Vacation Time

I finally took a real vacation, the first in 2 years.  It was my parents' 60th wedding anniversary this past week, a wonderful thing to celebrate.  And to top it off, very dear friends came for a visit all the way from MI to TX.  So between all the hugs and visiting with family and friends that are really family, the week flew by.

It's a 7-8 hour drive from where I live, but it's mostly 2 lane roads that go through small towns.  

A lovely house in Glade Valley across the street from where I stopped for lunch.  Olga makes the best burritos ever and was kind enough to stay open long enough for me to eat it.  Most places in these tiny towns close early on Saturdays.

The drive is a nice one with pretty farm and ranch country.  Lots of hay baling going on right now.  

It has been a rough year, most of Texas is in a drought and we have had terrible wildfires across the state.  Happily the areas that had the fires this spring have green things growing again, slowly but they are there.

You will think I am nuts but that photo above is the only one I took in the entire 9 days.  But it is kind of hard to take pictures while you are driving by at 70 mph.  If you want to see more of the small town my folks live in and the photos of the wind farm go here to a previous post.  I will say it looks pretty much the same except not as green as the previous visit was in the spring.  The recently burned areas were eerie to drive through, the live oak trees, now dead, were black with white dead wood showing where the blackened bark had fallen off.  The mesquite trees were all black as well and there was nothing green in those areas.  It would make for a great Halloween site. 

We made one trip to Abilene for the anniversary dinner and there are tons more wind turbines on the wind farm.  And gratefully it rained some on our way back to my parents home.  Not much but you take what you get and be grateful for it.  The lake they live near is about 15 feet lower, at least it looks it to me.  They even found a truck that was stolen several years ago that had been dumped in the lake.  

If you read my old post you'll notice that I obviously have not moved there.  I have a great job here near Houston and will stay for now.  I'll be working on figuring out how to make a living out there though.  After 3 days my arthritis practically goes away and I feel 15 years younger, not to mention my chronic sinus issues disappear.  The dryness really does make a difference.

I think I can safely say that a great time was had by all...except perhaps my cat Chaucer who was definitely miffed I had been gone away so long.  I had someone come feed him every day but it's not the same in his mind.

Have to find some dinner now and psych up for work tomorrow.