Shoulda taken a left at Albuquerque

Today was another driving day. After a tasty breakfast at Cracker Barrel (which I'm realizing is Pop's favorite place to eat while on the road) we bid Abilene adieu and began our trek through the vast emptiness that is West Texas. Did you know there are actually tumbleweeds out there? Honest to goodness tumbleweeds that skitter across highways and parking lots. Turns out they're not only in cartoons :)

The driving was a bit rough because we had a 30mph headwind all day! That kills the gas mileage! Born Frees are very aerodynamic for RVs, but every now and again, we'd catch a crosswise gust that would would wake us up and make us grip our wheels a bit tighter!

There's also a lot of cotton grown out there. The cotton fields, punctuated by giant windmills and oil drills, are actually quite beautiful. We saw a few of the cotton picking machines at work (not sure what they're called). It was pretty fascinating - being from the midwest I've never seen a machine like this before. And the most amazing thing was that they piled this cotton into enormous bales that are literally the size and shape of semi trailers!

While this country is desolate, there's something about the wide-open plains covered in scrubby trees and cacti and the distant buttes that beckons. Makes me want to get on a horse, ride toward the horizon, and go see what I can see. And I don't like horses ... I suppose it's not that I don't like them ... it's that I don't trust them. Every time I've ridden one, I've been very cognizant of the fact that if that horse wants to go somewhere I don't (or worse, wants to scrape me off on a tree), I couldn't really stop it.

Before we left this morning, I spent a good half hour plotting to see if I could find a way to take us through Roswell, NM, but alas, I couldn't do it! The ufo stories intrigue me! Guess I'll just have to add it to my list of places to visit before I die.

At a Travel America truck stop in Santa Rosa, NM, I was waiting in line to pay for our fuel, and a tall skinny cowboy looking guy walked past, talking on his cellphone. I use the word "talking" here very loosely. This guy literally sounded just like Boomhauer from King of the Hill!



I have good news! Gram is threatening to make another post - so look forward to that tomorrow!

We're in Albuquerque tonight and we'll be here till Thursday morning. Come and see us if you're around!

We just crossed into New Mexico!

On the road again

I think I may download that Willie Nelson song soon. Could be a good way to start a long day of driving!

Pretty uneventful day. We got on the road around 3pm. We were supposed to spend another night in Leander, but realized that we had only allowed ourselves one day to drive the 12 hours to Albuquerque. Realizing this wasn't going to happen, we took off early and now we find ourselves at a Walmart (which conveniently shares a parking lot with Pop's favorite, Cracker Barrel) in Abilene. I told Amber that we were headed to Abilene and she scoffed. Is that how it is? Is Abilene kind of the Albany of Texas?

Well, regardless, we're here in Abilene now! While Gram and I were in Walmart, I noticed this sign ... is it just me or is that Panda a bit scandalous? :)

I have non-RV good news! A new cartoon called Bob's Burgers is premiering in January! Why am I excited? First of all, it's created by Loren Bouchard, who also worked on Dr. Katz and Home Movies - two of the best animated tv shows ever! And what seals the deal for me is that H. Jon Benjamin is voicing the main character! He was the voice of Ben in Dr. Katz, Coach McGuirk in Home Movies, and Archer in Archer. All of these shows are hilarious, due in no small part to his voice acting talents. Seriously, you should watch them.



Check out other clips here.

Phew

Big day today! We had about thirteen visitors! They were looking these Born Frees over from stem to stern. All three of us were busy answering questions and chatting with our guests.

Pop was fully engaged the entire time, so I took it upon myself to be grill master! As Pop says, this might be a little bit "bragadocious," but I did pretty well. Several people complimented the burgers and one guy came back for seconds! Pop has decided to do all the seasoning today, however, as he claims I only seasoned the burgers about half as much as he likes. Remind anyone of our family steak cook-offs?

I forgot to mention yesterday that the inevitable finally happened! Well, in my optimism, I hoped it wasn't inevitable, but Dad assured me that it was. One of our caravan (their name has been omitted to protect the guilty party) backed into a pole in a Walmart parking lot!

After all our visitors left, we went into Leander and got some fried chicken from Golden Chick. I'm growing a little bit concerned that this trip is going to take about 5 years off my life. It seems that almost every meal we've had south of the Mason-Dixon Line has been deep fried, soaked in butter, covered in gravy, or all of the above. I've actually taken to ordering salads with some regularity - just to get away from the fried food! Shocking coming from me, right?

After dinner, we went to a movie! We saw Secretariat. We all liked it. It was very family friendly - pretty corny at times, but what do you expect from a PG Disney movie? Some of the montages seemed hastily and poorly constructed, but overall, it was good. Interesting too, as I knew very little about Secretariat other than that he was a triple crown winner.

I've read some reviews accusing the film of essentially being right wing Christian propaganda, but it really didn't seem like that. There were two African American gospel songs that seemed appropriate to the setting and time period, and the movie opened with a quote from the book of Job about horses. The verses are very poetic and it surprises me that people would see this as an attempt at proselytization. Even Roger Ebert has been surprised by the attacks on this movie.

For the first half of the movie, Pop loudly declared that it was too emotional and that there was too much drama ... several times. Once the racing began, however, the film picked up speed and he ended up really liking it.

