Texas or Bust!

I'm finally getting around to writing about my trip to Texas. Hopefully by the time I'm really done with this I will have a few pictures to show as well.

The drive to Texas was long but I really enjoyed the time I spent with my mom alone. We left Sunday morning with a very emotional goodbye to my brother, J.R. and our close friends. Thankfully that first day was an easy drive as we stopped in Phoenix for the evening so we could spend some time with my grandparents. While the drive may have been easy on us, it was not quite so easy on the cats. My parents have two monstrous cats and we had one in each car. Punkin was with us and that girl did not sleep for over 24 hours. Poor thing was bug eyed because she was so tired but too scared to sleep. We were able to get them to eat a little bit but she had us really worried. She eventually fell asleep the next afternoon and she was out for quite some time. We were very thankful for that.

Punkin warming up to the experience of driving.

Patches enjoying the scenery.

Found this just outside of Phoenix on our way to Tucson.

The second day's drive was quite a bit longer than the first. We expected to be on the road 10 hours. It's a long drive but not terrible. Little did we know that that 10 hour drive would really turn into a 12 hour drive. It felt like we would never get there and it seemed like one mishap after another occurred that day. It was probably around 11pm and we had just driven through Odessa and our destination was Midland, so we were almost there. Then a cop pulled out in front of me and he was going WAY below the speed limit. I followed him for a few miles because I didn't want it to seem like I was buzzing around him because I was driving with California plates and if anything is a target on your back that is. So I eased on around him, still not even doing the speed limit (which by the way was painful.) Then my dad followed me around.

The second my dad pulled in front of the cop, his lights went off. We couldn't believe it and we radioed to my dad asking what he had done. He said he didn't know but we soon found out that the light over his licence plate was out and that was the reason for this delay. This wouldn't have been a big deal just a minor inconvenience, however, my dad couldn't find his insurance. That on the other hand created a bigger deal. When we discovered what the problem was my mom tore through her bag, she was a woman on a mission as she searched for their proof of insurance. A few minutes later it was in my dad's hand and we were off with a small warning to get the light fixed.

Our problems that day didn't end there unfortunately. We finally got to the hotel and checked in. We walked into the room and the first thing I saw was one bed. One bed? I had spent the previous night on a pull out couch because that's all that hotel had. I was promised by my mom that this night I would have a bed of my own. So of course the minute I saw that I began to whine. My mom checked our paperwork and went down to straighten out the problem. She discovered that the woman had given us the wrong room (obviously) and that she was glad there hadn't been anyone in the other room. Say what? That would have been a bad bad thing, considering it was about 1 in the morning and we would have been barging in on someone, in Texas, where everyone carries a gun. Ok I'm exaggerating just a bit there but I did see some bikers that day riding along and one of them was carrying a gun. It's funny was a huge difference in culture a few hundred miles makes.

The next morning we woke up early because we had another long day of driving, though thankfully not as long as before. It was on this day that the scenery turned from

this to this.

I was amazed. It was so pretty. There were trees everywhere you looked. All you could see were trees. We finally arrived at my aunt and uncle's house around 5 or 6pm. We were there. We were exhausted. I met their neighbors who are really good close friends with my aunt and uncle. We eventually drove over to my parents new house where we met the people who were are renting it to them. They were still in the process of cleaning out the place, boy did it need to get cleaned out. But that's another story for another post. We were amazed at the size of the not only the house but the property as well. It's absolutely incredible! I'm still in wonder at how far apart all the houses are. There are a total of 3 houses on my parents block and it's a full sized block. Simply incredible.

So that was our drive to Texas. I'll be back hopefully sooner rather than later to talk about my actual time in Texas with my parents.