11-27-11

My Sunday Musical Interlude

missing LOLcats

Somewhere along the way, a few of my favorite LOLcats have left the internets, at least their icanhascheeseburger home, and in order to get them onto the pinterest board, they're going to have to reside here.

11-26-11 Tree Trimming

We'd saved trimming the tree until Nick could join in. So tonight, before he headed back to school for the last stretch of a week of classes and a week of finals, we broke out the ornaments.

Sammi poses with her collection thus far: Disney, Harry Potter, and Pirates are the bulk of her choices

I had uninvited but always welcomed company for my picture, which is mainly Peanuts, Winnie the Pooh, and Larry and Bob ornaments:

Nick has one Simpsons, the rest Star Wars from his youngest days, and all football thereafter:

And Bob is super hero and Star Trek heavy:

Ta-da, let the 2011 ChristmasK season officially commence.

11-26-11 Going home

Much love to Bob and Nell for another lovely Thanksgiving.

We headed out this morning in the high wind gusts of 60 mph. For hours it was us against the wind.... and the tumbleweeds. When the land is as flat as this:

 means there is nothing to stop the blowing of those Texas tumbleweeds into your car, over and over again. They seem to aim for you intentionally.

See them all, blown into the fencing? They're just waiting for the perfect moment to break free and attack.

Once we were in New Mexico, the tumbleweeds let up and we hit the snow blowing across the road instead.

And, finally, after hours, the first glimpse of the promised land comes into view:

Ok, well, at least my promised land. Sammi can't decide whether she wants to live in Oregon or New Mexico, Nick can't wait to return to Texas, and Bob would probably prefer to live in Dumas on the wind-swept plains, or maybe the back waters of a Louisiana swamp. But, at least for a little while longer, I get everyone here still, in the land I love. 

11-25-11 Closing out the Texas Trip

Friday evening on the way to dinner, if you squinted right the clouds almost looked like mountains in the distance.  And overhead as we got out of the car a thousand ducks flew in formations and the night sky was filled with their quacking.

The food was so good that I neglected to take any pictures until the sopapillas.

After dinner, we drove around just a bit. I love the small town lights.

I remember seeing the light poles decorated in Mexia when I was a kid.

And afterwards, I took Sammi over to the Wilson's for the night and got a little Diablo love.

all in all, a great post-Thanksgiving night :)

11-25-11 Amarillo (aka Whataburger and the Cadillac Ranch)

No trip to Texas is complete without the 45 mile journey to Amarillo for Whataburger. It's the only time this year I get one, although Nick's more frequent trips to Texas keep from being quite as deprived.

After lunch, despite the rain and wind, everyone humored me with a trip to the Cadillac Ranch.

Bob Sr. booked it back to the car right after this picture. 

Bob and Nick took up some of the abandoned paint cans and left their own marks. Note the stance is an attempt to avoid the paint fly back from the high winds.

And, just because it seemed a most unusual place, here is Nick's Cadillac Tebow.

Long live Frankie and Linda.

11-25-11 Albert's

If you travel through the northernmost roads on the Texas panhandle, odds are you are going to make it through Dumas, since it's pretty much the only road out of the state around there. 

And there are a couple of things about Dumas to note: 

1. Although I cannot fathom that there is a run on hotels on the northernmost, wind-ravaged flat plains of Texas, there are TEN very new, very large hotels on the approach from Amarillo 

2. And just past those, you will find a very old looking diner called Albert's, whose parking lot is always full, and whose seats are often filled by both the locals and the truckers.

This is pay dirt.

Albert's diner decor:

The flat screen is probably the only addition in the past decade.

So, of course, the food is basic, and really good.

The special was eggs, hashbrowns, biscuits and gravy, and country ham. (Half a pig of country ham as it turned out...)

After breakfast Mom and Dad headed home for Colorado. We, however, had a date with Whataburger...