Thursday April 9: The many wonders of Texas

Oh dear reader, today has been a magnificent day. The reason Pete and I took this trip is three fold. Reason one: Meeting friends. Reason two: Sunning in California. Reason three: Seeing new and interesting things. Today, we successful completed both reason three and one.

Thirty seconds after entering the state everything Bugs Bunny taught me about Texas was turned out to be true. We were greeted by two friendly and very stereotypical tumbleweeds as they darted across the highway, it was great. The second thing we noticed, was the wind had picked up. My little car began to be tossed back and forth across the highway as it tried to join the tumbleweeds in their playful dance. Eventually we reached the visitor center for the state, where we were informed of what the locals call "The Grand Canyon of Texas". The night before, we had traveled more distance than we had planned, so we were ahead of schedule for today. We decided to reward ourselves with a trip through the state park of the canyon. I lack the words to describe how beautiful, inspiring, and stunning it is, so I will just post some of the many, many pictures that we took. Some time soon, we are gonna try to get a website up where we can dump more pictures, we had over one hundred of this canyon, it was breath taking.


Eventually, we returned to the highway and continued moving south towards Aly, Ram, and Lubbock. We met up with Ram and he kindly directed us to the Holiday Inn where we would be staying during our time in the city. A few moments later, Aly showed up with some supper, along with two of their sons and one of their sons friends. After introductions we all sat around the pool having one of the best roasts with potatos and veggies I have ever had. Pete and I are very sorry, oh reader, we do not have a picture of this meal. Perhaps it is for the best, drooling on your keyboard is not good for your computer.

After supper, Aly and Ram took us for a bit of a tour of the city. This included a twilight encounter with Buddy Holley at his current home, followed by a drive down to a bright blinking world that appeared to be a mini Vegas just outside the city limits. After this, we stopped in at a local watering hole where we sampled some local apple juice and talked well into the night about all the contraversal subjects that are considered taboo during first meetings. Opps. We were somewhere around the topic of socialism in government when the establishment closed house and the four of us were forced to return to the hotel room, where we continued to talk about nothing and everything. Eventually Ram started to fall asleep and even my incredibly clever banter and witty jokes was unable to keep his attention for long. They have now wandered off, presumably towards home, and left me to write of todays adventures. Tomorrow looks like it shall be another very full day, I am so looking forward to it. It is time for bed now, in the hopes of being able to keep up with all the fantastic activities Aly and Ram sound like they have in store for us.

Oh, one more thing. Ram has introduced Pete to some new culinary wonders that he has never experienced before. Alas, I couldn't participate, but I think Pete liked it.