Our entrance came at Texas’ east border, but we promptly cruised to Pampa and Lubbock, both in the panhandle of the state. We made it just in time to spend Christmas with much of Holly’s family. It was a special holiday with a whole lotta food and love. It included Holly’s siblings, parents, grandmothers, uncles, aunts and cousins. It was actually the first Christmas Holly and I have spent together, so that made it exceptional too. Of course, I still missed my family.

West Texas is noticeably different from the rest of the state, with its huge horizons. Stand in one spot and spin 360 degrees and there’s nothing to obstruct your view between the horizon and the sky. Pump jacks, windmills and cattle are plentiful throughout the fields, but nothing blocks the panorama. Even when there are trees, they’re mostly low lying mesquites that you can see right over. It’s really majestic. That said, this also means there’s nothing to obstruct the constant wind. These gales cause all trees to grow diagonally here, so even on calm days it appears as though it’s windy. We kissed our already-sorry gas mileage goodbye as we drove into those headwinds. I had to choke back tears while we got six miles per gallon during one 200 mile stint.

DALLAS
New Year’s in Dallas was great. Some of it was spent at Clint and Veronika’s pad and some of it at Shelly and Johnny’s abode. (Clint and Shelly are Holly’s younger siblings.) It included some serious game-playing as well as eatin’ and drinkin’—Clint fashions a wickedly deceiving drink dubbed the “Stinkbug.” And we saw something like seventeen back-to-back episodes of Punk’d. Our Virginian friends Geoff and Victoria flew in to see us on New Year’s Day! To show them how the Texans do it, we knocked out a big ole Tex-Mex spread that included vittles like black-eyed pea salad, taquitos, diablitos, burritos, queso, Negra Modelo and Tecate. We puffed on stogies and watched on as Johnny struck up a three-alarm fire in the chiminea by stuffing the Christmas tree in it Grinch-style.

Our visit to the spot where JFK was shot and the tour of the Sixth Floor Museum, which is dedicated to the whole incident, was a day in itself. It’s a first-rate museum and makes for a somber and thoughtful if not paranoid experience. From there, we and the Virginians hit the road on a four-hour trip to Holly’s parents’ house in Giddings. We took some detours including a stop at George Bush’s ranch entrance, (with Geoff kicking and screaming the whole way) stops for the Czech Stop’s kolaches and for the Heath Camp’s “Health Burgers.” Once in Giddings, we toured Holly’s memory lane including lunch at City Meat Market for mouth-watering Texas BBQ and Sonic for some fountain delights. We also played “special-rules” Trivial Pursuit, to offset the advantage of Geoff’s big brain. (He still won.) It’s cool that they made the trip just to hang with us and we’re sorry to see them go so quickly.

PRAIRIE & LAKES COUNTRY
Before we had arrived in Texas, Holly and I decided to take a break from our travels. We needed to catch up on things that were piling up and we spent the month of January camped in Holly’s parents’ lawn. Tundra got new tires and brakes, Sunny got a thorough bath and detailing, the cats got their vaccinations and I picked up a short-term job. The job was at the Dallas Market, which can be thought of as a Mall of America for retailer buyers, where I was a “computer downloader.” The work felt more like vacation—I surfed the Internet, chatted with interesting people and was constantly fed gourmet food and designer martinis. Since it was in Dallas, Shelly and Johnny were gracious enough to put me up and I had a blast hanging with them.

One daytrip to Waco yielded a visit to the official Dr Pepper Museum. The Dr Pepper Museum is where you learn why there’s no period in “Dr” and that it’s perfectly acceptable to drink the stuff hot with a lemon twist. We tried some at their in-house soda shop. I don’t really think I’ll be getting a hankering for that again any time soon. Then it was off to a real nice visit with Robert and Alice and their little shaver, Jake. We hung out in their new home and they took us to an Italian restaurant they frequent for a nice dinner. We adults caught up with each other while Jake “The Entertainer” staged several shows and encore performances.

San Antonio makes a good run at being the state’s second coolest city. (Austin has the market on hip ’n’ cool in Texas, hands down.) “San Ann-tone,” as they say here, has an amazing Riverwalk that runs a story lower than street level, giving it a unique, intimate feel. The massive trees that hover over it and the walks with no railings to keep you from taking a spill maintain a sort of naturalness, even though it’s all restaurants, bars and hotels that line its banks. Down the street is the Hall of Horns—this place is like no other. It’s part big saloon, part big museum, but really, it’s all about the taxidermy. There’s buffalo, antelope, impala, moose, steer, gazelle, gnu, hartebeest, eland, warthog… the list goes on and on and on. The stuffed heads poke out of any vacant space, like some kind of demented Pop-A-Mole game. It can be a fun, twisted lesson in the natural world, coming here.

I’ve got to say that our January stay at Holly’s parents’ house was the best. They were most accommodating and generous and never let us feel like the poachers that we were. It was really nice to be able to hang out with them for a whole month. Not only that, Holly’s mom served up the best meals and her dad kept the homemade salsa jar bottomless. One morning he delivered his signature breakfast tacos to the camper doorstep! They sat our cats when we traipsed out of town and traded their Expedition for our Tundra when we had visitors in town. Holly, Storm, Kaw-Liga and I left Giddings spoiled, sad and a little bit larger.