Welcome to Higgins, Texas---
The last Lone Star State outpost along US Highway 60 and the BNSF Transcon before one crosses east into the Oklahoma Territory. As time goes by, we'll provide more glimpses into the life of this tiny town that 'progress' has all but passed by, leaving it to wither amongst the sage and prairie sunflowers.
Our first two offerings will be a bit of a juxtaposition; the transformation of the seasons.
Above, we're just outside of town at 8:48 pm on the evening of July 5th, 2023. The great storms of the spring and early summer have turned the Plains into a verdant paradise for the ranchers, filling the playas and stock tanks with much needed water and thickening the sage and wildflowers and grasses that carpet the land. As one such storm moves off east to drench the land over Oklahoma way, an eastbound hotshot rolls fast toward its destination somewhere in the Midwest.
In the scene below, Autumn has laid its blanket upon the land; the Little Bluestem grasses taking on their characteristic rust color, the hints of blue and gray in the sage now muted, and the leaves of the old cottonwood have succumbed to the season and fluttered to the ground on the ever-present prairie winds. It's 5:08 pm on the glorious evening of November 11th, 2023, and a steak dinner awaits us in town at the Haystack Cafe as two GE ES44C4 motors head straight into the setting sun with a westbound stack train full of Prime and JB Hunt boxes a mile or so removed from the above locale.