Stonehenge

Kirby and I drove 7,900 miles in the last 8 days. That's a record for us in the truck. Our previous record was about 6,500 in 7 days. And just in case you are wondering, they did not build a bridge to England. This particular stonehenge is on the University of Texas campus on Odessa, Texas. It is almost an exact replica except that it is slightly shorter than the original.

I'm leaving tomorrow morning to fly to Austin to visit my son and his family and then to El Paso to see my daughter and her family. I'm really excited about this trip and I'm sure I'll have lots of great pictures to post.

Motorcycles

Here are a couple of the bikes we've seen this week. Some of the paint jobs are pretty awesome. We've had good weather every day except for Thursday. It was cloudy all day and rained a little in the evening. Kirby's fishing trip was very successful. They brought home a lot of fish that we froze to take home. He even caught a shark. Our sightseeing tour was cancelled. This makes the third time I have tried to go on this tour. In October we tried twice and it was cancelled both times because they said there was a chance of thunderstorms. This time they cancelled it because of the traffic. There really were a lot of bikes here this week, but I think it was pretty silly of them to cancel our tour. Bike week ends tomorrow and I'm sure there will be a mass exodus from the area. People will have to get home for work on Monday, I'm sure. We are staying one extra night to try to miss the crowd, so we'll be going home Monday morning. I'm always glad to get home, but I hate leaving the beach and I dread the long drive. Maybe someday we will move down here and we won't have to leave to go home. That would be great.

Bike Week

This is the view from our condo in Myrtle Beach. Everyone always talks about how beautiful Heaven will be, but I think Heaven must be a condo at the beach where you never have to go home and go back to work. The sound of the waves is so soothing. I love just watching the waves break on the beach and the little birds run from the water.



We've had a lot of fun the last few days. We started our vacation by spending the night with our son-in-law's parents in Ft. Mill. They treated us to a great seafood dinner and an evening filled with laughter. The next morning they sent us on our way with a full breakfast of eggs, bacon, sausage, etc. I can't wait to go back to visit them again!! Thanks, you guys.

We left there and made our way to Myrtle Beach for Bike Week. We have a condo with my nephew and his wife and one of our neighbors from WV. We've had such a good time. It's great to be able to ride on the back of Kirby's Kawasaki, go to all the bike displays and T-shirt vendors, then finish the day eating at one of the many, many restaurants here. I've had some successful shopping trips. New purse, new sandals, new laptop bag, and some gifts I'm saving for Christmas. I found my granddaughter a really neat birthday present, these elastic panty hose things you put on your arms that look like you have tattoos. She'll love them. Hope she gets them before she reads this!!

Kirby is on an all day fishing trip today. Tomorrow we're going on a jeep tour of the Myrtle Beach area. I'll try to post some pictures. You have to see some of these bikes!!

The Perrys

Tonight Kirby and I went to a gospel concert at our church. My sister's group, the Miracles, sang a few songs, and they were great. They stopped traveling and singing together a few years ago, but still get together once in a while for special occasions. Tonight they did a couple of their best songs and they still make beautiful music together. Then the Perrys took the stage and put on a wonderful concert. They have some of the best singers in all of southern gospel music in their group, as well as a legendary piano player. If you have not heard this group live in concert, make the effort to see them. You won't regret it. Their website is www.perrysministries.com

At Last!!!

Today we finally got the entertainment center that we ordered three months ago. We love it and it was worth the wait, but for the past three months we have had our TV sitting on a coffee table against the wall with the cable box on the floor under it. I sat down to check the remote and all the connections and it was amazing that you could change the channels without pointing the remote down at the floor. That has been such a pain. But now the TV is much higher than it was and my neck is not adjusted yet. It felt like I was having to lean back to watch it.

We are leaving in the morning for Myrtle Beach so it was perfect timing for a major piece of furniture to arrive!! We had to rearrange all the furniture to get the new cabinet in, then put all the furniture back, and disconnect and re-connect all the wires to the various TV components. The side cabinets actually have lights in them, but I didn't even attempt to get all that hooked up. It was enough to just get it set up and get the TV on it. Now all I have to do is pack for two people, load two motorcycles on a trailer, prepare two cats and a dog for a week without Mommy, pay bills, go to the post office, go to the bank, go to Walmart, I'd better get this computer.

Only in Texas

As you travel along I-45 in Texas, you suddenly see a giant statue standing beside the road. It's Sam Houston, the man who defeated Santa Anna after the Alamo, became the President of the Republic of Texas and then Governer of the State of Texas. The statue is 67 feet tall and made of reinforced concrete. It's located in Huntsville, Texas, which is better known for its prisons. In fact, if you visit the prison museum in Huntsville, you can see "Old Sparky" the electric chair. There is something a little disturbing about that, but as I said, it's Texas.

Good Eats

People always say that truck drivers know the best places to eat. Today we found one of those places. We have been to Odessa twice this week and both times they sent us back to the Houston area. On a little backroad in a town called Crane, Texas, there is a cafe that has the best Mexican food we ever ate. They do Mexican buffet on Tuesday and we really enjoyed it. Kirby ate so many chiles relleno that I was sure he would be sick. The beans and rice were delicious, too. They had my favorite, chicken floutas. All I can say is mmmmmm!! If you find yourself on Texas Rt. 385, stop at Charlie's Cafe. They have a different buffet menu everyday.

We also stop pretty often at a bbq place called Soulman's outside of Dallas. Last night when we went by they had on their big sign out front "Doing our Part in the Fight Against Anorexia." Of course, we stopped to support this important work. The sliced beef and sausage were both great, as usual. If you ever go to Soulman's, try the cabbage cooked with jalapenoes.