Eau de Amarillo

As we hit the city limits of Amarillo, I glared at hubby.  I thought he had (how do I put this nicely) committed an air attack, flatulence, chemical warfare, a duck call, the nether belch. . . you get the picture.  He denied it vehemently, but he always does. . . then laughs.

Well, the odor continued and the thought occurred to me that this smell could be coming from OUTSIDE the car!   I opened the car window traveling down Route 66 at 60 miles per hour and the scent of cattle poo came flying inside.  Hubby was grinning ear to ear having been vindicated.

Turns out that there are cattle stockyards on the south side of Amarillo causing the whole town to stink.  We got a really good deal on our hotel because it's located on the south side of the town.

Ate dinner at a Route 66 iconic roadside restaurant called The Big Texan.   No chicken on the menu there!

Banana Peels

A question today.  Is it littering if one throws a banana peel out the window of a moving car?  Since the banana peel is bio-degradable and an animal would surely be delighted finding it to munch on along the side of the road, I would think it isn't technically littering and a crime.  But upon reading about littering on Google while eating my banana snack in the car today, I found that ANYTHING tossed from one's car is littering and a crime.  I think it's more of a crime if you throw the banana peel out the window in front of a clown car and cause an accident when they skid on it. 

Ok, you can probably tell that it was really boring driving across Arkansas today.  Consequently, my mind was wandering aimlessly and you just got a lousy excuse for a blog post, in my opinion.  Tomorrow we drive across Oklahoma and the panhandle of Texas. 

I leave with you a beautiful sunset and jet contrails that we saw as we drove to our stopping point in Fort Smith, AR tonight.

Already hit the jackpot and we aren't even in Vegas yet!

We departed for our 5 day drive to Las Vegas at 9 a.m. . . . sort of.  Both of us were seat belted in, the car was GPS'd for Vegas, hubby put it in reverse and we proceeded to move out of the garage!  We were on our way when I shouted, "Did you remember to take the little black umbrella from my car and put it in this car?"  (I didn't want to risk getting wet in Las Vegas, even though it is a desert and has less than 5 inches of rain per year mostly during the summer).  Hubby applied the brakes, I jumped out, grabbed the umbrella and noted that we had moved all of 2 feet so far on our adventurous journey to Las Vegas. 

Buckled up again, a disgruntled husband asked if there was anything else (emphasis on else) we needed before we left.  I said no, hubby put the car in reverse and we were ON OUR WAY again!  And then I felt a bad feeling in my gut and shouted, "WAIT!  I need to use the bathroom!"   The car screeched to a halt, I leaped out and got a lecture as I was running back into the house about the fact that the water was turned off in the house and that each toilet had only one flush and yada yada yada as his voice trailed off.   I hoped that the toilet I decided to use still had one flush left.   It was funny that I was already gambling and hadn't made it to Vegas yet!  I pulled the flush lever on the toilet slot machine and I got triple 7's--it flushed! 

Back in the car again and this time hubby was beyond disgruntled.  I'd call it highly irritated with a touch of hangry because he hadn't had breakfast.  As I silently buckled up, I noted we had actually backed up all of 4 feet now!  I gave the thumbs up and we really departed.

We drove through Kentucky where all barns are painted black and teeth are optional.  Tonight we are staying in Tennessee. 

The Conestoga Wagon

I have had a headache of the migraine variety for three days.  I can't decide the cause of it.  Is it stress because of the impending trip?  Stress over packing?  Pain from my tooth where that dentist keeps trying to reglue my the crown on my molar?  Or is the migraine causing all my teeth to ache?  Maybe it's lack of sleep BECAUSE I have the headache.  It's a vicious cycle.   Maybe it's because I'm hungry. 

We are packed and ready to drive across country to Las Vegas for the winter.  Inside this house, nothing is left in the fridge or the pantry.  That's so that if a mouse should happen inside our home during our absence, he will starve to death.  Feeling like that mouse right now.

We don't have an RV for this trip.  Everything is packed in the car.  Hubby has packed so much that I feel like we are planning to travel the Oregon Trail in a conestoga wagon and he hasn't made room for me! We must have enough supplies to make it across the Mississippi! 

We even have a portable refrigerator that plugs into the car to keep hubby's soda pop cool.  Well, let the adventure begin!  We drain the water from all the pipes in the house tomorrow morning. 

