat of Ellis County, which also contains Ennis. Coincidentally, they were running the Cow Creek Country Classic cycling event, so there were lots of cyclists riding about. I think we were somewhere near the finish because there weren't big packs proceeding down the streets at breakneck speed. While I didn't observe any cyclists stopping at stop signs in town, I DID see one signal a turn, and I saw a couple more slow down slightly. However, I was on a different mission. Whareagle, my daughter, Abbey A, and Lee Wiltsey were with me on a mission to spring ChipSeal from jail and turn him loose once again on an unsuspecting public. We figured that eighteen days in the hoosegow was more than enough to allow him to cool his heels, and it was time to get him off the taxpayers' nickel.

It was an unusual day in many ways. While very warm, it was comfortable out due to a good breeze. It was also unusual in that Whareagle got dehydrated and had to get an IV, and Bicycle Bill got a helicopter ride to Dallas due to a blood clot. Perhaps they ought to reread my embolism post. Fortunately, I believe that both are doing well, though I suspect Bill is getting first-hand experience with drugs such as Lovenox and Warfarin. I hope he will add to our collective wisdom on the subject when they let him escape from the hospital. I think he's adding to his Facebook on the subject, and we did wave at Baylor Dallas when we were on our way home. Our prayers are with him. I expect they'll want to keep a close eye on him for a couple of days at least.

Anyway, we rolled in to Waxahachie just after noon, right about the same time that Whareagle got all the IV stuff out of his arm. This gave us an opportunity to sample the finer points of the Ellis County Jail, which is just a block away from the courthouse; built in 1895. I'd never seen either before and I have to say the courthouse is a great late Victorian building that is as nice as the Tarrant County courthouse in its own way. Kudos to Ellis County for keeping it properly.

In the jail waiting area, there were many historic photographs, and some that were simply humorous. Amongst the historic items were stories of the Ellis County law enforcement officers that fell in the line of duty through the years, and of the Marshall/Sheriffs (early Sheriffs were Marshalls and a few other name changes were made for the chief kahunas).

THIS Wall was Actually Across the Street at the Bail Bond Place

Conveniently, Those Places Have ATM Machines

Also interesting was a display case that showed how jail prisoners use contraband to create artistic items during their extensive free time. For example, soap makes dandy dominos and bed sheets make perfect canvas for drawings. We had lots of time to look at all the displays, but they made that time pass a little faster.

Some of the Prisoner "Contraband Art" Clearly Had a Lot of Time and Effort Lavished on it

After we paid the bail to get ChipSeal sprung, Lee got a little impatient, or so it appears in the photo below. My daughter reminded him there wasn't enough money to bail anyone else out, so we retired outside to await the return of the annoying cyclist. In truth, we staged that photo, but we were past being ready for our "person of interest" to appear.

This is Where the Prisoners Re-Enter the Free World

Finally, at 4:15, he emerged from the squad car tunnel into the sunlight. The man himself uttered as his first words in freedom: "Let me have some vitamin D!" While not quite in the same class as "Don't fire until you see the whites of their eyes," it was sincere.

Happy Campers! ChipSeal at Left and Lee Wiltsey at Right

LATEST AND GREATEST

It appears that Chip's trial for various and sundry cycling charges will occur on July 29th at the Courthouse in Waxahachie. As I recall, this will be a day/morning event rather than the night court that occurred in Ennis. I trust that added details will be forthcoming well in advance of that.