We're still in Leander tomorrow if you want to stop by!

Oy V.A.

After leaving Caddo Mills around 11am, we made our way to the Veterans Affairs Hospital in Dallas for some routine blood work. Arriving about noon, we found that the lab is closed on Saturdays so we had to find the ER at the other end of the building.

Upon arriving, we gave our information to several different people, and the waiting began. After just a few hours, we inquired as to how much longer we might have to wait. The nurse behind the desk informed us that the average wait was 4 to 6 hours ... in the ER ...

Fortunately, they must've been on their A game, because we were called back after only three and a half hours. During this time we watched Legally Blonde on the lobby television, read some boating magazines, ate some day old sandwiches from the sandwich stand, and grabbed some dessert from the vending machine.

Once the blood was drawn, we had to wait for the results ... this took another hour and a half. But at least Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde was playing ... And before anyone asks, yes - being a lawyer is just like those movies.

The most interesting thing I saw today was this building - the Barack Obama Male Leadership Academy at B. F. Darrell. It was right next to the VA, and is evidently a boys elementary school (or affiliated with one). It's still under construction, but looks nearly finished. It just caught my eye because I've never heard of a "Male Leadership Academy." Somehow it sounds odd ...

Pop was eager to play matchmaker today. He wanted to set me up with the doctor who met with him. He even offered to introduce me. It was a generous offer, but I declined since I had been with him the whole time and (I'm going out on a limb here) knew his lovely doctor just as well as he did :) Even over dinner at Cracker Barrel (they have a great Cider-Braised Roast Pork as a seasonal special) he continued to sing her praises. Tomorrow he's planning to call and get her number for me. I wonder if it's 911? At least it'd be easy to remember!

All told, we spent about five and a half hours at the VA. When we were done, we made tracks and left that shining example of efficiency in our dust.

Now we're in Leander, not too far north of Austin! While we're here, I'm hoping we'll have time to check out some of the city. I'm also going to see if I can talk Pop and Gram into going to Hoffbrau one night - they have fantastic steaks!

Grilling

The sky was extremely fickle today, pouring on and off all day, and probably deserves the blame for fewer people coming out to the campground than we expected. But although the skies were dreary and grey for most of the day, the clouds parted just long enough for us to do some grilling!

Some of you haven't met Pop, so let me tell you that one of his passions is cooking meat. It doesn't matter whether it's grilling, broasting, baking, roasting, frying or smoking - Pop loves to do it. Twice in my life (two times) Pop has given me a masters level exposition on the different cuts of beef; contrasting their relative strengths and weaknesses, comparing their values, and even giving me some of his own personal secrets to selecting and special ordering the choicest pieces.

He loves preparing meat so much, in fact, that I'm towing a double axle 14 foot trailer, the sole purpose of which is to aid in the preparation of pork burgers! Most people would be content to throw the pork burgers in the three empty freezers our RVs have between them and then either use the grills provided by the campgrounds or bring along a portable weber. That's not the way Pop rolls. The phrase "packing light" is anathema to him.

Our chuck wagon has a deep freeze, a locking chest/cabinet (stocked with charcoal, lighter fluid, hickory logs, cooking utensils, and spices), two propane tanks, and an enormous grill all mounted on it. This grill has seen better days - it's literally coming apart at the seams. Every day on the road results in a few more spot welds popping free. Today, one of the lid's hinges came undone and I spent a good 10-20 minutes re-attaching it and then securing everything with zip ties so that it didn't fly off and decapitate someone when I hit the next bump.

About 11am we began the grilling process. First, we lit the coals. When those had burned down sufficiently, we placed some hickory logs on top of them to add some rich, smoky flavor. For most of the grilling process, we kept the huge propane burner under the grill on for added heat - the lid, as I mentioned, is coming apart, and doesn't hold heat very well.

The only thing that can improve a meat cooking experience for Pop is an audience! He was spicing and flipping burgers, checking on the logs, explaining the advantages of the chuck wagon, and speculating on the tastiness of the burgers. He was loving it!

I'm happy to report that the burgers were delicious.

I have some video that I've been trying for hours to edit, convert, and/or upload with little success. And unfortunately, I can't just go to Walmart and buy some cheap video editing software (Windows Movie Maker will not edit .mov files, which is unfortunately the format in which most cameras, including mine, shoot video) because my netbook doesn't have a cd/dvd drive (easy, Micah) ... But I haven't given up yet - I hope to post some videos soonish!

We're still in Caddo Mills, but we'll be heading to Leander (outside of Austin) tomorrow!

Gram's 2 Cents

[The following was dictated to me by Gram:]

I didn't realize Brandon had any Norwegian traits, but when we landed at Clanton, Alabama, I found out differently.

We were in our coach and we were going to fix a meal for everyone who came to see the Born Frees. Brandon was standing beside me when I had just opened a great big pan of beans [Gram briefly leaves RV to double check how heavy the bean can was] - 7lbs 5oz! So I started to lift it and it was too heavy and I said "Brandon, can you pour it in?"

And this is what he said, "Do you want me to set the can in the electric fry pan?"

[Gram laughs and then composes herself.]

And I responded and said, "Brandon! We have to pour it in the electric skillet!"

[More laughing at my expense.]

So that's my first story.