The Texas Trip!

A new post because I couldn't get the captions to work with the text body....geekstuff, blahblahblah. 

Anyhoo, we had a very successful Texas vacation- left early on July...that Monday....(I have lost all track of dates and times, everything gets blurry in the summer) drove to Vicksburg.  All along the way we followed the tradition of stopping at state-line welcome centers for tons of pamphlets (I'm obsessed, anything free is good) and photo-ops.  For the first photo, the sun was in the manz eyes, and he looked grumpy, so we decided to make it a theme- grumpy tourist pictures!  I'm no good at it cause I always crack up, but he makes the best grumpy tourist faces ever.  So the first day was all drive drive drive, the second day more driving (with a stop at Whataburger, which I never had before.  I like 'em!) then arrival at Mother's....

We had a good long visit with Mother- stayed there several days- went to Kohl's, other shopping, her fantastic Kroger, out to eat at the Black-eyed Pea and On the Border.  Good stuff.  I ate at the dining room- the manz came along but there was a lack of manz-friendly food (they had a choice of eggplant or ribs), so he kept us company while we ate then slipped out later to Arby's.  The eggplant was fantastic- he doesn't know what he is missing!- seriously, it was the best eggplant Parmesan that I have ever eaten.  We took dessert back home for him- chocolate cake and coconut cake  (the coconut cake story will deserve a blog entry all it's own)... Wanda came down to say hello- she is a lovely lady and I am so happy that Mother has a good friend like her, interesting and smart!  Mother and I had 'quality time' while Charles went out adventuring in Big Lots with a list.... but, still being a watchful Mother, she made sure I had my naps every day!  The view from her balcony is beautiful, and I loved sitting on it in the morning- the manz spent time out there, watching the fish circles and egrets.   It was so good to see Mother and have some time together- I wish I could get out there more often....

Then we went on to Sue's, wish we could of stayed there longer also!  We got to explore the shops in Whitney and the other-town-I-can-never-remember-the-name-of, eat at local places (Mexican- best beans ever and the elusive pumpkin candy, and the Cafe' with awesome coconut pie), watch all the cool animals visit the backyard.  We saw the fox, a roadrunner, deers with their twin fawns, many humming birds.  Saturday night we all went to a local auction, which is same-but-different from our auction.  Best of all was a chance to hang out and talk, just indulge in the Texas atmosphere!  We missed Tom because our trip collided with the Podlucky reunion, next time we will make sure we get to see everyone.

On the way home we decided to have some vacationy fun- we went to the huge first Monday flea market at Canton where the manz found the cowboy hat.  (Isn't it dashing?!?!  With the boots on and the hat, he is something else, gets lots of attention from the ladies and 'Sam Eliott' comments!)  I found some green turquoise beads for a someday project.  That night we stopped in Shreveport to play at Sam's Town casino.  Even though I'm not a fan of games (I like to watch games, but not play them)  I had huge fun playing the penny slots, and won about $30 all told.  The manz likes blackjack, and he is good at it- won about $300.00.  We stayed up *way* to late, but had a ball!  We got up later the next morning (remember, 7 is late for us!) and started off.  On the spur of the moment we decided to side trip up to Philadelphia, Mississippi where he used to live.  The Choctaw reservation is there, and we stopped at the SilverStar casino.  We had fun, but not wins like at Shreveport- we were both tuckered out and left early.  Tuesday we drove home- which took till Midnight- and arrived tired but safe and sound.

List of Bests and Worsts:
1. Best Welcome Center Reststop:   View:   Vicksburg (Mississippi River, Twin Bridges, Cannons)
2. Best Welcome Center Reststop:  Restrooms:   Texas  (Big, clean, light, automatic)
3. Best Welcome Center Reststop:: Friendliness:  Louisiana  (On the way- they are hilarious!  Of course, it was helped along with a confused grumpy Asian guy carring a metal dog bowl full of fried chicken.  He kept trying to find a place to wash the bowl, the rest stop was under construction, he couldn't understand English, and wandered off into employee's-only territory looking for a sink.)
4.  Strangest Welcome Center Reststop giveaway: emery boards and toothbrush caps in Georgia.
5. First Oil Well spotted:  Alabama
6. Coolest Animal:  Pink lizard that I saved from being squashed in the hall way outside of the dining room at Mother's.
7.  Best New Food: the Charro beans at 2 Amigos- these are *free*!!!!! for dine-in customers and are wonderful onion-smokey-bacony goodness.
8.  Best Dessert: Coconut Cream Pie at the Cafe in Whitney. 
9.  Best Onion Rings: Whataburger  (we were onion-ring focused)
10.  Oddest thing in a store:  A Mexican roadside store in Canton that had lots of metal sculpture outside, and inside huge piles of: skis, sleds and ice skates. Go figure.  (it was 106 that day....)
and finally~
11. Handsomist Cowboy:  MINE!

More Later- chores they are a callin'