The Texas trip season has begun

Spring is almost here and it brought winter along for the ride. The moral dilemma of my current life is, we already cleaned out our fireplace and closed it up for the season. Now the cold weather has come to town to annoy me and doubt myself. Why did cold weather have to show up now? It is totally unwanted at this point in the season. I don't know what else to say about it, I need to stop or I may let a cuss word fly out of my mouth. And I've been doing so good, I don't want to break my streak. So I'll move on. 

Last week I started this post about our Texas trip that was almost three weeks ago. It doesn't change any of the facts, I just felt like a disclaimer was necessary. Lets see if we had fun, or it was weird. 

FYI, I already know. 

I'm here to say that Texas was cold and a little weird. That never happens. John and I drove to the farm on Thursday of last week, with Mardi Gras being celebrated in Louisiana, we go to Texas. 

Ice cream in Athens. 

All was fine at the house and that night on our late ride we saw a fox and a skunk. Nice try guys. 

Let me back up and say that before we had made the decision to go to Texas for the long weekend, I checked the weather and I saw good news in the form of blue skies and warm days on Friday and Saturday. Lies. All weather reports are lies. It was blue skies on both days, but it was freezing cold with a north wind the size of Texas. That's never good. I don't even remember what we did on Friday. Oh wait, John mowed the yard and then the mower wouldn't start. 

I piddled and watched Addy happily get as filthy as she could.

This was just a good start. 

Texas in February looks a little barren. 

There are buds on the red oak, that announces another spring coming to the farm. 

Then I remembered to get my lens for my phone that John gave me for Christmas. It takes big pictures of tiny things. These next pictures are of little weeds that we mow down all the time. But when I got down on the ground and began taking close up photos of these, I was struck by the intricate details of the very small flowers. Have a look at and you'll see what I mean. 

These are things we consider weeds. They grow everywhere and may annoy when they take over your yard in the early spring. You can't even see all this detail with your eye. My super duper handy zoom lens captured the detail and I saw it after I took the pic. 

In this midst of all this...

Is this.

                                                               And this...

We have beauty under our feet and we don't even know it. Oh wait, I just did. 

Then I saw dandy lions and I tried to take a picture of one. Well the Texas wind was not my friend, so I had to pick it to hold it and try to shield it from the wind and it was a cluster. I thought the picture would be terrible and then I found this. 

I think these are spectacular. 

The intricacies of these flowers that we know as weeds is quite stunning. 

I didn't take any out because I love them all.

So the next time you're in the pasture, look out across it and know there is beauty under your feet. Because I've seen it. 

Then John and I went for a ride on the post oaks and I found these lovely orange berries. 

I love orange and I love a berry. So this was a win win for me. 

I love this pass through road from the post oaks to...

Blackie's road.

No amount of snapping my finger or tapping on the car horn would deter him from his eating. What a brat. 

We went to Wal Mart and blah blah blah, met Caitlin for supper at Old Mexican Inn.  

Missed the sunset. 

I get in so much trouble for taking these pictures, and yet, I still take them. 

When we got to the house on Thursday night, we found what we thought were lady bugs in a window sill. We swept them up and out (they were dead) and thought nothing else of it. The next night I found these alive in the kitchen window.

After some discussion through texting as well as some googling, it was decided these are Asian beetles and not lady bugs. These also bite. It's disconcerting to share our inner abode with bugs. They were there the whole time we were there. And yet, they were not welcome. 

This thing is not cute. 

Then the clock was ticking on Caitlin's bedtime. 

Then while we were sitting in the den, a skunk sprayed outside and it seemed as if it was amongst us. We suspect it was under the house, but the damage was done and it ran Caitlin out of the den and into the bedroom. That's about 10 feet away so it's not as if the move helped with the smell. 

Luckily the smell didn't last and we were able to spend the weekend not smelling of skunk. 

Friday night sleeping was uninterrupted by skunks or anything else and when we awoke, we checked the weather for Saturday and saw it was more of the same, windy and freezing. 

I told you.

We ate breaky as evidenced by Addy's begging.  

John was going to hunt for arrowheads and Caitlin and I were certainly not going to do that, so after braving the cold outside for 12 seconds, we made an executive decision. Instead of going on a country ride around Corsicana, we decided to go back to Waco, see more sights and go back to the Silos bakery to get Olivia, who was coming that night, some cupcakes and cookies. Decision made. But first I had some chores to complete.  

Hank and I had to do our usual selfie. 

He wanted his apple oat treats so I obliged. 

Then I took more small flowers photos...

And more dandy lion pictures...

I love all of these, but I did take some out. 

I took a picture of a large horse with a regular lens. 

Kit Kat is showing an excellent representation of how cold it was.

I had a few more pics to take...

In this cluster of weeds, there are lovely little flowers. 

Then we were off. It's a really lovely drive from Corsicana to Waco with lots of great scenery and in no time we were there. We drove straight to the silos to purchase our pastries and then we'd be off to rubber neck around Waco. The bakery line was insane, so we went exploring for sights and lunch and came back on our way out of town. When we returned a couple hours later, the line was longer than before and Caitlin began the long wait while I searched for a parking spot. We stood in line for for one hour and 15 minutes. It was NOT worth it. 

