Yay Texas!

July 8^th, 2013

Earlier today I was thinking it would just be a boring day driving through a bunch of the same stuff I’ve been seeing all along this trip: extensive green prairies, cows on farms, big sky... And although I saw those things, it wasn’t boring.  Usually the exciting adventure stuff happens when I stop my car somewhere- for gas, for a drink somewhere, a good picture; ya know?  The adventure continues.

This morning was dedicated to repacking my car.  Somehow in the 1 week visit to Cat’s, I managed to empty out my entire vehicle of my belongings.  A good chunk was in the guest bedroom I had been enjoying, and everything else was in their car since I insisted on vacuuming all that litter from Darcy’s mishap.  No, I am not driving into another state with a dirty interior!  The exterior, on the other hand, is a massive graveyard for all the bugs I’ve picked up since California… Anyway, it took me a bit longer than expected to reorganize.  Come 11ish am I said my goodbyes and drove away from la casa de Cat y Seba.

I drove 1 mile to the gas station to fill ‘er up and get some snackies for my Icee Cooler.  I also forgot to potty so that was on the station agenda, too.  I walked around and around and around that store- people kept getting into that stall before I could.  So I made a mental list of the items to purchase once I was done in the bathroom: iced coffee, string cheese, mixed fruit, and Spitz chili-lime sunflower seeds.   Weird combo, I know.  And after I was done, I ran over to the milkshake shop next door to grab a peachy shake!  (Even better combo!) 

The milkshake stop, however, didn’t accept debit cards for purchases under $5, so I ran allllll the way back to my car for my last five dollar bill, and ran aaaaaaaaalllllll the way back to the shop next door.  Success!!  And then I walked back satisfied with my awesome purchase.   FINALLY I was ready to drive! 

I had to make it to Fort Worth, Texas by a reasonable hour since I was planning on staying with the Gomez’s, so I didn’t pull over every 10-20 minutes for some amazing photo opportunity.  Only once… I saw some cool wind mills….  

I actually saw a lot of cool things on the road.  There were lots of run down shacks with vines and stuff taking over, LOTS of farms and grain mills, funny Texas road signs warning people not to litter with the headline, “Don’t mess with Texas,” a beautiful sunset over the lake, and of course that crazy sky.  I’m starting to think that California is missing out on sky potential! 

Regardless, I only stopped 2 other times in Texas: to check a warning light on my dashboard, and to get gas.  The light was just notifying me that I was out of window wiper fluid… no biggy.  And the gas… uhhh… here is where my adventure really started….

I got to the gas station after driving for a good 5 hours.  I turned off the engine, grabbed my wallet, looked inside… and my debit card was not there… It wasn’t anywhere!  I ran around my car, opening doors, looking around and trying not to panic yet.  After all, I still had a dollar left from that five I relinquished for my peachy shaken up ice-cream treat… Oh right, and my check book. 

Then a couple friendly fellows must have seen me panicking and asked me about my travels; they saw my sweet Cali license plates.  So I took a break from my troubles and talked to these Texan folk.  Turned out they were traveling themselves, to go on some radio interviews.  They told me they were a part of a country band that had gotten on the radios here.   The name of the band was called 121 North.

Anyway, we chit-chatted for a few minutes and I enjoyed that little break from reality.  They even offered me a sandwich, which I declined since I was still so full from all that milk shake and sunflower seeds.  At some point I mentioned, chuckling at my bad luck, that I had lost my debit card.  My theory is that it is either lost in my car, or fell out of my pocket when I was running around earlier. 

After helping me search my car in vain, a couple of those dudes went inside to see if they would accept a check.  NO.  So, to my very appreciative surprise they pitched in to get me the rest of the way to my destination.  Oh thank youuuuuu!  And as a thank you, I took their picture and will have to find them on Facebook to give it to them.

After I left that gas station, I was filled with a sense of love for Texas.  Thank you Mother Gaia for sending me some help!  It was the highlight of today’s excursion.  Thanks to their generosity I was able to make it to Fort Worth where I got to sleep on a bed!