April 7, 2013

April 7, 2013

We didn’t see much of the sun today, but the temperature was mild, which was great.

We watched the NASCAR race today  It had some exciting parts.  Most of our favorite drivers did well in the race,  but we were most excited about Danica Patrick’s performance.  Because of an engine change, she started at the very back.  At the end of the race she was in 12th place.  She did a great job!

Brent cooked dinner tonight...Mexician food.  He made some kind of chicken and flour tortilla concoction.  It was really, really good.  He is absolutely amazing with some of the things he puts together.

Lori called tonight to tell us when JP will have his graduation ceremony from Sonoma State.  It will be on my birthday, May 11.  That will be two things to celebrate on that day.

May 6, 2013

April 6, 2013

It was a beautiful, sunny day in Mississippi when we got up this morning.  It would have been a great day for caching, but that was not to be.

Bill and I went refrigerator shopping.  Our refrigerator still works, but it is getting less and less efficient.  We want to put in a residential one which will involve a different inverter and some remodeling.  We’ll see if it all comes together!

At 4:00, we went to a crawfish boil at a neighbor’s house.  There were about 30 people there.  I have no idea how many pounds of crawfish were boiled, but it was a lot.  Plus red potatoes, corn on the cob, mushrooms, pearl onions, and Brussels sprouts were all cooked in the same huge pot with the crawfish.  In the second round of cooking, Italian sausage was added to the mix.  The third round had shrimp instead of crawfish.  It was really good.

Oh, yes! There was a strawberry cake with cream cheese frosting for desert.  We didn’t leave hungry!  Neither Bill nor I ate many crawfish, but there was so much else to eat that we left with happy tummies!

April 5, 2013

Bill was on the road at 6:30 this morning.  I was there, too, but asleep.  When we went across the Mississippi River into Sippi, Bill honked really loudly.  I roused enough to give a sleepy “yahoo.”  

We pulled into the Walmart parking lot in Vicksburg to eat breakfast, and then continued on to Brent’s in Brandon.

Willie was so excited to see us when we drove up in front of Brent’s house.  He ran to me and then to Bill and then ran in circles in the front yard.  He was as happy to see me as I was to see him.  I just didn’t run circles in the grass.

We got there in time to go to Ed’s for catfish dinner.  It was so-o-o good.  We hadn’t had catfish since we left here in early January.

At Ed’s, we saw Amy, one of Brent’s neighborhood friends.  She was having a cookout, with hamburgers and all the trimmings, and we were invited.  It was great to see all of Brent’s friends who are our friends, too.

April 4, 2013

It was cold and damp this morning.  Bill turned on our cataleptic heater which Natalia dubbed our fireplace although there are not actual flames. 

I was very careful as I warmed myself in front of it.  Not so about a month ago.  I was wearing pajamas with loose legs.  Bill said he could smell something burning.  My pjs weren’t on fire, but they were melting!  Yikes!  So if you hear of a fashion revival of hot pants, it was me that started it!

We celebrated Louisiana with a honk, honk, and a loud “yahoo!”  The wildflowers on both sides of the state line were beautiful...huge patches of yellow or orange or white or red.

Our stopping place for today was Monroe, at a Sam’s Club.  We went in for Pizza.  It was colder and misting when we came back home.

Hopefully, tomorrow we will get to Brent’s.

Mileage today...164.

April 3, 2013

It was cold and damp this morning when we left Stephenville.  Betty came by on her break from work and brought a big box of pecans she had picked up at a friend’s pecan orchard.  They are really good.

Our first destination was the In-N-Out in the Fort Worth area.  It will be our last opportunity for our favorite “cult” burgers for a long, long, time.  That’s sad, but we’ll just have to suffer!  (Insert a sigh here, please.)

One way to know for sure that you are in Texas is to count the pickups in a high school parking lot.  If there are more pickups than cars...yup, y’all are in Texas.

We got as far as the Walmart in Longview.  The clouds were thick, but we didn’t have any moisture.  The drive through the Fort Worth-Dallas area was uneventful.  Traffic was moderately lite.  That was great.

Driving through East Texas was pleasant.  The new grass and the leaves coming out were a pretty contrast to to the dark green of the pine trees.

Mileage for today...228.

April 2, 2013

April 2, 2013

Yesterday it was quite warm in Sweetwater. This morning it was 45°, with a mist in the air.  In Oregon we might have called it “mizzle”  (between mist and drizzle).  Or we might have called it “sea dust.”  Whatever it’s called here, it’s cold.

The blue bonnets are blooming by the side of the road.  The Texas state flower is always pretty at this time of year.  They grow wild in lots of places.  Now is their special time!

Part of our trip to Stephenville was through rain with very dark clouds and lightening.  By the time we parked at Walmart the rain had stopped, but the clouds were still dark and menacing looking.

Betty, Bill’s niece, came for a visit.  Her husband, Billy was sick with a bad cold, a cough, and fever so we didn’t get to see him.  We took Betty out to dinner.  It was good to have some time to visit with her.  She has been counting the time until they can “hit the road” like Bill and I are doing.  She and Billy are making all sorts of plans.

It was cold and windy when we came home after dinner.

Today’s Totals:  Mileage, 147

April 1, 2013

April 1, 2013

Another month has rolled around and that’s not an April Fool’s joke.  There’s nothing funny about how quickly the months and years are flying by.

Just a few minutes after leaving Hobbs we crossed into Texas.  I was talking to Meredith and she heard our state line celebration.  She “yahooed” right along with me, but not as loudly as I did.  The people in her office might not have understood.

This part of Texas is very flat, and mostly used for farming and cattle, with an occasional oil well now and then. According to some of the signs around, they are growing cotton, peanuts, and winter wheat.

Michelle flew to San Jose yesterday.  There is a trade show in San Francisco and she will represent the company she works for.  When she got off the plane, the first place she went was to In-N-Out (It runs in the family)...and they were closed for Easter!!  She said that’s just about the worse thing that’s happened to her in a long, long time.  The thought of what she must have gone through is beyond description.

At Snyder, we turned toward Sweetwater.  This is farm country, with hundreds and hundreds of wind generators.  They were all turning.  Ever once in awhile there would be an oil well among them.

Sweetwater is the home of the world’s largest rattlesnake roundup.  It was two weeks ago.  Shucks, we missed it.  Bill doesn’t want to eat rattlesnake.  He just wants to catch one!  I have a king sized picture of that one!  How about you?

Travel Totals:  Mileage, 181---Geocaches, 2---Critter sightings, 8 little donkeys.