There were so many people there I just can't tell you. And the wind was cold and we finally got inside the shop and it was then Caitlin discovered the bad news. They were sold out of cookies. It was the worst twist of fate for us. Caitlin asked the lady waiting on us if they REALLY were out and she said with a little snark, "We baked 10,000 cupcakes last weekend and we still ran out. We just can't keep up with the demand." Ummm, we don't care, we just wanted cookies. Sadly we left with no cookies, but plenty of attitude. Cry me a river of cupcakes. Better yet! A river of cookies!

As we were in line inside, I noticed this sign hanging on the wall. At first I didn't know what it said, then I realized it said Cabell's Ice Cream, which is what Mollie and Nina bought when we were young and then I realized I wanted to take the sign in exchange for their lack of cookies. But I didn't. I now want a Cabell's ice cream sign so bad. 

As we drove back to the farm, we contemplated life and it's lack of cookies. OK, that's not really true. What we did was, drove back to Corsicana and went the back way down the post oaks and as we rounded a corner, we saw this. 

That of course is a loose cow, or a cow on the loose. 

This is the same cow.

As is this as well. We stopped to discuss her pleight, but she refused my urge to go back into her pasture. Then I looked over and saw a huge bull in a front yard across from where she was in the road. I regret not taking a picture of him. We left the area with the bovine still on the loose. We did not try to herd anyone.  

As we were leaving the area, we saw the piece of fence from which they escaped. On a later ride, the fence wasn't fixed but the cows where not to be found. Which in my head meant they saw the pasture was NOT greener on the other side and decided to go back into their own pasture. That made me think, "Hmmm, cows are self-policing. And I was impressed. 

Olivia arrived on Saturday evening and we were sooo happy to see her. No sarcasm intended. It was difficult keeping those two girls awake for a night ride, and in the end only Olivia was able to manage it. But the animals of the night were uncooperative, except for the weirdest thing we've ever seen in all our years. On our familiar post oak trek we saw a horribly dismembered deer with it's body strewn about the road. I won't go into more detail other than to say it freaked Olivia and I out so much I sorta floored it for sometime to leave the area as soon as possible. John thinks we may have interrupted a coyote's supper, but man, the animal world is a brutal brutal thing. And that's all I have to say about that.   

On Sunday,Caitlin was standing in the yard looking up at the roof and found some shingles loose and misplaced, so John became a roofer for a small amount of time and put some new shingles up and we were good to go.

John the roofer, who is different from Bob the Builder. 

Also on Sunday the day was gray and overcast, and the bitterness of the wind did not invite us to the porch, so Caitlin, Olivia and I got a wild hair and decided to road trip it again. We made the decision to drive to Mexia Texas, (pronounced Ma-hey-a) and off we went. As we drove along enjoying the countryside, Olivia was googling us in the direction of Mexia, or so she thought. We had driven about 45 minutes, expecting to pass through Wortham Texas along our way. As we were approaching a town that was supposed to BE Wortham, Caitlin, said something mouthy to Olivia about how long we had been driving and where we were and blah, blah, blah. About that time Olivia triumphantly announced something like, "Well smarty here we are in....wait for it....Dawson Texas." Uh oh, we MAY have missed a turn. 

After a consult with the google machine....what had happened was...we had gotten behind a huge truck on the two lane highway we were traveling on towards Wortham. The behemoth in front of us finally turned off the highway, unfortunately in our zeal to be rid of the truck, we went straight instead of making the same turn the truck made. Thus we missed the correct way to Wortham and Mexia and therefore ended up in Dawson instead. It took us an extra 45 minutes out of our way. Ugh. 

Our recalculated trip took us to Tehuacana Texas, and let me say, none of the towns we drove through took long or made an impression. We finally arrived in Mexia and it was not dressed to impress either. We ate at Sonic, the girls went to a grocery store to use a restroom (yes that is weird) and then left for home. We asked ourselves was the effort worth it? I'd say eh, not really at all. It was a fun trip, but no towns were adorable or charming. 

That same day we drove by Frank's.   

One day I''l do a post of all the pics I've taken of Frank's place. It's on one of my favorite dirt roads in Texas. 

Then we went home and Caitlin left for Dallas and it was just these three. Sunday night was spent inside as it threatened rain and was still bitter outside. 

This was true. 

On Monday we awoke to more cloudy skies with the threat of rain, so we decided to cut our losses and hit the road for home before the storms moved in. But first...

Addy thought she'd dodged the bath bullet, but alas she did not. She suffered the indignity of cleanliness and after she'd fluffed up and the cars were loaded we headed east for Louisiana and all the trappings thereof. 

And there you have our trip in a nutshell. It was an OK first effort. My true Corsicana season begins in April and ends in October. I'm not a fan of the cold and dreary at the farm. 

Seeing as how it's currently 2:44 AM and I'm tired, I hear the softest whisper of my bed saying, "GET IN HERE!" 

OK, OK, I'm coming. 

If it's Monday in Louisiana, it must mean I'm skinny.

I know. I know. That made no sense at all, but I'm trying to be positive.