A stitch in time

Before I was a Mom, I had a lot of time on my hands.  I took up counted cross stitch embroidery.  For those of you who don't know what that is here's a picture.  Basically, one uses a piece of cotton or linen with tiny squares, sometimes 28 squares per inch, and makes a tiny X in a pattern of different colors which results in beautiful pictures, sayings, etc.  Linen lasts forever and embroidered pieces on linen from thousands of years ago can be seen in museums of antiquities. So when I make something, I always hope it will last long after I'm gone.

My hobby got put on hold when suddenly through adoption I became the instant parent of a 2 1/2 year old and a newborn.  I barely had time to take a shower let alone sit around peacefully cross stitching a cute little bib for someone's baby shower.  Before the adoption, I literally embroidered all 30 of our Christmas cards one year!  My husband at the time used to joke that I was going to cross stitch a camping tent next.  But when the adoption happened in 1985, I just threw all of the half finished projects and supplies into a trunk and two baskets.

That trunk and two baskets moved with me 6 times around the country, through a divorce, remarriage, children growing up, and a second career.  But NOW, I'm retired with time on my hands again.  And grandchild 9 on the way!  Time to resume my hobby.

The trunk and baskets awaited my opening like time capsules buried 30 years ago.  I knew I had many half completed baby things still waiting to be completed.  I just needed to choose a  couple to take with me on our trip to Las Vegas.  Hey, I don't plan to be living it up every minute I'm in Sin City!  I hope to have some relaxing times, too.  Hence, taking some embroidery with me!

I opened the lid of the trunk and found 1985 staring back at me.  All of the patterns for things I've made and given away as gifts.  A half finished alphabet zoo sampler that was for whatever child we adopted and afghans never finished.   Baby bibs in all colors are ready for me to add the name.  Stacks of fabric, DMC embroidery yarn in hundreds of colors are still as vibrant as when purchased.   I chose a tiny baby bib to make and that alphabet sampler to finally finish.

It sucks!

Just so you know, that bag sucking thing works!  Here is a week's worth of clothing.  It's heavier than you can possibly imagine, but it is tiny!

Getting happy

I haven't posted since forever because there was such a flurry of activity with retiring, the holidays and now packing and getting everything ready for the big adventure of moving to Las Vegas for 3 months.

 We leave Monday morning.  I am getting excited.  The feeling of being retired from work still has not hit me.  When will I realize that I don't have to deal with a broken copier, frantic co-workers whose lack of planning is supposed to be my emergency?  I think it will be a gradual realization.  I have noticed, however, that the nerve tic of my eyelid is gone!  YAY for that!

It's hard to decide what clothing to take with me for a 3 month trip that seems to traverse all of the possible climates.  It will be cold when we leave and even cold in Las Vegas in January.  Then it will be more springlike in February and warm in March.  And then if we decide to go to Mexico, too, I need to pack clothes for REAL hot weather. 

We got these special bags in which to put our clothes and then we suck the air out to make the bag smaller and presumably more packable.  But 15 bags of clothes that have been sucked, is still 15 bags of clothes.  But anyway, I need to pack clothes for 4 nights for the drive there in addition to all of the clothes for 3 months.  I am trying to just have a couple week's clothes and rewear them until I'm sick of seeing myself in the same old thing!  I think there is a benefit to being a nudist (which I am not).


One of my big fears is hubby and me arguing or becoming cranky with one another because of too much togetherness both in the car on the trip or just in general because of being around each other so much now that we are both retired.  Not sure how this is all supposed to work.   But one thing I'm sure about is that we are so fortunate to have the ability to take this trip together and in relativity good health.  Friends our same age are becoming terribly ill and even dropping dead!!

My Dad is elderly and we live 3 hours from one another.  When I call him, he tells me that it makes him sad that I will be so far away from him for 3 months.  Then I feel guilty that I'm going.  He doesn't seem to recall how he and my mother used to travel the world and not care if I missed them during those trips or if their parents felt sad they were traveling.  What I do know is that there are people who ave lived their lives trying to please others--their parents, their children, their spouses.  I was like that once, too.  Then one day came the realization that only I can make me happy.  I am responsible for my own happiness!  I had been waiting around for others to cause my happiness and it never happened.  Then one day I took control of my own happiness . . . my own destiny to whatever extent I could.  I got divorced and remarried.   I got happy.  Retiring and leaving for Las Vegas on Monday is making me happy.