Texas. Chapter 2

Friday, May 21
I’ll try to continue my trip to Texas. But before I do, I must digress to tell you about something that happened today. I swear my printer has a mind of its own. When I moved to Lincoln, I had a rinky-dink set up for my computer. Kathy bought me a nice console (armoire), Jenny gave me a slightly larger flat screen monitor, and Judy & Steve “loaned” me a 4 function printer – printer, copier, scanner, fax – which I am just beginning to enjoy (we haven’t hooked up the fax). I have to go at these things slowly, in order to absorb how they work, and not screw everything up all at once. I had to replace the black cartridge today, and of course, I messed up. I’m not sure why it got messed but anyway I got a paper jam, so I just decided to leave it and look at it in the morning, when I was fresh. So I went about my busyness, and three or four hours later I was sitting in my chair watching TV when all of a sudden the printer started up, and spit out the piece of paper that had been jammed. I had not even been able to get the paper drawer all the way in, but now it goes in fine. I have not yet tried printing anything, but when it spit out the paper, it had printed the info I had entered. Sometimes I wonder about some of these fancy machines. They really seem to have literal minds where they can straighten out their own problems.. Anyway I think it is fixed now.

Back to my Texas trip. Crossing Western Texas, the country was wide open and mostly desert. Near towns you might see a cultivated bit of farming, but not very much. We left US 10 at Junction and headed Northeast. It was getting dark so we didn’t really get to see much of the country. But you could tell things were a lot different, much more wooded country and much more population.

Tuesday, May 25, 2010 – I put this aside, but will try to finish it now.

I had another little episode with the printer, and this time I did have to fix it myself. Working fine now, and should remain so for another six months – Ha!!

OK, now on to Texas. The drive from Esther’s to Dan’s was so different from what we had been through the last two days. It was an entirely different kind of landscape – lots of roads, lots of farms, and so much greenery. You get into what is called the “Piney Woods”. Actually, it is wooded country with lots of pine trees. They are not the kind of pine trees we are used to seeing – much shorter and rounder, and they grow so thick, it is almost impossible to go through them. I understand they are a terrific haven for deer (and I suppose other smaller animals).

Dan & Darci live in a store-front that has been made into a home. It is really very nice. Because it was once a store, there is no front yard, just a very small space between the front landing (porch) and the parking lot. There is no frontage street, and the parking lot opens right directly onto the main highway, which is a four-lane divided highway. You would think it would be very noisy, but surprisingly, it is not. The room Judy and I slept in is on the front of the building, and we really didn’t notice the noise. The front bedroom of the house we lived in on 3rd Street in Meridian was much noisier. Darci’s Mom & Dad live in a house on the lot right next door (west) and Grandma Dorothy has a shop on the next lot to the west. Darci’s Mom, Beverly, also has a business of manufacuting and distributing skin care products. It all started with body soap, and has since expanded to quite a number of products, manufactured by Bards, LLC of Livingston, TX. Their body and facial cream is sold under the TM name of “touche’ mu”. All the products are based on Emu oil. They have developed quite a business.

Anyway, Darci had planned quite a few things to entertain me, but because this was actually a business trip for Judy, we didn’t get to do some of the things she had planned. We went to their music practice on Thursday evening (Dan plays in the praise band, and Darci sings with some others. I understand she is the church music director). Sunday morning, we went to church and then a group of us went to lunch. I can’t remember the name of the place, but they were featuring boiled Craw Dads – only I think they call them Cray Fish. An order is 3 pounds, and is served in a cardboard box. Don’t worry, I didn’t order them, but the Pastor’s wife did, and she gave me my first taste. They’re very much like small lobsters, but too much work for me. My Dad used to say about artichokes that “you could starve to death eating them”, and that is just how I feel about the CrawDads. I enjoy my food too much to have to work that hard to eat.

We went out to dinner a couple of times, ordered in a few times, and actually only cooked a couple of times. We went for dinner one evening with some of the kids’ friends. They live in a home that is somewhere around 100 years old, and they are completely redoing it. I would love to go back in a year or so to see what they have accomplished. He is doing all the work himself, and is doing a beautiful job. They have had their second little girl since I was there, so I know there lives are very full.

Wes and Esther came over on Friday evening, and spent the night. It is about 200 miles from Georgetown to Livingston. Actually, they stayed at the Holiday Express Inn, where Darci’s Mom is the desk clerk. There just isn’t room for them to stay at Dan’s house. Esther cooked a lovely dinner for all of us that evening (Salmon, sweet potatoes, and veggies). Esther is a very good cook. They are following a special dietary program for a specific time, and I guess it was easier to provide the meal (buy & prepare) than to try to get someone else to cook the way she wanted. Anyway, it was very nice to have dinner all together.

Steve decided to go to Texas to finalize the business deal they were working on, and that would have been a real problem coming home, with the three of us, all our luggage, and my chair (yes, Judy even took a recliner with us for me to sleep in), so we decided I should fly home. So, that was planned for Thursday. So, Wednesday afternoon, Judy, Darci, little Jami, and I took a ride out to Livingston Dam. The town of Livingston is located on/near a rather large lake, area-wise. Actually, I believe the deepest part of the lake is about 28 feet deep, but it has a very large surface. It is a man made lake, and the dam has a beautiful overflow. The Dam is probably 75 to 100 feet wide, but it is only about 10-12 feet high. But it is beautiful. Then, Thursday morning, the Pastor, Judy, Darci, Jami and I went out on the lake in his pontoon boat. It has a passenger capacity of about 16, and it was a beautiful ride. I didn’t realize he was just traveling at little more than idling speed, but it was nice to be able to see so much of the shoreline. Another time, I would like to actually get out onto the lake more, and even go all the way around it. But this was really very nice.

There are really a couple of humorous stories about this ride, plus lots to tell about the trip home, but I think I’ll save that for next time.

For now, that’s all folks!