Day 3...into humidity

The Trip, Day 3

Rifle Pony and Me

Day three saw me on the way to Austin to visit my son, Colin, his wife and my granddaughter, Pepper.

What is the best way to start the day?  With a nourishing breakfast right out of your childhood!  I left before anyone was awake because I knew that a) I had a long day in front of me and b) Claudia was unlikely to feel like visiting early since she was suffering from shingles and was medicated to keep it bearable.  So as the sun rose over the Llano Estacado I parked in front of the local donut shop for a cinnamon roll and a Dr Pepper.   [I'm getting comments on my breakfast of choice as being unhealthy.  Bah!]  It is a gathering place for farmers…mostly retired since the REAL farmers ate breakfast hours ago…and I saw several faces I recognized from the years I worked in my dad’s farm store in Tahoka.  It was good to be home for a while and relive some of my pleasant childhood memories.  And I don’t have many unpleasant ones…so it’s easy to be happy here.

 

It was another windy day…but this time it started out with a tailwind, a nice change from yesterday.  I drove south on US 87 through the center of Lynn County, Texas.  The wind was up around 20mph and despite there being water standing in the playa lakes and despite the plants being green…the sand was starting to blow.  Whatever possessed the first settlers to drop a plow in the soil of Lynn County is beyond my understanding.  You’d have thought that when the noticed all the trees leaning to the northeast they would have had second thoughts about living here.

It wasn’t long though before I left the blowing dust behind and began to get into the big mesquite country of Central Texas. And, of course, the wind shifted into my face.  There is a lot of history here and some really beautiful examples of early architecture.  The court house must have been a real center of business, because they made some outstandingly beautiful buildings.

The wildflowers were also beautiful this time of year.  The bluebonnets have come and gone, but now the roadsides are a riot of yellows and oranges.  I didn’t get a lot of ‘sweet smells’ but the aroma of growing grass, old vegetation, and the ubiquitous cedar trees was nice…but subtle.  Amazingly, I got fewer bugs on the windshield between Tahoka and Austin than between Oklahoma and Lubbock.      

It was at this point the battery in my camera died or there would be more flower pictures.  Lucky you.

Well, maybe one more…..

The towns in Central Texas all have pretty much normal names…but evidently that wasn’t always the way it was.  For instance this marker, which tells you that the inventor of the electric typewriter was born here, also chronicles the joining of ‘Bugscuffle’ and ‘Whistleville’ into the much more mundane, ‘Valley Spring, Texas’.  Personally I think Bugscuffle would have made for a much more interesting place to live.

I spent the night with my great-nephew, Daniel Knox, who was a great host.  His wife was out of town so we were both ‘class B bachelors’ for the night.  But I was tired and gave up at 10pm to blog this entry. At 10:05 though I was startled by thunder and lightning…really close and really loud.  A quick look at the weather app on my phone and I scurried down to the parking lot to drive the bike into Daniel’s garage.  Luckily there was plenty of room and I woke up to a dry seat.