Friday, January 16, 2009
One thing I always forget about Texas is how much they are apart of the Bible Belt. For those of you who do not know what the bible belt is here is the definition according to Wikipedia “Bible Belt is an informal term for an area of the United States in which socially conservative evangelical Protestantism is a dominant part of the culture and Christian church attendance across the denominations is extremely high.” Not that there is anything wrong with being highly religious I just always get a bit nervous being in an environment where they consider me and my kind to be the evils of the world. But, I don’t advertise my religious beliefs and try not to roll my eyes too much.
As I got into my car to leave the lovely and cold city of Amarillo I noticed my tire seemed a bit low on air. So I started out looking for a Jiffy Lube to get my tire aired up. Much to my dismay I could not find a Jiffy Lube anywhere, so I stopped at a convenience store and asked the very Texas lady behind the counter where a Jiffy Lube was. Based on the look she gave me you would have thought I asked her if she had seen any aliens with underwear on their heads in the store. She had no idea what a Jiffy Lube was, so I politely asked where the people of Amarillo went to get their oil changed. I kid you not her response was “Well, our husbands do that.” I could not catch myself fast enough and I did roll my eyes. So I asked in my best Texas Twang “What do you do when you don’t have a husband to change the oil?” She had to call her co-worker over who guided me to a tire shop a block away. At this point, I knew I was back in Texas. It was brought home even more when the man filled my tires with air and said to me “There you go darlin’ you are all set.” If you have issues with being called cute endearments by strangers don’t go to Texas. I batted my eyelashes and used my best Texas Twang again and asked how much I owed him. He waved me off and told me to just be safe on my trip. I love southern men.
I set off south on I-27 it was a beautiful day but very windy. As I was driving south I came across the weirdest thing I have ever seen. I am sorry I did not get any photos but I will try to find one on the internet for you. It was a GIGANTIC crucifix of Jesus and it was encased in a glass front box. This statue is owned by the St. Isidore Catholic Church. Seriously I thought I was seeing things. The way they have the statue situated it looks like Jesus is leaning off the cross. I guess to insinuate the way he was hanging on the cross. But it was horrific and the scariest religious artifact I have ever seen. I tried to find something about it on line but there is not much other than a report from 2005 in the Austin Chronicle, he was not impressed either.
My day progressed as I traveled down the road I started to get bored by the empty cotton fields so I got out my trusted map and started looking for alternative roads to take that would not take too far off my track. I would find little country roads that connected to the highway and take those. I was having a great time traveling through the county side of Texas watching life go by. I hit I-20 and had to head east towards Dallas and was not very impressed with that part of the drive. But, I was doing well on time and the traffic was not bad at all. I got through Dallas/Ft. Worth area and headed south on I-45 and this is where I started to get some traffic.
Once I got into Huntsville the traffic really started to pick up. I passed the famous or infamous Texas State Penitentiary and the exit for Sam Houston University. I saw the statue of Sam Houston which is 67 feet tall and can be seen for miles heading north on I-45 as you approach Huntsville. I love this statue; I don’t know why, I just do. As I got closer to Houston I realized there were more people on the freeway than I think live in the entire state of New Mexico and I also remember how crazy Texas drivers are.
I arrived at my parents house about 8:30 that night and we headed out for dinner. Luckily we got in fast at Chili’s and had a nice dinner and went back home. I got the kids bedded down for the night and proceeded to spend my 2nd night without sleeping because Tau and Kali were busy exploring their accommodations. Why did this keep me from sleeping? Because the bed was too high for them to jump back in once they got down so I had to keep getting up to pick them up and put them back in bed. But, I was back home and all was well…for the moment.
Next: Day 3 – Pasadena
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Cynthia